April 5, 1883] 
Foamballs 
To artificial snowballs and mudballs will you permit me to 
add an experience of foamballs. We were staying at Biarritz in 
early spring, and one morning on going down to the beach we 
found it covered with such balls. A strong wind was blowing 
off the bay, which caught the wave-crests, and threw off little 
masses of foam, These, though quite small at first, accumu- 
lated, and, in some cases, conglomerated as they rolled inland, 
until they gradually attained a size of two to three feet in 
diameter; and as many of these balls of various sizes were 
drifted along by the wind, they presented a most singular 
appearance. This was made more curious by some of the town 
dogs catching sight of the objects, and taking to chevying them 
along the sand, until a sort of steeplechase was established. 
Every now and then a doz would overtake and dash into a 
flying sphere, only to find it, to his manifest disappointment, of 
a very unsubstantial character. The beach was covered far and 
wide with the debris of the broken balls. 
Guildown, March 31 J. Ranp Capron 
Meteor; the Transit ; the Comet 
As you have on previous occasions deemed it of sufficient 
interest to record notices of striking meteors observed, I send 
you an account of a singularly brilliant and unu ual form which 
appeared here about half-past 8 p.m. on the 29th inst. 
I happened to be lcoking at a portion of the sky a little below 
the constellation ‘‘ Orion,” that is to the southward and east- 
ward, when suddenly a brilliant meteor became apparent. Un- 
like ordinary meteors, it did not move, at least to my vision ; it 
simply increased in size and brilliancy, till it appeared like a 
fine ‘‘Roman candle” or ‘‘blue light,” intensely blue, and 
emitting rays at about two hundred yards’ distance. It appeared 
to illuminate the country with a pale blue light. 
It disappeared as suddenly as it came. Could its stationary 
appearance and increasing brightness have been caused by its 
approaching me ina direct line? I have thougl-t so. 
I saw the transit of Venus splendidly from my hilltop, through 
my binocular, an ordinary hand-telescope, and even with the 
naked eye, protected of course in each instance by coloured 
glass. 
The comet also was a glorious object for several weeks. It 
was first seen here on September 23. I noticed very plainly the 
dark line near the right edge of the tail, as if there had been a 
fold in a luminous substance ; that was the idea that the appear- 
ance gave me. Fig. 3, p. 610, vol. xxvi. of NATURE, most 
resembles what we saw here, but the shadow, or dark part, from 
the V-like incision at the end, should be longer and darker. 
Not being a scientific observer, I did not trouble you with any 
notices of either, feeling sure you would have plenty. 
British Con:ulate, Noumea, January 31 E. L. LAYARD 
Ticks 
CAN none of your readers be prevailed on to take up the 
study of the Ixodes (Ticks), of which there are several Britich 
species? I feel sure their life-history, if fully worked out, would 
prove both interesting and instructive, and might throw some 
light on a mysterious and deadly disease amongst cattle and 
sheep, which prevails extensively in Scotland, and in :ome 
districts in England. It is a curiou< fact that Ixodes are almost 
invariably, if not always found infesting sheep where this disease 
prevails, and it becomes an important question whether their 
presence is merely a coincidence, from the rough coarse natural 
grasses forming a congenial habitat, or whether they are not the 
carriers or inoculators of vegetable or other poison. I should 
be very glad to give further information to any one di-posed to 
take up the study, \VOMDs IL 
Ignition by Sunlight 
““M.” MAY like to have the following case:—I went once at 
sunrise (at Kishnagar, Benga!) into my coachhouse, which opened 
east. I saw smoke ascending from the tops of the two carriage 
lamps. I jumped hastily to the conclusion that my syce (groom) 
had been using the carriage candles illegitimately, and taxed 
him. His defence obliged me to examine closer, and to see that 
the two wicks had been ignited to smouldering point by the 
horizontal rays of the sun condensed by the parabolic reflectors 
NA LORE 
531 
at the backs of the lamps. A notable enough example of Indian 
heat, was it not? W. J. HLERSCHEL 
Collingwood, March 31 
WHEN driving along the Beaumaris Road on Tuesday last at 
half-past three, 1 observed smoke issuing from the top of one of 
the carriage lamps, 1 stopped to examine the cause, and found 
that the reflector had concentrated the sun’s rays on the wick of 
the candle lamp and caused it to smoulder. 
Rhianva, Bangor, Avril 2 EDMUND H. VERNEY 
Mimicry 
REFERRING to Mr, Stokoe’s letter in NATURE, vol. xxvii., 
p- 508, and to his remarks on the defective vision of the Teleostei 
as proved by the very poor imitations of insects which are suffi- 
cient to entrap them, have not bats and swallows—animals of 
certainly more than normal acuteness of vision—been hooked on 
several occa-ions by the flyfisher ? H. J. MorRGAN 
Exeter, March 31 
Braces or Waistband ? 
CAN you or any of your readers answer the following :— 
Which method of suspending the trousers is the least interference 
with 2atwve—their suspension from the /zfs or from the shoulders, 
the wearing of braces, or a tight waistband ? 
March 16 
STINGING, SPEAKING, AND STAMMERING? 
II.— SPEAKING 
1 the first lecture the musical and emotional side of 
human utterance ; in the second, the colloquial and 
intellectual aspect of speech was adverted to. Speaking 
in modern times, and in England especially, is a more 
neglected art than singing. Even in Shakespeare’s days 
there must have been a state of things not very dissimilar; 
for he makes Dogberry, who always manages to state the 
wrong proposition, say, “ Readin’ and writin’ come by 
nature,” and there is a quaintly satirical passage in that 
graceful and ethereal play, the ‘‘Midsummer Night’s 
Dream,” which goes straight to the point. Theseus, in 
commenting on the Clown’s blunders of diction, says :— 
““ Where I have come, great clerks have purposed 
To greet me with premeditated welcomes ; 
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 
Make periods in the midst of sentences, 
Throttle their practised accents in their fears, 
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off, 
Not paying me a welcome.” . 
It cannot be too often reiterated that speech is essen- 
tially an acquirement, and that it must be learned. At 
first, indeed, it is picked up by imitation in early child- 
hood, and later on in life 1s commonly neglected and left 
to take its chance ; though much can be done with little 
labour to correct defects both of this and of the hand- 
writing, the two first things by which a man’s intellectual 
status is judged of. It is unlike singing, in that pleasant 
and articulate speaking does not require the gift of a 
musical organ, but is open to all alike. There exists, 
however, in some quarters a prejudice against fluent 
speaking. Ineffableness is held to indicate grasp of 
thought ; taciturnity to be the cloak of profundity. This 
would be correct if fluency were to supersede accuracy ; 
but such an antagonism is by no means necessary, or it 
would reach its natural limit in the case of the sailor’s 
parrot, which “could not talk, but thought the more.” 
Some other hindrances to correct speech require pas5- 
ing comment. Inthe first place its acquirement is too 
much mixed up with recitation and dramatic representa- 
tion. Neither exaggeration nor servile imitation produce 
good speaking, the one salient feature of which is natural- 
t Abstract by the Author of three Lectures at the Royal Institution, by 
W. H. Stone, M.B.,F.R.C.P. Continued from p. 510. > 
