March 20, 1884] 



NA TURE 



477 



their increased torture will, it is to be hoped, be vanquished 

 liy a far stronger intellectual joy. 



The peculiar and unpleasant sensation which the magnet 

 appeared to produce on the subject ju<t referred to was de- 

 scribed as slowly rising to a maximum in fifteen or twenty 

 seconds after the current had been sent round the coils of the 

 electromagnet. In like manner the effect seemed to die down 

 slowly after the contact was broken. Unknown to the subject, 

 the circuit was closed and opened several times, and the mag- 

 netism correspondingly evoked or dissipated, the result being 

 that there was a fatrly accurate correspondence between the 

 physical and the psychical effect. The faint molecular crepita- 

 tion which accompanies the magnetisation of iron, and can be 

 heard when the ear is very near the magnet, is, however, very 

 apt to mislead the imaginaiion. To avoid this, the subject was 

 placed at a distance where this faint sound could not be heard, 

 and he was then requested to walk up to the electromagnet, 

 and, judging only from his sensations, to state if the current 

 were "on" or "off." The experiment was made twelve times 

 successively, and he was correct in ten out of the twelve trials. 

 He had no means of seeing or liearing the contact breaker ; of 

 course, it is possible for a trickster, u^ing a concealed compass- 

 needle, to be able to impose on a careless experimenter, but care 

 was taken, and I have not the lea^t reason to doubt the entire 

 Iwtia fiiies of the subject of this experiment. Obviously the 

 foregoing observation is but of little value unless corrobo- 

 rated by a far more extensive series of experiments, conducted 

 with the most stringent precautions to avoid the creation of 

 illusory effects. 



I have tried experiments w ith large helices encircling the 

 limbs and head, and animated by pow erful currents, but have 

 riot observed any peculiar sensory effect in my own case, though 

 I am inclined to think the headache "hich I have often 

 experienced when working with a large magnet may not be 

 altogether an accidental coincidence. Meanwhile experiments 

 are in progress in my laboratory to ascertain, if possible, whether 

 any sensory effect is produced upon lower organisms. I hardly 

 anticipate any affirmative results, but it seemed worth making 

 a systematic investigation from minute structures up to man 

 Sir W. Thomson's address will, I hope, stimulate other workers 

 in this field. W. F. Barrett 



Royal College of Science, Dublin, March 1 1 



Instinct 



I WRITE one more letter on this subject, in order to observe 

 that I do not think the only remaining difference between Mr. 

 Lloyd Morgan and myself is so great as it maybe apt to appear. 

 In my books 1 have been careful to point out the peculiar dis- 

 abilities under which the science of comparative psychology 

 labours from its necessarily ejective character. But while in 

 Mr. Morgan's view these disabilities are so great as to render 

 any science of comparative psychology impossible, in my view 

 they are not quite so great. I quite agree w ith the quotation 

 which he gives from Prof. Huxley on the crayfish ; but this does 

 not amount to saying that no science of comparative psychology 

 is possible. We may still, for instance, feel perfectly certain 

 that a dog is a more intelligent animal than a crayfish, and in 

 this we have a purely scientific proposition. 



The difference, therefore, between Mr. Morgan and myself is 

 more apparent than real, and depends upon what we mean by 

 " a science." This is the question that must be answered before 

 we can proceed to consider the question raised by him, viz. " Is 

 a science of comparative psychology possible?" In my estin a- 

 tion the possibility of a science is furnished wherever there is 

 material to investigate. The more vague the material, the less 

 exact must be the science, and on this account, no doubt, com- 

 parative psychology is the least exact of all the sciences. But 

 so long as its subject-matter admits of any investigation at all, so 

 long, it seems to me, comparative psychology is a science. 



George J. Romanes 



The Remarkable Sunsets 

 With reference to the theory that the red sunsets are due to 

 volcanic dust in the air, I think that the following extract from a 

 letter which hns been forwarded to me is of considerable interest. 

