JF Ptak Science Books   (Really) Quick Post

I was writing a bit on the C.G. Foster paper on Fizeau’s experiments on Newton’s Rings, found in an early volume of the great journal Nature (volume 2, June 9, 1870)  In tidying and finishing up, I recorded some of the other interesting-looking (and sounding papers in that weekly issue, and found a minor treasure trove of imaginative and provocative titles for minor papers and notes. They’re delightful, really, and are some good examples for what was the major intellectual foundation of the journal, which was to be scientific of course and just a bit fringe-popular. I imagine to the Victorian mind that much if not all of this slim weekly would’ve been consumed on receipt.  That said, here are some of these beautiful little efforts, spread out over a very tightly packed twenty pages:

• “The Aye Aye”
• “Carp and Toads”
• “Anticipated Destruction of the Cheesewring”
• “Lefthandedness”
• “The Chromatic Octave”
• “The Color of the Moon by Day and Night”
• “What is a Boulder?”
• “Scandanavian Skulls”
• and of course, “The New Australian Mud Fish”.

Seriously–how could these be refused?