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February 10, 1923
Nature
A WHS EY
ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
VOLUME CX
JULY, 1922, to DECEMBER, 1922
/
» —“626 4-4
“ To the solid ground
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’ —WORDSWORTH
Londoir
Ne NGsNviel fia AUN= “AUN 1D “Gor
NEW YORK:
LIMITED
MACMILLAN COMPANY
6
Nature,
Fehruary 10, 1923
Nature, ]
February 10, 1923
Se ee
ae INDEX.
NAME INDEX.
Abbot (Dr. C. G.), F. E. Fowle, and L. B. Aldrich, Annals | Appleton (Dr. A. B.), awarded the Raymond Horton-
of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian
Institution. Vol. iv., 608
Abel (Prof. O.), awarded the D. G. Elliot Gold Medal of
the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., 188
Abercrombie (L.), elected Professor of English Language
and Literature in Leeds University, 530
Abetti (Prof. G.), The Mass and Proper Motion of 4o
Eridani, 854
Achariyar (Rai Bahadar K. Ranga), assisted by C. T.
Mudaliyar, A Handbook of some South Indian
Grasses, 376
Adair (E. W.), Origin of the Name of the Genus Masaris,
574
Adami (Dr. J. G.), Eugenics and the Improvement of
the Human Race, 853
Adams and Joy, Spectroscopic Parallaxes for Type A,
584
Adams (Prof. R. L.), Farm Management: a Text-book
for Student, Investigator, and Investor, 404
Adrian (Dr. E. D.), On the Reality of Nerve-energy, 447
Aitchison (Dr. L.), Engineering Steels, 537
Alcock (Lt.-Col. A.), Discoveries in Tropical Medicine, 114
Algué (Rev. J.), The Manila Typhoon of May 23, 1922,
795
Allbutt (Sir T. Clifford), presented with the Gold Medal
of the British Medical Association, 294
Allcut (Prof. E. A.) and C. J. King, Engineering Inspection,
132
Allen (Dr. E. J.), The Progression of Life in the Sea, 353,
44
Allen (Dr. F. J.), Seasonal Incidence of the Births of
Eminent People, 40
Allen (H. N.), Periodic Structure of Atoms and Elements,
4I5
avert (Dr. H. S.), An Atomic Model with Stationary
Electrons, 310; appointed Professor of Natural
Philosophy in St. Andrews University, 653
Allis, Jr. (E. P.), The Cranial Anatomy of Polypterus, 748
Alverdes (Dr. F.), Studien an Infusorien itiber Flim-
merbewegung, Lokomotion und Reizbeantwortung,
599
Ameghino (Florentino), Obras completas y correspondencia
cientifica de. Vol. 3: Dirigida por A. J. Torcelli, 540
Amenomiya (Y.), The Devitrification caused upon the
‘Surface of Sheet Glass by Heat, 63
Andant (A.), The Variations of Critical Opalescence with
the Filling of the Tubes and the Nature of the Liquids
studied, 63
Andrade (Prof. E. N. da C.), Action of Cutting Tools, 876 ;
Occult Phenomena and After-images, 843
Andrade (J.), Three Classes of Non-maintained Isochronal
Vibrations and three Types of Timepieces, 63
André (G.), The Filtration of Plant Juices, 306
Andrew (J. H.) and R. Higgins, Grain-size and Diffusion,
467
Andrews (E. C.), The Coral-bearing Limestones of the
Cainozoic within the Pacific, 168
Annandale (Dr. N.) and Maj. R. B. S. Sewell, An Indian
Pond-snail, 855
Annett (H. E.), and M. N.
Narcotine and Papaverine in Opium, 722;
Rk. R. Sanghi, The Estimation of Codeine, 722
Bose, The Estimation of
and
ll
Smith prize of Cambridge University, 828; The
Interpretation of the Pelvic Region and Thigh of
Monotremata, 862; and F. Goldby, The Innervation
of the Pubi-tibialis (sartorius) Muscle of Reptilia, 862 ;
D. G. Reid, A. Hopkinson, and V. C. Pennell appointed
demonstrators in anatomy in Cambridge University,
539
Arber (E. A. Newell), Critical Studies of Coal-measure
Plant Impressions, 27
Aristotle, The Works of, translated into English: De
Caelo, J. L. Stocks ; De Generatione et Corruptione,
Prof. H. H. Joachim, 174
Arkwright (J. A.), Virus Diseases in Animals and Man, 622
Armellini (Prof. G.), The Orbital Distances of Satellites
and Minor Planets, 260
Armitage (F. P.), Diet and Race:
Essays, 308
Armstrong (Dr. E. F.), A Monument to a Master Chemist,
142; and T. P. Hilditch, A Study of Catalytic
Actions at Solid Surfaces. Parts viii. and ix., 62
Armstrong (G. M.), Sulphur Nutrition, 128
Armstrong (Prof. H. E.), A New Worship ? 700 ; Chemical
Change and Catalysis (Messel Lecture), 367; Rhap-
sodies culled from the Thionic Epos ; presented with
the Messel Medal, 130; The British Association, 341 ;
The Peril of Milk, 648
Arnold (Sir T. W.), Indian Painting and Mohammedan
Culture, 228
d’Arsonval, Bordas, and Touplain, The Glacial Waters
of Argentiére and Bossons, 2
Artschwager (Dr. E.) and E. M. Smiley, Dictionary of
Botanical Equivalents: French-English, German-
English, 177
Ashworth (Prof. J. H.), On Rhinosporidium seeberi, with
special reference to its sporulation and affinities, 723
Ashworth (Dr. R.), An Experimental Confirmation
of the Kinetic and Molecular Theories of Magnetism,
Anthropological
10
Aston (Dr. F. W.), awarded the Hughes Medal of the
Royal Society, 674, 788 ; awarded the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry for 1922, 674; The Atoms of Matter:
their Size, Number, and Construction, 7o2; The
Isotopes of Antimony, 732; The Isotopes of Selenium
and some other Elements, 664; The Mass-spectrum
of Iron, 312
Athanasiu (G.), An Actinometer with Electrodes of Mercury
covered with a thin layer of Mercurous Chloride,
Bromide, Fluoride, or Sulphide, 299
Atkins (W. R. G.),; The Hydrogen Concentration of
Natural Waters and some Etching Reagents in relation
to Action of Metals, 758
Atkinson (R. d’E.), Gas Pressures and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics, 112
Aubry (A.) and E. Dormoy, An Arsenical Glucoside :
Diglucosidodioxydiamino-arsenobenzene, 759
Auger (P.) and F. Perrin, The Shocks between a-particles
and Atomic Nuclei, 400
Austen (Major E. E.), Attack on a Drone-fly by a Wasp,
323
Austin (L. S.), The Metallurgy of the Common Metals :
Gold, Silver, Iron (and Steel), Copper, Lead, and
Zinc. Fifth edition, 71
iv Index
B. (F. A.), Origin of the Name of the Genus Masaris, 574
Baade (Dr.), A New Comet, 584; Variable Stars near
M. 53, 364
Backhurst (I.), Variation of the Intensity of reflected
X-radiation with the Temperature of the Crystal, 654
Baeyer (Prof. A. von), a statue of, unveiled at Munich, 820
Bagshawe (T. W.) and M. C. Lester, Wintering in the
Antarctic, 50
Bailey and Bremer, Experimental Diabetes Insipidus, 748
Bailey (Dr. G. H.), Edited by Dr. W. Briggs, The Tutorial
Chemistry. Part 2: Metals and Physical Chemistry.
Twelfth impression (fourth edition), 663
Bailey (K. C.), The Direct Synthesis of Urea starting with
Carbon Dioxide and Ammonia, 300
Baillaud (J.), The Paris Astrographic Catalogue, 160
Bairstow (Prof. L.), elected Chairman of the Royal
Aeronautical Society, 50; S. P. Langley’s Pioneer
Work in Aviation, 637
Baker (G. A.), elected President of the Birmingham and
Edgbaston Debating Society, 554
Baker (G. F.), gift to the American Museum of Natural
History, 126
Baker (H. A.), Geological Investigations in the Falkland
Islands, 861
Baker (Prof. H. B.), A Modern Text-book of Chemistry, 374
Baker (H. B.), Radula of the Helicinide, 396
Baker (R. T.) and H. G. Smith, The Melaleucas and their
Essential Oils. Pt. vi., 468
Bale (W. M.), Two new Species of Bryozoa, 563
Balfour (H.), Fishing and Fishing Lore, 534; The Early
Metal Ages in South America, 141
Balfour (Sir I. Bayley), [death], 781; [obituary article],
816
Baly (Prof. E. C. C.), Prof. I. M. Heilbron, and D. P.
Hudson, Photosynthesis of Nitrogen Compounds, 129
Banting (Dr.) and others, ‘ Insulin” and the Oxidation
of Sugar, 713
Barber (Prof. F. D.) and others, First Course in General
Science, 406
Barcroft (J.), awarded a Royal Medal of the Royal Society,
674, 787; Physiology of Life in the Andes, 152;
Physiology of Respiration, 803
Barger (Prof. G.), Chemistry and Medicine, 69
Barker (Prof. A. F.) and others, Textiles.
edition, 272
Barker (A. H.), Tests on Ranges and Cooking Appliances,
Revised
434
Barker (T. V.), Graphical and Tabular Methods in
Crystallography as the Foundation of a New System
of Practice: with a Multiple Tangent Table and a
5-Figure Table of Natural Cotangents, 629
Barnard (K. H.), Maps illustrating the Zoological Aspects
of Wegener’s Disruption Hypothesis, 332
Barnard (Prof. R. J. A.), Elementary Statics of Two and
Three Dimensions, 243
Barratt (Dr. Katie), appointed Principal of the Swanley
. Horticultural College, 828
Barrington (F. J. F.), awarded the William Julius Mickle
fellowship of the University of London, 720
Barry (Sir J. W. Wolfe), a memorial window of, in West-
minster Abbey, 820
Barthel (Dr. C.), The Bacterial Flora of Greenland, 366
Barthoux (J.), Minerals of the Oudjda Region (Morocco),
332
Barton (Prof. E. H.), Colour Vision and Syntony, 357 ;
The Resonance Theory of Audition, 316
Barton (R. F.), Social Economics in the Philippine Islands,
go
Bartsch (Dr. P.), Formation of Marine Deposits above
Sea-level, 396
Barus (Prof. C.), Displacement Interferometry applied to
Acoustics and to Gravitation, 7; Static Deflection,
Logarithmic Decrement and First Semi-period of the
Vacuum Gravitation Needle, 687
Bateson (Dr. W.), Interspecific Sterility, 76
Bathellier (J.), The Rdle of the Soldiers in Eutermes
matangensis, 591
Bather (Dr. F. A.), Black Coral, 344
Batson (R. G.) and J. H. Hyde, Mechanical Testing :
a treatise in two volumes. Vol. i.: Testing of
Materials of Construction, 804
[ Nature,
February 10, 1923
Battermann (Prof. H.), [obituary article], 258
Bauer (Dr. L. A.) and others, Researches of the Depart-
ment of Terrestrial Magnetism [Carnegie Institution].
Vol. IV.: Land Magnetic Observations, 1914-1920, 94
Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., Ltd., Catalogue of Micro-
scopes and Microtomes, 363
Baxter (Evelyn V.) and Leonora J. Rintoul, Some Scottish
Breeding Duck: Their Arrival and Dispersal, 476
Bayliss (L. E.), elected Michael Foster Student in
Physiology in Cambridge University, 25
Bayliss (Sir W. M.), Internal Secretion, 658; The Cause
of Rickets, 212; The Mechanism of the Cochlea,
632
Bazy (P. and L.), Vaccination before Operation, 167
Beare (Prof. T. Hudson), Railway Problems of Australia,
354
Beceari (Dr. O.), Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden,
Calcutta. Vol. 12, Parts 2 and 3, 372
Becher (Prof. S.), Untersuchungen iiber Echtfarbung der
Zellkerne mit kiinstlichen Beizenfarbstoffen und
die Theorie des histologischen Farbeprozesses mit
geldsten Lacken, 33
Beck (C.), The Microscope : a Simple Handbook, 147
Beck (Prof. R.), bearbeitet durch Dr. G. Berg, Abriss
der Lehre von den Erzlagerstatten; In Anlehnung
an die dritte Auflage des Lehrbuches und unter
Beniitzung hinterlassener Aufzeichnungen, 205
Bedeau (M.), The Determination of the Specific Inductive
Capacity of Mercury Vapour, 268
Beebe (W.), A Monograph of the Pheasants. In four ~
volumes. Vol. III., 105; The Edge of the Jungle,
211
Béhal, Haller, and Moureu (Profs.), protective measures
to prevent German chemicals entering France, 520
Beilby (Sir George), awarded the medal of the Institution
of Mining and Metallurgy, 553
Belin (E.), The Transmission of Handwriting and Drawings
by Wireless Telegraphy, 136
Bell (Dr. Alexander Graham), [obituary article], 225 ;
the work of, F. De Land, 427
Bell (Prof. F. Jeffrey), Coral in Medicine, 481
Bell (Dr. L.), The Telescope, 627
Bellasis (E. S.), Hydraulics with Working Tables.
edition, 34
Bellingham and Stanley, Ltd., A Differential Refracto-
meter, 91; A Direct-reading Spectrometer, 129 ;
A New Spectro-polarimeter, 526
Bemmelen (Prof. J. F. van), The Dutch Zoological Society,
Third
589
Benedicks (C.), The Deformability of the Photographic
Layer, 723
Bengough (Dr. G. D.) and J. M. Stuart, report on Corrosion
and Colloids, 651
Benham (Prof. W. B.), Oligocheta in the Antarctic, 823
Bennet (Rev. Abraham), inventor of the Gold-leaf Electro-
meter, 126
Benson (W. N.) and S. Smith, Some Rugose Corals from
the Burindi Series (Lower Carboniferous) of N.S.W., 62
Bent (A. C.), Life-histories of North American Gulls and
Terns. Order Longipennes, 339
Bequaert (].), Ants in their Diverse Relations to the Plant
World, 82
Berg (Dr. G.), concerning the review of his work on Ore
Deposits, 583
Berger (E.), A Formal Lamp, 28
Bergson (Prof. H.), Durée et Simultanéité :
de la théorie d’Einstein, 503
Bernstein (H.), the proceeds of a performance of ‘* Judith ”
devoted to science, 553
Bernthsen (Dr. A.), new edition revised by Prof. J. J.
Sudborough, A Text-book of Organic Chemistry, 602
Berry (C. W.), The Flora of the Dakota Series, 291
Berry (Dr. S. S.), Molluscs of the Colorado Desert, 887
Berthollet (C. L.), centenary of the death of, 611
Bertrand (G.), The Law of Riemann, the Perihelion of
Mercury, and the Deviation of Light, 167; and
Mokragnatz, The Presence of Cobalt and Nickel in
Arable Soil, 235; The Presence of Cobalt and Nickel
in Plants, 532
Best (E.), The Maori Mode of Drilling, 679
Beveridge (H.), Perseid Meteors in July 1592, 667
2
A propos
Nature,
February 10,
2023]
[ndex 7
Beveridge (Sir W. H.), Periodicities, 511; and others,
Weather Cycles in Relation to Agriculture and
Industrial Fluctuations, 889
Bigourdan (G.), The Observatory of Paris on the 200th
Anniversary of its Construction, 895
Bisacre (F. F. P.), Applied Calculus :
Text-book, 411
Bjerknes (Prof.), elected an honorary member of the
Royal Institution, 784
Blackett (P. M. S.), elected Charles Kingsley Bye fellow
of Magdalene College, Cambridge, 25; The Analysis
of a-ray Photographs, 721
Blackman (Dr. F. F.) and others, Photosynthesis, 856
Blackman (Prof. V. H.), Some Similarities and Dis-
similarities in the Micro-biology of Plant and Animal
Diseases, 293
Blagden (J. W.) and A. Wechsler, Micro -chemical
Methods in the Practical Teaching of Chemistry, 447
Blair (E. W.) and T. S. Wheeler, The Estimation of
Form- and Acet-aldehydes, 894
Blaise (E. E.) and Mile. Montagne, The Action of Thionyl
Chloride on the a-acid Alcohols, 64
Blakely (W. F.), The Loranthacez of Australia.
300 ; Part iii., 759
Blanchard (Dr. Phyllis), The Care of the Adolescent Girl :
a Book for Teachers, Parents, and Guardians, 411
Blattner (Dr. E.), Lehrbuch der Elektrotechnik. Erster
Teil. Vierte Auflage, 176
Blayre (Christopher), Human Blood Relationships and
Sterility, 846
Bledisloe (Lord), Landowners and the State, 392, 501
Blegrad (H.), Bottom-living Communities in the Sea, 887
Bloch (Dr. L.), Le Principe de la relativité et la théorie
d’Einstein, 568; and E. Bloch, Spark Spectra in
Water, 27
An Introductory
Part ii,
Blumberg (H.), New Properties of all Real Functions, 687 ;
Bodenstein (Prof.), invited to succeed Prof. Nernst in the
Physical-Chemical Institute of Berlin University, 720
Bohn (G.) and Dr. Anna Drzewina, La Chimie et la vie,
173
Bohnecke (Dr. G.), New Charts of the Currents of the
North Sea, 885
Bohr (Prof. N.), awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics
for 1922, 674; elected a corresponding member of
the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin, 158
Boiry (F.), Vulcanising Rubber in Solution, 235
Bonacina (L. C. W.), A Rainbow Peculiarity, 160
Bond (Dr. C. J.), Sex of Irish Yew Trees, 810
Bone (Mrs. W. A.), [obituary], 225
Bonnier (M.), The Estimation of Alkaline Carbonates in
Presence of Phenolphthalein, 723
Booth (E. H.), The Photographic Work of the Sydney
University Eclipse Expedition, Goondiwindi, Queens-
land, 896
Booth (H.), Aeroplane Performance Calculations, 110
Bordet (Prof.), conferment upon, of an honorary doctorate
by Paris University, 754
Boscovich (R. J.), A Theory of Natural Philosophy.
Latin-English edition, 870
Bostwick (J. A.), gift by, to Wake Forest College School
of Medicine, 166
Boswell (Prof. P. G. H.), The Petrography of the Cretaceous
and Tertiary Outliers of the West of England, 62
Bouchet (L.), An Absolute Plane-cylinder Electrometer, 831
Boulanger (Ch.) and G. Urbain, The Composition and
Chemical Characters of Thortveitite from Madagascar,
27
Boulenger (E. G.), The Zoological Society, 314
Boulenger (Dr. G. A.), Monograph of the Lacertide;
Vol. IL., 410
Bouty (Prof. E.), [obituary], 883
Bouvier (Prof. E. L.), translated by Dr. L. O. Howard,
The Psychic Life of Insects, 402
Bower (Prof. F. O.), elected President of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, 612
Bower (W. R.) and Prof. J. Satterly, Practical Physics.
Eighth Impression (second edition), 445
Bowie (E. H.), Anomalous Storm Tracks, 429 ;
Indian Hurricanes, 614
Bowley (Prof. A. L.), The Need of an Interpreter for
Science, 320
West
Bowring (H. I.), conferment upon, of an honorary degree
by Leeds University, 561
Boycott (Prof. A. E.), Histological Stains,
Smoke of Cities, 413
Braecke (Mlle. Marie), The Presence of Aucubine and of
Melampyrite (Dulcite) in several Species of Melam-
pyrum, 831
Brachet (Prof. A.), The Properties of the Germinal Localisa-
tions of the Egg, 622; TJraité d’embryologie des
vertébrés, 275
Bradbrooks (W.) and Prof. F. G. Parsons, Anthropology
in the Chiltern Hills, 526
Brady (F. L.), The Structure of Eutectics, 531
Bragg (Sir Wiliam H.), elected a corresponding member
of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 820 ; The Structure
of Organic Crystals, 115
Bragg (Prof. W. L.) and R. W. James, The Intensity
of X-ray Reflection, 148
Brammall (A.) and H. F. Harwood, The Dartmoor
Granite : its Accessory Minerals and Petrology, 99
Brearley (H.), The Case-hardening of Steel : an Illustrated
Exposition of the Changes in Structure and Properties
induced in Steels by Cementation and Allied Pro-
cesses. Second edition, 537
Breit (G.), Radio Direction-finding in Flying Machines, 59,
188; Skin Effect in Solenoids, 668
Brepson (Mlle. F.), The Rdle of the Phenomena of Soli-
fluxion in the Model of the Region of Saulieu (Morvan),
686
Bridel (M.) and Mlle. Marie Braecke, Rhinanthine and
Aucubine, 655; The Presence of Aucubine and of
114; The
Saccharose in the Seeds of Rhinanthus Crista-Galli, 623 ;
and C. Charaux, Centaureine, a New Glucoside,
extracted from the Roots of Centaurea jacea, 759,
895
Brierley (S. S.), An Introduction to Psychology, 872
Bright (Sir Charles), Pioneer Work in Submarine Cable
Telegraphy, 195
Brioux (Ch.), The Comparative Assimilability of Calcium
Phosphate and the Phosphates of Iron and Alumina,
864
British Drug Houses, Ltd., Catalogue of Chemical Pro-
ducts, 653
Broadbent (B.), conferment upon, of an honorary degree
by Leeds University, 561
Brochet (A.), The Preparation of Active Nickel for Organic
Catalysis, 759; The Preparation of Cyclohexanol, 623
Brodetsky (Dr. S.), Laplace’s Essai philosophique sur les
probabilités, 6; Motorless or Wind Flght, 483;
Statics, Dynamics, and Hydrodynamics, 243; The
Line of Action of the Resultant Pressure in Discon-
tinuous Fluid Motion, 794
de Broglie (Duc), X-ray Electrons, 681
de Broglie (L.) and A. Dauvillier, Analogies of Structure
between the Optical Series and Rontgen Series of
Lines, 723; The Spectral System of the X-rays, 686
Bromehead (C. E. M.), The Site and Growth of London,
494
Brooks (C. E. P.), Spell of Warm Winters in Europe, 557 ;
and J. Glasspoole, The Drought of 1921, 55
Brooks (Prof. C. F.), Local or Heat Thunderstorms, 615
Brooks (E. E.), Polarisation of Diffused Light under the
Sea, 114
Brooks (F. T.), Some Present-day Aspects of Mycology, 563
Brooks (H. Jamyn), Universal Problems, 804
Brooks (S.), A British Oil Victory, 401
Brown (Prof. A. Crum), [death], 610 ; [obituary article],
673
Brown (A. R.), The Andaman Islanders :
Social Anthropology, 106; the review of
Andaman Islanders,’’ 554
Brown (E. O. Forster), Underground Waters in the Kent
Coalfield and their Incidence in Mining Development,
822
Brown (Prof. F. D.), [obituary article], 490
Brown (Dr. R. N. Rudmose), O. J. R. Howarth, and J.
