104 



NATURE 



\Juue 



It adds nothing, either to our previous knowledge of facts, 

 or to our previous conceptions with regard to them, and 

 so is of no use to scientific readers ; while the manner in 

 which if treats its subject is so dreary that we fear it is no 

 less ill adapted to the requirements of popular readers. 

 We regret this failure the more because the author, as 

 is well known, is so hard a worker, both in cerebral mor- 

 phology and morbid psychology, that in writing this book 

 he deserved a success which he has failed to achieve. 

 Having said this much it seems needless to enter on any 

 detailed criticism. We have forced ourselves to read the 

 work from end to end, but cannot advise any one else to 

 follow our example. 



Ideality in the Physical Science. By Benjamin Peirce. 



(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 18S1.) 

 This work is a series of six lectures published post- 

 humously by the author's son. The lectures are of a purely 

 popular character, and their object throughout is to main- 

 tain that science is, so to speak, an intellectual hand- 

 maiden to Christianity. The arguments, or rather illustra- 

 tions, are all drawn from the domain of physics and 

 astronomy, of which the writer was himself so distin- 

 guished a cultivator, and every page glows with the 

 fervour of a deeply religious mind. Indeed, we may 

 question whether there is not rather too much of this, 

 even in view of the emotional effects which it seems to 

 be the main object of the speaker to produce. The in- 

 tellectual or argumentative object throughout is to show 

 that the "ideality in the physical sciences" points to 

 ideation in the source of the physical universe, or, to 

 quote the concluding paragraph : "Judge the tree by its 

 fruit. Is this magnificent display of ideality a human 

 delusion, or is it a divine record ? The heavens and the 

 earth have spoken to declare the glory of God. It is not 

 a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. It is the 

 power of an infinite imagination, signifying immor- 

 tality." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[T/ie Editor dots not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can lie undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible ot/n noise to ensure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel /acts.] 



Mr. Charles Darwin's Letters 

 Will you allow me to mention that I am collecting my 

 father's letters with a view to a biography. I shall be much 

 obliged to any of my father's friends and correspondents who 

 may have letters from. him, if they will kindly allow me to see 

 and make copies of ihem. I need hardly add that no letter shall 

 be published without the full consent of its owner. 



I iown, Beckenham, May 25 Francis Darwin 



Comet («) 1882 

 The following observations of Comet {a) 1882 have been 

 made with the Transit-Circle of the Radcliffe Observatoiy, 

 Oxford, when passing sub-polo : — 



Observed N. P. D. „. 

 G.M.T. Observed R. A. (uncorrected for Ub- 



parallax). server 



1882. h. m. s. h. m. s. . , „ 



[a] May 12, S 57 20-13 ■■• ° '4 22 90 ... 15 32 53-4 ... R. 

 W "3, 9 18 33*31 ... o 39 30-12 ... 15.54 29 ... W. 



(<") '5. 9 57 21-31 ... " 26 2360 ... 17 8 338 ... R. 



(d) 16, 10 14 15-71 ... 1 47 17-34 ... 18 o 13-7 ... W. 



(e) 17, 10 29 20-28 ... 2 6 20-93 ... 19 o 10-5 ... R. 

 (/) iS, 10 42 34-30 ... 2 23 33-69 ... 20 7 31-7 ... W. 

 {g) 19, 10 54 486 ... 2 39 2-69... 21 21 188 ... R. 

 (h) 20, 11 3 59-82 ... 2 52 55-84 ... 22 40 44-3 ... W. 

 («') 21, n 1228 ...3 5 (22) ...24 5(18) ... R. 

 (It) 22, 11 19 3S70 ... 3 16 30-40 ... 25 33 (54) ... R. 



Observers' notes : — 



(a), (b) Very faint ; but observations fair. 



\c) Very faint at times ; observation fair on the whole. 



(d) Nucleus sometimes showed as a bright point, but generally 



not so well defined, and would scarcely stand any illu- 

 mination of field. Observation, though difficult, very 

 fair. 



