338 



SGIJSJSrCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 141. 



In committing prose or verse to memory, the posi- 

 tions of the paragraphs fix themselves in my mind 

 so firmly that when I recite I almost read the words 

 from the air before me. unless I have learned them 

 by ear, in which case there is no illusion at aU. 



Thatcher T. P. Luquer. 



Bedford, N. Y., Sept. 28. 



The matter of forms in series of numbers, months 

 and days seems of considerable philosophical interest. 

 Is there not herein a hint that, although to broad 

 features, the great principles of mental states and 

 operations are everywhere the same, yet the minutiae 

 may be utterly incongruous and irreconcilable , and 

 hence, that in the minute analysis of these things 

 philosophers must always in a measure fail, because 

 the assumption on which all philosophy is buiJt, that 

 minds act alike, proves to be not wholly reliable ? 

 What seems a necessity of thought, or at least a con- 

 stant accompaniment of thought to one, seems ridicu- 

 lous and unthinkable to another. Such forms have 

 existed in my own mind from my earliest remem- 

 brance, yet I never thought of them as other than 

 naturally common to all, till within a few years. 



finding them entirely wanting to some minds. The 

 annexed diagrams show that, while the numbers and 

 the months take in general an ascending direction, 

 -the days of the week have a steep grade downwards 

 to my mind. Silvanus Hay ward. 



Southbridge, Mass. 



Some notes on color in Science recently recalled a 

 study made by me when in Chicago a few years since. 

 I was made president of the Kindergarten association 

 when it was formed in 1875. This gave me occasion 

 for several very curious lines of inquiry. Only one 

 •of these will be appropriately recalled now. A casual 

 remark of that able teacher, Mrs. Putnam, led me to 

 ask her which gift the children under seven first 

 chose. She answered yellow. I said, "What, in pre- 

 ference to red or blue! " "Yes," she repeated. " with 

 ■only one exception, invariably yellow." I then in- 

 quired of Miss Eddy, whose fine powers of observa- 

 tion were unequalled, and her answer was yellow. I 

 could hardly believe it ; but from every teacher there; 

 or elsewhere, I have received the same answer, a few 

 adding that they have had in charge a few children 

 who were exceptions. This tallies with my recol- 

 lections of my own childhood, and is confirmed by 

 others. If it be an established fact, which I will not 

 aver, to what shall we attribute it ? Is it improbable 

 that there is an unconscious relation between the 

 growing child and the ray most concerned in growth, 

 as there seems to be between old age and the red 

 ray ? We certainly outgrow at an early age our 

 preference for the yellow. 



E. P. Powell. 



sClinton, N. Y. 



Ball of electric fire. 



Mr. J. V. WuRDEMAN says that a ball of fire, as 

 large as a child's head, came into his room at Leaven- 

 worth, hopped across the floor like a soap bubble 

 rolling on a carpeted floor, went out through the side 

 of the house at the corner opposite to where first 

 seen, with a sort of explosion, or rather puff, not 

 nearly so loud as a pistol shot nor so sharp, and 

 tore off the rain pipe of tin. It looked like an 

 electric brush, not brilliant nor like the electric spark. 

 His son, a little child, was playing on the bed : his 

 mother snatched up the boy and was half way down 

 stairs before the ball disappeared. The ball seems 

 to have been like the St. Elmo lights, which I have 

 seen on a vessel's yard arm, in the Gulf of Mexico, a 

 pale brush of light, spherical inform, like the brush 

 issuing from a metallic point in the prime conductor 

 of the frictional electric machine. 



M. C. Meigs. 



Voss-Holtz electrical machine. 



A few days ago I accidentally received a pamphlet 

 on the theory of the Voss-Holtz electrical machine, 

 by E. B. Benjamin, dealer in physical apparatus. 

 New York City. 



The article states that " no perfectly satisfactory 

 explanation of all the phenomena manifested by this 

 machine has yet been made public in this country," 

 and then gives the theory that was published in 

 Science, for June 20, 1884. In many^ places the sen- 

 tences are the same, almost word for word, except 

 that he has lettered the parts of the machine, and 

 used the letters for the names of the parts. 



Mr. Benjamin gives no credit either to Science 

 or to the author, and further copyrights, by itself, 

 the part of the pamphlet containing the theory, the 

 date of the copyright being 1885. 



H. W. Eaton. 

 Louisville, Ky., Oct. 2. 



Carnivorous habits of the striped squirrel. 



As the carnivorous habits of the musk-rat and 

 other rodents hji^ve been under discussion during the 

 past year, I wish to record a rather remarkable 

 instance, which came to my notice in New Hamp- 

 shire, May 27, 1883, in case of the striped or ground 

 squirrel, Tamias striatus (L) Baird. 



The chipmunk is usually regarded as a harmless 

 vegetarian^ living chiefly, if not wholly, upon nuts, 

 fruits, and the seeds of grain and various plants ; but 

 this is probably not the whole truth of the matter, 

 at least in the following case, for an account of 

 which I am indebted to the Eev. F. M. Gray, of Ply- 

 mouth, N. H. 



On the morning of the day in question, he was in 

 the woods, and stopped to listen to some bird, when 

 his attention was called to a white-footed or deer 

 mouse (Hesperomys leucopus, (Raf.) LeC), which ran 

 hurriedly past, carrying something in its mouth. 



Suddenly a chipmunk, which had watched proceed- 

 ings from a stump near at hand, pounced down 

 upon the mouse, caught up what she had carried in 

 her mouth, but had dropped through fright, and 

 returning to his stump began to devour it greedily. 



The captured prey could now be seen to be a young 

 mouse, which the squirrel ate as he would a nut or a 

 piece of apple, in this case beginning with the head. 



