NATURE 



{May 2, 1872 



We encouratje planting, the labour and capital therein ex- 

 pended may yield returns after the lapse of generations ; we, at 

 the same time, allow timber, the growth of ages, to be swept by 

 fire by any one who owns a box of matches, and looks on firinL; 

 as the best means of subiluing the wilderness. We import with 

 great difficulty ir.sectivorous birds, and allow the Apterygina; and 

 other insectivorous genera to be destroyed without mercy. 



Fearing to occupy 'too mu ;h spac .■, 1 will only glance at our worst 

 raptorials from which our birds suflfer. First, the honA fidc^ 

 settler in his "new chunr " phase, before " hehas eaten his tutu" 

 (as we say) ; next, the digger, who kills kivi, kallapo, Ualla, and 

 picreon, without anv respect to season ; his dog, like that of the 

 settler, being a more fatal enemy to birds than himself. Lastly, the 

 collector, the provider of rarities for museums, &c. There is no 

 fence month with him ; if spring or summer plumage is interest- 

 inn-, so also is that of winter ; epgs, young, the adult, alike he 

 preys on all. He is heedless of ttie Mosaic promise ; he cares 

 not to have his days prolonged, so that he gets good specimens. 



Could we be persuaded to try and avert what will some day 

 be a great reproach to this country, the destruction of so many 

 species of our feathered tribe, D'Urville's Island might be found 

 most useful. Wingless species, and birds of feeble powers of 

 flight, might there frnd a refuge for some of therr representatives. 

 Resolution Island might be placed under tapu from molestation 

 by dog and gun. THO.M.A.S _H. PoTTS 



Ohinitahi, New Zealand, February 2 



The State and Science 



From the position taken by Mr. Gladstone with regard to the 

 Dublin University Bill, from Mr. Lowe's speech at Halifax, and 

 from other indications, it would appear to be the policy of the 

 Government, not torenderaccessibleto all, without sectarian distinc- 

 tion, the professorships and other endowments of the Universities, 

 and 'to assign to modern cuUirre a fair share thereof, buttoabol'sli 

 all such endowments, and to withdraw all .Slate aid from both 

 literature and science. In favour of such a policy it has been 

 urged not only that it is in accordance with sormd pohtrcal 

 economy to leave every pursrut to seek for itself its own reward, 

 but also that the system of endowment and artificial aid has 

 proved a signal failure. Now, if by this last argument it is 

 meant that the large rewards which have been grven for classical 

 knowledge and for mathematical attainments have not been pro- 

 ductive of numerous Bentleys, Persons, and Newtons, the truth 

 and validity of the argument must be admitted. The rewarding 

 of mere acquired knowledge was little likely to show its results 

 in original work. The capacity for acquisition, literary, mathe- 

 matical, or scientific, is a very different thing from the po%ver of 

 orimnal production, or of extending the boundaries of human 

 knowledge. Probably in some cases the latent spark of genius 

 has even been stifled and smothered by the load of "cram" 

 necessarily superimposed to meet the requirements of exacting 

 examiners. It would be, however, I think, a mistake not to 

 allow some considerable reward to more exact knowledge.^ But 

 it is with regard to original work and the proved capacity ior 

 doing it that external encouragement and reward is ab-olutely 

 necessary. Such wo:k, in most drparlments of literature and 

 science, cannot possibly, in a coramei-cial sense, pay. It is this 

 work, however-, which confers especial honour and advantage on 

 the State. Therefore it is in accordance alike with justice and 

 sound policy that the doing of such work should be munihcently 

 encouraged and rewarded by the State. Such a policy might be 

 reasonably expected to issue in results very different from those 

 whrch have attended the endowment of "cram." Prevrous 

 failure cannot be objecleJ, for the attempt can scarcely be sard 

 to have ever been made. It behoves, therefore, literary and 

 scientific men to look to it that, in any redistribution of the 

 University or other endowments, the true interests of both science 

 and literaiure— and especially the encuragement and reward of 

 original research— are duly regarded by the Government. But 

 a certain superficial political economy may object that such a 

 policy would be of dangerous tendency, inasmuch as it would 

 recognise the existence of the State as a unity, which, being 

 honoured and benefited, should encourage and reward. The 

 man of original thought and the discoverer of Nature's secrets 

 must be left, each for himself, to seek such recompense as he 

 can in the ordinary market. Sir Isaac Newton would not be 

 rewarded by the present Government with the Mastership of the 

 Mint. They have abolished that office. No, they would guard 



him in his enjoyment of the copyright of the " Principia ! " 