Macfarlane, The Scope of School Geography, 245
Browne (Rev. H. C.), Einstein’s Paradox, 668
Browning (Prof. K. C.), German Book Prices, 845
| Bruce (Sir David), awarded the Buchanan Medal of the
i Royal Society, 674, 787
a Study in
“The
vi ; Index
[ Nature,
February 10, 1923
Brunhes (J.) and C. Vallaux, La Géographie de Vhistoire :
Géographie de la paix et de la guerre sur terre et
sur mer, 175
Brunschvicg (Prof. L.), L’Expérience humaine et la
causalité physique, 471
Brunt (Dr. D.), Waterspouts, 414
Bryant (C. L.), Science Primers, 406
Bryant (F. B.), [obituary article], 882
Bryant (Dr. Sophie), [death], 361 ; [obituary article], 458
Buchanan (A.), Exploration of Air: Out of the World
North of Nigeria, 35
Buchanan (Miss M. M.), Attack on a Moth by a Wasp, 323
Buckman (S. S.), Critical Research on Fossil Brachiopoda,
262
Budge (Sir E. Wallis), The Discoveries of Lord Carnarvon
and H. Carter in Egypt, 783
Buller (Prof. A. H. R.), Luminosity in Panus stypticus, 563
Bulloch (Prof. W.), The Influence of Pasteur on the
Development of Bacteriology and the Doctrines
of Infection and Immunity. Supplement (December
23), vi.
Bunting (Martha), Preliminary Note on Tetramitus,
a Stage in the Life Cycle of a Coprozoic Amceba, 687
Burkill (J. C.), elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, 561
Burr (Prof. W.), Rural Organization, 404
Burton (W.), King’s Chelsea Porcelain, 871
Burtt-Davy (Dr. J.), A Revision of the South African
Species of Dianthus, 27
Bury (Lt.-Col. C. IX. Howard) and others, Mount Everest:
The Reconnaissance, 1921, 139
Butler (C. P.), The Systematic Distribution of Solar
Calcium Floccuh, 20
Butler (E. J.), Virus Diseases in Plants, 622
C. (C.), A Relativity Paradox, 844
Cabannes (J.), The Polarisation and Intensity of the
Light diffused by Transparent Liquids, 795
Cabaud (R.), Installations électriques industrielles :
du materiel, 474
Cabot (E. L.), Seven Ages of Childhood, 872
Cadness (H.), appointed Special Lecturer in Textile Design
in Manchester University, 653
Cajal (Prof. S. Ramon y), retirement of, 492
Cambage (R. H.), Acacia Seedlings. Pt. vili., 592
Cambier (R.) and E. Aubel, Culture of Bacteria in a
Medium of Definite Chemical Composition, with
Pyruvic Acid as a Base, 200
Cameron (Dr. A. E.), The Structure and Biology of Simulium
simile, 396
Cameron (H. S.), Volcanic Activity in Nigeria, 497
Campbell (D.), In the Heart of Bantuland, 246
Campbell (Dr. D.), Galen’s work on Anatomical Administra-
tion, 296
Campbell (Dr. N. R.), Modern Electrical Theory. Supple-
mentary Chapters. Chapter XV.: Series Spectra,
767; The Dimensions of Area, 9; What is Science ?
728
Cannon (H. G.), Surface Tension and Cell-division, 181
Cannon (W. A.), Plant Habits and Habitats in the Arid
Portions of South Australia, 365
Cano (Juan Sebastian del), fourth centenary of the
circumnavigation of the world by, 426
Capen (Dr. S. P.), installed as Chancellor of the University
of Buffalo, 793
Capparoni (Dr.), ‘‘ Magistri Salernitani nondum cogniti,”’
296
Capstick (Dr. J. W.), Sound: an Elementary Text-book
for Schools and Colleges. Second edition, 510
Carey (Prof. F.), impending retirement of, from Liverpool
University, 75
Carey (G. V.), appointed Educational Secretary to the
Cambridge University Press, 530
Carnarvon (Lord) and H. Carter, Excavations in Egypt,
choix
783
Carnot (P.) and M. Tiffeneau, A New Hypnotic in the
Barbituric Series : Butyl-ethyl-malonylurea, 299
Carpenter (Dr. G. D. Hale), Waterspouts, 414
Carpenter (Prof. G. H.) and Miss K. C. J. ‘Phillips, The
Collembola of Spitsbergen and Bear Island, 100
Carpenter (Miss K.), Lead and Animal Life, 543
Carr (Prof. H. Wildon), Bergson and Einstein, 503;
Dialectic, 208; Einstein’s Paradox, 669; The New
Way of Thinking Physical Reality, 471
Carrere (L.), The Sphincter of the Iris in the Selacians, 468
Carroll (J. A.), elected a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge, 25
Carslaw (Prof. H. S.), Advanced Mathematical Study and
Research at Cambridge, 8
Carter (F. W.), Railway Electric Traction, 338
Casanowicz (I. M.), Religious Ceremonial of the Parsis, 161
Castiglioni (Prof.), Art in the Italian Pharmacy of the
15th Century ; Dante and Averrhoism, 296
Castle (W. E.), Genetic Studies of Rabbits and Rats, 463
Cathcart (Prof. E. P.), Basal Metabolism, 294; The
Efficiency of Man and the Factors which Influence it,
354, 453
Cator (G.), The One and the Many, 894
Caullery (Prof. M.), translated by J. H. Woods and
E. Russell, Universities and Scientific Life in the
United States 72
Cave (Capt. C. J. P.), The Green Ray at Sunset and
Sunrise, 604; Winter Thunderstorms, 877
Cawston (F. G.), South African Larval Trematodes and
the Intermediary Hosts, 832
Cesaro (C.), The Blue Crystals of Disthene found at
Katango, 864
Chadwick (Dr. J.), Radioactivity and Radioactive Sub-
stances, 412
Chamberlain (Prof. J. S.),
Chemistry, 805
Chambers (C. D.), Fewness of Dovecots in the Roman
Period, 748
Chambers (R.), New Apparatus and Methods for the
Dissection and Injection of Living Cells, 722
Chapman (A. Chaston), The Use of the Microscope in the
Brewing Industry, 99
Chapman (F.), New or Little-known Victorian Fossils in
the National Museum. Pt. xxvi., 168
Chapman (Prof. H. H.), Forest Mensuration, 407
Charcot (Dr. J. B.) and A. Lacroix, The Structure of
Rockall, 90
Chatterji (IX. P.), elected to the Anthony Wilkin student-
ship in Cambridge University, 828 ;
Chattock (Prof. A. P.) and L. F. Bates, The Richardson
Gyro-magnetic effect, 721
Chaudron (G.) and L. Blanc, The Estimation of Oxygen
in Steel, 795
Chautard (J. ), Les Gisements de pétrole, 474
Chauveau (B.), Electricité atmosphérique. Premier Fasc. :
Teac uan historique, 406
Cheel (E.), Melaleuca linaritfolia and Melaleuca tricho-
stachya, 236; The Species of Darwinia Homoranthus,
and Rylstonea in the States of aes Victoria,
South Australia, and Queensland, 2
Cheshire (Prof. F.), Rotary Polarisation a Light, 807
Chevenard (P.), Nickel Alloys retaining their Rigidity
over an Extended Temperature Range, 592
Chick (Dr.) and others, The Cause of Rickets, 137
Child (C. H.), appointed an Honorary Clinical Tutor in
Dental Surgery in Leeds University, 621
Chipp (Major T. F.), appointed Assistant Director of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 189
Chittenden (Dr. R. H.), retirement from the directorship
of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, 60
Chopard (M.), Orthoptera and Dermaptera of France, 822
Chree (Dr. C.), The Magnetic Work of the Carnegie
Institution, 94
Church (Major A. G.), Science and the Empire, 876
Cisat (J.) and F. Pokorny, The Czechoslovak Republic, 839
Cisotti (Prof. U.), Idromeccanica Piana. Parte Prima
and Parte Seconda, 243
City Sale and Exchange, Catalogue of Koristka Micro-
scopes and Accessories, 52
Clapham (C. B.), Metric System for Engineers, 340
Claridge (G. C.), Wild Bush Tribes of Tropical Africa, 340
Clark uC H. D.), A Sliding Scale for the Convenient
Titration of Strong Liquids by Dilution and Use with
Aliquot Parts, 894
Clark (J. E.), H. B. Adames, and I. D. Margary, Report
on Phenological Observations for the year 1921, 27
A Text-book of Organic
Nature,
Febyuary x0,
woes]
Clark (J. McClare), The Effect of Post-war Conditions on
Agriculture, 743
Clarke (A.), Coal-tar Colours in the Decorative Industries,
768
Clarke (Dr. Lilian J.), The Botany Gardens of the James
Allen’s Girls’ School, Dulwich, 329, 512
Clarke (W. G.), Our Homeland Prehistoric Antiquities,
and how to study them, 510
Claxton (T. F.), Report of the Royal Observatory, Hong-
Kong, 1921, 229
Clay (Dr. R. S.), The Photographic Lens from the Historical
Point of View, 675, 739
Cleland (Prof. J. B.), A Second Bird Census, 236; Ball
Lightning, 40
Clements (F. E.), Aeration and Air Content: the Rdle
of Oxygen in Root Activity, 58
Clemesha (Lt.-Col.), Methods of Collection and Disposal
of Excreta suitable for Small Tropical Villages, 232
Clennell (J. E.), The Oxide Method of determining
Aluminium, 499
Clerk (Sir Dugald), conferment upon, of an honorary
degree by Leeds University, 561; presented with
the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, 50
Cluzet (J.) and A. Chevallier, The Radioactivity of the
Springs of Echaillon, 895
Cobb (Prof. J. W.), Fuel in Relation to Health, 232; Low
Temperature Carbonisation, 718; Report of the
Department of Coal Gas and Fuel Industries (with
Metallurgy) of Leeds University, 26; The Thermal
Basis of Gas Supply, 671
Coblentz (Dr. W. W.), Stellar Temperatures and Planetary
Radiation, 886 ; Tests of Stellar Radiometers, etc., 367
Cochrane (J. A.), Readable School Physics, 340
Cockerell (Prof. T. D. A.), An Ancient Wasp, 313;
Rudbeckia and Aquilegia, 278 ; and Dorothy Young,
A Mutation of the Columbine, 7o1
Codrington (Dr. R. H.), [obituary article], 425
Cohen (Prof. J. B.), The New Smoke Abatement Bill, 269 ;
The Smoke of Cities, 414
Coker (Prof. E. G.), The Action of Cutting Tools, 118,
joo; presented with the Howard N. Potts gold
medal of the Franklin Institute, 288; Recent Photo-
elastic Researches on Engineering Problems, 41
Cole (Prof. G. A. J.), Rocks and their Origins. Second
edition, 768; The Oldest known Rocks of the Earth’s
Crust, 39; The Primitive Crust of the Earth, 249;
The Reopening of Europe, 599; Volcanic Shower
in the N. Atlantic, 635; Water Underground, 242 ;
Wegener's Drifting Continents, 798
Collett (A.), The Changing Year, 410
Collingwood (R. G.), Prof. A. E. Taylor, and Dr. F. C. S.
Schiller, Are History and Science different Kinds of
Knowledge ? 231
Collins (H. F.), Some Crystallised Sulphates from the
Province of Huelva, Spain, 100
Collins (S. H.) and B. Thomas, The Sugars and Albuminoids
of Oat Straw, 887
Colwell (Dr. H. A.), An Essay on the History of Electro-
therapy and Diagnosis, 32
Coman (S.), bequest to Chicago University, 166
Combes (R.) and Mlle. Denise Kohler, The Disappearance
of Hydrocarbons in Dying Leaves, 623; The Rdle
of Respiration in the Diminution of the Carbohydrates
in Leaves during the Autumnal Yellowing, 468
Compton (Prof. A. H.) and N. L. Freeman, The Intensity
of X-ray Reflection from Powdered Crystals, 38
Comstock (Prof. G. C.), Observations of Double Stars,
Ig07-1919, 7
Constantin, Joessel, and Daloz, A Boat which moves
against the Wind, using the Wind itself as Motive
Power, 686
Conway (Sir Martin), appointed to the Board of Trustees
of the National Portrait Gallery, 394
Cook (H. D.) and Dr. A. H. Gibson, Hydro-electric
Engineering. Vol. i.: Civil and Mechanical, 108
Cook (M.), The Antimony-bismuth system, 531
Cooke, jr. (C. M.), Hawaiian Zonitide and Succineide, 365
Cooke and Sons, Ltd. (T.), list of Surveying Instruments,
324
Cooper (Dr. E. Ashley), appointed Lecturer in Public
Health Chemistry, 684
Index
vil
Cooper (P. A.), The X-ray Structure of Potassium Cyanide ,
544
Cooper (W. R.), appointed Editor of Science Abstracts, 493;
The Electrochemical Effects produced by super-
imposing Alternating Currents upon Direct Currents,
135
Cornish (Dr. Vaughan), The Isothermal Frontier of
Ancient Cities, 558
Cornthwaite (H. G.), Climate and Photography, 429
Corréa (Prof. A. A. M.), Homo (Os Modernos Estudos
sobre a Origem do Homem), 510
Cortie (Rev. A. L.), The Influence of Science, 180, 378
Costantin (J.), Acquired Heredity, 167
Costerus (Dr. J. C.), Median Prolification of Flowers of
Hemerocallis, 494
Cousen (A.), Selenium in the Production of Colourless
Glass, 830
Coward (T. A.), Manchester Birds, 1822-1922, 563
Crabtree (J. H.), Rocks and Fossils and How to Identify
Them, 74
Craig (E. H. Cunningham), Carbonaceous Material in
Oil-shale, 55
Crawford (O. G. S.), Harpoons under Peat at Holderness,
Yorks, 481; Long Barrows in the Cotswolds and
Welsh Marches, 585
Crehore (Prof. A. C.), The Hydrogen Molecule, 587
Crewe (Marquess of), acceptance of the Presidency of the
British Science Guild, 611
Crommelin (Dr. A. C. D.), Lt.-Col. G. L. Tupman, 742 ;
Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, 48; The Origin of Worlds, 660 ;
The reported Nova in Lyra, 821; The Total Solar
Eclipse of September 21, 389, 457; W. H. Wesley,
609
Crommelin (Dr. C. A.) and others, Generation and Utilisa-
tion of Cold, 618
Cronshaw (Dr. H. B.), Oil Shales, 307; Silver Ores, 477
Crook (C. W.), elected to the Senate of London University,
562
Crook (T.), The Earth’s “‘ Crust ’’ and its Composition, 253
Crowther (Prof. C.), appointed Principal of the Harper-
Adams Agricultural College, 399
Crowther (Dr. J. A.), Ions, Electrons, and _ Ionising
Radiations. Third edition, 340; The Principles of
Radiography, 35
Cuénot (L.) and L. Mercier, The Loss of the Faculty of
Flight in Parasitic Diptera, 532; and R. Poisson,
The Development of some Coaptations of Insects, 591
Cummer (Prof. C. L.), A Manual of Clinical Laboratory
Methods, 731
Cunningham (Dr. Brysson), Empire Water-power, 767 ;
Reservoir and other Dams, 661
Cunningham (E.), Prof. Eddington’s Romanes Lecture,
568 ; The Measurement of Intervals, 698
Cunningham (J. T.), Medical Education, 846
Curie (Mlle. Iréne), The Determination of the Velocity
of a-rays of Polonium, 299
Curie (M.), The Refractive Indices of the Phosphorescent
Sulphides, 655
Curtis (Dr. H. D.), Absolute Magnitudes of Stars, 395
Cushman (J. A.), Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean, 365 ;
Philippine Foraminifera, 261
Cutler (D. W.), L. M. Crump, and H. Sandon, A Quantita-
tive Investigation of the Bacterial and Protozoan
Population of the Soil, 26
Dakin (A.), Practical Mathematics. Part 1, 375
Dakin (Prof. W. J.), Medical Education, 845
Dalby (Prof. W. E.), The Internal Combustion Engine, 122
Dalton (Prof. J. P.), The Mathematics of the Homogeneous
Balanced Action, 468
Damiens (A.), The Absorption of Ethylene by Sulphuric
Acid, 623; The Crystallisation of Amorphous
Tellurium, 63
Dana (Prof. E. S.), Third edition, revised and enlarged
by Prof. W. E. Ford, A Text-book of Mineralogy :
with an extended Treatise on Crystallography and
Physical Mineralogy, 210
Dangeard (L.), The Geological Study of the Bottom of the
English Channel, 895
Vill
Index
Nature,
February 10, 1923
Dangeard (P. A.),
167, 200
Danois (E. Le), The Prediction of the Value of the Herring
Catch in Winter, 864
Danysz-Michel (Mme.) and W. Koskowski, Some Digestive
Functions in Normal Pigeons, fed with Polished Rice
or kept without Food, 200
Dart (Dr. R. A.), appointed Professor of Anatomy in the
University of Witwatersrand, 720
Darwin (C. G.), appointed Tait Professor of Natural
Philosophy in Edinburgh University, 720; ;
English, 171-2 cm. ; Welsh, 169-4 cm.
ARTHUR KEITH.
Advanced Mathematical Study and Research
at Cambridge.
It has been suggested to me that attention might
well be directed through the columns of Narure to
a point in the regulations of the University of Cam-
bridge which prevents many graduates of other
universities taking advantage of the opportunities
Cambridge offers for advanced mathematical study.
In most universities other than Cambridge our
best students of mathematics now usually read for
a degree in science. They have passed an entrance
examination of a standard far higher, I need scarcely
say, than that of the Previous Examination. But
neither in their entrance examination nor in their
course need they have taken Latin or Greek. They
are thus cut off from the privileges of affiliation,
which include exemption from the Previous Examina-
tion and permission to take their degree on Part IT.
of the Tripos after a residence of two years.
It is true that graduates of other universities may
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
proceed to the degrees of M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Cam-
bridge by research, without any questions being
asked as to the nature of their entrance examination.
But in my-opinion, at least, few of the graduates of
the Scotch universities, the newer English universities,
and the universities of the Dominions are ready to
devote themselves to research in mathematics
immediately after graduation. What they want at
that stage is just such advanced instruction as
Cambridge now offers in the subjects of Schedule B
of Part II. of the Tripos. They should be able to
take the Part II. examination easily after six terms.
Before the end of that time they may have begun
some research. But the man who wishes to become
a professional mathematician should continue re-
search work for at least two years after taking Part II.
Some of the time would be spent at Cambridge ; and
one or other of the great schools of mathematics at
Paris, Rome, Berlin, or G6ttingen should certainly
be visited.
Oxford admits to the status of Senior Student any
person who has obtained a degree at an approved
university after a three-year course, the degree also
having been approved by the Hebdomadal Council.
If Cambridge would modify its regulations for
admission to the privileges of affiliation so that our
best graduates in mathematics could take the Cam-
bridge B.A. on Part II. after six terms, I believe its
school of mathematics would receive a larger number
of brilliant scholars, and there would be more of our
mathematicians at home and abroad engaged in
research. H. S. CARSLAW.
The University, Sydney, May tr.
Condition of Electrolytes in the Blood.
ARE the salts present in the blood ionised to an
equal extent as similar concentrations of these salts
in aqueous solution ? Are the ions absorbed by the
protein ? These are questions that have been attract-
ing the attention of physiologists and_ biological
chemists. Investigators have attempted to answer
these questions principally by two methods—com-
pensatory dialysis of the serum (Rona, Michealis, and
their co-workers) or filtration with pressure (Starling,
Cushny, Richter-Quittner).
It seemed worth while to determine the concentra-
tions of other ions by electromotive force measure-
ments, as is done in the case of the hydrogen ion.
Accordingly, a 0-2 per cent. sodium amalgam that is
but slowly decomposed was used as a sodium elec-
trode. After measuring the E.M.F. of this electrode
against known concentrations of sodium chloride of
known degree of ionisation, the normal potential of
this amalgam electrode was obtained. The E.M.F.
of samples of serum and plasma were then measured.
When from these readings the total concentrations of
Na present were recalculated on the basis that the
degree of ionisation of the sodium salts was the same
as in an aqueous solution, the calculated Na con-
centration and that found by analysis were in very
good agreement. For example in two samples the
calculated values of sodium were 3:51 and 3-67 grams ;
the values found were 3-46 and 3-65 grams per litre.
Thus the conclusions of the aforementioned workers
that Na is not bound in the serum, because it can be
dialysed and filtered im toto, has been confirmed.
To determine the concentration of Cl-ions, an
Ag/AgCl electrode was used. By calculations similar
to those outlined in the case of sodium, it was found
that the quantities of Cl present calculated from
E.M.F. measurements of serum and plasma, on the
assumption that we were dealing with an aqueous
JuLy 1, 1922]
NATURE 9
solution of sodium chloride, were in good agreement
with those found by analysis. Thus in two samples,
for example, the totals for chlorine calculated as NaCl
were 6-443 and 6-541; the totals found were 6-535 and
6-61 grams. Chlorine likewise is apparently as free
as in an aqueous solution.
The writer is at present developing a calcium elec-
trode to determine the state of calcium in the blood.
BENJAMIN S. NEUHAUSEN.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
The Dimensions of Area.
In my “ Physics,” pp. 423-426, it is maintained
that it is incorrect to attribute to area (or volume)
the dimensions L? (or L’) ; but no example of an error
arising from such attribution could be given. It
has since occurred to me that an excellent and
important example is provided by Child’s high
vacuum current law, according to which o, the
ae : ivi
current density, is proportional to (2) Ee
The laws assumed in the deduction of this relation
y . A=a.e(Poisson’s equation), (2) «.J. A=
B.e.v, (3) m.v?=y.e.V, where A and v are area
and velocity, and a, 8, y formal constants or no-
dimensional magnitudes. If in place of A we write
i n
f, we find that om (;) V"-4 is no-dimensional for
all values of m. The solution is ambiguous and the
Child relation is not deducible by dimensional argu-
ment, as it clearly ought to be. If, on the other hand,
we retain A, en(™)y-s is the only no-dimensional
are (I)
magnitude independent of A and v;
unique and correct result.
The removal of the ambiguity must be due to the
introduction of some additional law. This additional
law is that the ratio of the area in (1) to the area
in (2) is independent of 7, or that / is perpendicular
to A in both cases, or that the electrons follow the
lines of force. If we omit the important magnitude
shape in stating the dimensions of A, this law cannot
be introduced into the dimensional argument, because
there remains no magnitude to measure direction.
The additional law is not quite strictly true because
of the inertia of the electrons. It follows, therefore,
that if the electrodes are arranged so that the curva-
ture of the lines of force is very great, small departures
from the Child relation are to be anticipated. But so
long as the curvature is small, the relation will hold
if the systems compared are geometrically similar,
differing only in their size 7. So far as I know, the
relation has hitherto been proved only for parallel
plane and concentric cylindrical electrodes ; experi-
mentally it is known to be true over a much wider
range. Norman R. CAMPBELL.
tg Holland Park, W.11, June 4.
we obtain a
The Resonance Theory of Hearing.
