IN the nature of things KNOWLEDGE as a monthly magazine must be an experiment. I shall spare no pains to make it a success. I hope friendly readers will cooperate, as they can very readily and effectively do, by announcing to others the new departure. The form in which KNOWLEDGE has hitherto appeared in regard to size of page will be retained; but as there will now no longer be that necessity for rapid work which the weekly number had involved, KNOWLEDGE will present in many respects an improved appearance. Original articles will occupy a larger relative proportion of our space, which will of course be also absolutely larger. The complaint which some have made of the scrappy form in which our leading subjects appear will no longer be justified. As to the quantity of matter, original and select, in each. number, comparison can be confidently invited with any monthly or weekly serial, not backed by novels or short stories, or padded with mere business communications or the long-winded drivel of paradoxists and their kind.

I HOPE to receive for "KNOWLEDGE, a Monthly Illustrated Magazine of Science, Literature, and Art," such support as will amply justify its continuance in the course entered upon. I will not say less; but there is so much other work inviting me that (remembering duties nearer to me than those I owe to science) I cannot at present say more.

WE are going to change our course somewhat freely in another respect. At the outset of our career, we expressed a determination not to deal with the influence of science on religion, though satisfied that that influence had been purifying and wholesome. This was regarded by many as a promise. In reality it was a precaution. We wished to escape the flood of controversy, which we knew would pour in upon us if that subject were opened. That we did not escape, a glance at the "Replies to Correspondents " will serve to show; but we kept our correspondence columns tolerably clear of the odium theologicum,-which was our principal object. But now our position is different. We can present the views of science in regard to religion without introducing controversy. We can answer the questions which are repeatedly being asked as to what science can do to replace the religious feelings which many seem to think, mistakenly enough, that they must abandon if they would tread the scientific pathway.

You give us, say many, the Everlasting No, in which is neither hope nor solace, neither help in the work of life nor promise of better things hereafter. Is science without religion and without hope? Must the votary of science be without faith, without worship, without a law of duty?

WE shall endeavour to show that the teachings of science involve no such gloomy and hopeless picture. Science answers with an Everlasting Yea, the questions of those who desire to possess faith, to feel reverence, and to recognise the sense of duty and right.

THE great philosopher of our age is not anxious to be followed by a train of disciples; he would preach no new religion. But he knows, what others have felt, that the purifying of old religions from the dross of ages is no destructive process. Through the infinite azure depths of the cleared sky the real glory of the universe is beginning to be seen. Purified-even it may be to

perfect transparency,-religion will remain religion still. It will have its temples, but temples not made with hands; its worship, but a worship cleansed from all that is unworthy; its code of morals, but a code based on reason and on justice. One characteristic alone, which has been associated with religion, the religion taught by pure science will not possess. Its very essence will be freedom from all intolerance. Because it recognises in all true forms of religion a yearning after good, a desire to feel the presence and power of something outside of us that makes for right, science can be intolerant only of intolerance. The religion of science is indeed in harmony with all true-aiming religions, discordant only with what is self-discordant,-the jarring voice of cruelty and hatred.

WE propose to begin, in our first monthly number, a series of papers in which the positive aspect of the teaching of science in regard to religion will be considered. We had intended to bring out this series of papers as by Thomas Foster, our alter ego; but as it is now an open secret that Thomas Foster and R. A. Proctor are one, the better plan will be to put over the articles the proper name of their writer. The use of a second name has served its purpose, in securing for articles outside science, attention which the old rule "Ne sutor ultra crepidam" would have turned from them. Mr. Foster's articles on "Happiness" for example were published widely in America (and handsomely paid for, let me remark in passing) by the editor of the Popular Science Monthly. But there were inconveniences in the plan. For instance, Mr. Foster was invited by one of the most eminent Spencerians in America, to meet other admirers of Mr. Herbert Spencer, including Mr. Proctor, at a public gathering,-an invitation which he could not readily decline yet could not possibly accept without duplicity.

HEREAFTER, therefore, Mr. Thomas Foster disappears from these pages. (It should have been Forster,-from an old family cognomen Forster Thomas, by which the eldest son in my family has been called for many gene rations, but I had forgotten how the name was spelled, —not so remarkable a forgetfulness as it might be supposed, seeing that the last owner of the name died twenty years before I was born.)

