_ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH_ ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH A SERIES OF Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR [Illustration] _NEW IMPRESSION_ LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1903 _All rights reserved_ '_Let knowledge grow from more to more_' TENNYSON PREFACE. It is scarcely necessary for me to explain the plan of the present work, because I have already--in introducing my 'Light Science for Leisure Hours,' my 'Science Byways,' and my 'Pleasant Ways in Science'--described the method on which, as I think, such treatises as the present should be written. This work deals with similar subjects in a similar way; but I think the experience I have acquired in writing other works on the same plan has enabled me to avoid some defects in the present work which I have recognised in the others. The list of subjects indicates sufficiently the range over which the present volume extends. Some of them might be judged by their names to be in no way connected with science, but it will be found that none have been treated except in their scientific significance, though in familiar and untechnical terms. RICHARD A. PROCTOR. S.S. 'ARIZONA,' IRISH SEA _October 18, 1879._ CONTENTS. PAGE THE SUN'S CORONA AND HIS SPOTS 1 SUN-SPOTS AND COMMERCIAL PANICS 26 NEW PLANETS NEAR THE SUN 32 RESULTS OF THE BRITISH TRANSIT EXPEDITIONS 58 THE PAST HISTORY OF OUR MOON 81 A NEW CRATER IN THE MOON 98 THE NOVEMBER METEORS 111 EXPECTED METEOR SHOWER 117 COLD WINTERS 125 OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE ROWING 148 ROWING STYLES 169 ARTIFICIAL SOMNAMBULISM 178 HEREDITARY TRAITS 205 BODILY ILLNESS AS A MENTAL STIMULANT 236 DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 259 ELECTRIC LIGHTING 289 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. _THE SUN'S CORONA AND HIS SPOTS._