IV 



Marvels of the Universe 



ever dull it is his own fault. Every wood, every field, every garden, every stream, every pond, is 

 full of interest to those who have eyes to see. 



Let me take a single subject : 



Even about our own senses how little we know ! No doubt it is always difiicult to place on 

 paper what we do not know. It may illustrate the writer's, rather than general, ignorance. More- 

 over, even if time at the moment it was written, the answer may be discovered before the ink is 

 dry. I speak, therefore, with all hesitation. 



Nevertheless, I believe it may be said that the sensibihty of our skin appears to be mainh' due 

 to a plexus of fine nerve-fibres, which end in free terminations between the cells of the skin (rete 

 mucosum). There are also in some parts of the skin two sets of minute corpuscles, which are called 

 after their discoverers, the first Vaterian, or more commonly Pacinian, corpuscles ; the second, 

 Meissner's or Wagner's corpuscles. 



The Pacinian corpuscles consist of a capsule formed of several layers, one enveloping the other. 

 The undulating nerve-fibres, after several windings, enter the capsule, which, indeed, seems to be 

 nothing more than a much-thickened end of the outer nerve-coat. These corpuscles measure 

 from i-i to 4'5 mm. They occur principally on the hands and feet, and in the flexures of the 

 joints, but occasionally also elsewhere. Meissner's or Wagner's corpuscles are cone-like or egg- 

 shaped bodies, in each of which a nerve terminates, after several convolutions. They are especially 

 numerous at the tips of the fingers, where there may be as many as a hundred in a square line. 

 They occupy the papillse (which, however, do not always contain one), which give the surface of 

 the hand its peculiar striped appearance. They also occur, though less numerously, elsewhere, as 

 on the feet, breast and lips. 



Nevertheless, these observations, interesting as they are, give us in reality but little information 

 as to the sense of touch. 



THE WILLI A.METTE METEOR. 



This enornious mass of meteoric metal, which fell at Williamette. Oregon. U.S.A., weighs over fifteen and a half tons. It 

 is ten feet in length and six and a half feet high. The force with which such a mass strikes the earth is terrific: and one 

 can imagine the fearful havoc it would cause should a meteor fall upon one of our famous buildings. 