"A FATHER" writes indignantly thus respecting lawntennis as played by his daughters :-"I have noticed that after a game of lawn-tennis my girls appear to be almost exhausted, they perspire profusely, and are susceptible to draught. Their sleep is disturbed because of their excessive weariness, and they have several times been lamed and used-up. I have finally forbidden them to play lawn-teznis. I am not going to have my womenkind laid up with sprained ankles and twisted wrists, strained tendons and colds in the head."

QUITE right, papa. The best tennis-players of the masculine persuasion will not be angry with you for keeping your girls away. It is obvious from your account, read between the lines, that your "womenkind have tried to play in corsets and high-heeled boots, getting far more exhausted through their ill-suited habiliments than through the mere exercise. (Though girls will overdo such things, just as they overdrive willing horses, and dance too often and too long.) In rational dress lawn-tennis would not be half the work they find it, and would assuredly give ten times as much

pleasure to themselves, to their playfellows, and to lookers-on.

BUT now hear what the other side says about it. A "London Tradesman " who is himself a player of no mean skill, after saying that he has sold more tennisballs already in 1885 than he did during the whole of 1884, and that lawn-tennis is the game of the future, adds that women had better leave the game to the men. "Women don't play well," he says. "They haven't got the requisite amount of muscle, and they won't spare enough time to acquire it. Women dress themselves in a way that makes a cripple of the best tennis-player in Christendom. They allow no freedom for their bodies. Until they do without corsets and skirts they must not expect to play tennis well. The only good tennis-players are men, and it is seldom you find an expert at the game who will consent to play with a woman. It spoils his style; it makes him lazy, and when a tennis-player loses style and becomes lazy; he had better throw away his racket."

THE bitterest part of this is that about experts not playing tennis with women. Most women fancy they play on the average quite as well as men. But it is only because the good players keep away from them. And now probably even the bad players will cease to play with the girls, because it is becoming a recognised thing that only duffers do that, and no young fellow likes to be thought a duffer. Old fellows even do not care to be thought duffers. Very tender and sweet young curates, with an eye to slippers and braces, may still be found trying to play lawn-tennis with the young ladies of their flocks; sheep gambolling with lambs, so to speak. But will the girls be content with easy victories over these tender ones?

compensation 1 received very courteous expressions of regret from the head post-office, with suggestion that I should write to St. Joseph for return of the price paid for the telegram. On August 6, at 11.30 a.m., I wired from Liverpool (office under North-Western Hotel) a message to St. Joseph, Missouri, in one word; but that word announced my safe arrival, and gave instructions on a business matter of importance to my wife. I have to-day received a letter from her, dated August (not a mistake, for she mentions that guns were firing, &c., because it was the day of General Grant's funeral), from which I learn that my telegram, sent off at 5.30a.m., St. Joseph time, on August 6, had not been received at mid-day on August 8. I do not yet know what compensation, if any, will be offered. Possibly the telegram may have been since delivered-on August 16, for example, in which case no compensation need be expected.-Faithfully yours, RICHARD A. PROCTOR, Eastbourne, Aug. 22.

I would advise all transatlantic travellers, who do not wish to cause their friends anxiety, to refrain from telegraphing their arrival. When their friends expect a telegram, as they would Be sure to do if they understood it was the traveller's intention to telegraph, its nonarrival would naturally be understood to show that some serious mishap had taken place. Business communications known to be such (from their form, for example) may possibly be exposed to less risk of failure. It is to be hoped so. The two business communications referred to above were not so worded that their business character as such could be recognised. I shall be glad to receive and publish evidence bearing on the trustworthiness of transatlantic telegraphy.

