154 



locality ; while the rock has a tendency to lamination, its disin- 

 tegrated felspathic constituents whiten the whole surface, and 

 the neighbouring hill-slopes overlooking the springs are as white 

 as any chalk -cliffs from the same cause. This phenomenon is 

 only to be found in the immediate vicinity of the hot springs. 



It is with the hope that these few notes may be the means of 

 eliciting further particulars, especially as regards the history of 

 this so-called volcano of Unzen, that 1 venture to send them 

 to Nature. H. B. Guppy, 



H.M.S. Hornet, Nagasaki, Surgeon H.M.S. Hornet 



October 13 



Astronomical Subject-Index 



I AM preparing for publication, by the Royal Dublin Society, 

 a review of the progress of astronomy during the present year, 

 consisting of a classified index catalogue of books, memoirs, and 

 notes on astronomical subjects published since the beginning of 

 the year, and, secondly, of a short account of the contents of the 

 more important papers in the various branches of astronomy. 



Any person who has felt the want of such a "subject index" 

 could assist materially in the undertaking by sending me, as 

 soon as possible, the titles of such papers as seem likely to be 

 overlooked on account of having been published in less widely- 

 diffused periodicals or transactions. In particular I would be 

 glad to hear of papers published quite recently in transactions 

 or proceedings of learned societies as these often are not dis- 

 tributed until some time after their publication. 



J. L. E. Dreyer 



The Observatory, Dunsink, Co. Dublin, December 1 1 



Distinguishing Lights for Lighthouses 



A propos of your article on Sir William Thomson's letter in 

 the Times, and the dangers to ships from bad systems of dis- 

 tinguishing the lights of different lighthouses, I send you the 

 accompanying graphic account by my brother, Mr. J. P. Thomp 

 son, of a narrow escape from shipwreck which occurred to him 

 during the autumn of the present year, and which illustrates the 

 urgent need for reform in the adopted system. 



Silvanus P. Thompson 



"All went well till off Ushant, when the wind began to rise, 

 and by Saturday afternoon the Channel was heaved up by what 

 was logged as a ' moderate gale ' from the south-west. This 

 kept freshening every hour, and at 7 p.m., when the lamps were 

 being lit, the captain said we should have a very 'dirty night,' 

 and he accordingly donned his oilskins and 'sou'-wester.' The 

 atmosphere began rapidly to cloud, and at 9 o'clock you couldn't 

 see more than a ship's length or two ahead. As we were in a 

 crowded track of vessels, the watch look-out was doubled. . . . 

 At 1 1 I was on deck again, and found all looking out eagerly 

 for either the St. Agnes (Scilly) or the Wolf Light, the latter 

 being near the Cornish coast. Of these lights the St. Agnes 

 shows a white light at each revolution of a minute, whilst the 

 Wolf is the same, but with a Hash of red between. The sea 

 was very phosphorescent, and this dazzled the eye when looking 

 for lights. I was set as a look-out on the starboard quarter, 

 and many times had to go aft for the captain to see how 

 she lay by the compass abaft (she was being steered at 

 the wheel in an iron wheel-house on the bridge.) . . . About 

 midnight we sighted a light, and on timing it, found it to 

 be a white light of a minute's revolution ; we looked in vain 

 for a red flash between the whites, as we knew we ought to be 

 near the Wolf. But in the fog not a ' smell of red ' could be 

 discerned, although by the rate at which we passed it we must 

 have been very near it. Supposing, then, that there was no red 

 flash, this must be the Scilly light, and the captain accordingly 

 steered more easterly, so as to fetch the Wolf. He nevertheless 

 hardly thought we had got so far to the west as the Scilly, so he 

 ordered a sharp look-out to be kept for breakers or land. At 

 3.30 I turned in again, but at 4 a.m. I suddenly heard the look- 

 out cry out ' Land ! breakers ahead ! ' and then I heard the 

 captain run to the telegraph, and heard the bell ring in the 

 engine-room, and the captain's sonorous voice calling 'All 

 hands ! square away the yards ! 'bout ship ! ' I jumped up, and 

 ran on deck, and there right ahead the fog had just lifted to 

 show us we were almost ashore, heading straight on Penzance ; 

 so near, indeed, were we that I could have easily counted the 

 hou-es. Happily the ship, answering her helm well, came round 

 beautifully, and at the same time the fog closed again, hiding 



NATURE \Dcc. 18, 1S79 



the shore and the dreaded rocks. So after all it was the Wolf 

 light we had sighted, but the fog had prevented us from seeing the 

 red flash. It was a narrow escape, though ; and then we had to 

 beat back in the teeth of the gale, and it took us six hours to 

 beat back to the Land's End." 