Mr. ACKERMANN (NATURE, May 20, p. 649) is
probably correct when he states that the first in-
coming sound wave sets all the resonators of the
ear temporarily in vibration, and also, that as the
sound waves continue the vibrating resonators
decrease in number until only those are left in motion
that are executing either sympathetic or forced
vibration in time with the incoming sound waves.
But surely he has left out of account the probable
No. 2748, VOL. 110]
amplitude of the motion performed by the resonators,
and the probable physiological properties of the
mechanism, when he judges the intensity of the sound
stimuli sent along the auditory nerve to the brain
to be directly proportional to the number of re-
sonators that are swinging at any moment ?
At the present time we have practically no in-
formation concerning the type of response given by
the auditory nerve. It may, like certain motor nerve
fibres, obey the all-or-nothing law, or it may conduct
with a decrement, or it may be graded in its response.
But in all these cases the amplitude will be an
important factor in deciding the response given by
any one hair cell and nerve fibre. But there are,
I think, other physiological factors which Mr.
Ackermann has overlooked. For although we cannot
directly stimulate the hair cells of the cochlea
electrically and ascertain the approximate relation-
ship between strength of stimulus and strength of
response, so that we can demonstrate clearly that
the auditory mechanisms have such physiological
properties as threshold, latent period, simultaneous
and successive contrast (as we can, for example, in
the case of the skin end organs), yet we have sufficient
evidence that these properties are exhibited also by
the auditory mechanism as by the other organs of
special sense. Reconsidering now the case that Mr.
Ackermann has taken, and assuming as a basis for
calculation—
(a) that the sound wave energy entering the ear
in unit time is constant ;
(b) that the pitch is constant ;
(c) that the mean amplitude of all the resonators
in vibration at any one time is jnversely
proportional to the number in vibration ;
and
(d) that the energy available for distribution is
proportional to the length of time during
which the sound waves have been arriving,
i.e. that none of the energy entering the
cochlea has been lost in eddies, friction, etc.;
the following table shows the number of oscillators
in vibration and their mean amplitude :
+ oy Jo. S Ss -
pee saan eee | Na ot Restate | Mem amplitule
I 6000 003
2 1000 03
3 600 08
4 45° “HS:
5 359 "21
6 290 31
7. 240 tet
8 200 -60
9 170 *80
10 150 I-00
It will be seen that after one sound wave 6000
resonators are in vibration with an amplitude of 0-003,
whereas after 10 sound waves 150 resonators only
are swinging with an amplitude of 1. The table
shows that there is a rapid increase in the mean
amplitude of the vibrating resonators at the com-
mencement of a tone. ,
There is no pretence of any exactness in the above
values. They merely illustrate the kind of results
to be expected. It should be noted further that at
any instant those resonators approximately ‘‘in
tune ’’ with the incoming sound waves will have
amplitudes .considerably greater than the mean
value, others nearest to those which are coming to
rest will have amplitudes less than the mean value.
10 NATURE
[JuLy 1, 1922
Therefore, even after one complete sound wave there
will be already a clearly marked selection of the
““in-tune ’’ group of resonators.
Taking now the physiological effects into con-
sideration, the threshold factor will definitely rule
out all amplitudes below a certain value, so that
after a certain number of sound waves have entered
the ear the amplitude of the “ in-tune ”’ resonators
will be the first to rise above the threshold and will
cause impulses to pass up the auditory nerve. A
little later a larger number of resonators will have
reached amplitudes above the threshold, so that there
should be a gradual increase in the number of reson-
ators in active response, until the full steady value
is reached. Calculation shows that the ‘‘in-tune”’
resonator should attain go per cent. of its final ampli-
tude in eight vibrations. On the resonance theory
one would therefore expect a gradual rise in the sound
intensity occurring in a time interval of the order of
10-20 vibrations of the incoming sound waves (i.e.
1/25-1/12 sec. for middle C), and not a fall as Mr.
Ackermann has suggested in his letter. It would
seem that this effect is responsible for the absence
of roughness at the commencement of a tone due
to the imperception of the transient vibrations of
“out-of-tune ’’ resonators.
Now if the rise of sound intensity is a gradual one,
what, it may be asked, is the mode of perception of a
tone which starts with large amplitude and gradually
diminishes as it goes on—e.g. a piano note? In
such a case it would seem that after a very few
vibrations, the swings of the resonators must reach
such an amplitude that their motion is perceived.
In this case, then, the vibration of “‘out-of-tune”’ re-
sonators makes itself perceived because the auditory
nerve fibres are taking up responses before there have
been sufficient incoming sound waves to damp out
the “ out-of-tune’”’ resonators. It would seem to
be this effect which gives the transient harshness to
the commencement of a piano note, causing it to
sound to the ear as if it started with a consonant.
H. HArTRIDGE.
King’s College, Cambridge.
An Experimental Towing-tank used by
Benjamin Franklin.
In the ‘‘Calendar of Industrial Pioneers’”’ in
Nature, May 6, p. 598, relative to the anniversary
of William Froude, your correspondent says: “ His
(Froude) work led to the construction by the
Admiralty of the experimental tank at Torquay,
the first of its kind ever built.”
It will be doubtless interesting to readers of
Nature to have it brought to their attention that
Benjamin Franklin in his many and varied investiga-
tions in philosophical subjects investigated, to some
extent, the difference of navigation in shoal and
deep water. In a letter written to Dr. John Pringle,
May 10, 1768, he gives the results of experiments
made along these lines. The letter tells of how,
during a trip with Dr. Pringle in Holland, it was
brought to their attention that the treckschuyi in one
of its trips went slower than usual, due, as the
boatmen explained, to the water in the canal being
low. After his return to England, not being entirely
satisfied with the boatman’s explanation, Franklin
questioned the Thames river watermen and found
them all agreeing as to fact, but differing widely in
expressing the quantity of the difference. He,
therefore, designed the following experiment, which
in its nature is a forerunner of the modern towing-
tank. I quote from his letter :
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
““T provided a trough of planed boards fourteen
feet long, six inches wide, and six inches deep in the
clear, filled with water within half an inch of the
edge, to represent a canal. I had a loose board, of
nearly the same length and breadth, that, being put
into the water, might be sunk to any depth, and
fixed by little wedges where I would choose to have
it stay, in order to make different depths of water,
leaving the surface at the same height with regard to
the sides of the trough. I had a little boat in form
of a lighter or boat of burden, six inches long, two
inches and a quarter wide, and one inch and a quarter
deep. When swimming, it drew one inch water. To
give motion to the boat, I fixed one end of a long sill
thread to its bow, just even with the water’s edge ;
the other end passed over a well-made brass pulley
of about an inch diameter, turning freely on a small
axis; and a shilling was the weight. Then, placing
the boat at one end of the trough, the weight would
draw it through the water to the other.
“Not having a watch that shows seconds, in
order to measure the time taken up by the boat in
passing from end to end, I counted as fast as I could
count to ten repeatedly, keeping an account of the
number of tens on my fingers. And as much as
possible to correct any little inequalities in my
counting, I repeated the experiment a number of
times at each depth of water, that I might take the
medium. And the following are the results :
14 snes dee. 2 inches, 4% inches,
Ist exp. 100 O4 79
2nd ,, 104 93 7
Bras 5, 104 or TG}
Melk on 106 87 79
Bula: roo 88 79
oth; 99 86 80
7ithienss 100 90 79
shale pp saeye) 88 Sr
813 717 632
Medium ror Medium 89 | Medium 79
Paut C. WHITNEY.
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey,
Washington, D.C., May 22.
An Experimental Confirmation of the Kinetic and
Molecular Theories of Magnetism.
Curig’s law states that ferromagnetics above the
critical temperature behave in such a way that the
susceptibility (k) is inversely proportional to the
absolute temperature (7), in short, that the product
k.T is a constant. The physical meaning of this
law is that when the molecular magnets have
complete freedom of rotational movements, the
energy of magnetisation is then only opposed by the
energy of thermal agitation and, consequently, any
given state is a state of equilibrium.
Below the critical temperature complications intro-
duced by the mutual magnetic actions of the mole-
cules, one on the other, and by the approach to a
saturation limit have obscured any such simple law.
It is, however, possible to eliminate, or allow for, the
effects of these disturbing factors and to make
experiments, under hysteresis-free conditions, upon
the variation of susceptibility with temperature.
Experiments of this kind have been carried out on
Dies, 192 2'|
NATURE Ul
iron and nickel, and the reduction of the observations
has now been completed, with the result that the
Curie law, with certain limitations, is found to
apply to the ferromagnetic state, and the relation
k.f =a constant is approximately satisfied, but
the constant now is of a very different magnitude
from the former one. There is, however, this simple
and important relation between the constants in
the two states—their ratio is the kinetic energy per
unit of temperature per gram of two degrees of freedom,
and is thus immediately connected with the gas
constant R. This result is of importance because it
shows that the change from the ferromagnetic to
the paramagnetic state is quantitatively explicable
as due to the acquisition of the kinetic energy per
unit temperature required for the two degrees of
rotational freedom which are effective in controlling
magnetic susceptibility.
Thus there is proof from magnetic data alone,
independently of thermal data, that the change at
the critical temperature from ferro- to paramagnetism
is due to the gain of energy associated with two
degrees of freedom.
This acquisition of energy-content makes itself
evident in the increase of specific heat which ferro-
magnetics show at and above the critical temperature,
and is quantitatively in agreement with the magnetic
tesult.
It is no longer necessary now to assume, as has
been done, that an immense intrinsic magnetic field
is the cause of ferromagnetism, although it may
be convenient to introduce a fictitious magnetic
field such that it will give rise to energy effects
equivalent to the energy of two degrees of freedom.
The results which have been discussed above are
also a confirmation of the simple view advanced by
Ewing in his earlier papers on the molecular theory
of magnetism, in which he suggests that the loss of
ferromagnetic qualities may be caused by the
oscillations of the molecular magnets which become
wider and wider up to the critical temperature, at
which point they pass from vibration to rotation.
J. R. ASHWORTH.
May 30.
Molecular Alotropy in Liquids.
A very remarkable feature shown by many liquids
in experiments on the molecular scattering of light
is that the scattered beam in a direction transverse
to the primary rays shows a large admixture of
unpolavised light, the proportion of this to polarised
light in the scattered beam being several times
greater than in the case of the same substance in the
condition of vapour at atmospheric pressure. This
fact seemed at first very puzzling; an explanation
is, however, now forthcoming. A theory of the
phenomenon has been worked out by the writer
which not only explains the facts in a simple and
quantitative manner, but has also pointed out the
way to further fruitful research. It may be briefly
indicated as follows :
The polarised and unpolarised parts of molecularly
scattered light may be conceived as arising in two
distinct ways; the former isa mass-effect arising from
the thermal fluctuations of density in the fluid, and
its magnitude is given by the Einstein-Smoluchowski
formula
m RTB
Tas UNDN- ©
and as we pass from the condition of vapour to that
of liquid in which the molecules are more closely
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
packed together, it increases much less than in
proportion to the increased density. The uwnpolavised
part of the scattered light is, on the other hand, a
moleculay effect, and its magnitude increases simply
in proportion to the number of molecules per unit
volume. The ratio of unpolarised to polarised part
of the scattered light should therefore be considerably
enhanced. This is exactly what is observed. If I,
and 21, are respectively the polarised and unpolarised
parts of the transversely scattered light, the ratio
I,/(I,+1,) may be determined experimentally by
analysis with the aid of a double-image prism and a
nicol. The Table below shows in the second column
the value of this ratio as determined by Lord
Rayleigh for certain substances in the state of
vapour, in the third column the value of the ratio for
the liquid state at ordinary temperature as calculated
from the writer’s theory, and in the fourth column
the value as determined by Mr. K. Seshagiri Rao in
the present writer’s laboratory. The agreement is
significant.
Ratio OF COMPONENTS OF POLARISATION
Subetarice Observed, Calculated, Observed,
Ea Vapour. Liquid. Liquid.
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.
Ethyl Ether 1-7 10°9 8-2
Benzene . 6 ° 6-0 39°8 39°8
Chloroform. 3 30 18-2 155
We may also view the matter in another way.
When a substance is in the state of vapour under
small pressures, both the positions and orientations
of its molecules are absolutely at random, and
assuming the molecules to be elotropic, the degree
of imperfection of polarisation of the light scattered
by it may easily be calculated, as has been done by the
late Lord Rayleigh. On the other hand, in the liquid
state, the packing of the molecules is so close that
their ordering in space is no longer at random; but we
may still, at least in the case of ordinary liquids,
consider the orientations to be arbitrary without
serious error. If we take this into account in deter-
mining the resultant effect of the waves scattered by
the individual molecules, we should be led to the same
result as has been indicated above.
The theory put forward has other notable successes
to its credit. The Einstein-Smoluchowski formula
indicates that though the density of a liquid
diminishes with rise of temperature, its scattering
power should increase and become very large as the
critical temperature is approached. Similarly, as
the temperature is increased, the scattering power
of the saturated vapour should increase much more
rapidly than in proportion to its density. Accord-
ingly, in both cases, we should expect the polarisation
of the scattered light to improve steadily with rise of
temperature and become practically complete as the
critical temperature of the liquid is approached.
Experiments with benzene liquid and vapour made
by Mr. K. R. Ramanathan have quantitatively
confirmed this prediction. A similar improvement
in polarisation has also been observed by Mr. V. S.
Tamma in experiments on the scattering of light in
binary liquid mixtures as the critical temperature
for separation into two phases is approached.
C. V. RAMAN.
210 Bowbazar Street, Calcutta,
May-I1, 1922.
12 NATORE
[JuLY 1, 1922
Recent Investigations of the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland.
By Prof. Eucrne Prrrarp, University of Geneva.
jue a result of the persistent drought at the begin-
ning of 1921, the level of the Swiss lakes fell
considerably, and hitherto- unsuspected depths were
brought to light. This phenomenon was particularly
marked in the three lakes of Neuchatel, Bienne, and
Morat, in which important areas had already been
laid bare by the regulation of the waters of the Jura.
Long stretches of beach which, until that time, had
not been accessible to the inhabitants of the shore,
completely modified the aspect of these lakes.
During the early months of 1921, in those districts
in which the men of the polished stone age had built
their dwellings, a large number of piles gradually
culture of these ancient populations. We have
obtained, to some extent, an insight into their mode
of life; we can frame hypotheses as to their race ; but
there are still many problems which require elucidation.
I will indicate here a few of these problems which
relate to the neolithic period.
1. We do not yet know with certainty to which
ethnological group to assign the builders of the lake
dwellings and their successors up to the end of the
bronze age. It has been held, on the evidence of
bones recovered from among the piles, that this type
of habitation was invented or introduced by brachy-
cephals—until that time unknown in Western Europe.
Fic, 1.—Part of the site at Greng, Lake of Morat.
emerged which the present generation had seen only
under several feet of water. It was a revocation of
vanished ages which appealed to the emotions. It
enabled the imagination to reconstruct more readily
a picture of those who, thousands of years ago, were
the authors of the greatest of social changes when they
introduced the cultivation of cereals, the domestication
of animals, and the like. From day to day more and
more of the substructure of these cities of the lake
was uncovered, and from all parts travellers came to
look upon this impressive spectacle, which perhaps
we shall never see again.
It will be readily understood that such exceptional
conditions encouraged Swiss men of science to under-
take fresh investigations on several of the lacustrine
sites.
The numerous finds which have been made since
1854 in all the lakes which were at one time inhabited
by men of the stone age and the bronze age have
enabled us to reconstruct, in great part, the material
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
Further, that this race held its own on the Swiss lakes
until the end of the neolithic age, when dolichocephals
begin to appear in the lake-dwelling sites, coming,
perhaps, from the north. (Their ethnical affinities
also are still to be determined. Will our hypotheses
stand ?)
2. The dispositions of lake-dwelling sites, their town
planning, if one may use the phrase, is, in essentials,
unknown. Even the extent of the ground they covered
in many cases has not been determined exactly.
What exactly was the topographical plan of each
site? Were the sites, that is, those of the same epoch
and situated on the same lake, arranged on a specific
plan, identical throughout, or was a free rein given
to the fancy of the builders in each case? In other
words, was there a type of lake village, and, if so,
what was it? Was the lacustrine city an organic
whole, with the houses grouped on one frontage, or
was it composed of a series of small islands, and, in
that case, what were the dimensions and dispositions
Jury 1, 1922 |
NATURE 13
of these islands? Did they communicate with one
another by bridges or by navigable canals? If so,
what were the measurements and arrangement of
these bridges or canals ?
What was the form of the dwellings? Those
authors who have attempted to reconstruct groups
of lake dwellings have differed remarkably in their
attempts. These diversities show how little solid
basis there is for our knowledge in this matter, not-
withstanding the evidence from sites such as Schtissen-
ried, Robenhausen, Niederwil, etc. Was the settlement
protected against the waves caused by prevailing
winds by some projecting construction—it may be
assumed, a stockade of piles ?
3. Do the most important of the articles in daily
use by the inhabitants of the lake dwellings in the
tions on sites which are always submerged. The
diving bell alone can be used. It is for this reason
that the persistent drought at the beginning of the
year 1921 has proved so favourable to research.
Let us now consider the results which were obtained
in the course of recent investigation.
Very few human skeletal remains of neolithic age
were found; but an important discovery was made
at St. Aubin. In the lowest stratum of this site,
which is the oldest of the Swiss neolithic lake-dwellings,
M. Vouga found a human cranium, which was sent to
me. It is unquestionably dolichocephalic. This is
the first piece of definite evidence of this character.
Does it affect previous hypotheses as to the race of
the builders of the lake-dwellings ? I do not think
on such slender evidence we can maintain that it does.
Fic. 2.—Part of the Neolithic site at Greng, Lake of Morat.
neolithic period date from the beginning of lake
settlements ? Were the various types of objects
which are exhibited in the cases of our museums
invented at different ages in accordance with the
growth of needs, or were they in use in the earliest
period ? This question can be settled finally only by
stratigraphical study.
4. Were the five domesticated animals of the neo-
lithic period (the ox, the dog, the pig, the goat, and
the sheep) present in the earliest period of the lake
dwellings, or may we accept the suggestions put forward
by various authors that these domestic animals were
introduced gradually during the age of polished stone ?
These are a few of the questions which still await an
answer, notwithstanding the numerous investigations
which have been undertaken since the memorable
winter of 1853-54. The solution of these problems
is naturally very difficult owing to the nature of the
ground upon which investigations have to be carried
out. It is not easy to make stratigraphical observa-
No. 2748, VOL. 110]
The skull in question is feminine, from which fact
we may conclude that it belonged to an inhabitant of
the site at St. Aubin and not to a foreigner, whose
head might perhaps have been brought home as a
trophy of war. The discovery, however, is of import-
ance, because it was made in the course of investiga-
tions on stratigraphical lines. It is not a skull un-
earthed at hazard from the mud or sand. It was
im siti.
In the course of the spring and the summer of 1921,
two detailed topographical surveys were made—one,
at my suggestion, at Greng in the Lake of Morat (Figs.
t and 2) by MM. Le Royer and Winkler, the other on
the foreshore of Geneva. This is the first time that
any work of this character has been undertaken in
Switzerland. The station at Greng was not com-
pletely surveyed. A record was made of the position
of those piles only which were left uncovered by the
fall of the lake and of those which were in shallow water.
At Geneva, work of considerable extent was undertaken
A2
14 NATURE
[JuLY-1, 1922
by MM. Le Royer and Blondel. It has recently been
completed (April 1922). Among the conclusions which
emerge, it is now clear that the inhabitants of the lake-
dwellings in the polished stone age had constructed
stockades facing the open water, for protection
against the waves raised by the prevailing northerly
wind. These breakwaters must have afforded the
dwellings relatively smooth water. From these in-
vestigations it may also be concluded that the lake-
dwelling sites of Geneva were of considerable size.
Unfortunately of these there remain to-day only some
thousands of piles implanted in the bed of the lake.
Geneva is thus one of the most ancient cities of the
world, since man has lived on this site continuously
ever since the neolithic period.
The stratigraphical investigations undertaken by
M. Vouga enable us to establish with certainty the
succession of the types of industrial objects throughout
the neolithic period of the lake-dwellings. Several
of our a priori conceptions based on typology must
be abandoned. Thus the pottery of the earliest period
is more refined, more beautiful, more highly burnished
than that of later periods. In technique it approaches
more nearly the pottery of the bronze age than that
of the middle and upper neolithic.
Thanks to a careful study of the stratification of
objects found at Auvernier, M. Vouga has been able
to plot out the progressive modification of several
objects in daily use, such as the axe-hafting sockets
of stag horn, flint arrow-heads, and the like.
In many cases, however, stratigraphical study has
only slightly modified classifications, such as those of
Ischer, based upon the typology of lake-dwelling sites
which have been investigated with minute care.
Other observations of importance for the history
of culture have also been made by M. Vouga :—
The lowest stratum (IV.) has not yet yielded any
of the spindle whorls which are necessary for weaving.
The art of drilling stone would appear to begin in
Stratum III., but only in the triangular axe hammer-
head. The true perforated axe hammer-head appears
much later—in Stratum I.
In Stratum I.—the latest—appear flint flakes of
Grand-Pressigny type. Relations between Switzerland
and western France are thus clearly established.
For the first time all bones found in the excavation
of a lake-dwelling site have been preserved. My
1 J would refer the reader to the reports published by M. Vouga in
“Indications d’Antiquités suisses” in the Arch. suisses d’Anthrop, Gén.,
Geneva, 1921 and 1922,
assistant, Dr. Reverdin, and myself have examined
more than 4000 mammalian bones from the station
of St. Aubin. Our conclusions, which are valid only
in respect of the material obtained and for this site,
may be summarised as follows :—In the neolithic
period corresponding with the earliest lacustrine sites,
the horse was not domesticated. It was not even
hunted, or, if it was an object of the chase, its flesh
was not brought back to the lake-dwelling. If this
were the case, would it not be permissible to suggest
a taboo as the reason? The five domesticated animals
of the neolithic period were represented in the lake-
dwellings from the earliest times. Accordingly, the
suggestion that domestic animals appear at different
stages cannot be accepted. It is true that these five
animals are not represented in equal abundance. At
the beginning of the period of domestication, the goat
and the sheep are much more rare than the ox, the
dog, and the pig.
For a considerable time man continued to rely for
his food-supply on wild animals, especially the stag ;
but the proportion of domestic animals rapidly becomes
preponderant.
As regards their culinary tastes, the neolithic lake-
dwellers seem to show a preference for certain of the
domestic animals. The species of which they ate
most abundantly were the ox and the pig ; next come
the dog (though it is not certain that the dog was
eaten), the sheep, and the goat. What is the reason
for this order of preference ? Does it depend upon a
special taste for any particular meat ? Would they
not in that case rear in large numbers only those
species which they appreciated most ?