PROFESSOR STOKES, in his lectures on light, inclines to the belief that Sir F. Herschel's suggestion may be correct, according to which the development of a comet's tail is due to electric repulsion; and Professor Stokes suggests on his own part that the repulsion may be due to an electric charge on the sun, resulting from the process of condensation in the mist particles of the comet's head. I wonder whether any direct evidence showing that either suggestion is sound will ever be obtained. Professor Tait, of Edinburgh, commenting on Professor Stokes's ideas, expresses his still lively love for the "swarm of cosmical brickbats theory, which he mistakenly imagines to have been suggested by astronomers in explanation of comets' tails. In reality, no astronomer ever supposed the cosmical brickbats (that is only Professor Tait's funny way of saying meteors) had anything to do with comets' tails, near which they have never been

to

IN the following letter which appeared in the Times for August 26, I have called attention to a point of great importance to all who have occasion to communicate with friends across the Atlantic-from either side:

RISKS IN TRANSATLANTIC TELEGRAPHY.-To the Editor of the Times.-Sir,-Out of fifteen transatlantic telegrams which I have had occasion to send, or to have sent to me, during the last six years, three have miscarried. This is too large a proportion of failures, and the public ought to know how much or how little they can trust transatlantic telegraphy as at present conducted. Here are, in brief, the particulars of the three failures and of the compensation-save the mark!-made by the persons responsible. In the summer of 1879 I depatched from the office near Burlington House a telegram to my lecture agent in New York on important business, telling him to wire reply. No reply coming, I wired again, and was told no message had been received. For compensation I received expressions of regret and the price of the original message. Last June I wired from St. Joseph, Missouri, to my lecture agent here, in reply to a telegram of his on important business. Late in July I received a letter from him, saying that the telegram referred to in my letters had not been received. I found it had got as far as London, but had not been forwarded. For

"I

MR. J. JOLY, of the Engineering School, Trinity College, Dublin, suggests as a novelty (I quote from my "Popular Science Column" in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle) the method for avoiding icebergs, which I suggested in 1879, just after the Arizona had run into an iceberg at the rate of fifteen knots an hour. would like to ask," he says, "whether a thermal radiation method might not serve to show the presence of a large mass of ice in the neighbourhood of a ship." The use of such an instrument as the bolometer of Professor Langley, "or even of the thermopile, in conjunction with a large reflector and an alarm circuit closed by galvanometer deflection, might be worth trial by any one possessing the opportunity." In every detail, the opinion of Mr. J. Joly supports the view that I expressed in the columns of the Newcastle Chronicle six years ago. Collisions with icebergs occur seldom, but when they do occur they are apt to be so terrible in their effects, that something might be done, in the case at any rate of our ocean steamships, to warn the sailor of the proximity of the great ice masses which float silently athwart the oceanic roadways.

Our Inventors' Column.

We give here, week by week, a terse description of such of the many inventions as we think may be of use to our readers. Where it is possible, the number of the patent is quoted, to enable those who desire fuller information to procure the specification from the Patent Office in Cursitor-street, Chancery-lane. We shall, generally speaking, confine ourselves to the more recent inventions; but it often happens that an article comes under our notice which, although not quite novel, is worthy of mention for its utility and ingenuity. In such a case we should not hesitate to refer our readers to it. And while we thus increase the interest of our pages, we at the same time assist the inventors by giving greater publicity to their inventions (KNOWLEDGE being a popular magazine) than is accorded by the most excellent trade journals,

LANTERN MICROSCOPE.

[Patent No. 14,951. 1884.]-This instrument is constructed from the designs, worked out by protracted experiment, of Mr. Lewis Wright, and with it screen demonstrations can be given by the oxyhydrogen lime-light, of a character hitherto quite unattainable. Ample light is obtained for the magnification of ordinarily transparent subjects to 1,250 diameters, which will display in a clear and beautiful manner all the parts of insects, the minute details of anatomical sections, vegetable tissue, &c., quite as sharply, and almost as brilliantly, as a magic lantern slide; the proboscis of a blow-fly is easily displayed with the various powers from 8 to 14 ft. long. Where transparency of ground is combined with opacity of detail, as in the cornea of a fly's eye, a magnification of 2,500 diameters is attainable. Geological sections are admirably shown either by ordinary or polarised light. The microscope can be fitted to any good optical lantern. In the special lantern constructed for use with the instrument, a triple 5 in. primary condenser is used, which takes up the large angle of 95° of light from the radiant. Almost equal results can, however, be obtained with the 4 in. condensers usually supplied in optical lanterns, by the addition of a third lens, the triple 5 in. condenser being reckoned to give 15 per cent. more illumination. The slides need no special preparation."

