160 
COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 
catsand, in the next place, it would be doing so to marvellously 
little purpose, inasmuch as, if puss were thus informed of the 
future, she would only have to wait a day in order to get a com¬ 
plete washing without any labour or trouble. When the cat per¬ 
forms the operation alluded to, it is a proof that the present state of 
the atmosphere affects her skin in a way that is disagreeable, and the 
washing is her mode of relief; and, in as far as the cat is concerned, 
that is an end to the matter. Man, however, may take it up, and if 
he finds that in all cases, or in the great majority of cases, this hap¬ 
pens only before rain, he is warranted in concluding that the state of 
the atmosphere, which impresses this action upon the cat, is also the 
state which precedes rain; and that in the cases where the rain does 
not follow, there has been a sudden atmospheric change, which is also 
worthy of his study. What it is in this case, and whether connected 
with the little action in the fur of the animal, by which electricity 
can be excited, we shall enquire; but in the late roosting of the crows 
[rooks] the cause is apparent: they feed upon larvae and earth-worms ; 
these, especially the latter, come most abroad in the evenings before 
rain ; and as most animals gorge themselves where food is easily 
found, there is no reason why rooks should not follow the general law. 
These familiar instances have been noticed, in order to point out 
how apt we are to miss the lesson that nature would give, and break 
down the fabric of philosophy, by giving a purpose and a prescience 
of the future to that which cannot reason. The appearance and first 
songs of birds are, like all other seasonal phenomena, part of the his¬ 
tory of the year, and of value retrospectively in telling what has been, 
though not of the smallest use in telling what is to be.— Mudie. 
T. HARDCASTLE, PRINTER, HIGH-STREET, SHEFFIELD. 