The lake-dwellers in the stone age ate the domestic
animals when they were full grown, except in the
case of the pig. This animal was frequently eaten
while it was young, and even when it was still a sucking
pig. The ox and the goat were never eaten when quite
young. The distinction was dictated, without doubt,
by the desire to use the milk-giving qualities of the
cow and the goat, and also, perhaps, the sheep, as long
as possible, but this explanation does not affect the
males of these species.
It thus appears that the exceptionally low water in
the Swiss lakes in 1921 has not been without interest to
science. Thanks to this phenomenon, some new and im-
portant facts have been recorded in the history of the
culture of the neolithic lake-dwellers and, at the same
time, of all the neolithic peoples.
Vitamin Problems.!
By Prof. A. HARDEN, F.R.S.
HE existence of three vitamins, termed A, B,
and C, has now been firmly established and
a general idea has been obtained of their distribution
among animal and vegetable organisms. Hitherto,
comparatively little quantitative work has been done
in this direction, and further progress must depend on
a more general adoption of quantitative methods.
These are at present tedious and not very accurate.
In the case of each of the vitamins the requirements
of the special animal employed serve as the unit of
= 1 Abridged from a Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on
Friday, April 28.
No. 2748, VOL. 110]
comparison and these vary considerably from in-
dividual to individual, so that many observations are
necessary if any, even moderate, degree of accuracy
is to be attained. Thus in the estimation of the
antiscorbutic potency of food materials, by the method
worked out by Miss Chick and her colleagues at the
Lister Institute, it has seldom been possible to achieve
a greater accuracy than about 25-50 per cent. This
obviously imposes a very serious limitation on any
attempts to study variations in potency unless these
are of a very gross order. Another great difficulty
inherent in this kind of observation is that when the
Jury 1, 1922 |
NATURE i
potency is low, the necessary dose of the material to
be tested is correspondingly high, and soon transcends
what is permissible without interference with other
necessary conditions of the diet, such as protein
content, etc. Very much the same conditions hold
with regard to Vitamin B, especially when this is
estimated by the effect of the material on the growth
of rats; and, as a matter of fact, the great bulk of the
work carried out in America by this method is not
‘strictly quantitative, but simply leads to the result
that a certain ration does, or does not, suffice for the
growth of a young rat.
As regards Vitamin A the method of Zilva and Miura
promises to yield moderately accurate and consistent
results. This is attained by keeping the experimental
animals (young rats) on a diet totally deficient in
Vitamin A until they have ceased to grow, and then
ascertaining the minimum dose of the material to be
tested which will induce definite and steady growth
for four weeks. Animals which do not cease to grow
in three weeks are rejected, greater uniformity in
the results being thus attained. The test material
is, whenever possible, administered quantitatively to
the animal and not, as was formerly the practice,
mixed with the ration in a known proportion. One of
the immediate results of the application of this method
has been the discovery that cod-liver oil, formerly
classed with butter as a good source of Vitamin A, is
in reality 200-250 times as potent as butter and is,
along with similar fish-liver oils, by far the richest in
this material of all the substances which have so far
been examined.
A further piece of information, which is essential
for the detailed study of these substances, is their
behaviour towards heat, oxidation, etc. In this
respect some progress has been made, and it may be
stated with some confidence that both Vitamins A and
C are moderately stable towards rise of temperature,
provided that air be excluded, whereas in the presence
of air they are rapidly inactivated. Whether the
effect of air is reversible or not has not yet been ascer-
tained. Vitamin B, on the other hand, appears not
to be affected by air and is also moderately stable
towards rise of temperature. None of the three
vitamins is easily inactivated by hydrolysis under
anaerobic conditions, and this fact has led to the
interesting observation that Vitamin A, although
usually associated, in the animal organism, with fat,
is not itself a fat but remains in the unsaponifiable
residue with almost unabated potency. This in-
dicates how small a weight of the vitamin itself is
necessary for the daily ration of a young rat. In
some cases as little as 1-2 milligram of the oil is sufficient
to permit of definite growth, and of this only 1-2 per
cent. 1s unsaponifiable, while, as is well known, the
chief constituent of the unsaponifiable matter is
cholesterol, which has itself no vitaminic potency.
The actual requirement of the vitamin itself must
therefore be of the order of 1/500 milligram per diem.
The other two vitamins have not been obtained in
so concentrated a form, but it appears highly probable
that they too are present in foodstuffs only in in-
finitesimal amounts.
The origin of all three vitamins is to be sought in
the vegetable kingdom. The production of Vitamin
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
A has been followed (Coward and Drummond) from
the seed, and it has been found that it does not appear
until the photosynthetic processes begin. Thus sun-
flower seeds are almost devoid of it, and so are the
etiolated seedlings formed when these seeds germinate
in the dark. In the light, on the other hand, the green
seedlings, grown in a medium free from the vitamin,
produce it freely. This vitamin is often closely
associated with the carotene and xanthophyll of
plants ; so intimately, indeed, that it was at one time
thought that it might be closely related to, if not
identical with, one of them. The association, how-
ever, although very frequent, is not essential, and no
definite relation can be shown to exist between the
two. Vitamin C is either absent from seeds or only
present in them in very minute amount, but appears
when the seed germinates and before any green parts
are formed. Nothing is, however, known of the in-
active pro-vitamin or of the process by which it is
rendered active.
Concerning the origin of Vitamin B a considerable
amount of discussion has taken place. Its presence
in a large proportion in yeast points to the probability
that it can be produced without the intervention of
light, and both in America and in this country it has
been found that yeast can actually produce the vitamin
when grown in a “synthetic medium” comprising
only substances of known composition and free from
the vitamin in question. Recently, however, Eijkman,
in Holland, has obtained a contrary result, so that
this question remains at the moment open.
The animal organism appears to be unable, in
normal circumstances, to produce any of these prin-
ciples for itself, and hence the amounts found in animal
products depend ultimately on the diet of the animal.
This opens up, among many other problems, the im-
portant question of the vitaminic properties of milk,
and there seems to be no doubt, from experimental
work, both here and in America, that these properties
are profoundly affected by the diet of the cow. Milk
obtained in winter when the animals are stall-fed has
been shown to be markedly deficient in Vitamin A,
and there is also great danger of a deficiency of Vitamin
C. One of the pressing requirements of the moment
is the careful quantitative examination of foodstuffs
available for the feeding of cattle, so that a rational
system of winter feeding can be adopted which will
produce milk as good as that given in summer. Such
an examination would seem naturally to fall within
the purview of the Board of Agriculture.
The evil results of a deficiency of Vitamins B and C,
especially in the diet of children, are well known—
beri-beri and scurvy, latent or patent—but the effect
of a lack of Vitamin A is not so well recognised or so
universally acknowledged. One school considers that
a deficiency of this vitamin is at least a prominent
factor in the causation, if not, as they formerly held,
the sole cause of rickets. Others consider rickets to
be a disease brought on by non-hygienic surroundings,
lack of fresh air and exercise, etc. The latest experi-
mental results show that rickets (in rats) can infallibly
be produced by dietetic changes, but that the lack of
Vitamin A does not of itself lead to the disease unless
at the same time the diet is faulty as regards the supply
of calcium or phosphorus. This faulty mineral supply
16 NATUORE
ULV ty lO22
LJ 9
does not usually lead to true rickets if sufficient Vitamin
A be present, although the bone formation under these
circumstances is not quite normal. This explains the
well-known curative effect of cod-liver oil in rickets.
So marked is the effect of this remedy, that McCollum,
not appreciating the relatively enormous concentration
of Vitamin A present in it compared with that in
butter, as proved by Zilva, has suggested that cod-
liver oil contains some other specific substance absent
from butter, to which its great superiority is due.
The difference, however,seems to be merely quantitative,
and the further complication suggested by McCollum
appears to be unnecessary.
These experiments on rickets have led to what
promises to be a discovery of far-reaching importance.
Rats on a diet, which in the laboratory will infallibly
produce rickets, do not acquire the disease if they are
exposed to sunlight in the open air or to ultra-violet
radiation, and rats which have acquired the disease
can be cured by either of these treatments, just as
they can be cured by the administration of cod-liver
oil. Sunlight and ultra-violet radiation have also been
found to be effective cures or preventives of rickets
in children. The cures by light and by cod-liver oil
seem to proceed in precisely the same way, and the
idea naturally suggests itself, especially to the mind
of a chemist, that the light actually brings about the
synthesis of the Vitamin in the animal body just as
it does in the plant. This idea still awaits experi-
mental verification or disproof ; but there is no doubt
that the discovery of this function of light will lead to
profoundly important developments in our knowledge.
Obituary.
Pror. W. GowLanp, F.R.S.
ROF. WILLIAM GOWLAND died on June ro in
his eightieth year. He had originally intended to
enter the medical profession and actually worked with a
medical man in Sheffield for two or three years. After-
wards he became a student at the Royal College of
Chemistry, from which he passed in 1868 to the Royal
School of Mines. Two years later he obtained the
associateship both in mining and metallurgy. He was
awarded the Murchison medal in geology and the De la
Beche medal in mining.
His first post was that of chemist and metallur-
gist to the Broughton Copper Company, Manchester.
Two years later he went out to the Imperial Mint at
Osaka, Japan, and held the post of chemist and metal-
lurgist there for six years. During the next eleven
years he acted as assayer, metallurgist, and chief of the
foreien staff at Osaka, and was for some time adviser to
the Imperial Arsenal. His work was of a decidedly
varied nature, and he did much to introduce Western
metallurgical and chemical methods into the depart-
ments with which he was associated. It was during this
period that he acquired the knowledge of Japanese
methods of extracting, refining, and working metals for
which he afterwards became so famous. He carried out
exploration work in Korea on behalf of the Japanese
Government, in the course of which his expedition
had some lively skirmishes with the natives.
As a young man Prof. Gowland was a keen oarsman,
and was the first to introduce rowing into Japan. He
had two modern “ eights’ built to encourage boat-
racing among the staff of the mint, but they found these
craft too unstable for their liking. Eventually they
decided to choose their own boats and presented two
for his inspection. He found they had selected a pair
of “cutters” and had fitted each with port and star-
board lights. He was also the first to initiate the
Japanese into the use of the wheelbarrow. He had
occasion to do this in connexion with some excavation
work in the copper mint, and provided the labourers
with barrows. The next morning he was astonished to
find that the wheels had been removed and the sturdy
Japanese were carrying the loaded wheelbarrows. On
leaving Japan in 1889, the order of “ Chevalier of the
Imperial Order of the Rising Sun” was conferred
NO. 2748, VOL. 110] °
on him personally by H.I.M. the Emperor of Japan.
During his residence there he gradually built up a very
fine Japanese art collection, which included some valu-
able kakemonas.
Returning to England, Prof. Gowland acted as chief
metallurgist to the Broughton Copper Company for some
years, and in 1902 was appointed professor of metal-
lurgy at the Royal School of Mines, in succession to the
late Sir William Roberts-Austen. This post he held for
seven years and retired in 1909.
So far as metallurgy is concerned, his chief interest
lay in the non-ferrous metals, principally copper, silver,
gold, lead, and their alloys. His knowledge, in
particular, of the metallurgy of copper was unique,
based as it was upon experience of the best methods in
vogue, both in the East and West. In 1914 he pub-
lished a textbook on the metallurgy of the non-ferrous
metals which quickly became recognised as an authori-
tative work on the subject, and is now in its third edition.
He also contributed various papers to the Institu-
tion of Mining and Metallurgy, the Chemical Society,
and the Society of Chemical Industry. He was an
original member of the Institute of Metals, its third
president, and its first May lecturer. In 1907 he was
elected president of the Institution of Mining and
Metallurgy, and in 1909 was awarded the institution’s
gold medal.
There was, however, another side to his intellectual
interests, as shown by his membership of the
Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Anthropological
Institute, and the Numismatic Society. His publica-
tions under these heads were numerous and varied,
dealing with, e.g., the early metallurgy of silver and
lead, the remains of a Roman silver refinery at Silchester,
the burial mounds and dolmens of the early Emperors
of Japan, and silver in pre-historic and proto-historic
times. From 1905 to 1907 he acted as president of the
Royal Anthropological Institute.
Prof. Gowland was a man of great personal charm
and distinction. He was extremely thorough in all he
undertook, and never spared himself in the execution of
his duty. His lectures were very carefully prepared
and well delivered. ‘The geniality of his disposition
made him a general favourite with his colleagues and
students, and he will always be affectionately re-
membered at the Royal School of Mines. H.C. H.C.
aly ay “Ko 22)]
E. W. L. Hott.
Ir is with deep regret that we record the death in
London on June to, at the age of fifty-seven, of
Mr. Ernest William Lyons Holt, Chief Inspector of
Trish Fisheries. Educated at Eton, where he won
the Biological Prize, he entered the Army through
Sandhurst and joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light
Infantry, with whom he served in the Nile Campaign
of 1884-5 and afterwards in the Burmah War 1886-7,
during which his health broke down and he was
invalided home.
Retiring from the Army, Holt took up the study
of natural history, in which he had always been
interested. His first zoological research was carried
out at the St. Andrews Marine Laboratory, and
resulted in a paper on the morphology of the brain
of fishes, especially of the herring, which was com-
municated in 1890 to the Royal Society of London.
In the same year he was appointed assistant-naturalist
for the survey of fishing grounds on the west coast of
Ireland, which was being carried out by the Royal
Dublin Society. As the result of cruises carried out
in 1890 and 1891 a valuable series of papers was
published, the most important of which dealt with
the eggs and larve of fishes, while in others the
economic aspects of scientific fishery investigation were
ably dealt with.
In 1892 Mr. Holt was appointed by the Marine
Biological Association to take charge of a laboratory
which was opened near Grimsby for the purpose of
studying the fishery problems of the North Sea. Here
for three years he successfully carried out investiga-
tions dealing with all aspects of fish life in their relation
to commercial fisheries, paying special attention to the
destruction of immature fish by trawling, a question
which was thought at that time to be of the greatest
practical importance. On leaving Grimsby, he spent
some time in the south of France, where he resumed
his studies on eggs and larval stages, publishing
a finely illustrated memoir on this aspect of the natural
history of Mediterranean fishes. Following this, three
years were spent at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory,
where he not only continued and extended his work
on fishes, but took up the study of several groups of
invertebrates which are largely used as food by fishes.
In 1900 Mr. Holt returned to Ireland, where he
became scientific adviser to the fisheries branch of the
NATURE 7;
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction,
succeeding the Rev. W. Spotswood Green as chief
inspector of fisheries in 1914. Under his direction
an important survey of the fishing grounds, especially
to the west and south-west of Ireland, was organised
and carried on for a number of years, the deep
water of the Atlantic slope receiving a large share
of attention. Mr. Holt gathered around him a
brilliant staff of young naturalists, and an excellent
series of reports was published. He continued
to devote himself personally to the study of fishes,
and included fresh-water fishes, especially the salmon,
in his studies. His personal knowledge of fish life in
all its aspects was probably greater than that of any
other British naturalist, and at the same time he was
a keen student of the literature of the subject. In his
earlier years he had great facility as a draughts-
man, and his papers were beautifully illustrated with
his own drawings. He possessed an acute and critical
intellect, a sound sense of proportion, and a quick eye
for the things that really mattered in connexion with
any question he took up. His work was greatly helped
by a gift of rapid literary expression, accompanied by
a quiet humour, which always made his writings
interesting. His mind was essentially honest, he
suffered from no illusions, and did his best to destroy
what he thought were illusions in others.
Bs fa 2X
We much regret to announce the death, on June 26,
at the age of seventy-three years, of Albert, Prince of
Monaco, well known for his oceanographical research
work.
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, on
June 22, of Sir Alexander M‘Robert, at the age of sixty-
eight years. After acting for a time as a lecturer in
experimental physics and in chemistry, in Aberdeen,
Sir Alexander went to India, where he passed the
greater part of his life, closely associated with technical
education. He was made a fellow of the University
of Allahabad in the Faculty of Science, served on the
committee of management of the Government Engineer-
ing College, Roorkee, and also as governor of the
Agricultural College, Cawnpore. Sir Alexander had
travelled extensively in many parts of the world, and
received knighthood for his services in r9ro, being
created K.B.E. in 1919.
Current Topics and Events.
Tue Council of the Zoological Society of London
has approved a scheme for the establishment of an
aquarium at the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park.
The aquarium is to be built under the Mappin Terraces,
but so installed as to be invisible from the front, and
will not interfere with the panorama of the Terraces.
It will consist of a crescentic gallery, 400 ft. long, lined
with tanks on both sides. Those on the outer curve
will have both daylight and electric illumination,
while those on the inner curve will be lighted by
electricity only, a method used at the Berlin Aquarium
with complete success. The gallery will be divided
into three parts—fresh water, marine, and tropical
NO. 2748, VOL. 110]
aquaria—with special ponds for seals, diving birds,
and trout. The tanks are to be constructed with the
bottoms, sides, and backs of slate, and the fronts of
polished plate glass set in a framework of white
marble. They will be provided with rock-work
arranged to suit the needs of their inhabitants. The
water will be kept constantly circulating, flowing into
the tanks from high-level reservoirs and thence
through a series of underground filter-beds, on the
plan of those in use at the New York Aquarium, to
low-level reservoirs, from which it will be pumped by
electric pumps to the high-level reservoirs again.
Special arrangements are to be installed for heating
18
NATURE
[JuLY 1, 1922
the tanks and for regulating the temperature of the
water in the different aquaria. The plans for the
gallery have been prepared by Messrs. Belcher and
Joass, and the circulation, electric plant, and the
heating, lighting, and ventilating systems have been
designed by Sir Alexander Gibb. The scheme will
cost about 50,000/., and should provide London with
the best-equipped and most carefully arranged
aquarium in Europe.
A rurrp attempt to reach the summit of Mount
Everest began on June 3. ‘The monsoon being due to
arrive early in June, it was clear that this must be the
last attempt this season. The Times gives an account
by Capt. Finch of his ascent with Capt. Bruce to
27,300 ft. in the previous attempt. The oxygen
apparatus did not prove satisfactory and only one in
ten was fit for use, but by reassembling the sound
parts four serviceable sets were obtained. By the
help of oxygen the climbers reached the North Col
perfectly fresh and camped at 25,500 ft. A heavy
gale with snow set in and lasted for two days, making
progress impossible. When a start was made the
Gurkha with the party collapsed and had to be sent
back. Eventually, after five hours’ diagonal climbing,
Messrs. Finch and Bruce reached an altitude of
27,300 ft. The wind and cold were then so severe
that they were compelled to turn, and reached No. 3
Camp thoroughly exhausted. A telegram from
Jangkok, Sikkim, dated June 22, states that Dr.
Longstaff, Major Morshead, Colonel Strutt, and
Captain Finch have arrived there on their return from
Tibet.
THE growing interest in metallography is well
illustrated by the establishment of the Metallo-
grafiska Institutet of Stockholm, the formal opening
of which has recently taken place. The new Institute
is under the direction of Dr. Carl Benedicks, whose
work on the physical chemistry of metals is well
known. An inaugural was delivered by
Prof. Arrhenius, who referred to the international
character of scientific research, as shown by the
presence of foreign representatives at the ceremony,
and by the review of the history of metallography
contained in the address of Dr. Benedicks. Begin-
ning with the work of Sorby in Sheffield, and con-
tinued by many workers, among whom the French
address
worker, Osmond, was prominent, metallographic
research has always preserved an_ international
character. It was announced that Sir Robert Had-
field, who has himself made many important con-
tributions to this branch of study, had presented to
the Institute an annual sum of 150/. for two years,
to form a scholarship for a research worker, English-
men having a preference. In his statement regarding
this foundation, Sir Robert Hadfield directs attention
to the remarkable contributions made by Sweden to
chemistry, and especially to the chemistry of metals.
The metals used in the manufacture of alloy steels,
such as nickel, cobalt, tungsten, molybdenum, and
vanadium, were discovered by Swedish chemists,
while direct contributions to metallurgy have been
made by many of their compatriots, from Swedenborg
NO. 2748, VOL. TI10]
and Bergman to Akerman and Brinell. The recent
important work of Dr. Westgren on the space lattice
of the allotropic modifications of iron, as determined
by means of X-rays (NATURE, June 24, p. 817), is an
addition to the record of which Sweden may be proud.
It must not be forgotten, also, that the Sheffield
steel industry owes its existence to the use of the
pure Swedish irons obtained from native ores.
THE Quest arrived at Cape Town on June 18 from
South Georgia via Tristan da Cunha and Gough
Island. The Times announces that, in view of the
low power and small size of the ship, it has been
decided to abandon the proposed cruise in search of
lost islands in the Southern Ocean and to return home.”
Landings were made at Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible,
Nightingale, and Gough Islands. At the last of these
islands several days seem to have been spent ashore,
during which some biological collections were made.
The visit of the Scotia in 1904 showed that Gough
Island has a most interesting fauna and flora, particu-
larly worthy of study because the nearest land, with
the exception of the Tristan da Cunha group, is South
Africa, which is some 1500 miles distant. Details of
the Quest's deep-sea soundings are not given, but they
should be of great interest, since between South
Georgia and Tristan da Cunha she traversed an area
of the ocean in which practically no soundings have
previously been taken.
News from Mr. Knud Rasmussen, published in the
Times, gives some account of his work in Melville
Peninsula and Fox Basin until the middle of last
January. The autumn was spent around Lyon Inlet,
which offered scope not only for biological work, but
also for researches into Eskimo archeology. During
the winter, Mr. P. Freuchen was engaged in charting
the western coast of Baffin Land against Fox Basin,
which was imperfectly known. Mr. Rasmussen
himself went south to Chesterfield Inlet near the
mouth of Baffin Bay. To the west of this inlet two
tribes of inland Eskimo are reported to live. This
is of interest because all other tribes of Eskimo are
coast dwellers. This autumn Messrs. Rasmussen
and Freuchen hope to start on their long journey to
the west across the Barren Lands through the area
inhabited by the Kinipetu tribe, in an attempt to
investigate the original routes of migration of the
Eskimo, and to throw light on their origin.
Dr. CHARLES D. Watcort, secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution, has left Washington to continue
his geological explorations in the Canadian Rocky
Mountains. Dr. Walcott’s work in previous seasons
has done much towards clearing up the geological
formations of this interesting region, and many
thousands of fossil specimens have been brought
back to add to the completeness of the exhibition
and study series of the U.S. National Museum. One
of the important results several years ago was the
discovery of fossil bacteria in the pre-Cambrian
rocks, probably the earliest form of life on the earth.
The section to be studied this year will take in several
localities north and south of the Bow Valley between
JuLy 1, 1922]
Banff and Lake Louise on the Canadian Pacific rail-
road, The particular problems to be attacked are
connected with the growth of certain formations
and the sequence of marine life in the rocks com-
posing them. It is expected that many photographs
of glaciers, mountains, and forests will be obtained.