(e) Observation good. 



(/) Observation considered very good. Nucleus very sharp at 



times. 

 (°) Difficult, but observation considered fairly good. Nucleus 



faint at times. 

 (/() Faint. Observation good. 

 (»j Observation only approximate. Sky cloudy. 

 (A) R.A. good. N.P.D. very rough, from a single bisection 



when extremely faint. 

 General Notes : — In the telescope, the light of the head on the 

 night of May 18, the nucleus being better defined than on any 

 other night when the observations were made by me, was certainly 

 not brighter than an eighth magnitude star (W.). 

 Brightness = Eight in star-magnitude (R.). 

 Observers — W. = Mr. Wickham. 

 R. — Mr. Robinson. 



E. J. Stone 



Sea-shore Alluvion — Calshot and Hurst Beaches 



Westward of Brighton ; Shoreham Harbour, Portsmouth, 

 Southampton, and the Solent roadstead, all derive protection 

 from shingle moles thrown up to w indward of their entrances, the 

 most remarkable of which, Calshot and Hurst Points, have each 

 one of Henry VIII. 's stone castles at their extremities. The 

 first incloses a large tidal estuary (Owers Lake) at the entrance 

 to Southampton water, and forms a pier covering, the entrance 

 to that fine natural harbour from the south-west. 



The condition of this spit is not much altered since Leland's 

 time, A.n. 1539 ; it terminates in a horn, which forms the lake, 

 and the outfalls of the Beaulieu and Lymington Rivers westward 

 have similar windward moles on a modified scale. 



Hurst Point is two miles in length in a north-west and south 

 east direction, formed of rounded siliceous pebbles on an argil- 

 laceous base, which last terminates in a nearly perpendicular sub- 

 marine cliff 200 feet in height ; this physical peculiarity of (posi- 

 tion has been described by Web-ter and other writers ; it has for 

 centuries acted as a breakwater to the Solent and the small 

 natural harbours eastward of it on the Hampshire coast, but has 

 also limited their capacity by promoting a rapid deposition of 

 silt alontj their foreshores, in the storm of November, 1824, 

 its position was, and remained for some time, considerably 

 altered, as has been described by Lyell. Still, however, the 

 maps in the Cottonian and Burleigh collections all show the 

 peculiar horn-like termination due to the indraught into the 

 Solent, and the general outline of the spit much as at present, 

 which doubtless has preserved its main features for centuries, 

 subject, however, to local disturbance and variation. Half a 

 mile landward of the lighthouses the beach curves eastward, 

 and forks into three or four gradations of "fulls," showing 

 modern variations and additions to the extremity locally termed 

 the "Point of the Deep," a quarter of a mile long, and 

 running nearly at right angles to the main mole ; two smaller 

 spits called " Rabbit Point " and ' ' Shooting Points " (a double 

 formation), tail out from the main spit, within or landward of 

 the extremity. 



Parallel to the entrance to the Solent, a bank of shingle three 

 to four miles in length, with about six feet water over it at low 

 water of spring tides, varying in level with the weather, easterly 

 winds banking it up, stretching from the extremity of Hurst 

 Point, south-westward to opposite the ledge called the " Bridge," 

 off the " Needles" rocks, leaves the small entrance channel (the 

 " Needles" Channel) intervening. 



Hurst Beach presents many characteristics peculiar to the 

 Chesil, Calshot, and other similar formations such as a low, flat 

 shore to leeward or eastward, and a highly-inclined beach sea- 

 ward, with a tendency to curve round north-eastward, and ulti- 

 mately to inclose a tidal mere or lake ; the elevation and size ot 

 the pebbles increase towards the summit and termination, and in 

 places patches of sand and shingle conglomerate of an early date 

 crop out through the shifting modern "fulls." 



The degradation of the cliffs to the westward has been very 

 great, and they are much serrated and water-worn, with frequent 

 slips in the upper strata of sand and gravel on a clay base, and 