The most delicate slides are absolutely and perfectly protected from heat by an inch of alum solution and a layer of Canada balsam, which is not the case with any other lantern microscope. After passing the parallelising lens, the rays are coned down by sub-stage condensers to illuminate an object of the required size. These sub-stage condensers are either single, double, or triple combinations of lenses, according to the power of the objective which is to be used with them, and are inserted in a rack tube to give the necessary adjustment of distance from the slide. The series of powers, part of which have had their optical arrangements worked out on the screen expressly for this instrument by Messrs. Newton & Co., and the remainder of which have been selected by Mr. Wright from scores of lenses by exhaustive trials, are of the highest class, giving a flat image with full illumination and sharp definition to the edge of the field.

All the manipulations are absolutely simple and easy in the dark. The objectives are fitted to the R.M.S. Standard screw, and the body of the instrument is fitted to receive any achromatic condenser or other apparatus fitted to the standard 1 in. sub-stage gauge. The apparatus may certainly be classed among the best-constructed and most ingeniously-conceived inventions of the day, and will doubtless be very extensively employed. It has already received eulogiums from many competent judges.

Miscellanea.

AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSES.-The United States Lighthouse Board has approved plans for a compressed gas-lighted beacon at Romer's Shoals, New York, for which 25,000 dols. were appropriated by Congress last session. The beacon will be a skeleton iron structure, 41 feet above low water.

REMARKABLE BICYCLE RIDE.-Mr. E. Oxborrow, of the Eolus B.C., has just accomplished an extraordinary day's journey on a "Facile" safety bicycle. Starting from Hitchin at midnight on Aug. 25, he rode, via Peterborough, Long Sutton, Lynn, and Swaffham, to Norwich and back as far as Biggleswade, which he reached at 11.58 p.m., on the 26th, having thus covered a distance of 263 miles in the twenty-four hours. This is within three and a-half miles of the present record, which was made last year by Mr. J. H. Adams, who also rode a "Facile."

A REMARKABLE CASE.-Dr. Strumpell, of Leipzig, had under his care, a few years ago, a young man who had suffered from a disease of the brain which had destroyed sensibility to touch over the whole body, and also the functions of one eye and of one ear. When this youth kept open his remaining eye and ear, he remained perfectly wide awake, conscious, and intelligent. But when his still efficient eye and ear were carefully closed, he immediately became unconscious-in fact, he could only remain awake by keeping that eye and ear open. This case is suggestive. It appears clear that the functions of the mind are dependent absolutely upon the reception of energy from the sensory perceptive areas.-Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.

AMERICAN ANTHRACITE.-The second geological survey, of Pennsylvania has just published advance copies of its report on the anthracite coal region, giving some interesting information as to the production and shipments of 1884. During that year there were 377 producing collieries. The total shipments in 1884 were 30,718,293 tons, and the total production 32,641,499 tons, or about 1,300,000 tons less than in 1883. More than half the total product came from the Lackawanna and Wyoming coalfields, while the Pottsville coalfield, which, up to 1857, produced more than half the anthracite coal sent to market, yielded in 1884 less than 10 per cent. of the whole.

SCIENCE LECTURES IN LONDON.-The series of weekly lectures on popular science will shortly be recommenced at the Royal Victoria Hall (late the Victoria Theatre-more usually styled the "Vic") in the Waterloo-bridge-road. These lectures are given on Tuesday evenings, and while the charges for admission are little more than nominal, the committee have been able to secure the kind co-operation in their good work of the leading men of science of the day. Wisely appealing to as many of the senses as possible, nearly all the lectures are well illustrated by the aid of a fine oxyhydrogen lantern. The lecture on Sept. 29 will be given by our contributor, Mr. W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., on "Stone Tools and the Men who used them," and will be illustrated by a fine series of slides.