Ar the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
on June 19, the Keith Prize (1919-1921) was presented
to Prof. R. A. Sampson for his astronomical researches,
including the papers “ Studies in Clocks and Time
Keeping: No. 1, Theory of the Maintenance of
Motion; No. 2, Tables of the Circular Equation,”
published in the Proceedings of the Society within
the period of the award; and the Neill Prize (1919-
1921) was presented to Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer,
for his recent contributions to our knowledge of
physiology, and in recognition of his published work,
extending over a period of fifty years.
We have received an intimation that the Italian
Royal Committee for Scientific Marine Investigations
has assumed charge of the Zoological Station at
Rovigno, Istria, which was formerly under German
administration, and that the station is now in active
work, with Prof. Raffaele Issel as Director.
Tue second lecture of the series on physics in
industry, arranged by the Institute of Physics, will be
given on Tuesday, July 4, at 5.30 p.m., in the hall
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Victoria
Embankment, W.C.2, by Sir J. Alfred Ewing, whose
subject will be ‘“ The Physicist in Engineering
Practice, with Special Reference to Applications of
Thermodynamics.’’ The chair will be taken by Sir
Charles A. Parsons, vice-president of the Institute.
Tur fifth international Neo-Malthusian and Birth
Control conference will be held in London on July
It-14, under the presidency of Dr. C. V. Drysdale.
Many delegates from abroad are expected and the
discussions have been arranged to take place in
several sections. Registered as a. Newspaper at the General Post Office. en a ~ [All Rights Reserved.
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Gold Medals at eee and London. Grand Prix and Gold Medal
t the International Exhibition, Turin.
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tern, with Russian iron
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superior objectives, with rack
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moved by a knob causing the
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=== in a horizontal plane silvered
prism which can be used at
“°C,” or as an erecting prism
in mount “D,” limelight
burner or arc lame, slide carrier, complete in trayelling case, with reversible
adjustable stage for supporting apparatus.
. F. E. BECKER & [ea 4 PRICE ON APPLICATION.
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Kemble Street, Kingsway, 38,HOLBORN VIADUCT.E C11.
London, W.C.2. ; LONDON.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
“THe DEVELOPMENT OF TRANS-ATLANTIC
r H.S. BIRKETT,
cGill University, Mon-
The Semon Lecture entitled
Rutino-LaryncoLocy” will be delivered by Profes
C.B., M.D. (Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, \
treal), at the Rooms of the ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE,
1 WIMPOI STRE [, W.1, on WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1922, at 5 P.M.
The 'C will be en by the Vice-Chane ellor of the University (Mr.
Hovevurr J. Warinc, M.S., F.R.C.S.). ADMISSION FREE, WITH-
OUT TICKET.
EDWIN DELLER, Academic Registrar.
NATIONAL UNION OF SCIENTIFIC
WORKERS.
25 VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.1.
The main object of the Union is to secure in the interests of national
efficiency that all scientific workers are given the fullest opportunity of
working up to the hilt of their capacity in the service of the community.
There are now eighteen branches of the
formed by :
i.) University Scientific Staffs and Research Workers and Scientific
Staffs in other teaching institutions ;
Union. ‘They include those
(ii.) Government Scientific and Technical Staffs ;
(iii.) Scientific workers in Industry,
The General Secretary of the Union will be pleased to arrange for
members of the. Executive to address meetings of industrial, Government
departmental, or university scientific workers, on the work of the Union.
A list of members and the Annual Report for the year 1920-21 will be
sent on application to
THE GENERAL SECRETARY,
at the above address.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF
SWANSEA.
(A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF WALES.)
Principa NKLIN SIBLY, D.Sc., F.G.S.
The Third Session will open on October 3, 1922.
Courses of study are provided for :
(a) Degrees of the University of Wales in Arts, in Pure Science, and in
Applied Science (Metallurgy and Engineering) ;
(6) Diploma is of the College in Metallurg and i in Engineering ; :
(c) The training of Teachers for Elementary and Secondary Schools ;
(@) The first Medical Examination of the University of Wales and of
other Examining Bodies.
Persons who are not desirous of studying for degrees or diplomas may
attend selected College Classes, provided they satisfy the Authorities of the
College that they are qualified to benefit by such classes.
Entrance Schol: arships will be offered for competition in September 1022.
Particulars concerning admission to the College, and of the Entrance
Scholarships, may be obtained from the undersigned,
EDWIN DREW, Registrar.
University College,
Singleton Park, Swansea.
FINSBURY TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
LEONARD STREET, CITY ROAD, E.C.2
Dean for the Session, 1921-22:
Professor W. H. Eccies, D.Sc., F.R.S.
The College provides practical scientific tra aining for students who desire
to become C ivil, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineers, or C hemists.
Candidates are required to pass an Entrance » Examination in Mathematics
and English, but the Matriculation Certificate of any British University,
n other qualifications, are accepted in lieu of it. The next
Entrance Examination will be held on Tuesday, September 19. Applica-
tions for admission should be forwarded to the College on forms to be
obtained from the REGistRAr. The programme of the College is under re-
vision and will be issued shortly. -
UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS.
DUNDEE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL STUDY AND TRAINING.
Chairman: PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY.
TRAINING COURSE for students desirous of making social work their
profession. Courses for graduates and non-graduates. Univ ersity Diploma.
Students are trained to become Welfare W orkers, Club Leaders, After-Care
Committee Workers, House Property Managers, ete., etc. Information re-
lating to the training of Health Visitors under the Board of Health Scheme
can also be obtained. There is accommodation for resident students at the
Settlement. For Syllabus apply to the SEcrETARY, St. Andrews University.
or to the WARDEN, Grey Lodge Settlement, Dundee. :
NATURE
[Juty 8, 1922
SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE,
CHELSEA, S.W.3.
Day and Evening Courses in Science under Recognised Teachers
of London University.
I. INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT.
Technical Courses in Analytical and Manufacturing Chemistry,
Pharmacy, Food and Drugs, A.I.C. Courses, Metallurgy, Assaying,
Foundry Work, Research.
Il. INDUSTRIAL PHYSICS DEPARTMENT.
Practical work in General Physics, Applications to Industries,
Metrology, Calorimetry, Illumination, Acoustics, Electrical
Measurement, Research.
lll. BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
Courses for B.Sc., etc., in Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology,
Special Courses in Bio-chemistry, Bio-physics, Bacteriology,
Physiology, Hygiene, Entomology, Plant Pathology. Course for
Tropical Planters, Research.
SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A.,
Telephone; Principal.
CIVILIAN EDUCATIONAL STAFF,
ROYAL AIR FORCE.
Applications are invited for vacant appointments as EDUCATION
OFFICERS, Grade III. and Grade LV., on the Educational Staffs of the
undermentioned establishments :
Boys’ Wing, Royal Air Force, Cranwell, near Sleaford,
Lincolnshire .
No. 1 School of Mmechnicall Training (Boy s), alton near
Wendover, Bucks .
Kensington 899.
Grade III.
Grade IIT.
Electrical and Wireless School! Blower Downs near) Grades III.
Winchester (Airmen and Boys). J and IV.
School of Technical Training (Men), Manston, near) Grades III.
Ramsgate. and IV.
Grades III.
i} and IV.
The Salary scales, to which Civil Service Bonus will be added, are given
below. These scales are provisional and are now being reconsidered.
Allowances up to ten increments of the scale can be made for previous
experience and war service. Preference will be given to candidates who
have served as commissioned officers in any of the three Services. The
principal subjects of instruction are English, Practical Mathematics, Applied
Mechanics and Drawing.
Grade III. (Graduate) £150—£10-£200-£ 15-£350.
current Civil Service bonus, Bppronnerely 4274-4553-
Grade lV. £110—-410-£275.- 2 . 214-£ 450.
Applications must be made on A.M. Form 69, which, together with further
particulars, can be obtained from the SECRETARY, A. E., Air Ministry,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
R.A.F. Depot, Uxbridge (Airmen).
With
ROYAL NAVY.
APPLICATIONS are invited for APPOINTMENTS
STRUCTOR LIEUTENANTS in the Royal Navy.
Candidates must be under 30 years of age, have had a University Train-
ing, and have taken an Honours Degree in Mathematics, Science or Engin-
eering.
Present rates of pay are from 4365 per annum on entry to a maximum of
4049 per annum as Instructor Commander.
Promotion, by selection, to Instructor Captain is also open, with a maxi-
mum of £1,277 10s. per annum.
Retired pay may be granted to Officers over 40 years of age, with a mini-
mum of 12 years’ service, up to a maximum of £450 a year for an Instructor
Lieutenant Commander, £600 a year for an Instructor Commander, and
£900 for an Instructor Captain, according to age and service.
Service victualling, cabin accommodation, and servant are provided, or
allowances in lieu.
An allowance of £50 towards the provision of necessary uniform is payable
on satisfactory completion of probationary service.
For further particulars apply in the first instance to the SECRETARY OF
THE ADMIRALTY, Whitehall, S.W.1.
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
CHAIR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.
The CHAIR of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY in the patronage of the
University Court becomes vacant by the resignation of Professor Niven,
F.R.S., on September 30, 1¢22.
The University Court will proceed to consider an appointment to the
Chair on July 25, 1922. The Salary proposed is £1100.
H, J. BUTCHART,
Secretary to the University
as IN-
Marischal College,
Aberdeen.
DERBY TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
An ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in
CHEMISTRY will be required in September next. Good qualifications
essential. Burnham scale. Forms of application may be obtained from
the PRINCIPAL,
F, C. SMITHARD, ;
Secretary to the Derby Education Committee.
NMATORE
SATURDAY, Ue a 8, pee
CONTENTS.
Metric and British Measures. By. R. a a0.
Influenza.
History of Electrotherapy_
Mustard Gas Poisoning. By Prof. C. Lovatt Evans
Tinctorial Chemistry and Histology. By Dr. M.
Nierenstein : F i
Mineral Resources of Yugoslavia By Velo) Mee
Hydraulics. By F. C. : 5
Our Bookshelf ;
Letters to the Editor :—
The Difference between Series Spectra of Isotopes. —
Prof. J. W. Nicholson, F.R.S. 2
A Possible Reconciliation of the Atomic Models of
Bohn and of Lewis and Langmuir.—W. Hughes
The Intensity of X-ray Reflection from Powdered
Crystals.—Prof. A. H. Compton and Newell L.
Freeman
Discoveries in Tropic al. Medicine. — Sir Ronald
Ross CBo PR. Siar: 5
The Oldest known Rocks of the Earth's Crust. —
Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, F.R.S. 6
An Exception to the Principle of Selection in Spectra.
So» Datta. : : : : 0
The Melbourne Bill. — Sir. J. H.
MacFarland . 2 ; 5
Ball Lightning. —Prof. ye B. Cleland
Ouramoeba.—F. R. Rowley ; R. Kirkpatrick
The Elliptic Logarithmic Spiral.—C. E. Wright
Seasonal Incidence of the Births of Eminent People.
—Dr. F. J. Allen :
The Paris and Liége Meetings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers
Absolute Measurements of Sound.
Dr. Arthur Gordon Webster
Biological Studies in Madeira.
Grabham .
Ten Years of X-ray Crystal Analysis.
Hebutton, PRS. = :
Obituary : :
Current Topics and Events .
Our Astronomical Column
Research Items .
Coral Reefs of the Louisiade Archipelago.
W. M. Davis
Root Respiration. By ‘W.E.B.
Radio Direction Finding in Flying Machines
Industrial Research in India :
Rainfall in Southern Italy and Tripoli
University and Educational Intelligence .
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies.
Official Publications Received — Diary of Societies
University
(Illustrated. ) By
By Dr. Michael
By Dr. A. E.
By Prof.
G2 G2 G2 Ud
Uni G2 Go
Editorial and Publishing Offices e
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address:
Telephone Number :
PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
| and the position is almost unchanged.
Metric and British Measures.
N view of the vigorous and sustained efforts of
the exponents of the metric system, and thie
eminent names that are to be found among them,
it is perhaps not a little surprising that it makes so
little progress towards general acceptance in Great
Britain. The Weights and Measures Act of 1897
legalised the metric denominations for use in trade,
and was expected to lead to its advantages being so
generally recognised that the Imperial system would
soon disappear. Twenty-five years have now elapsed,
In fact, the
policy of compulsory introduction of the metric system
by law, which formerly was always strongly supported,
was ruled out by the Metric Committee of the Conjoint
Board of Scientific Societies in its Report in 1919, and
though the report of this Committee was not adopted
by the Board, the subject of compulsion is not likely
again to be seriously considered for some time at least.
Even the Decimal Association has recognised this
position, and now adyocates a modification of the
Imperial system which will serve as a first step towards
facilitating the ultimate end it has in view. A modi-
fication of some sort is now being called for with
increasing insistence, so that it may be desirable to
examine the principal considerations involved.
A fundamental distinction must, at the very outset,
be drawn between the importance of stability in the
units of quantity and of dimension respectively. The
units of mass and capacity, speaking generally, serve
simply for determining a certain quantity of goods,
and the margin of tolerance is usually fairly large ;
and even if this margin is greatly exceeded, the loss,
to one or the other party to the transaction, is
the value represented by the amount of the error alone.
An alteration in the magnitude of these units, there-
fore, if not very large, would pass almost unnoticed.
Material weights, and to a certain extent measures
also, can be adjusted without any great difficulty,
though the recalibration of weighing machines would
not be quite so simple. The unit of length is of a
different character. Size, which determines the inter-
changeability of parts and fittings, is not capable of
ready adjustment, and an error in dimensions often
involves the waste of the whole article. A change
from one unit to another, not commensurable with it,
must therefore introduce serious difficulty, in that
apparatus designed to suit one unit cannot easily be
adapted to be of service under the other. The only
kind of change which could be accepted without much
inconvenience would be one which left the new unit
expressible, in the terms of the old, by a simple ratio,
the absolute change of magnitude being of minor
30 NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
importance. It was this point which went far towards
determining the general trend of the Report of the
Committee of the Conjoint Board.
The present policy of the Decimal Association must
be examined with this difference in mind. The As-
sociation suggests a step-by-step transition, leading
to a gradual familiarisation of the country with metric
units, until the opposition is so far reduced that a
compulsory metric system Act becomes possible. As
a first step, the pound avoirdupois is to be readjusted
so as to become exactly equal to half a kilogram—
an increase of about ro per cent. The official policy
of the Association is to alter the ounce, dram, and
grain similarly, retaining their present ratios. Dr.
Guillaume prefers, if there is to be a “ piecemeal ”
policy, to make the new pound (soo grams), contain
20 ounces, 250 drams, and 10,000 grains, the per-
centage changes in magnitude being of about the
same order, but not all in the same direction.
It will be seen that, in itself, a change of this sort
could probably be made without serious difficulty, if
it were thought to be necessary.. That is to say, if
a deliberate and agreed decision had been come to
that the metric system exclusively was to be employed
in Great Britain, the transition might well have been
begun in this way. In the absence of such a decision,
the position is less clear. A certain amount of in-
convenience must inevitably arise, particularly in the
introduction of a new series of weights and measures
in retail trade; and although the ultimate introduc-
tion of the metric system might be facilitated by the
proposed modification, it is scarcely likely that those
who are opposed to the end in view will offer any less
opposition to the means employed. Faced with the
ultimate proposal, that the inch should be altered to
constitute one-fortieth of a metre—and this is prob-
ably the least objectionable line of action open—no
concession is to be expected from opponents in
favour of a first step, which does not, in itself, present
very obvious advantages. It is probably far too
seldom realised that the great objection to the metric
system is based upon the incommensurability of the
British and metric units of length. The real battle
lies between the inch and the centimetre. If the
alteration of either, to make it commensurable with
the other, could be admitted, then its ultimate aboli-
tion could follow without much difficulty.
The view is quite widely held that the Imperial
units are, as magnitudes, more suitable for commercial
purposes than the metric. ‘There is, therefore, at least
a possibility that the solution of the metric contro-
versy may be found in the development of a system
based upon the British units, but so modified as to
be capable of treatment on pure decimal lines. The
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Report of the Committee of the Conjoint Board sug-
gests that the possibilities of such a solution should
be explored, and one experiment in this direction has
already been tried with success. The troy pound was
abolished in 1878, but the troy ounce was too firmly
established to be dismissed entirely. Trade in the
precious metals, however, is now carried on in terms
of troy ounces only, and bullion weights are made up
solely in decimal multiples and sub-multiples of that
unit. There has certainly been some activity in this
direction in recent years, and should a really logical
system upon a decimal basis be devised and secure
general acceptance in the countries now using Imperial
units, it may be found that these units are, after all,
destined to survive. Rem eels
Influenza.
Influenza: Essays by several Authors. Edited by F. G.
Crookshank. Pp. xii+529. (London: W. Heine-
mann (Medical Books), Ltd., 1922.) 30s. net.
VALUABLE series of essays is given in this
volume, bringing our knowledge of this devas-
tating disease up-to-date, and at the same time demon-
strating the nebulous character of this knowledge and
our impotence in face of its recurring pandemics. From
the wider point of view the contributions of Drs.
Crookshank and W. H. Hamer are especially valuable.
The seven chapters contributed by Dr. Crookshank
would have been even more valuable than they now
are, had he condensed them and treated his subject
more systematically. They bear evidence of previous
separate publication, with considerable repetition and
occasional laxness in sequence of matter.
The rest of the volume is occupied by chapters on
the clinical and therapeutic aspects of influenza, which
need not detain us, and by a chapter of 175 pages
dealing with the bacteriology of influenza, which would
have gained greatly by severe condensation.
The chief interest of the volume, however, consists
in a full statement of the special views respecting
influenza which the lucid and skilful writing of Dr.
Hamer, ably seconded by Dr. Crookshank, has rendered
important ; and every one wishing to study the epi-
demiology of influenza, and to learn another view than
that apparently favoured in the official report of the
Ministry of Health, will need to study these chapters
carefully.
The question at issue is whether influenza, in the
various forms which are usually recognised as this
disease, is a single specific disease, due to a special
contagium, which may or may not be the Pfeiffer
bacillus ; or whether the same virus may not also be
the cause of “ phases” of influenza, including cases
Juty 8, 1922]
in which the nervous centres are seriously affected, and
in which the varieties of disease included in the Heine-
Medin symptom complex occur.
Dr. Hamer evidently looks to a filter-passing organism
as the likely key to the position, and avers that “ most
of the ‘ causal organisms ’ of bacteriology can be shown
to be mere upstart associated organisms or secondary
invaders.” Using Dr. Crookshank’s conception that
three fundamental factors are concerned, namely, the
disease, the epidemic, and the epidemic constitution,
Dr. Hamer advocates the hypothesis that the cause of
the disease, of the epidemic, and of the epidemic con-
stitution “is the mutating vera causa or primary
influence,” which may be some ultra-visible organism.
Much stress is laid on the epidemics which commonly
precede and follow, or are associated with, typical
influenza. Dr. Hamer evidently thinks that much
of the trench fever in the recent war was influenza.
This may be so, in a proportion of the cases in which
an error of diagnosis was made; but this would not
apply to the cases of true trench fever, the communi-
cability of which by body lice has been demonstrated.
A reference to Malta fever is similarly confusing ; for
if this is to be regarded as belonging to the large
influenzoid group, it is remarkable that it should be
entirely preventible by boiling all goat’s milk which is
consumed by human beings. In Dr. Hamer’s words,
“jn thickly inhabited areas of the globe a kind
of law of coincidence or of overlapping of cerebro-
spinal fever and poliomyelitis and pandemic influenza ”
is visible. This relationship it is maintained is “ not
simply and solely one of concurrence, but of regulated
development in definite sequence,” and Creighton, our
leading historical epidemiologist, is quoted in favour of
the contention that we must keep in mind “ gradations,
modifications, affinities,” and be “ careless of symmetry,
of definitions or clear-cut nosological ideas, or the
dividing lines of a classification.”
With this general proposition we are in accord, and
we may agree also that fixity of type of epidemic
diseases and their causal organisms is not to be assumed ;
but, taking the three diseases just named, it requires
much imagination even to assume that they can all
be due to variants of a common infection. Our know-
ledge of the infecting agent in poliomyelitis is now
considerable ; and although the proof that the meningo-
coccus is the cause of cerebro-spinal fever is not abso-
lutely complete, the converging evidence of bacteriology
and vaccinal treatment is strongly in favour of this con-
clusion. Without adequate reason, to assume that the
contagia of diseases which are commonly associated are
variants of a common contagium is a retrograde scien-
tific step; it appears much more probable that the
true explanation of the frequent association or sequence
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
NATURE 31
of influenza, poliomyelitis, encephalitis lethargica, and
cerebro-spinal fever is that the “‘ epidemic constitution ”’
in these years favours the whole group of infections
and not merely one of them—influenza. There is
close analogy between this view and the view which
explains the coincidences and sequences in seasonal
and pandemic occurrence of scarlet fever, puerperal
fever, rheumatic fever, diphtheria, to which attention
has been directed in investigations by Longstaff and
Newsholme. It can scarcely be contended that all
these diseases are manifestations of a common infecting
agency.
The view just stated appears to be confirmed in the
article in the present volume by Dr. Dwight Lewis of
Newhaven, U.S.A. Classical influenza, in his view, is
caused by the Pfeiffer bacillus, but “ the various waves
of the so-called pandemic of influenza were caused by
consecutive and increasing prevalences of correlated
diseases due to the activation of carriers of the organ-
isms of these diseases, whether by the influenza bacillus
or by the streptococcus.” There is no difficulty in
believing in what we may call a first-cousinship of
diseases, in the influence of one or other of these in
increasing the virulence of another, and especially in
believing in the death-dealing quality of their com-
bined operation, as, for example, that of the organism
of influenza and of the Streptococcus hemolyticus.
The criticisms in the last chapter of the Government
report on influenza are interesting. There is just
enough truth in the statement that “what is not
recorded, or is not known to be recorded, does not
officially happen,” to give it tang.
Dr. Crookshank appears to differ gently from Dr.
Hamer in the description of the intercurrent maladies
as “phases of influenza,’ and suggests that these
“specialised ”” epidemics should be described as
mfluenzoid. With considerable imagination, he suggests
that the recognition of these would be the first step
towards the foretelling of the imminence of pandemic
influenza. If this ever become practicable, it will
constitute an important advance in our knowledge ;
but meanwhile we are all familiar with sporadic cases
of these diseases which are not followed by epidemic
influenza.
In short, this contribution to the subject is provoca-
tive of thought ; and we hope also that it will lead to
more exact epidemiological as well as bacteriological
investigation. It presents a better philosophy of
epidemicity than is usual; and Dr. Crookshank’s
contributions on this aspect of the problem will repay
study. We rather think, however, that he is somewhat
astray in apparently thinking that the importance of
“epidemic constitution ”’—as a factor in producing
pandemicity—is not generally recognised. This is the
32 NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
mystery of mysteries, and we have not yet approached
its solution. But we must approach it ; for recurring
pandemics of influenza like the recent one are more
serious to civilised mankind than even the Great War.
History of Electrotherapy.
