they come to examine it by detail in continuous
light to find how far this is from the truth. Especially is this the
case if no irregularity is suspected beforehand. I believe that the
observer, usually finding himself unable to attend to more than a
portion of the rays in the system, is liable instinctively to pick out
for attention a part of the circumference where they are regularly
spaced, and to fill up the rest in imagination, and that where a ray may
be really absent he prefers to consider that it has been imperfectly
viewed.

This opinion is confirmed by the fact that in several cases, I have
been able to observe with the naked eye a splash that was also
simultaneously photographed, and have made the memorandum "quite
regular," though the photograph subsequently showed irregularity. It
must, however, be observed that the absolute darkness and other
conditions necessary for photography are not very favourable for direct
vision.

And now my tale is told, or rather as much of it as the limits of the
time allowed me will permit. I think you will agree that the phenomena
are very beautiful, and that the subject, commonplace and familiar
though it is, has yet proved worthy of an hour's attention.

THE END.

_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Worthington on the "Spontaneous Segmentation of a Liquid
Annulus," _Proceedings Royal Society_, No. 200, p. 49 (1879).

[2] Readers who wish a more detailed account of a greater variety of
splashes are referred to papers by the author. _Proceedings Royal
Society_, vol. xxv. pp. 261 and 498 (1877); and vol. xxxiv. p. 217
(1882).

[3] Photographs obtained since this was written show that much may
happen after the stages here traced.

[4] A detailed account of the optical, mechanical, and electrical
arrangements employed, written by Mr. Cole, will be found in _Nature_,
vol. i., p. 222 (July 5, 1894).

[5] The black streaks, seen especially in Figs. 11, 15, and 16, are due
to particles of lamp-black carried down by the drop from the surface of
the smoked watch-glass on which it rested.

[6] Three of these photographs, viz. Nos. 11, 12, and 17, are reproduced
full size, as a frontispiece, by a _photographic_ process, to enable the
reader to form a more correct idea than can be gathered from the
engravings, of the amount of detail actually obtained, though even in
these reproductions much is inevitably lost.

THE ROMANCE O