Correspondence 



119 



respondent relies too much on personal experience. The statistics 

 collected by M. Flammarion showed that the beech was as much liable 

 as the ash. His numbers were: — 54 oaks, 24 poplars, 14 elms, 11 

 walnuts, 10 firs, 7 willows, 6 pines, 6 ashes, 6 beeches, and a few of a 

 great variety of others. These statements applied to France, and very 

 much depends upon the relative abundance of any given tree in the 

 locality. Not improbably, Mr. Harvie Brown has never known a 

 walnut struck, for walnuts are far less common in England than in 

 France. At Haslemere we have but few records of beeches being 

 struck, but then large beeches are not common, and are very usually 

 protected by other adjacent trees which, towering much higher, serve 

 as lightning conductors. The birch is not mentioned once in M. 

 Flammarion's list, but very possibly there were few or none of large 

 size in the districts concerned. We know of no proved instance of a 

 birch being struck at Haslemere. 



It is only fair to Mr. Harvie Brown to add that we do not wholly 

 trust the statistics we have quoted in his confutation. We believe 

 that in English experience the beech tree is not struck nearly so 

 frequently as the ash, and in due course we shall have something to 

 say in explanation of the fact. At the same time it is certain that they 

 are not immune, and we believe that, when struck, they are usually 

 splintered, which is all that we suggested in the passage criticised. 



Oophagist. — The precept is probably the following : " Si sumas 

 ovum, molle sit, atque novum." 



It is generally believed that if an egg be pricked at its rounded 

 end, even with the smallest needle, it will be killed. It is at this end 

 that there is a collection of air, Folliculus aeris. The quantity of air 

 accumulated here is said to be greater in those birds which are well 

 advanced in development than in those born forlorn and helpless. 

 Thus the eggs of all birds which nest on the ground have a large 

 air vesicle. 



XYZ. — The following quotation from Professor Ray Lankester's 

 recently published Lectures may answer your question : — 



" An important general fact, which I cannot dwell on further, is that 

 whilst it is true that the great animals occur in the later stage of the 

 world's history, there is a gradual succession from simpler to more 

 complex forms of life. We get fishes at the top of the Silurian, and 

 the silver-scaled fish which are so abundant at the present day, with 

 their symmetrical tails, such as herring, salmon, carp, roach, perch 

 and other modern fishes more curious in form, such as eels, flat fishes, 

 sticklebacks, pipe fishes and parrot fish, are all of comparatively recent 

 origin. They are not found in the rocks older than the cretaceous 

 system. On the other hand, the sharks and dog fish of to-day are 