An Essay on the History of Electrotherapy and Diagnosis.
By Hector A. Colwell. Pp.xv+180. (London: W.
Heinemann (Medical Books) Ltd., 1922.) 17s. 6d.
net.
N essay of 171 pages indicates a healthy respect
for the subject treated and this is handed on
to the reader who peruses it. Dr. Colwell has in some
ways been fortunate in his subject, because it is one
which yields to historical treatment when approached
by a scholar. Of the evidences of this latter quality
there is plenty of proof throughout this essay ; there
is a happy blending of historical accuracy, judgment
in selection of facts, and a sense of the real importance
of the subject of electrotherapy. The parent subject
is now rather apt to be somewhat eclipsed by the more
youthful one of radio-therapy, yet the benefit derived
from electro-therapeutic measures in diagnosis and in
the treatment of many diseases is a matter which need
not be laboured.
Perhaps more than in any other branch of the healing
art, the scientific advance of the subject to its present
position has been one long series of spasmodic efforts
interspersed between long periods of quiescence and
indeed neglect. The neglect was probably the rational
outcome of the conditions of quackery which often
showed itself in the application of electricity to the
ills of the human body. It is probably not very far
from the truth to correlate this halting progress of the
subject with the parallel state of affairs in the study
and researches of a physical character into the nature
of electricity itself.
It is interesting to read that a professor of physics,
one Jallabert of Genoa, is to be regarded as the first
scientific electrotherapist ; for it isa matter of history
that, in 1747, in collaboration with the surgeon Guyot,
the electrical current was employed by him to produce
muscular contractions in injured limbs, thus giving
them the exercise necessary for the restoration of their
normal functions. Though this is the case, the found-
ing of modern electrotherapy occurred almost a century
later as a result of the work of Duchenne of Boulogne.
The essay traces the growth of the subject to the
present day. The last forty pages are devoted to the
subject of radiology, but perhaps the lapse of time since
the discovery, of X-rays has been insufficient for a
successful treatment of the subject on historical lines.
Four pages of notes and an index complete a volume
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
which is very well produced and illustrated by a number
of plates of great individual interest.
The author is to be congratulated on an essay
which marks out so clearly the milestones which have
been passed and the obstructions which have been met
in the journey of electrotherapy to its present-day
status.
Mustard Gas Poisoning.
The Medical Aspects of Mustard Gas Poisoning. By
Prof. A. S. Martin and Dr. C. V. Weller. Pp. 267.
(London: Henry Kimpton, 1919.) 42s. net.
HIS volume is a belated account of investigations
carried out at Michigan during the war; in
1917 1t would have been eagerly welcomed, at the date
of publication which it bears it would have been
decidedly interesting, at the present time it will only
be so to specialists and historians. It tells, with a
wealth of detail which seems needless, of the effects
of f--dichlorethyl sulphide, or mustard “ gas,” on
various animals and on men accidentally gassed with
it at factories in America where the substance was
manufactured for gas offensive purposes during the
war.
The substance is a general protoplasmic poison,
readily penetrating the epidermis and other tissues ;
once inside the cells it is probably hydrolysed, and the
extensive damage is due to local liberation of hydro-
chloric acid. The chief effects are therefore a destruc-
tion of all the cells with which the substance comes into
contact ; the eyes, lungs, and skin are the most likely
to be affected, and the danger lies chiefly in the fact
that the substance has but little smell, so that dangerous
concentrations may be encountered without arousing
suspicions in those unacquainted with the properties.
As the substance is a liquid of high boiling-point, soil
or other materials which have been fouled with it may
remain a source of danger for days.
Treatment of the affected parts is directed chiefly
to the alleviation of symptoms ; chlorine destroys the
substance, so that local application of hypochlorites
is useful in the treatment of skin burns, which are the
most troublesome effects likely to be met with in men
whose eyes and lungs are protected by the wearing of
respirators.
The reviewer worked the chief
physiological effects of this substance on animals in
the spring of 1916, at the suggestion of his colleague
Dr. H. W. Dudley ; the results were reported through
the proper channels, but were not published. The
Germans first used the substance some fifteen months
afterwards.
The work before us is the most complete and accurate
himself out
Juty 8, 1922
NATURE 23
account of the subject of mustard gas poisoning extant.
Let us hope that it will be long before such a book is
needed again ; should there be another big war in our
time, this work will provide a complete account of
the properties of a substance which, had it been used
earlier in the recent war, would almost certainly have
proved a deciding factor.
C. Lovatr Evans.
Tinctorial Chemistry and Histology.
Untersuchungen tiber Echtfirbung der Zellkerne mit
kiinstlichen Beizenfarbstoffen und die Theorie des
histologischen Féarbeprozesses mit gelosten Lacken.
Von Prof. Dr. Siegfried Becher. Pp. xx+318.
(Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 1921.) tos. 6d.
HERE have been several attempts to evolve a
scientific basis of the staining processes which
are used in histology, but nothing as comprehensive
as the book under review has so far been produced. It
is the outcome of more than twenty years of research on
the application of tinctorial chemistry to histology.
The book contains a remarkable amount of sound
chemistry, and one cannot but wonder how a professor
of zoology and comparative anatomy could have found
the time to acquire such profound knowledge of a
subject so removed from his special lines of thought
and study. Dr. Becher has been very successful in the
manner in which he has combined histology with
chemistry, and even the few peculiarities in his chemical
terminology and chemical formule, such as, for example,
his eccentric formula :
for phthalic anhydride, only add to the peculiar charm
of the book. They vouch, at least, for the fact that
‘the author has not blindly copied his chemical matter,
which is too often the case when biologists develop
chemical tendencies.
That the rituals of histology will have to give place
to chemical common sense is evident from Becher’s
researches, which show conclusively that successful
staining depends on one factor only, namely a well
selected “ triple-alliance” (a bon mot presumably
chosen by Dr. Becher before the War) of tissue,
mordant, and stain. Careful considerations of the
individual and combined chemical properties of these
three factors lead to success, their neglect spells
NO. 2749, VOL. I10]
failure. This is the /et-motif of the whole research,
which is abundantly supported by more than 2000
experiments. Becher’s researches lead him also to
the following generalisations, namely (1) the solubility
of the “lakes” (metallic compounds of organic
colouring matters) is of great importance, for good
staining depends not on the solubility of the dye, but
on that of the “ lake,” and (2) that all ‘lakes ” of the
hydroxy-anthraquinones are of general use for nuclear
staining. The hydroxy-anthraquinones have been
specially studied by Becher and the attention of
histologists may be directed to pp. 271-275, which
give a practical summary of these results.
However, not only histologists, but also chemists
will find much in this book that will be of interest to
them. ‘There is too much belief in the infallibility of
Griebler’s stains in histological circles and the British
dye industry would, perhaps, be well advised to pay
some attention to this particular aspect of tinctorial
chemistry. That not only Germany but also other
countries manufacture dyes which give good histological
results is again also evident from the work under review,
since Dr. Becher has successfully used French, Swiss,
Dutch, Belgian, and British dyes.
Reference might, perhaps, be made to a few
minor errors, such as the statement on p. 121 that
ellagic acid was synthesised by Georgievic in 1913,
whereas it was actually synthesised by Perkin and
Nierenstein in 1905. Such slight defects, however,
detract little or nothing from the value of the book,
which is certainly the best of its kind so far published.
M. NIERENSTEIN,
Mineral Resources of Yugoslavia.
The Geology and Mineral Resources of the Serb-Croat-
Slovene State: Being the Report of the Geologist
attached to the British Economic Mission to Serbia.
By D. A. Wray. (Department of Overseas Trade.
Ref. No. F.E. 383). Pp: (London: H.M.
Stationery Office, 1921). 35. 6d. net.
DDT
HE Department of Overseas Trade has rendered
a distinct service to economic geologists in
publishing an account of the mineral resources of
Yugoslavia, because our knowledge of this subject has
hitherto been decidedly fragmentary. A few of the
mineral deposits have long been well known, such as
the mercury mines of Idrija, the copper mines of
Majdanpek and the iron mines of Vares, but systematic
information was lacking, and this has now been supplied
by the painstaking work of Mr. D. A. Wray.
After a brief introduction dealing with the more
important general and economic features of the new
BI
34
state of Yugoslavia, we have first a brief but clear
account of the geological structure of the region under
discussion ; it is greatly to be regretted that this part
of the work was not illustrated by a geological map of
some kind, even though it were only a small sketch
map, as this would have been extremely helpful for a
proper understanding of the somewhat complex geology.
The various mineral deposits are next described in
much detail, this constituting the principal and indeed
the most valuable portion of the work. Under the
heading of coal it is shown that true bituminous coal
is very scarce, but that there are considerable reserves
of lignites, which amount probably to about 1900
millions of tons, whilst the possible reserves are even
greater. With the exceptions of some of the smaller
beds of Liassic and Cretaceous coal in Serbia, all the
coals are of Tertiary age and are for the most part of
inferior quality, their calorific power lying usually
between 4ooo and 5000 calories. They can, however,
be used successfully on railways, for steam raising and
for domestic purposes, but are not suited for metal-
lurgical operations or other work where high tempera-
tures are required. Apparently the coal resources of
the State would cover satisfactorily the great majority
of its requirements, were it not for the grave lack of
means of communication, which also has hindered in
no small degree the development of the various coal-
fields.
There are quite a number of deposits of iron ore ;
according to Dr. Katzer, the Government geologist,
the more or less known reserves of iron ore amount to
some 22 million tons, of which r5 millions are limonite.
Mr. Wray is of opinion that “ the total reserve tonnage
may safely be computed at 30 to 4o million metric
tons.’ The iron industry is, however, quite in-
significant ; there are a few small blast-furnaces,
chiefly in the Vares district, charcoal being apparently
the only fuel used ; one of these furnaces, situated at
Krapuli, 2 kilometres south of Vares, is said to have a
daily output of more than roo tons of pig iron, probably
the largest ever obtained from a charcoal furnace.
Owing to the want of good coking coals and the defec-
tive means of transport, there seems at present little
probability that this industry can attain dimensions
of any importance.
There are well-known copper mines at Majdanpek,
which have been worked since Roman times ; the out-
put from 1870 to 18qo is stated to have totalled about
2500 tons of copper. Another important group of
mines is that of Bor, now being worked by a French
company ; the production is said to have gone up to
the high figure of 7575 metric tons of copper in the
year 1911-12. The famous quicksilver mines of Idria
have been worked ever since the fifteenth century,
NO. 2749, VOL. I10]
NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
the annual output since 1900 having been of the order
of 500 tons.
Among the other minerals that have been or are
being worked may be named iron pyrites, manganese
ore, chrome ore, antimony ore, gold, lead ore, zinc ore,
bauxite, meerschaum and rock-salt.
It will be clear that Mr. Wray has done his work
extremely well and has collected a great bulk of very
valuable information. It is, however, to be regretted
that he did not submit his proofs for revision to some
competent metallurgist, as several blunders forming
serious blemishes in the report would in this way have
been detected. For instance, Mr. Wray states that
there are at Majdanpek “‘three furnaces of the
“Knudsen ’ type (Sulitelma and Co., Norway),” whereas
the Knudsen process is conducted in a special form of
converter, and was worked out by the inventor at the
well-known Sulitelma mines. Again, his description
of the “ Majdan” furnaces, evidently a primitive form
of blast-furnace, is quite unintelligible; he writes :
“The pig-iron came out in part with the scorie, and
in part remained in the bottom of the furnace. The
latter product was much preferred, as by the continual
action of swiftly-moving hammers (driven by water-
power) it lent itself directly to treatment.” It is
obvious that if this material was pig-iron, it could not
have been worked under the hammer, and we are left
in doubt whether it was malleable iron or steel, or
whether it really was pig-iron which was converted
into malleable iron in some kind of a finery ; either of
these might be the correct explanation, whereas the
statement as it stands is obviously incorrect.
Nate Ib
Hydraulics.
Hydraulics with Working Tables. By E. S. Bellasis.
Third Edition. Pp. vili+ 348. (London: Chapman
and Hall, Ltd., 1920.) Price 18s. net.
YDRAULICS is largely an empirical science and
as experience accumulates it is to be expected
that the formule expressing the flow of water in
particular conditions will be modified either in form or
by a change in the experimental coefficients. The
author of the book before us has had considerable
experience in the irrigation department of India, and
it might have been expected, therefore, that new data
confirming or modifying generally accepted formule
would have been incorporated ; particularly additions
to knowledge in those cases in which the experimental
| work has been small might have been forthcoming in this
work. We look in vain, however, for such new data ;
the author has been content to discuss certain principles,
to accept the generally accepted formule and to illus-
Jury 8, 1922]
NATURE 25
trate their applications in connexion with important
practical problems. To determine the flow in pipes
and channels the author adheres to the old Chezy
formula and gives tables of values of the coefficient C.
He not unreasonably points out that this formula has
the advantage of simplicity over the logarithmic
formule, but he does not adduce evidence from his
experience as to the comparative accuracy of the results
they give. Thus the serious student of hydraulics can
scarcely be satisfied with the treatment.
The chapter dealing with variable flow in open
channels is of considerable interest and importance,
and contains valuable suggestions to those who deal
with such channels, especially when the streams are
dammed by weirs and barrages. The correct form of
the surface up stream from such barrages is, however,
not satisfactorily discussed ; the problem is admittedly
a difficult one, but of importance, and needs more
adequate treatment than that given by the author.
The brief chapter on unsteady flow deals with the
time of emptying vessels and with waves in open
channels ; there are also brief remarks on the effects
of waves and floods assisting in scouring or causing
deposits. The work concludes by a brief chapter
on the dynamic effect of flowing water.
The student will find this work suitable for reading
in conjunction with some work on hydraulics which
deals with the subject from the fundamental rather
than from the practical engineer’s point of view. The
development in the volume under notice is not suffi-
ciently logical for the student desirous of under-
standing thoroughly the fundamentals of the subject,
but he as well as the practising engineer will find it
both useful and interesting. 15 (GIy
Our Bookshelf.
Applied Entomology: An Introductory Text-book of
Insects in their Relations to Man. By Prof. H. T.
Fernald. (Agricultural and Biological Publications.)
Pp. xiv+386. (New York and London: McGraw-
Hill Book Co., Inc., 1921.) 215. net.
Text-Booxs of applied entomology are usually com-
piled according to one of two methods. In one type
of book the various injurious insects are classified and
enumerated under their respective orders and in the
other type they are dealt with under the crops or other
objects with which they are associated. The first
method, which is the one adopted by Prof. Fernald, is
unquestionably the better way of presenting the subject
to the elementary student. The alternative method is
more adapted to the needs of a practical reference
book, in which the primary consideration is to render
the information available by means of the most con-
venient, although not necessarily the most scientific,
manner of presentation.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Prof. Fernald has carried out his task with conspicu-
ous ability, and the book is certainly worthy of the
Massachusetts school of entomology. Within a com-
pass of less than 4oo pages he manages to give the
essential facts concerning the biology and control of
all the more important insects affecting man, either
directly or indirectly, in the United States. The
general introductory chapters are perhaps a little too
much abbreviated; nevertheless, they contain the
essential elementary facts concerning the structure and
metamorphoses of insects, and the principles of control
commonly in vogue. ~ Twenty-four orders of insects
are recognised, and each is dealt with in turn, whether
it contains injurious species or not. The student is
thus enabled to view the class Insecta more or less as
a whole, and appreciate the place of each order in the
scheme of nature. The work is adequately illustrated
and well printed. A few misprints are noticeable in
the explanatory text relating to eight or nine of the
illustrations, but they are not sufficiently serious to
detract from the value of the book. A. D. Inns.
Exploration of Air :
By A. Buchanan.
Murray, 1921.)
Out of the World North of Nigeria.
Pp. xxiv+258. (London: John
16s. net.
THE journey which Mr. Buchanan describes in this
volume was undertaken at the instance of Lord
Rothschild. Its object was to link up the chain of
zoological geography across the country lying between
Algeria and Nigeria. Starting from Kano in Northern
Nigeria, the author traversed the French Territoire
Militaire du Niger of the Western Sudan and reached
the mountainous region of Air, which had not been
visited by any European since Dr. Barth passed
through it seventy years ago. Mr. Buchanan’s style
is vivid and his narrative racy ; he touches but lightly
on the hardships he had to endure in this arid section
of the African continent. He is at his best when he
describes the vicissitudes of tracking down some much
coveted specimen. His accounts of the natives with
whom he came into contact, although not sufficiently
detailed to be of much value to the ethnologist, will
give the general reader a very good idea of the character
of these peoples. He devotes a chapter to the Touaregs
of Air, in which he gives a very fair account of the
more salient elements of their culture and of their
costume, of which the veil worn by the men is the
most characteristic feature. It is to be regretted,
however, that he has not given a more detailed de-
scription of a people so little known.
The Principles of Radiography. By Dr. J. A. Crowther.
Pp. vii+138. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1922.)
7s. 6d. net.
Dr. CrowrHER’s book is intended primarily for those
beginning the study and practice of medical radiology,
to “whom it should be of considerable service. The
author gives in a lucid and practical manner an
account of the principles involved in the production
of a skiagram and the mode of construction and action
of the apparatus used. The subject-matter of the
book forms part of a series of lectures given by the
author to candidates for the Diploma in Medical
Radiology and Electrology at Cambridge University.
36
NATORE
[JuLy 8, 1922
The elementary principles receive full treatment,
nearly fifty pages being devoted to their consideration.
After a description of the properties of X-rays and the
peculiarities of X-ray tubes, the production of high-
tension currents is treated. The remaining chapters
are devoted to the various parts of an X-ray installa-
tion, the actual taking of skiagrams, and the localisation
of foreign bodies.
The description given to Fig. 25 will no doubt be
altered in a future edition and the X-ray tube depicted
in Fig. 26 be given terminals of different signs. Though
written by a physicist, it is evident that the writer
has had some practical experience in the radiography
of the human subject, which enhances the value of
the book.
The Principles of Mechanical Refrigeration. (A Study
Course for Operating Engineers.)- By Prof. H. J.
MacIntire. Pp. vili+252. (New York and London :
McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1922.) 12s. 6d.
THE engineering courses at our Universities and
Technical Schools deal as a rule much more thoroughly
with the conversion of heat into work than with
the conversion of work into heat, or rather, into the
absence of heat. This holds to a considerable extent
for American universities and colleges, and it is for
engineers so trained that the present volume is intended.
Attention is directed chiefly to the details in which
refrigerating machinery differs from the machinery
with which the average engineer is familiar. It is
probably due to the simplicity of the new problems
which the ammonia refrigerating plant brings before
the mechanical engineer that ammonia owes its popu-
larity. The actual cost of producing a given amount
of refrigeration is almost the same by the three or four
methods at present in use, and the author of the present
work thinks that the carbonic acid has many advan-
tages over the ammonia method. Ethyl chloride used
with a rotary compressor is extensively used in the
American Marine, and much more information on the
use of this material would be welcomed by refrigerating
engineers in this country. The book contains tables
‘of the properties of refrigerants compiled from Bureau
of Standards reports, which are more up-to-date than
any with which we are acquainted in books published
in this country.
The Stagery of Shakespeare. By R. Crompton Rhodes.
Pp. xii+102. (Birmingham: Cornish Bros., Ltd.,
1922.) 4s. 6d. net.
Mr. Ruopes’s little book is an important contribution
to the study of the stage-craft of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. His method has been to compare
closely the stage directions of the quarto editions of
the plays and those of the First Folio. He finds that
in the quartos which are generally recognised as
pirated, the stage directions have the character of
observations rather than of instructions, as might be
expected from the circumstances of their origm. As
a result of the comparison, Mr. Rhodes is able to offer
a number of suggestions as to the use of the curtains to
provide a recess on the stage and the use of the balcony
covering the three terms used by Shakespeare, “‘ aloft,”
“above,” and “at a window.” His deduction that
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
in those cases in the First Folio, where there are no
stage directions or very few—‘‘ The Two Gentlemen
of Verona,” ‘* The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “‘ Measure
for Measure,” ““ The Winter’s Tale,” and.‘‘ King John,”
—we are dealing with a text assembled from the
players’ parts, deserves attention in the consideration
of a difficult problem, for the solution of which Sir
Sydney Lee’s theory of transcripts in private hands
does not appear entirely convincing.
Twenty-Five Years in East Africa. By Rev. John
Roscoe. Pp. xvi+288+xix Plates. (Cambridge :
At the University Press, 1921.) 25s. net.
In this volume, Mr. Roscoe has given an account of
some of his experiences and observations of the manners
and customs of the natives of East Africa during his
twenty-five years’ service as a missionary in that area:
In particular his aim has been to describe the con-
dition of the country and the natives when first he
took up his work. From this point of view, his book
forms a useful pendant to the more strictly ethno-
graphical works he has already published dealing with
the Baganda and other Bantu tribes. The connected
narrative adds colour to these analytical studies. When
Mr. Roscoe first arrived in the country the Uganda rail-
way, of course, was not in existence, and he gives a vivid
picture of the difficulties encountered by the traveller,
arising both from the character of the country and the
untrustworthiness of the native carrier, the only means
of transport. To many of his readers the most in-
teresting section of the book will be that dealing with
the events, of which he was an eye-witness, leading
to our assumption of the Protectorate over Uganda.
In this account, curiously enough, Sir Frederick Lugard
is mentioned only incidentally.
Joseph Glanvill and Psychical Research in the Seven-
teenth Century. By H. Stanley Redgrove and I. M. L.
Redgrove. Pp. 94. (London: William Rider and
Son, Ltd., 1921.) 2s. 6d. net.
JOSEPH GLANVILL is no doubt best known to the
modern reader as the source of inspiration of Matthew
Arnold’s well-known poem, and secondly as author of
a treatise on witchcraft which W. E. H. Lecky de-
scribed as “ probably the ablest book ever published
in defence of the superstition.” It is not so generally
known that Glanvill was an ardent advocate of the
experimental method and a sturdy opponent of dog-
matism. He was not only a Fellow of the Royal
Society, being elected in 1664, and a friend and admirer
of Robert Boyle, but in addition to making three com-
munications to the society which appeared in the
Transactions, he was the author of an account of the
advances in the various departments of scientific know-
ledge since the time of the ancients. Incidentally in
this work he suggested that the Torricellian vacuum
was not an absolute void. In the short account of
Glanvill under notice his various activities are noted
and his views set forth, for the most part, in his own
words. The authors are, however, chiefly interested
in his psychic investigations, on account of which he
may be considered, legitimately, to be the founder of
modern psychical research.
I)
Juty 8, 1922]
NATURE
37
Letters to the Editor.
[The-~ Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Wo notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
The Difference between Series Spectra of Isotopes.
Pror. P. EHRENFEST and Prof. N. Bohr, in their
letters to NATURE of June 10, have raised the inter-
esting question of the difference to be expected
between the spectra of isotopes. Much confusion,
as their letters clearly indicate, exists on the subject,
and while not in disagreement with any of their
conclusions, I should like to make a few remarks
which may tend to elucidate the matter somewhat
further.