 The writer is Mr. Frederick .>>poffonh, and his letter is dated 

 J.anuary 29, from Collaroy, 150 miles from Sydney. It will be 

 observed that the corroboration which he gives to the theory in 



question is the more striking from the fact of its being so 

 completely unconscious. George J. Romanes 



"A most peculiar sight this summer are the sunsets. The 

 sun always goes down as red as can be, and half the night there 

 is the same roseate hue, which lasts till past midnight. Many 

 causes are given for it, but nearly all differ. 



"Another curious thing is the enormous amount of dust — even 

 up here, where you see nothing but trees as far as the horizon 

 on all sides. Some days the whole landsc^ipe will be covered in 

 dust, and where the dust comes from nobody can tell. It is 

 always worst in the early morning." 



Right-sidedness 



Mr. Le Conte (Nature, xxix. p. 452) seems rather to com- 

 plicate than to simplify this que-tion. If the right side of his 

 body shows more dexterity than the left, surely it is his left eye 

 that should share this excellence, if w e are to suppose that this 

 difference in dexterity depends upon any central origin. A per- 

 son paralysed on the left side of the body loses sight — if sight be 

 lost at all — in the right eye, and vice versa. Further, I am 

 right-handed, and use an eyeglass in my left eye ; yet, though the 

 right eye is the weaker, I use it for a telescope or microscope 

 by unconscious preference. On the other hand, most persons 

 who use a single eyeglass wear it in the ri';;ht eye. I may have 

 adopted the left for ease in adjusting the glass, so that my right 

 hand might be free. When I am reading, if I put my hand in 

 front of my left eye, I am conscious of some muscular altera- 

 tion ; if I obscure my right eye, I notice nothing but a slight 

 diminution of the sense of light, white objects seeming less white 

 to my right eye than to my left. And this effect is just as notice- 

 able when I wear spectacles as when I am reading without 

 them ; so that my myopia is not the cause of the difference. 



In discussing right-sidedness — whether we regard the decussa- 

 tion of the nerves in the medulla oblongata or not — we must not 

 forget that prize-fighters normally strike with the left hand, 

 using the right as a guard or to deliver the second blow ; perhaps 

 this is to gain the advanta'^e of the greater strength of the right 

 leg. Moreover, the habit among Western nations of writing 

 from left to right appears to argue that right-handedness is the 

 rule among them ; but Orientals reverse the process, so that the 

 majority of mankind must be left-handed. What do the anthro- 

 pologists say to this ? 



Mr. Charles Reade, writing in the Daily Telegraph some 

 years ago, argued that if the habitual use of the right hand led 

 to a greater development of the left side of the brain, a further 

 acquired use of the left hand would aid the development of the 

 right cerebral hemisphere, and so increase the general power of 

 the brain. But is there any evidence to show that ambidextrous 

 ]ieople, left-handed apparently by nature, and right-handed from 

 habit, have any general mental advantage over their fellows ? I 

 think not. Henry T. Wharton 



39, St. George's Road, Kilburn, March 17 



In my own experience (I can with confidence only give that) 

 I differ almost wholly from that of Mr. Joseph Le Conte, as 

 expressed in Nature (p. 452). In my case strength and dex- 

 terity of arm do not in everything go together. For instance, 

 although strongly left-handed, I learnt to write with the right 

 hand and shoot from the right shoulder, and could do either 

 very indiffe.-ently indeed if attempted with the left hand or arm. 

 I perhaps may call myself with truth a rather handy man, im- 

 proved upon by living for many years in places where tradesmen 

 were not to be had. In all connected with pencil, pen, ink, and 

 paper, such as printing, chart-making, my left hand, although 

 strongest, was clumsy, whereas my right showed considerable 

 skill, "as w-as exhibited once in rather a Irrdrcrous manner by the 

 Hydrographer of the Admiralty mistaking my pen-and-ink chart 

 of some seven hundred miles of Arxtic discovery for an engrav- 

 ino- of the same. My left leg is the stronger, yet I use it in kick- 

 ing and in other ways requiring dexterity ; e.g. when very many 

 years younger I could perform the many curious movements or 

 steps of some of our .Scottish dances with much more accuracy 

 and ease with the left foot than with the right. I fear the sub- 

 ject-matter of this note may be scarcely considered a valid excuse 

 for so much self-notice. John Rae 



4, Addi-on Gardens, March 15 



