18. The Common House-fly and Others 45 19. Cerebral Inhibition 48 20. Colour-photography and Photographs of Mars 49 21. Origin of Names by Errors in Copying 50 22. False News as to Extinct Monsters 51 23. Mistletoe and Holly 52 24. The Cattle Show 55 25. The Experimental Method 59 26. Hypnotism and an Experiment on the Influence of the Magnet 60 27. Luminous Owls and Other Luminous Animals and Plants 65 28. Reminiscences of Lord Kelvin 68 29. The So-called Jargon of Science 70 30. Rats and the Plague 73 31. Ancient Temples and Astronomy 78 32. Alchemists of To-day and Yesterday 84 33. A Story of Sham Diamonds and Pearls 88 34. The Nature of Pearls 89 35. A King Who was a Zoologist 93 36. The Transmission to Offspring of Acquired Qualities 97 37. Variation and Selection Among Living Things 103 38. The Movement, Growth, and Dwindling of Glaciers 108 39. Votes for Women 117 40. Tobacco and the History of Smoking 124 41. Cruelty, Pain, and Knowledge 131 * * * * * FROM AN EASY CHAIR 1. _Science and the Study of Nature_ This volume consists of brief notes in plain language on a variety of scientific matters. I speak of new discoveries, real or so-called by mistake; of old well-established facts and explanations of strange occurrences which are more familiar to men of science than to people who have not had the time and opportunity to ascertain what is, and what is not proved and known about Nature and her ways. I do not address my reader from the professor’s chair, but from an easy chair. Just as in the club or my friend’s smoking-room, I might talk of these things, so do I propose to talk here. My hope is that what I have to say will interest those who are not experts in science, and yet have a desire for trustworthy information and opinion on the vast variety of topics which come up day by day for consideration and discussion, and can only be explained or rightly understood by the aid of that systematised knowledge which is called science. * * * * *