SUICIDE IN NATURE.-Early in December, 1879, an apparent epidemic of suicide attacked the herrings and sprats in Deal Roads, and they rushed ashore in such myriads at Walmer that the fishermen got tired of carting them off, and they were left on the beach for all who cared to help themselves. Nature seems now and then to put bounds to over-population, but if this be the case, no herring famines need be feared, for economical Nature would never have played into the hands of the fishermen who are always at war with her. Such wholesale suicides occur among other forms of animal life. In Africa regiments of ants have been seen deliberately marching into streams, where they were immediately devoured by fish. Rats have migrated in myriads, stopping nowhere neither day nor night, and have been preyed upon by both large birds and beasts of prey. In the Seychelles some years ago several hundred turtles conspired to die together on the island in front of the harbour, and carried out their decision. Were they the victims of hydrophobia, delirium tremens, or some other disease? Even the gay and sprightly butterfly has been known to migrate in immense clouds from the land straight out to sea, without the remotest chance of ever reaching another shore. What could be the reason for such a suicidal act?-From "The Sea" for September.

ERRATA." Correlation of the two common chords of music, &c." In my letter 1899 on this subject there are a clerical error and a misprint which I shall be glad to be allowed to correct. In the series of ratios of the diatonic scale I have inadvertently written instead of . Lower down will be found the word "imitated." It should be "instated."-FRED. J. JACKSON.

Only a small proportion of Letters received can possibly be inserted. Correspondents must not be offended, therefore, should their letters not appear.

All Editorial communications should be addressed to the EDITOR (F KNOWLEDGE; all Business communications to the PUBLISHERS, at the Office, 74, Great Queen-street, W.C. IF THIS IS NOT ATTENDED TO, DELAYS ARISE FOR WHICH THE EDITOR IS NOT RESPONSIBle.

The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents. All Remittances, Cheques, and Post-Office Orders should be made payable to MESSRS. WYMAN & SONS.

NO COMMUNICATIONS ARE ANSWERED BY POST, EVEN THOUGH STAMPED AND DIRECTED ENVELOPE BE ENCLOSED.

FINDING THE WAY AT SEA.

[1900]-Mr. R. A. Proctor, in his interesting article on Finding the Way at Sea," in KNOWLEDGE No. 199, Aug. 21, 1885, alludes to an important danger in steering a ship-viz., that her compass may seriously deviate on account of the presence of iron in her cargo. In the St. James's Gazette of the same date an instance is quoted in which the man at the helm found that he was unable to keep his vessel in her course, and on an investigation being made the irregularity of the compass which caused this difficulty was traced to a passenger's umbrella, which was found to act as a very powerful magnet, and, consequently, diverted the needle.

In both these cases the cause of the variation is accounted for, but I hope Mr. Proctor, or some of his correspondents, will be able to give the raison d'être for the following incident, which occurred some years ago, when I went, one of a party of four or five persons, from Algiers to Tunis by sea, on a steamer belonging to a French Company :-One afternoon, about 4 p.m., we were steaming leisurely along the North African coast, being at no time very far from the shore, only keeping out a sufficient distance to avoid the various headlands which jut out into the sea. It was towards the latter half of the month of April; we had a deep blue sky and lovely sunshine over head; the sea was as unruffled as a lake. As we passed a point where some of the higher ranges of the Atlas mountains were visible, the aspect of the heavens in that direction was black and threatening. Presently we heard distant thunder, and saw vivid flashes of lightning over these ranges, but our own surroundings remained as before.

Shortly after, the captain came round to all the passengers in turn, requesting the loan of any compasses which they might possess, for he said his own (and he had several) had all gone wrong. Our party between them produced two or three, and others were also given to the officer by various passengers; but they all exhibited the same unwonted variation, and continued to do so as long as the storm lasted, or until we got out of its influence, when they returned to their normal condition. The captain said afterwards that it was most fortunate that this circumstance had happened by daylight, for had it been dark he must have laid to, as he could not have been sure of his course. COSMOPOLITAN.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHING.