 Such, it would seem, according to Messrs. Lowe and Gladstone, 

 is the dictate of common sense, of justice, and of the " sound 

 political economy " of Adam Smith 



Brilliant Meteor 



I .N'OTICED in your number for last week the account of a bril- 

 liant meteor, observed in Cumberland on April 19. Now I 

 had reported to me a very similar meteor at nearly the same time 

 {about 8.40 P.M.), an account of which I forwarded, with my 

 other results of the night's watch, to Mr. A. S. Ilerschel, who 

 would gladly receive any further report of the same ; un- 

 fortunately, 1 have not that number of Nature at hand, and 

 therefore cannot make a personal application to your corre- 

 spondent. On the same evening, about 10.7, I myself saw an 

 exceedingly brilliant meteor, which fell to a point justS. of Vega. 

 It is curious that both of these come from the radiant situated 

 about R. A. 155, D + 47, or rather from one of the gi'oup ot 

 radiants there situated, Mg of Heis, 56 and 52 of Schiaparelli. 

 It would be an interesting point of investigation whether the 

 meteors fi-om that radiant are of peculiar brightness. 



20, Eootham, York, April 30 J. Edmund Clark 



EXPERIMENTAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF 

 MUSICAL TONE 



REFERENCE was recently made in these columns to 

 an educational lecture on " Musical Tone," delivered by 

 me on March 14, at the Taunton College School. Among 

 the experiments, several were specially arranged in con- 

 nection with this lecture, and these I should be glad to 

 put on record as simple and inexpensive means of illus- 

 trating important points. 



For the purpose of displaying the relation between 

 the " quality " of musical tones and the kind of vibra- 

 tion producing them, a series of magic-lantern slides 

 were shown. These were prepared in the ordinary 

 way, being smoked glass plates on which vibration- lines 

 were traced by points attached to tuning-forks, piano- 

 wires, c&c. Each tone being sounded as its vibration- 

 line was shown, the audience was en ibled to appreciate 

 clearly the difference between the simple tone of the 

 tuning-fork and the clangs of a stringed instrument, 

 played on musically and also made to shriek and rasp. 

 For an extreme illustration, to show the relation of an 

 irregularly discordant clang to an irregularly bent and 

 jagged vibration-line, a toy popularly known as a " Bis- 

 mark's Whistle" was made, larger than the usual size. 

 It consisted of a tin-plate canister, near the centre of 

 the bottom of which a piece of gut, knotted at the end, 

 was passed through a small hole. Well-resined fingers 

 drawn with a tight grip along the gut caused this in- 

 fernal machine to emit a hideous sound, the vibration- 

 line of which was shown as taken off on the smoked 

 glass from a pointed wire soldered to the bottom of 

 the canister. 



The pictorial representation of a beat is of course 

 indispensable to explain Helmholtz's theory of h.armony 

 and dissonance. As, however, neither the plan used by 

 Prof. Helmholtz of taking off the beats of two organ 

 pipes by means of a vibrating membrane, nor the 

 splendid arrangement of Lissajou's method emp'oyed 

 by Prof. Tyndall, were readily available, I found it ne- 

 cessary to contrive a simpler and coarser method. 

 Accordingly, two stout piano-wires were stretched side by 

 side on a board about three inches apart, and con- 

 nected near the middle by a bent yoke of thinner wire, 

 terminating upwards in a point. The two wires being 

 tuned so as to give beats at a convenient rate, the alter- 

 nate phases of addition and subtraction of the vibrations 

 of the two wires, corresponding to the beats, were well 



