160 Notes and Memoranda. 



the Italian Government, he has had photographs made of the instruments, and 

 also of a fresco, representing a surgeon removing, with a strong pair of pincers, 

 an arrow from the thigh of iEneas. Ascanius stands by weeping ; a group of 

 warriors make up the background ; and Glory, represented by a female figure 

 holding flowers in her hand, approaches the hero. 



Pascal and Newton. — A curious controversy is going on in the French 

 Academy of Sciences, concerning the authenticity of a number of letters, on the 

 strength of which M. Chasles and those who agree with him believe that Pascal 

 communicated to Newton certain ideas which led to the discovery by the latter 

 of the law of universal gravitation. Sir D. Brewster, in a communication to the 

 Academy, pointed out reasons for considering these documents as forgeries. One 

 of them purports to be from Anne Ayscough, the mother of Newton, thanking 

 Pascal for his kindness to her son. At its date Newton was only four years old, 

 and his mother had married again to a Mr. Smith. Pascal is also made to write 

 to Boyle on the 16th of June, 1654, stating that he had received from Newton a 

 treatise on the Infinitesimal Calculus. Newton was at that time only eleven, and, 

 as Sir D. Brewster observes, knew nothing of such matters. It was not till 1661 

 that he began the studies which made him famous. M. Chasles endeavoured to 

 defend the authenticity of the letters ; but M. Faugere, having compared writing 

 known to be that of Pascal with that ascribed to him in this correspondence, 

 corroborates Sir D. Brewster's assertion of forgery. M. Benard, in a letter to the 

 President of the Academy, asserts that " the documents produced by M. Chasles 

 are certainly fabrications, and clumsy ones." He asks, among other things, how 

 Pascal could, on the 2nd of January, 1655, calculate the mass of Saturn by help 

 of the revolutions of a satellite which was not discovered until the 25th of the 

 month following ? The question is referred to a Commission. 



Fail oe Aerolites in Algiers. — On the 9th of June (1867), about half- 

 past ten p.m., a bright light of a bolide was seen in the plain of Tadjera, by ob- 

 servers at various distances from each other, who also heard sounds like cannon- 

 firing. At Bou Saada, M. Correard, of the 3rd Tirailleurs, says the bolide ap- 

 peared about 60° above the horizon, traversed 20° or 25° in from five to eight 

 seconds, directing its course from S.E. to N.E., and ceasing to appear at 40° above 

 the horizon. It looked about three times as big as Venus, and had a luminous 

 train. When it burst, fragments of meteoric matter are said to have fallen, and 

 some pieces were afterwards picked up which were believed to have come from it, 

 as they differed in appearance from other meteoric fragments which have been 

 found, though very rarely, in the same locality. 



A Pretty Experiment with Water. — M. J. Plateau says that a cylinder 

 of water may be made to transform itself into isolated spheres by the following 

 means : — Take a cotton thread, about one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, and 

 about half a yard long ; moisten it carefully by rubbing it with water ; attach a 

 small weight to one end ; hold the other end in the hand, and let it sink straight 

 down in a vessel of water. Then draw it up steadily, and the cylindrical layer of 

 water adhering to it will divide into little globes like a string of pearls. A similar 

 experiment may be made with oil. 



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