The First " Sin" 



It occurred to me lately, whilst reading in the September 

 number of the Contemporary Review, an article by Lenormand 

 called " The First Sin," that it may be possible to turn another 

 page of that very interesting history of ideas, the reading of 

 which appears to be one of the great tasks allotted to this century. 

 Although it seems unlikely that the idea suggested to me by the 

 article has not also occurred to others, I cannot discover that 

 anything has been said about it, for the author seems strangely 

 enough to lead one to the door, as it were, and leave one there 

 without opening it ; I should therefore like, if you will permit 

 me, to lay it before your readers, and hear what they have to 

 say about it. 



My idea is this : that the trad tion of a tree of life, and also 

 of a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, both connected 

 with a sin and a catastrophe, probably originated in man's first 

 acquaintance with the effects of intoxication. 



Lenormand himself connects that tradition with the worship 

 of Bacchus (and also with the theft of fire in a piece of a tree 

 by Prometheus, and with that of the apples of the Garden of the 

 Hesperides). It seems strange, therefore, that he goes no 

 farther, more especially as he himself points out that the re- 

 presentations of the tree on the monuments of different nations 

 are always referable to those from the fruit or foliage or crushed 

 branches of which an intoxicating liquor is derived ; from the 

 Soma tree, that is, and the palm and the vine. 



There is no need to burden your pages with proofs and quota- 

 tions, as any one interested in the subject can procure the maga- 

 zine now at half price ; I will merely add to my suggestion that, 

 as the primitive notion of life must have been characterised by 

 warmth and motion, and the first effects of the fruit of the tree 

 would also be, probably, warmth and excitement, exhilaration 

 and the temporary exaltation of some of the faculties, it would 

 easily come to be looked upon as a " tree of life;" and that, the 

 aftereffects being bid and degrading, it would thereby become 

 a tree of the knowledge of evil as well as good, and also the 

 cause of a fall into a lower state of being. 



May I add a suggestion concerning the serpent always con- 

 nected with the tree, as on the early Babylonian cylinder figured 

 on p. 91 of George Smith's " Chaldean Account of Genesis " ? 

 It appears to have represented the principle of evil very early, 

 probably long before it was connected with the tree, and to have 

 been at first the sea, which in a storm was the chaos out of 

 which everything was formed, and which, as it seemed to swallow 

 up sun, moon, and stars, and to bring forth the storm-clouds — 

 those monsters with which the sun-god fought with his arrows 

 the lightnings — came also, not unnaturally to represent the 

 destructive principle. But how did it become a serpent ? May 

 it not have been the singular resemblance that the edge of the 

 sea — as seen from a moderate height in a calm — bears to a huge 

 serpent — now blue, now white, according to the amount of foam 

 — winding and writhing about the earth, and eating out its rocks 

 and shores, that caused its destructive attributes to be transferred 

 to the serpent ? A common name may have been the means. 

 The resemblance is especially striking when the eye looks along 

 the shore, as in the bend of a bay. 



Another suggestion. Some years ago, when reading the 

 description of the locality of the Battle of Beth Horon in Dean 

 Stanley's work on Palestine, it seemed to me to point to the 

 origin of the tradition of the sun and moon standing still at the 

 command of Joshua, and I do not think it has been noticed. 

 In any valley lying north and south, if one goes up the western 

 hills as the sun sets to the valley, when one reaches the summit 

 the effect of a new day and a fresh supply of sunlight is very 

 striking. This sensation must have been strongly felt by the 

 warriors of Israel, when, after pursuing their enemies up the 

 pass, the still sunlighted valley beyond broke upon their sight ; 

 and I cannot but think that, figuratively expressed, as it would 

 be, and with much exaggeration, in the triumphal song sure to 

 have been made and sung after the victory, it may well have 

 originated the tradition of a standing still of the sun ; the moon 

 would follow suit. The songs are said to be the oldest parts ot 

 the Bible, and " Jasher" or "The Upright" may have been the 

 singer or recorder of the lost song of triumph. J. 



