75 ° 
Correspondence . 
[December, 
‘ NUTS FOR MATERIALISTS.” 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
§ IRj — In one of your contemporaries, with which you seem to be 
on amicable terms, 1 find two incidents recorded under the title 
above quoted. In one case a ship-owner, who had insured his 
vessel and cargo, dreamed that he saw it wrecked at a certain 
point, in consequence of the drunkenness and neglecft of the 
captain. So convinced was he that the accident would really 
occur that he adtually “ chaffed ” the underwriters about the loss 
which they would experience. It is added that in time the ship 
was actually wrecked, at the very place and under the very cir- 
cumstances, represented in the owner’s dream. 
Now I do not dispute that such incidents, if truthfully narrated, 
are “ nuts for the Materialist.” But I submit that they are no 
less nuts for the Animist. We are utterly unable to understand 
on what principle spiritual being, if such exist, should be capable 
of foreseeing future events more than a material being. Can the 
absence of such properties as extension, weight, impenetrability, 
&c., confer such powers ? — -I am, &c., 
A Lucretian. 
DOCILITY AND ATTACHMENT IN A DUCK. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — At Finchley there is now living a duck which is exceed- 
ingly attached to the daughter of its owner. If she goes into 
the garden the bird comes waddling to meet her. She takes it 
up in her hands, caresses it, and throws it up in the air, when it 
flies round and round her for several times, and then returns to 
her feet. Instances of personal attachment among water-fowl 
being rather rare, this fa<51 may possibly be of interest to some of 
your readers. — I am, &c., 
H. S. 
