FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I. — No. 22. (New Series.) 



FRIDAY, JUNE ist, li 



r Weekly, Price Sd. 

 L By Post. 3^d. 



Scientific Table Talk 



The Artesian Well of the Place He- 



bert, Paris (illus.) 



The Electric Organ of the Skate 



The Application of Photography to 



Meteorology (illus.) 



A New Antiseptic Soap 



General Notes 



Experiments with the Magic Lantern 



(illus.) 



New Observations on the " Canals " of 



the Planet Mars 



Natural History : 



The Cricket Villus.) 



Miscellaneous Notes 



PAGE 

 50s 



505 



508 

 510 

 5" 



5'4 



515 

 516 



C ONTENTS . 



PAGE 



Relations of Animals to Plants ... 517 



Thoughts on Instinct.— II 518 



Exceptional Meteorology 519 



Reviews : . 



The Natural Law of Relation be- 

 tween Rainfall and Vegetable Life 519 

 Nature's Hygiene : a Systematic 

 Manual of Natural Hygiene ... 520 

 Technical Education in France ... 521 

 Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. : 



Royal Society 522 



London Mathematical Society ... 522 



Royal Institution 522 



Royal Society of Edinburgh ... 523 



Royal Meteorological Society ... 523 



Egypt Exploration Fund 



Royal Horticultural Society 



Correspondence : 



British Lichens — The Cold 

 Weather — Burning of the Alex- 

 andrian Library — Connection be- 

 tween Colours and Tastes — The 

 Lantern Fly 



Recent Inventions 



Technical Education Notes ... 



Announcements 



Diary for Next Week ... 



Sales and Exchanges ... 



Selected Books 



Meteorological Returns 



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 523 

 524 



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 52S 

 528 

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SCIENTIFIC TABLE TALK. 



By W. Mattieu Willlams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 

 In the review of Professor Valentine's " Popular Astro- 

 nomy," page 472 of this magazine, reference is made to 

 the perturbations of Mercury, which suggested the theory 

 of an inner planet to which the name of Vulcan was 

 rather prematurely applied ; and the reviewer adds that 

 the anomaly in the movements of the planet "may be 

 occasioned, not by a single planet, but by a ring-like 

 swarm of bodies, each too small to be detected by \\s." 



That such a ring-like swarm actually does exist is, I 

 think, now fairly proved, and though the individual 

 members of the swarm are not separately visible to us, 

 the aggregation is seen as the Zodiacal light, which is a 

 lenticular zone of nebulous matter surrounding the sun 

 and extended in the plane of the sun's equator. We see 

 it best after sunset at about the period of the spring 

 equinox, and before sunrise at the corresponding autumn 

 period, because at those times the direction of its axis is 

 more nearly perpendicular to our horizon, and also 

 because we then see it most completely in section, i.e., 

 we are then looking at the edge of the lens rather than 

 its face, and thus a greater thickness is presented to us. 

 It is best seen in tropical and sub-tropical countries. It 

 appears as a faintly luminous cone standing some- 

 what aslant above the horizon. Its luminosity decreases 

 upwards. It is somewhat opaque, and this opacity 

 increases downwards, or as Mairan, who carefully 

 studied its appearance under favourable conditions, says, 

 " It was only towards the apex that I could discern the 

 small stars on which the light was projected." This opacity 

 and its variations correspond to what should be presented 

 by a lenticular-shaped group of small particles thus seen, 

 i.e., with its depth or thickness in the line of sight 

 increasing downwards. 



Webb, Backhouse and Pringle have examined the 

 Zodiacal light with the spectroscope, and find that it gives 

 a faint continuous spectrum, just such as is given by 

 faintly luminous solid bodies. Any kind of gaseous matter 

 in such aposition wouldbe highly rarefied, and if luminous 

 would display a spectrum of bright lines or bands. 



Cassini and Mairan observed momentary sparklings in 

 the luminous cone, which they exp.'ain by supposing its 

 particles to be in rapid motion, and to present alternately 

 faces of unequal size, nearly as one sees grains of dust 

 sparkling in the rays of the sun. 



Humboldt observed luminous undulations traversing 

 the pyramid. » 



We are now enabled to explain the scurce of this 

 remarkable solar appendage. We know that great out- 

 bursts, huge upheavals of the vaporous envelope of the 

 sun, are continually flung outwards from the sun, forming 

 the solar prominences. Their proceedings are now under 

 continual observation, and are carefully recorded, es- 

 pecially in Italy, where a society exists {La Socicta dtUe 

 Spetiroscop'sti Italiani) who devote their chief attention 

 to this subject. 



Mountams of flaming hydrogen, large enough to 

 envelope a dozen of such worlds as ours, are belching 

 upwards from the solar surface with inconceivable fury, 

 the flame extending ten, twenty, forty, and even a hun- 

 dred thousand miles high. At the base of these gigantic 

 outbursts incandescent vapours of some of the metals 

 are distinguishable by the spectroscope, and there can 

 be little doubt that as these vapours are projected further 

 from the sun they condense into metallic hail, and are 

 thrown far beyond the limits of the hydrogen flame, as 

 the shots projected from a gun are projected beyon 1 the 

 flame of the powder. 



Careful observations of the actual velocity of these 

 outbursts have been made, and it is now demonstrable 

 that in some cases this velocity has been sufficient to 

 project the condensed vapours far beyond the limits of 

 the Zodiacal light, far beyond the earth's orbit, even so 

 far as the asteroids, and possibly beyond the limits of 

 the solar system and the reclaiming gravitation of the 

 sun. 



On September 7th, 1871, Professor Young was observ- 

 mg an ordinary cloud-like prominence, and was called 

 away. On returning in less than half an-hour " the 

 whole thing had been literally blown to shreds by some 

 inconceivable up-rush from beneath." Some of the shreds 

 had reached a height of 100,000 miles, and while he 