[1901]-In his fifteenth article on this subject in KNOWLEDGE (No. 199, August 21, 1885), Mr. Mattieu Williams speaks of the desirability that down should be more generally used than at present, and of its great value in the manufacture of clothing. He suggests the possibility of "carding and weaving the filaments of feather down, such as common duck and goose down, swan's down," &c. This is by no means a lost art, for in Kashmir and in Ladakh, or Western Tibet, which are countries adjoining Central Asia (whence our remote ancestors probably came), a material is woven called pushmina, made from the winter under-coat of various animals, chiefly that of the goat, the bara-singh (a kind of red deer), and the ibex; the dog also has it in those regions. In texture, pushmina resembles the downy portion of the feathers of a bird, its staple is short, perhaps not more than an inch to an inch and a-half in length (rather less than more). The name of this down is pushm, it is made into cloth of the finest kind, and is exquisitely soft, pleasant wear, if it be the genuine article, and no Liberties have been taken

with it; the real superior article is not easily obtainable in this country. There is one kind, which I only saw once in Ladakh; it is extremely rare, for the down of which it is made (that of the ibex) is only collected by the native sportsmen in very small quantities, and at very great elevations. When the snows begin to melt, and this animal finds its winter coat uncomfortable, it rubs itself against the rocks; the shikaris (hunters) carefully preserve every morsel they find, but it may be years before they can obtain a sufficient quantity of this down to weave even a puggree, or scarf to wind round the hat, turban fashion; the puggree would probably require to be about four or five yards long, and ten inches or so in width. The pushm of the ibex is incomparably finer than that of any other animal. It would be worth inquiry, and is perhaps not impossible, that many animals in the north of Norway and Sweden and in Russia (at all events, those which live within the Arctic circle), acquire this pushm to enable them to withstand the rigours of their winter climate, in which case we need not send to Asia for it, provided we could ensure that such down was not adulterated with other substances. It would then be worth while to try and catch a few Kashmiris and get them to teach us the art of preparing the fibre. COSMOPOLITAN.

GREASY DUCKS.

[1902]-I am not disposed to carry the discussion on this subject any further, as it is simply a question of fact to be settled by observation, not by writing. I simply deny, positively and dogmatically, that any of the feathers of these animals are greasy, and appeal to ducks rather than Huxleys for proof. "G. A." quotes great authorities against me; so much the worse for the authorities, and so much the better for me; he simply proves that, re duck's grease, I am a better naturalist than they; that on this mighty subject I have made and proclaimed a great discovery. I have half converted (the lower half) "G. A." himself. August 7th, p. 123, he describes the greasing process as carried "over all parts of the body feathers." August 28th, p. 187, he gives up the greasy breast -i.c., the part immersed in water, and most in need of the alleged waterproofing and falls back upon the root of the tail as the greased part, this being always out of water, even when the duck tips up, with head immersed, in search of food below. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS.

STARLIGHT.

[1903]-I am delighted to find that my idea that the light of a moonless night does not come from the stars is established. (At the same time it is surely rather hard on Mr. Madge to say it exists only in his imagination, for it is the universal belief among men -saving those better informed-" a fine starlight night.")

moon.

I believe that our air is luminous for this reason::-Given two equally cloudy skies, one with high barometer-therefore high clouds, the other with low clouds, the twilight (daylight also, probably, but not so obviously) will be much longer and brighter in the first case than in the second. Now, the clouds cutting off all light, ab extra, it appears that the thicker the earthward stratum of air the greater the illumination; hence the air must be luminous. The keen observer of "Wild Life in a Southern County" writes (xlii.):-"I have myself been often much interested in the remarkable difference of the degree of darkness when there has been no There are nights when, although the sky be clear of visible cloud and the stars are shining, it is, in familiar phrase, "as black as pitch." The sky itself is black between the stars, and they do not seem to give the slightest illumination. On the other hand, there are nights without a moon, when it is (though winter time) quite light. Hedges and trees are plainly visible; the road is light, and anything approaching can be seen at some distance; and this occasionally happens though the sky be partly clouded. So that the character of the night seems not to depend entirely upon the moon or stars. The shepherds on the hills say that now and then there comes an intense blackness at night which frightens the sheep and makes them leap the hurdles."

In all my life there is one particular night which stands out as the blackest-June 4, 1854. I had to walk home through Bedford, and if I had not known it well enough to do it blindfolded I should really have been obliged to grope my way along the streets. This, too, was in the period of "no real night."