Prof. Ehrenfest raised the question in relation to
the spectra of the isotopes of lithium—the subject of
an investigation by Prof. Zeeman—and pointed out
that the factor M/(m+M) in the Rydberg constant
was only deduced by Bohr—and subsequently used
by Fowler to obtain the best estimate we have for the
ratio m/M, in his Bakerian lecture—for the case of
an atom with a single electron. He justifiably rejects
any conclusions founded on its application to atoms
with more than one electron, and Prof. Bohr entirely
concurs. Ehrenfest’s illustration of an atom in which
the mass of the nucleus, on account of symmetry,
does not enter into the spectrum at all, is perhaps a
sufficient indication of the difficulty of the problem,
if such symmetrical atoms can exist, a matter which
appears improbable.
The spectra of the lithium isotopes are at present
peculiarly interesting since the announcement that
Prof. M‘Lennan has isolated them and found a differ-
ence which is greater than that calculated by the Bohr
formula, and in fact three times this value, while 3
is the accepted atomic number of lithium. The
quantum theory is unable to explain this large
separation, and its exponents must doubt the fact
that M‘Lennan’s new series is the spectrum of an
isotope. There are two alternatives—it may be
a combination series or a spark series. In an investi-
gation which the present writer made a year ago, on
some of the simpler possible orbits in a lithium
atom with only two electrons, a specially simple class
of orbits was found. Although the work is not yet
published, it is possible to state that its result gave,
as the principal spark-line of lithium, a value very
close to \ 6708, the red line shown in the ordinary
spectrum. This line had already been suspected, by
several spectroscopists, to have a spark component.
In these simple orbits of a lithium atom positively
charged, the two electrons are behaving very differ-
ently. The orbit of one of them is only about +; the
linear dimensions of that of the other, so that the
Bohr formula for one electron is nearly applicable.
In fact, the orbits are very closely analogous to those
now generally accepted for the neutral helium atom,
‘which can take two forms, in both of which the orbit
of one electron is very small compared with that
of the other; the orbits differ mainly in the fact that
in ortho-helium they are practically coplanar, and
in parhelium practically perpendicular.
' I have found it possible by a choice of the simpler
orbits, and by the supposition made by Sommerfeld
and others as to the invariability of the energy W
for all possible orbits, to show that the inner orbit
has a radius only about 7, of that of the outer.
Thus the Bohr formula is again nearly true, and the
| ‘Rydberg constant in the ordinary helium series is not
very different from its value in the Pickering series.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Such results are suggestive, and appear to indicate
that when there are many electrons in an atom,
a ratio roughly of order ; exists between the orbital
radii of the two outer consecutive electrons. An
immediate consequence is that the Bohr formula
would never be very far wrong in its use for a rough
determination of the separation to be looked for in
the spectra of isotopes. If the correspondence with
these results does not, however, extend to heavier
atoms, we are precluded from making any prediction
without the knowledge of the general position—
on the average—of the centre of mass of an atom.
In a problem of this nature no general treatment is
possible, and no general simple law of separation
down the Periodic Table is to be expected.
J. W. NicHotrson.
Balliol College, Oxford, June 12.
A Possible Reconciliation of the Atomic Models
of Bohr and of Lewis and Langmuir.
BROADLY speaking, the merits of Bohr’s atomic
model lie in its very accurate explanation of the
reaction of atoms and molecules with radiation,
while those of the Lewis-Langmuir model lie in its
very satisfactory representation of the mechanism
of chemical combination, but the merits of either
model are lacking in the other. Both must therefore
possess properties which are accurate representations
of the truth, and the problem remains to devise a
third model which will incorporate those properties
in its structure. The following considerations lead
to a modification of the Lewis-Langmuir model,
which appears to be a satisfactory solution of the
problem—so far as I am aware it is new.
Consider first the well-known Lewis-Langmuir
model for any atom. It is built up of the central
nucleus and its surrounding electrons the mean posi-
tions of which are fixed with respect to one another
and to the position of the nucleus. Now in order to
account for the reaction between the atom and
radiant energy it is necessary to assume that these
electrons possess acceleration of some kind. The
particular kind most agreeable with the results of
experiment is the orbital acceleration assumed by
Bohr. But since the electrons are fixed (or can be
assumed to move but very slightly from their fixed
mean positions) in the lLewis-Langmuir model,
orbital acceleration is impossible.
Now, apparently, a way out of this difficulty is to
assume that the electron shells are fixed and the
nucleus rotates on an axis.
By the Theory of Relativity it is immaterial whether
—viewing a given atom—we regard the electrons as
describing orbits around a fixed nucleus (not fixed in
position only) or whether we regard the nucleus as
rotating inside the electron shell or shells with each
electron fixed relatively to the others. That is, the
nucleus possesses acceleration with respect to the
electrons, or what is the same thing, the electrons
possess acceleration with respect to the nucleus in
spite of the fact that they are fixed relatively to outside
systems such as other electron shells. Therefore this
model when viewed with respect to the electron shells
is precisely the same as the Lewis-Langmuir model,
and, furthermore, with respect to the whole atom it
possesses all the merits of Bohr’s model. That is, it
appears to be a satisfactory reconciliation of the two
atomic models.
Furthermore, the proposed model possesses the
further merit that by its aid we can predict the exist-
ence of isotopes. Thus if the nucleus of a given atom
possesses more than one stable axis of rotation with
respect to itself, or to its surrounding shells of elec-
38
NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
trons, or to both, and these axes are associated
different amounts of energy, it is possible for the mass
of the atom to be different for the different positions
of the nuclear axis, since by the Theory of Relativity
energy possesses mass. That is, the model proposed
predicts the existence of isotopy. If the direction
of the nuclear axis as described above is determined
by the structure of the outer shell of electrons, we
should expect the existence of different axes in the
same atom to be favoured in those atoms the outer
shells of which are complete (inert gases), nearly com-
plete (halogens), or just forming (alkali metals). An
inspection of Aston’s list of isotopic elements shows
that it is in the neighbourhood of the inert gases that
the phenomenon of isotopy chiefly occurs.
W. HuGuHEs.
63 Goldington Avenue, Bedford.
The Intensity of X-ray Reflection from Powdered
Crystals,
In the May number of the Philosophical Magazine
which has just reached us, Mr. C. G. Darwin has
presented a most valuable discussion of the reflection
of X-rays from imperfect crystals. He shows that,
on account of the difficulty in determining the effec-
tive extinction coefficient of the X-rays in such
crystals, it is very difficult to calculate with accuracy
the intensity of the reflected beam. Hence he is
unable to make a satisfactory comparison between the
theoretical formule and the existing experiments on
the intensity of X-ray reflection. This result is in
general agreement with the conclusion reached by one
of us (Physical Review, July 1917) on the basis of
somewhat similar considerations.
Mr. Darwin concludes that a more satisfactory test
might be made on powdered crystals, since in this
case the only factor contributing appreciably to the
extinction is the ordinary absorption of the X-rays in
the powder, which can be measured directly. We had
arrived at the same conclusion, and have made
quantitative measurements of the intensity of the
X-rays scattered by powdered crystals.
In our most recent experiments, the Ka line from
molybdenum (+0-708 A.), after reflection from a
crystal of rock-salt, was allowed to fall upon a plate
of powdered sodium chloride. The first order reflec-
tion from the [100] faces of the powdered crystals
then entered the ionisation chamber. The method
was thus similar to that employed by W. H. Bragg
(Proc. Phys. Soc., Lond., 33, 222, 1921) except that
the primary rays were homogeneous. The ratio of
the energy reflected into the ionisation chamber due
to this first order line to that incident upon the plate
was 2°94X1074, with a probable error of about Io
per cent. The theoretical intensity of the line was
calculated from a formula identical in significance
with Darwin’s formula (10-4) (loc. cit.), except that
correction was made for the absorption of the X-rays
in the crystal mass. We thus obtained the value
2-7 X 10-4, which is in satisfactory agreement with the
experimental measurement. Thus, at least to a close
degree of approximation, the theory of X-ray reflec-
tion based upon the classical electrical theory gives
accurate results.
This comparison of theory with experiment may
be viewed in another manner. Any formula for the
intensity of X-ray reflection must depend upon the
value of a function y, the magnitude of which is
determined by the distribution of the electrons in the
atoms. The theoretical value 2:7 x 10-4 mentioned
above is based upon the value ¥y?=0:'59, 7.e. upon the
assumption that the intensity is 59 per cent. as great
as it would be if all the electrons in sodium and |
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
chlorine were grouped together at the centres of their
respective atoms. This value was estimated by one
of us (loc. cit.) on the basis of some of W. H. Bragg’s
measurements of the relative intensity of the different
orders of X-ray reflection from rock-salt. The
corresponding value of ¥* as determined by the
measurements of W. L. Bragg, James and Bosanquet
is 0-43 (Phil. Mag., July 1921). To obtain our
experimental value 2-9x 10-4 for the intensity of
reflection from powdered crystals, the value of
must, however, be 0-64. The difference between the
latter two values of ¥? supports Darwin’s suggestion
that the method employed by Bragg, James and
Bosanquet for studying the intensity of X-ray
reflection is not wholly trustworthy.
We hope in the near future to be able to report
experimental results of a considerably higher degree
of accuracy than those described above.
ARTHUR H. Compton.
NEWELL L. FREEMAN.
Washington University, Saint Louis, May 30.
Discoveries in Tropical Medicine.
I am much astonished to learn, for the first time,
from Dr. L. W. Sambon’s letter in NatuRE of May
27, that during the whole period of my work in India
(from April 1895 to February 1899) he “‘ was almost
daily at Manson’s house” and was allowed to read
my private letters to Manson and to “ discuss every
detail.””. Are we to understand by this that his
almost daily visits to Manson’s house continued for
all this period, and that during it he read all my
letters to Manson, numbering 110, and averaging a
thousand words each in length; or merely that he
read a few of the letters which Manson showed to
him from time to time ? Dr. Sambon would appear
to claim the former interpretation of his words,
because he proceeds to suggest that he is intimately
acquainted, in consequence of his knowledge of these
letters of mine, with all details concerning the
relations between my work and the theories of
Manson. If so, I can only say that I am amazed
and hurt. Many of my letters to Manson were of a
very private nature, and it is difficult for me to
believe that he would have handed over the whole
of this correspondence without reserve to a gentle-
man who was at the time a stranger to me and was
in no way concerned with my affairs.
Moreover, when Manson sent some of my letters
to Lord Lister he was, of course, careful to inform me
of the fact; but he never mentioned the name of
Dr. Sambon, so far as I remember, in all the fifty-six
letters which he wrote me in reply to mine, as surely
he would have done had he decided to submit my
letters to a third person without my previous consent.
Nor did Sir Patrick Manson ever mention this matter
to me during the many years which have elapsed
since the correspondence referred to ceased. On the
other hand, if Dr. Sambon did not see all my letters
to Manson, including the private letters, he cannot
possibly have that close knowledge of my work which
he seems to believe he possesses.
The remainder of Dr. Sambon’s communication
in Nature referred to makes me still more doubtful
regarding the interpretation which is to be placed
upon his words ; for it seems to me that he does not
understand the said relations between my work and
the theories of Sir Patrick Manson. May I also take
the opportunity to state that I for one can scarcely
accept as sound any of the conclusions which he has
set forth in your columns in the letter referred to.
Ronatp Ross.
Jury 8, 1922]
NATURE
39
The Oldest known Rocks of the Earth’s Crust.
May I welcome Prof. A. P. Coleman’s letter on
“Geology and the Nebular Theory ”’ in Nature for
June 17, p. 775? It must be admitted that the
achievement of A. C. Lawson at Rainy Lake in 1887,
the elucidation by Sederholm of the floor of Finland,
and the illuminating work of Canadian geologists,
including Coleman, Adams, and Barlow, on the
Grenville Series, have been slow in penetrating
academic circles in the British Isles. The doorways
were almost closed against them, and against the
views of French geologists also, by the dead-weight
of theories of dynamic metamorphism. Yet our
confidence in a fundamental ‘‘ Lewisian ’’ gneiss was
well shaken thirty years ago by Sir A. Geikie’s
announcement that this rock penetrated a_ sedi-
mentary series (see A. Geikie, “‘ Text-book of Geology,”’
4th ed., vol. 2, p. 890) ; and a more detailed acquaint-
ance with the ground would have led the same
observer to withdraw his statement (ibid., p. 895) as
to a “ violent unconformability ’’ between gneisses
and Dabradian sediments in north-west Ireland.
Some of us have lost no opportunity of comparing
the conditions in our homeland with those of broader
Archean areas. But even in our narrow lands, as I
have ventured to urge from 1900 onwards, the teach-
ing of the rocks themselves is unmistakable. The
oldest known rocks are sediments, and the streaky
structure of our ancient gneisses again and again
records the stratification of ordinary sediments in-
vaded by a granite magma.
I have recently put this view before those who
may not be geologists in a volume of “‘ unconventional
essays,’’ containing a chapter on “‘ The search for the
foundation-stones,’’ where Prof. Coleman will find
that his expositions have not been thrown away upon
those whom he has so kindly guided in the field.
GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
An Exception to the Principle of Selection
in Spectra.
In arecent communication (Phil. Mag., April 1922)
Messrs. Foote, Mohler, and Meggers have described
the excitation of a certain type of combination
lines in a new form of discharge tube in which the
applied electrostatic field can exert no influence
upon the radiation. Thereby they made it somewhat
doubtful whether these and other exceptions to the
principle of selection can be attributed to the incipient
Stark effect of the applied field, as suggested by
Sommerfeld and others. In reply to this, Prof. N.
Bohr has pointed out (Phil. Mag., June, 1922) that,
“owing to the screening from external forces, the
experimental arrangement described would be especi-
ally favourable for the accumulation of ions in the
region of the discharge tube,’’ and that “ the field
due to the neighbouring ions and free electrons,
to which the emitting atoms have been subject,
may be of the order of magnitude claimed by the
quantum theory for the appearance of the new lines.”’
Consequently Prof. Bohr thinks that the results of
Foote, Mohler, and Meggers do not furnish a sufficient
basis for the conclusion they have drawn.
Recently, however, in the course of an investigation
on the absorption spectrum of potassium, the results
of which will be published shortly, the combination
lines Is—2d (4642) and 1Is—3d (\3649) have been
obtained as absorption lines. The existence of free
electrons and the consequent electrostatic field of
atomic origin in the absorption tube is highly im-
probable. The present experiment therefore seems
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
to support the conclusion drawn by Messrs. Foote,
Mohler, and Meggers. S. Datta.
Spectroscopy Laboratory,
Imperial College of Science and Technology,
South Kensington, S.W.7.
The Melbourne University Bill.
In the issue of Nature for March 16, which has
just reached Australia, there is a leading article on
the Melbourne University Bill. That Bill was
drafted more than eighteen months ago, and though
we have a Government in sympathy with the highest
ideals of our University, it is still a Bill and has
not yet become an Act of Parliament. In the article
in question reference is made to a statement drawn up
by the University Association of Teachers, in which
the council of the university is criticised for failure
adequately to protect the interests of the university
and its staff.
It would be unseemly, and probably uninteresting
to a large section of your readers, to enter into the
merits of a “‘ family quarrel ’’ which is the result of
misunderstanding and is, we hope, of a temporary
character. A letter was sent by the council to the
Minister for Public Instruction immediately after
the council was informed that the statement to
which you refer had been forwarded to members of
the Cabinet by the University Association of Teachers.
Let me point out a fact of which you may not be
aware, namely, that while the association contains the
majority of the teaching staff it does not represent the
whole body of professors and lecturers. The state-
ment of the association is crude and contains serious
inaccuracies. I shall deal only with the two criticisms
of the council which you single out.
(1) It ‘failed to protect the interests of the
university by not raising fees.”’ That is not a mere
financial question—it involves a question of general
policy. In view of the fact that an important
section of our community believes that the university
should charge no fees (the University of Western
Australia is free), would it not be childish to raise
the fees before Parliament has settled what our
grant is to be, and till we know definitely whether
that grant will enable us to pay adequate salaries
without raising them ?
(2) The council failed “‘ by asking for an inadequate
increase of the State Grant.’”’ I wish we could have
an increase of the grant for the asking. I think the
attitude of the council is clearly indicated by an
extract from the letter to the Minister for Public
Instruction already referred to. You will there find
the following :
“The council is placed in a false position by
being obliged to correct these statements, for it does
not wish it to be inferred that it thinks the proposed
increase of the University Grant sufficient for what
are now in 1921 its legitimate needs.”
The management of the university council may
not satisfy the impatience of some, but no one
interested in university education need fear that it
will fail for lack of whole-hearted zeal.
J. H. MacFaranp,
Chancellor.
The University of Melbourne, May 5.
[The two criticisms to which Sir J. H. MacFarland,
chancellor of the University of Melbourne, refers,
were made by the University Association of Teachers,
and we expressed no opinion upon them, but we re-
marked, ‘“‘ It is obvious that if a university staff is
thoroughly discontented its efficiency is bound to
suffer.”’ The suggestions made at the end of our
40
NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
article were offered in the hope that they would
assist in settling the difficulties that had arisen
between members of the staff and the council.
Epitor, NATURE. |
Ball Lightning.
Amoncst the notes in NAtuRE of August 4, 1921
(vol. 107, p. 722), is a reference to the occurrence
of ball lightning during a thunderstorm at St. John’s
Wood on June 26. The phenomenon, it is added, is
of great rarity. The following therefore, apparently
another instance of this phenomenon, may be worthy
of record in Nature. It was communicated at the
time to the Meteorological Office in Sydney. On
the evening of January 13, 1920, a very severe
thunderstorm with heavy rain occurred in Sydney.
About 9 p.m. I went out on to the verandah of my
house at Neutral Bay, which overlooked the harbour,
to watch the progress of the storm. This was soon
after its beginning, and the lightning was very vivid
and frequent and the rain heavy. Looking towards
Mosman Bay, I saw descending, rather slowly in an
oscillating way, a large ball of light, seemingly about
the size of a Chinese lantern. This took about
two seconds to descend and be lost to sight in the
hollow towards which Mosman Bay itself lay. The
light seemed to have a violet tinge. Norays emanated
from it. No noise was heard.
J. B. CLreLanp.
The University, Adelaide, South Australia,
May 8. ;
Ouramoeba
I sHav be glad to know whether any readers of
Nature interested in the Rhizopoda have met with
specimens of Leidy’s Ouvamoeba botulicauda ? While
examining some squeezings of Sphagnum from Wood-
bury Common, near Exeter, a few days ago, I found
an active individual and had it under observation for
some time. Fig. 14 on Pl. IX of Leidy’s ‘‘ Fresh-
water Rhizopods of North America ’’ might have been
drawn from my specimen. ;
It is now generally conceded that the characteristic
jointed appendages are filaments of a parasitic alga,
and Archer described amoebae in this condition, from
Ireland, in 1866, but Iam anxious to ascertain whether
similar observations have since been made in other
parts of Great Britain ? F. R. Row Ley.
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, June 8.
Dr. W. L. Porreat of Wake Forest College, N.C.
(U.S.A.), published in Nature of May 24, 1804
(vol. 50, p. 79), a letter recording his finding of
Ouramoeba in Wake Forest, N.C., and asking for
citations of other records. To this inquiry Mr.
Rowley’s note furnishes a late reply, for there has
been no other (in NAtTuRE) in the interval. There
is now, however, a good deal of literature on the
subject. Ouramoeba, as Dr. Poteat was the first to
demonstrate beyond doubt, is simply Amoeba spp.
(A. nobilis Penard, proteus Résel, binucleata Gruber,
villosa Wallich) infested with fungal spores and fila-
ments. In 1898, Mr. Martin F. Woodward of the
Royal College of Science sent Dr. Poteat drawings
of an infested Amoeba presumably found in the
neighbourhood of London (Science, N.S. viii., 1808,
p- 781). There does not appear to be any other
record for England. The latest memoir by E. W.
Gudger, ‘“‘On Leidy’s Ouramoeba,” is in Journ.
Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., xxxii., 1916, p. 24.
RR. KITRKPATRICK,
British Museum (Natural History), London, S.W.7.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
The Elliptic Logarithmic Spiral.
WitH reference to Dr. Rowell’s letter in NATURE
of June 3, p. 716, it may be pointed out that his
curve, so far from being new, is briefly discussed
in Besant’s “‘ Dynamics’’ (Besant and Ramsey,
“ Treatise on Dynamics,” pp. ro1-2). The equa-
tions of the curve may be written
x =ak + Bn),
y =yé + onJ
where (é, 7) lies on a certain logarithmic spiral.
The curve is thus obtainable from this spiral by a
homogeneous strain, whence, amongst others, it will
have the property that its various branches cut a
radius vector at the same angle: this angle differing
for different radii vectores. C. E. WRIGHT.
Artillery College, Woolwich, June to.
Seasonal Incidence of the Births of
Eminent People.
In order to find, if possible, the causes which under-
lie the production of increased numbers of eminent
intellects at certain periods (as, for example, the year
1809 and a year or two before and after it), I collected
statistics of the dates of birth of more than two
hundred eminent persons. The list consists chiefly
of creative intellects,—poets, literati, musicians,
painters, architects, men of science, explorers, and in-
ventors, with a few statesmen and military men.
Analysis of the dates shows that the greater number
of these persons were born in the colder months of
the year; but the distribution of the numbers is
somewhat erratic. February is distinctly the richest
month, having produced a galaxy of eminent persons ;
December comes next; August and June are the
richest among the warm months.
Sixty pre-eminent names, chosen for no reason but
their pre-eminence, were found to be distributed as
follows :—In warmer months: April, 4; May, 6;
June, 7; July, 2; August, 5; September, 3; total,
27. In colder months: October, 4; November, 1;
December, 9; January, 5; February, 9; March, 5;
total, 33.
The difference is more evident when the months
are taken in groups of three, as follows : December to
February, 23; March to May, 15; June to August,
14; September to November, 8.
In order to find whether this distribution corre-
sponds with the ordinary distribution of births through
the twelve months, I compared the numbers with the
average of twelve years taken at a venture from the
Registrar General’s Quarterly Returns, namely, the
period 1844-55. The figures are too numerous for
quotation, but it may suffice to say that I could find
no correspondence between the ordinary distribution
of births and the distribution of births of eminent
persons. In the Registrar General’s Returns the
order of average frequency for the quarter-years
was as follows: April to June, July to September,
January to March, October to December.
Climate can scarcely explain the distribution,
(See letter from Dr. Robert W. Lawson, Nature.
June 3, p. 716.) Cold weather is not unhealthy for
children, and in fact the diseases of the hot months are
among the most fatal for them. I suggest that the
reproductive organs, especially the germ cells, are more
vigorous at certain seasons, producing offspring of
higher quality. The many eminent persons born in
the winter months, December to February, were con-
ceived in the spring, the time of increased vigour of
most living things; whereas the few born in the
autumn months, September to November, were
conceived in the winter. F. J. ALLEN.
