I have recently filmed Daisy the duck for Salford University disproving the urban myth that a Ducks quack doesn't echo.
Faye in November 1843, the other by Francesco de Vico a year later, were minutely investigated by Leverrier, with the result of disproving the supposed identity of the first with Lexell's lost comet of 1770, and of the other with Tycho's of 1585.
It was on this occasion that Parnell, on Forster's charging him, not with directly planning or perpetrating outrages or murder, but with conniving at them, ejaculated "It's a lie"; and, replying on the next day, the Irish leader, instead of disproving Forster's charges, bitterly denounced his methods of administration.
I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it.
The distinction is of greater importance than would appear when one realizes how obvious the facts really are, and in practice it happens frequently that speakers claim with success to disprove a proposition by disproving the fact alleged in support of it, or to establish a hypothesis by showing that facts agree with its consequences.