It may be said, “If the air is luminous why is not a shut-up room at night as light as when the shutters are left open?" Probably because the volume of luminous matter enclosed is so small.

The popular proverb says, "The darkest hour is just before dawn." If that is true one might conclude that the luminosity of the air is due to the past sunshine, and is hourly decreasing. This might be decided by observation within the Arctic circle, were it not that the moon and the aurora would introduce new elements into the problem. HALLYARDS.

REMARKABLE SKY.

[1904]-August 3, going out between ten and eleven, p.m., I noticed parallel banks of nimbus in the north, and general cloud elsewhere. In a short time these banks spread over the whole sky, and then an arrangement supervened which is unique in my memory. The nimbus became reticulated; one saw cumulus through meshes of jet-black nimbus. The sky looked like the eye of an insect under the microscope; or an immense net thrown over the world. It gave me the impression of being translated to some other planet, with different conditions prevailing. Near the zenith was an intensely-bright white opening, apparently cloud, but I could see stars, and even small ones, through it. I thought at first this cloud was moon-lit, but there were no signs of the moon rising for long after (she had just entered her last quarter). I inclined to think the apparent illumination was only an effect of contrast; the nimbi being so intensely black. They then broke up into irregular, menacing masses; finally, they united into the semblance of a giant balloon-really balloon-shaped, with a depression in one shoulder, and stretching from E. to W. This was really awe-inspiring; not only did it suggest a messenger from another world, but I feared it was going to swamp me completely in a water-spout.

Parturient montes, however, no rain fell that night or the morrow. I cast about for a cause for this singular reticulation, and think I found it. The upper air was no doubt hot, the weather having been so for long; nimbus for some reason spread over my region; there blew a chill northerly breeze, and this would create a vertical upward current into the hotter upper air. This, meeting the stratum of nimbus, would punch holes in it where it was weakest, hence the network. HALLYARDS.

[More probably, I should imagine, the cause was akin to that which produces reticulate waves-a wind producing a series of longitudinal atmospheric undulations followed by a cross wind producing a similar series at right angles to the former.-R. P.]

EVOLUTION.

[1905]-"It would be disappointing to those who believe in a natural evolution towards perfection to learn from Mr. Colquhoun that the modern Shans are quite as low in the scale of civilization as their ancestors were four thousand years ago. Some of these who have deserted the mountains for the plains of Siam, have shown their capability for advance by adopting the culture of the Siamese; but those who still remain in the hills are neither better nor worse than the Mon, Knei, and others, from whom they sprung."—Saturday Review, June 13, 1885.

Is it not well to bring to the front all instances, like the above, which run counter to received and fashionable theories?

HALLYARDS.

[But who that knows anything of the doctrine of evolution does or can believe in a natural evolution towards perfection." That writer in the Saturday Review has evidently not been a reader of works on natural selection. The facts recorded do not in the slightest degree run counter to the theory of evolution by natural selection.-R. P.]

[1906]-Having in the last issue of KNOWLEDGE received, both editorially and conductorily, a somewhat forcible rebuff, the sort of lightning stroke of annihilation which I, alas! too fondly, used many a time and oft to admire and applaud with malicious merriment, when falling on the devoted head of another, will you permit me to say a word in vindication of my personal humility and of my respectful veneration of Darwin, and likewise to remove misapprehension by a slight simplification of what I have already said?

If my letter appeared to show an overweening confidence, it was the necessary consequence of having to attack, so to speak, in halfa-dozen words, a structure of such lengthened and masterly labour. If I treated it unduly in a spirit of light-hearted levity, it was owing to a desire to be readable, and from no want of reverence for Darwin, with regard to whom I yield to none in respect.

As to the subject matter of my letter, I wished to bring out, by means of a rather familiar example (which, homely as it is, ought certainly to be met, for it is sufficiently typical), the fact that small variations cannot be at all effective in the struggle for existence. Through the whole of "The Origin of the Species,” which contains some twenty-four references to observed variation (chiefly, of course, under domestication), there are only two, and these doubtful, where natural selection, as apart from intelligent breeding, has seemed to perpetuate a slight variation. These are the growth in animals of an instinctive fear of man, and the development of small wing-bones and large legbones in the domestic duck. Now, Darwin distinctly states, "Any being if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of existence

46

66

'The

will have a better chance of surviving and will thus be naturally selected." This, as italicised, is what I have tried to deny. Again, Natural selection can act only by the preservation and accumulation of infinitesimally small inherited modifications." slightest advantage in one being at any age or during any season over those with which it comes into competition, or better adaptation in however slight a degree to the surrounding physical conditions will turn the balance."

I quote these in full because it is so astonishing that, in the face of these very definite statements, he should admit a very real difficulty "in understanding the origin of simple parts of which the importance does not seem sufficient to cause the preservation of successively varying individuals." He does not mean such developments as are useless, but those of minor advantage (e.g., giraffe's tail as fly-flapper). Surely this is inconsistent. He goes on to show, not as one would expect from the above quotations, that such unimportant variations, because even infinitesimally advantageous, are still under the control of Natural Selection--that consideration is for the present abandoned-but that such slight variations may perhaps affect an organ of more importance than at first sight appears. Infinitesimal variations are postulated, and then, as soon as we are brought face to face with the fact that they are so small, they are silently abandoned.

There is nothing else in my letter that I think it worth while to contend for, though I should like to reiterate the necessity for caution in accepting theories so agreeable to the time. To me, our Editor and Conductor, in both endeavouring to explain my letter by assuming with such calmness that I had not read a dozen pages of Darwin's works, are only another sad instance of the danger of falling into false hypotheses. P. J. BEVERIDGE.

Even

[I said had "not read with attention ten pages," &c. It is curious that reading Mr. Beveridge's letter in proof, before I had noticed the Editorial note, I thought of adding almost word for word what the acting Editor had already added. What I actually said may be regarded as a comment in support of the Editorial note. I still consider that Mr. Beveridge has not caught the true meaning of Darwinism, indeed so much is obvious. He says "slight variations are totally ineffective," and illustrates by an example utterly unlike those considered by Darwin, which are such as leave a balance of advantage in the struggle for life under complex conditions. Mr. Beveridge does not pretend to show that the length of his moustache would affect him unfavourably in this sense. his slower feeding might be advantageous, while the protection to him in breathing might be a matter of much greater importance. If men had to feed in haste, and the long-moustached could not get a sufficient supply, then-unless length of moustache gave some equal or greater counterbalancing advantage-the case considered by Darwin would arise. Long-moustached persons would be weighted in the struggle for life, and in the long run the small difference would tell. As for Mr. Beveridge's present letter it confirms my opinion that he has missed Darwin's meaning. Darwin certainly has nowhere abandoned, silently or otherwise, the belief that slight variations, when they affect, in however slight a degree, the balance of advantage in the struggle for life, will have a better chance of surviving, and will therefore in the long run be naturally selected. In the last paragraph of letter 1879 Mr. Beveridge showed that he had utterly failed to follow the reasoning which led Darwin to reject the doctrines of Lamarck and others in regard to evolution. He should compare the editions of Lyell's "Principles of Geology" preceding Darwin's work with those which followed that work, if he would find a striking illustration of the contrast which exists between the theory of natural selection and all former attempts to establish a doctrine of biological evolution.-R. P.]

SKIN-CASTING OF SNAKES.

[1907] In reference to Dr. Hutchinson's letter (1886) on "The Skin-casting of Snakes," may I be allowed to say that last year I kept snakes, and had good opportunities of observing their skincasting practices? One of them, indeed, "exuviated" no less than three times within a period of five months, and two others certainly twice. As I kept my snakes well supplied with food, possibly a somewhat rapid enlargement of their graceful persons caused them to outgrow their garments more quickly than usual; for I was much surprised at the frequency of their demand for new clothes. More than once I had the privilege of assisting at the ceremonial, not without earning, I trust, the gratitude of the snake. On such occasions, noticing that the skin around the jaws had cracked, and that the head was emerging--the two flaps of the skin turning backwards-I took the snake out of its box, and encouraged it to crawl through a sort of manual or digital tunnel, when off came the skin, neatly turning inside out as the reptile crept through my hand-the peeling process ending with the tail. In fact, the whole affair much resembled the drawing off of a stocking by turning it