Cambridge, June 17, 1922.
el
Juty 8, 1922]
NATURE 4I
The Paris and Liége Meetings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
HE summer meeting of the Institution of Mechani-
cal Engineers was held on June 12-21 in Paris and
Liége. In Paris the meetings were held in the Hall
of the Société des Ingénieurs Civils de France. At the
opening session M. Max Laubeuf, the president of the
French society, and the engineer who more than any
other has been responsible for the development of the
submarine, received the president, Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw,
and members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,
and addressed a few words of welcome. M. Laubeuf
had expected to be away from France at the time of
the meeting, and the formal address of welcome was
therefore delivered by the vice-president, Prof. Leon
Guillet.
The first paper was by Prof. Edouard Sauvage, on
feed-water heaters for locomotives, in which various
types were described, and the economies that might
be expected from their use discussed. The second
paper was an important contribution from Sir Vincent
Raven on the electric locomotive. Broadly speaking,
there are three types of locomotives required for the
successful working of railways, namely: shunting,
freight or goods, and passenger locomotives. For
passenger traffic it is not so easy to standardise loco-
motives as for the other purposes, and considerable
difficulties are met with in designing high-speed loco-
motives of great power. Particulars of a number of
electric locomotives designed by the author and others
were given, but the most interesting was an experi-
mental locomotive that had been designed by Sir
Vincent Raven, and built by the North Eastern
Railway to haul a train of 450 tons, of sufficient power
to start from rest on a rising gradient of x in 78, to
reach a speed of 65 miles an hour on the level, and to
run with safety at 90 miles per hour. The paper is
an important one, and will arouse considerable interest.
The chief engineer of the Paris-Lyon Railway, who is
considering the same problems, spoke enthusiastically
of Sir Vincent Raven’s work. The agreement of these
two engineers to compare their experiences is a real
example of that entente cordiale which such gatherings
must of necessity do so much to encourage. Lord
Montagu of Beaulieu, in a paper on mechanical vehicles
and road surfaces, directed attention to the economic
importance of good road surfaces.
The first paper read on the second morning at Paris
was a very important contribution by Prof. A. Rateau
on the subject of rapid high-altitude flying. The
author pointed out that the aeroplane is the only
vehicle in which the resistance to travel is independent
of the speed, and is directly proportional to the weight
for the same angle of incidence. For high speeds, the
aeroplane must select a height at which the density of
the air is most suitable, and, providing the power of
the engine can be maintained, high speeds can most
easily be obtained at high altitudes. The rarefaction
of the atmosphere at high altitudes makes it impossible
without some special device to maintain the power
of the engine, and, furthermore, pilots and passengers
cannot exist in the rarefied atmosphere without special
provision of oxygen, or being in an air-tight chamber
to which air can be supplied under pressure. Prof.
Rateau has attempted to overcome the former difficulty
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
by using exhaust gases from the engine to drive a
turbine compressor which will supply air to the engine
at ground-level pressure, and also, it is hoped, to the
pilot and passengers in the air-tight chamber. Although
in this country, in France, and in Germany a good deal
of attention has been paid to supercharging of the
engine in order to maintain power, Prof. Rateau’s
paper is the most serious contribution that has been
published on the subject. In certain trials the turbo-
compressor was made to revolve at speeds up to 53,000
revolutions per minute, giving a peripheral speed of
670 m. per second at the tips of the compressor. In
the gas turbine, speeds were attained which gave
stresses due to centrifugal force equal to 123,000 times
the weight of the material. Moreover, the turbine is
worked at a temperature of from 650° to 750° C., and
thus very unusual demands are made upon the material.
Prof. Rateau’s paper was followed by one on air-
compressors by Mr. W. Reavell, of Ipswich, and this
again by a paper on the supersaturated condition as
shown by nozzle flow, by Prof. A. L. Mellanby and Mr.
W. Kerr. It has been suggested that an explanation
of the discharge through a nozzle being greater than
that required by theory can be found by the assumption
that the rate of change of pressure in a nozzle is so
great that supersaturation of the steam takes place.
The assumption is apparently justified by Wilson’s
experiments, but it is difficult to see how the conditions
for a Wilson effect could be obtained in a nozzle.
Prof. Mellanby’s experiments confirm those of other
workers in showing that the flow is greater than could
possibly obtain if the steam did not become partially
supersaturated. In the apparatus used search tubes
were placed in the nozzles to determine the drop of
pressure along the nozzle, and from an examination
of these and the discharge through the nozzles, the
condition of the steam was obtained. The experiments
show that the flow at and near the dry state is excessive
when compared with the theoretical, but that the form
of the flow curve over a small range of superheat
beyond the initially dry condition is not in agreement
with the assumption of complete supersaturation.
The last paper read at Paris was one by Prof. F. C.
Lea onthe effect of temperature on some of the pro-
perties of metals, in which it was shown that the effect
of temperature on the elastic properties of metals may
be more important than upon the ultimate breaking
strengths.~ The significance of this paper was well
illustrated by the difficulties referred to by Prof.
Rateau in his paper on turbo-compressors.
An interesting and important public lecture was
given by Prof. E. G. Coker, on Recent Photo-Elastic
Researches on Engineering Problems. The lecture was
illustrated by a number of large scale experiments,
showing the stress produced in wheel teeth transmitting
power and in material being cut in the lathe in
planing machines and in milling machines. The experi-
ments aroused much interest and enthusiasm, and the
lecturer is to be very sincerely congratulated upon the
success of a lecture necessitating the conveyance to
France of so much delicate apparatus.
A distinguished gathering was held at the Hotel
Continental on Thursday, June 15. Prof. Leon
B 2
42
NATORE
[JuLy 8, 1922
Guillet, responding to the toast of the French engineer-
ing society, replied eloquently, recounting the work
that had been done concurrently by French engineers
and men of science in the many developments that
had taken place during the last century.
Following the very successful meetings in Paris,
members of the Institution journeyed to Liége to
participate with l’Association des Ingénieurs sortis
de l’Ecole de Liége in the celebration of the seventy-
fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Liége Society,
which coincided also with the seventy-fifth anniversary
of the foundation of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers. In connexion with this anniversary an
international scientific congress and exhibition had been
arranged by the Liége Society, and this was opened by
the King of the Belgians on June 18. The members
of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers received
invitations to the opening ceremony. The King in
his opening address referred in particular to the import-
ance of the work of men of science and of engineers
in developing the resources of the world. On the days
following the opening of the exhibition a number of
papers were read at various sections of the Congress,
and visits were arranged to works in the neighbourhood
of Liége. Representatives of the French engineering
society journeyed to Liége with the members of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the association
of the three societies proved of the greatest interest.
It is believed and hoped that the celebrations will do
much to bring about that rapprochement between
the three peoples which is so essential for the future
welfare of Europe and the world.
Absolute Measurements of Sound.!
By Dr. ArtHUR GORDON WEBSTER, Professor of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, Mass., U.S.A.
Te is now more than thirty years since it occurred to
me to devise an instrument that should be capable
of measuring the intensity or loudness of any sound
at any point in space, should be self- contained and
portable, and should give its indications in absolute
measure. By this is meant that the units should be
such as do not depend on time, place, or the instrument,
so that, though the instrument be destroyed and the
observer dead, if his writings were preserved another
instrument could be constructed from the specifica-
tions and the same sound reproduced a hundred or a
thousand years later. The difficulty comes from the
fact that the forces and amounts of energy involved in
connexion even with very loud sounds are extremely
small, as may be gathered from the statement that it
would take approximately ten million cornets playing
fortissimo to emit 1 horse-power of sound.
Before we can measure anything we must have a
constant standard. In sound we must construct a
standard which emits a sound of the simplest possible
character, which we call a pure tone; it will be like
that emitted under proper conditions by a tuning-fork,
which is described by saying that the graph represent-
ing the change of pressure with the time shall be that
simple curve known as the sinusoid or curve of sines.
From this connexion we say that the pressure is a
harmonic function of the time. Unfortunately, the
pressure change is so small that at no point in a room,
even when a person is speaking in a loud tone, does the
pressure vary from the atmospheric pressure by more
than a few millionths of an atmosphere. Thus we
require a manometer millions pe times as sensitive as
an ordinary barometer, and, addition, since the
rhythmic changes occur, not once in an hour or day,
but hundreds of times per second, if we wish the gauge
to follow the rapid changes accurately, we have many
mechanical difficulties.
The problem of a standard of emission has been
solved by a number of persons, including Prof. Ernst
Mach and Prof. Ludwig Boltzmann, and Dr. A. Zernov,
of Petrograd, a pupil of the celebrated Peter Lebedeff.
The problem of an absolute instrument for the reception
and measurement of a pure tone has been also success-
1 From a Friday evening discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on
June 10, 1921.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
fully dealt with by a number of investigators, among
whom may be mentioned Prof. Max Wien, of wireless
fame, the late Lord Rayleigh, and Lebedeff. But there
remains a third step in the process, which is as 1m-
portant as the first and the second. Given the
invention of the proper standard source of sound,
which I have named the “ phone,” because it 1s vow et
praeterea nihil, and of a proper measuring instrument,
which should evidently be called a phonometer, there
still remains the question of the distribution of the
sound in space between the phone and the phonometer.
Any measurements made in an enclosed space will be
influenced by reflections from the walls, and, even if
we had a room of perfectly simple geometrical form,
say cubical, and were able to make the instruments of
emission and reception work automatically without the
disturbing presence of an observer, it would still be
impossible to specify the reflecting power of the walls
without a great amount of experimentation and com-
plicated theory. Nevertheless, this is exactly what
was done by the late Prof. Wallace C. Sabine, of
Harvard University, who employed the human ear as
the receiving instrument. Those who have made
experiments upon the sensitiveness of the human ear
for a standard sound will immediately doubt the
possibility of making precise measurements by the same
ear at different times, and particularly of comparing
measurements made by one ear with those made by
another. Nevertheless, Sabine attained wonderful
success and was able to impart his method to pupils
who carried on his work successfully, so that he was
able to create the science of architectural acoustics and
to introduce a new profession. Still, the skill that
required three or four months to attain by Sabine’s
method may be replaced by a few minutes’ work with
the phonometer.
In order to avoid the influence of disturbing objects,
the observer should take the phonometer to an infinite
distance, which is manifestly impossible. The method
employed was to get rid of all objects except a reflecting
plane covered with a surface the coefficient of reflection ~
of which could be measured. For this purpose the teeing
ground of a suitable golf course was used. With the
present instrument it can be determined in a few
minutes, if there is no wind.
Juty 8, 1922]
NATURE 43
In 1890 I proposed to use a diaphragm made of
paper, which should be placed, shielded on one side, at
the point where the sound was to be measured. In
order that the effect of the sound should not be dis-
torted, the membrane, instead of having to do any
work, as in the case of the diaphragm of the phono-
graph in digging up the wax, or in that of the micro-
mitted the use of fringes in white light, so that it was
possible to use gas, incandescent, or arc light with
excellent effect. A further improvement was intro-
duced by the use of a thin plate of mica for the
diaphragm.
To obtain the sensitiveness necessary to measure
sounds of ordinary intensity, the property of resonance
Fic. 1.—Phonometer.
phone in compressing the carbon, was to be perfectly
free, but was to carry a small plane mirror cemented
on at its centre. In close juxtaposition and parallel
with this was the plane side of a lens which, viewed in
the light from a sodium flame, was to give Newton’s
rings, or interference fringes. Of course, when the
ROE:
OX
(Interferometer not shown.)
is employed twice—7.e. a system of two degrees of
freedom is used. First, the plate resounds to a sound
more strongly as it is tuned more nearly to it; and
second, a resonator that can also be tuned is put behind
the plate. The sound entering by the hole in the
resonator is magnified by the tuning, and acts upon the
Fic. 2.—Parts of the phonometer.
sound falls upon the diaphragm the fringes vibrate
rapidly and disappear from sight.
By the introduction of a Michelson optical interfero-
meter, two of the difficulties of this instrument were
overcome, namely, (1) that of adjusting the lens so that
it would not strike the vibrating mirror, since the
mirrors in the interferometer could be as far apart as
one pleased ; and (2), more important still, it per-
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
plate, which is also tuned. A graph can be plotted in
which one co-ordinate represents the stiffness of the
plate, or rather what may be called the mistuning,
which is the stiffness lessened by the product of the
mass by the square of the frequency. The other co-
ordinate represents the corresponding quantity for the
resonator, the stiffness of which depends simply on
the volume into which the air is compressed, while the
44 NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
effective mass depends on the dimensions of the whole,
and its damping on the sound radiated from the mouth.
It is then found that the tuning should not be such as
to make the representative point occur at the middle
of the figure, making both mistunings zero, but that
both mistunings should be of the same sign and a
certain magnitude, depending on the coefficients of
damping of the two degrees of freedom of the coupled
system. The mathematical theory is precisely that of
a wireless receiver. The ultimate sensitiveness depends
on the smallness of the damping of the plate.
The apparatus as it was built several years ago was
mounted upon a heavy bronze stand, covered at the
back by a heavy bronze cover to keep out the sound,
while the three shafts turning the screws of the inter-
ferometer adjustment protruded through sound-tight
fittings. Upon the front of the instrument a properly
tuned resonator was attached, and at the side was a
Fic. 3.—Front view of phonometer with annular opening,
small incandescent lamp with a straight, horizontal
filament, an image of which was projected by a lens
upon the first mirror of the interferometer. Upon this
was focussed a telescope, giving in the reticule an
image of the horizontal, straight filament, crossed by
the vertical interference fringes seen with white light.
In order to get these the plate must be in the proper
position within a few hundred thousandths of an inch.
The objective of the tuning-fork was carried by a
tuning-fork which oscillated vertically, tuned to the
pitch “of the pure tone to be examined, and this, com-
bined with the horizontal motion of the fringes, resulted
in a figure of coloured fringes in the form of an ellipse.
On slightly mistuning the fork, the ellipse could be
made to go through ‘all its phases, and when it was
reduced to an inclined straight line its inclination was
read off on a tangent scale. The amplitude of the
compression of the air in the sound was then directly
proportional to the scale-reading.
While the interferometer is still used for calibration,
the movement of the diaphragm is recorded for actual
measurements by a thin steel torsion strip carrying a
concave mirror. A lamp with a vertical, straight fila-
ment is viewed through a telescope into which the small
2749, VOL. 110]
mirror focusses the image of the filament on the reticule,
and a magnification of from 1200 to 1500 is used, so
that the sensitiveness is about the same as with ‘the
interferometer.
At first the only method of tuning was the clumsy one
of changing the mass of the diaphragm by adding
small pieces of wax. This was not capable of continu-
ous variation. Now the diaphragm has been discarded
and replaced by a rigid disc supported by three steel
wires in tension. The disc is made of mica or aluminium,
and is carried by a little steel spider containing three
clamps to hold the wire. The tension is regulated by
three steel pegs, one of which is controlled by a micro-
meter screw. The disc is placed in the circular hole
through which the sound enters the resonator. This
has the advantage of reducing damping very largely,
and thus of increasing the sensitiveness enormously.
The instrument now competes with the human ear,
and can be tuned over two octaves or more.
This sensitiveness can be demonstrated by pro-
jecting the coloured interference fringes on a screen
and singing faintly in a remote part of the room,
when the fringes will disappear. Using the telescope
end of the apparatus, the instrument will indicate the
sound of a tuning-fork when one can scarcely hear it.
It is obvious that the disc may be made the diaphragm
of a telephone and thus increase its sensitiveness. In
fact, Prof. King has used with great success such a
telephone to record wireless messages. He has also
invented another sort of tunable diaphragm com-
posed of a stretched steel membrane with compressed
air behind it, which enables it to be tuned continu-
ously, but over a smaller range.
I now come to the source of sound—the phone.
This has been reduced to a reversed form of the phono-
meter. The disc is driven by an interrupted or
alternating current by means of electromagnets, and
tuned like the phonometer. Its excursion is measured
by a powerful microscope, and the emission of sound is
known in absolute measure. It is now driven by a
triode valve tube, in the manner suggested by Prof.
W. H. Eccles, of Finsbury Technical College, London,
for a tuning-fork. This has been worked out for
me by Dr. Eckhardt at the Bureau of Standards in
Washington.
The third part of the investigation involves a deter-
mination of the coefficient of reflection of the ground.
The phone is set at a convenient height, and the
phonometer at a convenient distance. Either is then
moved along at a constant height and the varying
deflections of the phonometer are read while the sound
remains the same. Interference sets in between the
direct sound and its image reflected in the ground, and
the existence of a minimum is obvious to the most
naive observer by the ear alone. The reflection of
either grass or gravel was found to be about 95 per
cent., while, with a most carefully deadened room,
the walls of which were covered with thick felt, there
was perhaps 20 per cent. reflection. The whole
measurement at both ends and the transmission
checks up with an accuracy of about 2 per cent.
With this apparatus all sorts of acoustical experi-
ments may be performed. By attaching to the
phonometer a long glass: tube or antenna, it has been
possible to explore all sorts of places, such as the
—
a
Jury 8, 1922]
NATURE 45
field within a horn or tube lined with an absorbent
substance. The transmission of sound through fabrics,
walls, and telephone booths may also be quickly
examined. The instrument is used by psychologists and
by telephone and acoustic engineers, and is of interest
to navigators. An interesting by-product is an instru-
ment for showing the direction of an acoustic signal
in the fog. It has been called a phonotrope, on the
analogy of heliotrope, which turns to the sun. It
consists of two equal horns which bring the sound to
the opposite sides of the disc. When the whistle
blows, the band of light spreads out, and on turning
the instrument it closes to zero when the sound is
directly ahead. Thus at several miles the direction
is given to within two or three degrees.
Finally, let us consider that mystery of sound,
the violin, which has been studied by Prof. Barton
of Nottingham, and by Prof. Raman at Calcutta.
This may be described by the engineer as a box of
curious shape, made of a curious substance, wood, of
variable thickness, with two holes of strange figure to
let the sound out of the resonating box. The latter is
actuated by a curious substance, catgut, made of the
intestines of a sheep, and set in vibration by another
curious substance, the tail of a horse. Yet from this
wonderful box we get; the most ravishing sounds,
which affect profoundly the emotions of the most
civilised. Yet the physicist reduces all musical
instruments to combinations of resonators with strings,
membranes, bars, plates, and horns. The mathematical
theory of strings was given by Euler two hundred years
ago, of bars and plates less than a hundred years,
of resonators by Helmholtz and Rayleigh, and I
have recently added a theory of horns which, while
only approximate, works well in practice, and investi-
gations are now being carried out by such methods on
vowels and the violin.
Biological Studies in Madeira.
By Dr. MicHarLt GRABHAM.
eee component islands and rocks on the Madeira
Archipelago are separate foci of volcanic ejecta
in the abysmal oceanic depths, and the level of
the Atlantic waters might be lowered roo fathoms
without merging them in a common connexion. Of
the 170 forms of Testacea existing in the region, only
five species are distributed throughout the Island group,
and such evidence is adversely copious and conclusive
as to the theory that the Madeiras are a surviving relic
of a former continent.
The fossil shells now lifted 1500 ft. above the sea
level show an upper Miocene association, but the
massive piling up of volcanic matter in countless
reiteration of eruption and age-long intermission began
long before the fossil shells were living creatures on a
Miocene shore.
Examination of a fossil leaf-bed, containing examples
of the specific insular flora buried 120 ft. beneath a
variety of strata and capped by a thick deposit of
white trachyte, shows that the trachyte rock has
almost disappeared under the slowly working forces
of erosion and disintegration. From this is adduced
the enduring quality of the trachyte steps and gate-
ways of Funchal, which have been exposed for two
centuries, with little evidence of decay, to the same
influences under which the thick leaf-bed cap has
vanished. Thus we need set no niggardly limit to
the time requirement for the establishment of the
specialised forms of life developed and buried ages
before the trachyte capped the successive strata in a
flowing stream of lava.
The Archipelago came to us 500 years ago, in the
dawn of navigation, ready made, already well worn
into characteristic scenery, with the local flora stabil-
ised, the discovery being due to the erratic drifting
from its course to the West African coast of a crazy
vessel of Prince Henry the Navigator. An ancient
building is regarded locally as the traditional home
of Christopher Columbus, who married the Admiral
Peristrello’s daughter, and was, no doubt, inspired for
NO. 2749, VOL. I10]
his western enterprise by watching the sea currents
and the evidence they brought of land and life beyond
the horizon.
The agencies of transport and distribution we know ;
the sea currents are the same ; the same winds prevail ;
the same birds come and go, though it may be difficult
to believe that the presence of the Testacea in 170
forms and the Coleoptera in 700 species has been due
to fitful and accidental influences. It is difficult,
though the rain falls now as formerly, to point to-a
single rock or ravine as having appreciably lessened
or deepened, though the storms of every winter carry
thousands of tons of material to the ocean bed.
The completeness with which the natural orders
exist in Madeira and the prevalence of specific forms
make it less bewildering to believe that these forms of
life were brought to us in pots from the Garden of
Eden than to trace their descent from primeval forms
which no longer survive. The shells can be compared
with fossilised ancient types, but the flora has-no such
satisfactory appeal.
The name “ Madeira” is derived from the hard
wood known as Materia ; Coniferz are not prominent
in the native flora. I have introduced Pinus Insignis,
Cupressus Macrocarpa, and other species, while the
seeds of Persea Indica have been sent abroad with
the view of enlarging the range of the alligator pear-
tree by grafting.
In conformity with other oceanic centres, Madeira
has numerous examples of orders with a single genus
and of genera with a single species. The striking
fruticose echiums illustrate stabilised specific forms,
and show how a new bee has effected an important
hybridisation by which perennial characters were
conferred on a plant of biennial life-limit, the helicoid
flowering cymes, normally 2} inches long, being pro-
longed into growths 7 or 8 feet high.
The Carniolan bee concerned in this hybridisation
at first abstained from fruit eating, but it speedily
blended with the local black bee and became a vine-
46 NATURE
[Juty 8, 1922
yard pest. Similarly many attractive flowers have
become in Madeira pernicious pests ; such are Oxalis,
Eupatorium, Scenecio, and Freezia refracta.
Madeira could, however, be made a focus for the
dissemination of plants of economic value. The gourd,
Sechium Edule, has remarkable food value, and is very
potent in fat utilisation. The plant shows a singular
development of the seed-surrounding flesh into the
permanent stem growth of the climbing plant. During
the stress of war, when German U-boats wantonly
destroyed everything and the Island food was restricted
to local resources, the potency of the Sechium was
realised, and on several occasions the sullen apathy
of incipient starvation was awakened into reviving
animation under its influence. The gourd was also
utilised during the time of construction of the Panama
Canal, when the Italian labourers had to be coerced to
use a sufficient fat ration in their food in order that
they might equal the output of their Canadian fellow-
labourers.
Another valuable plant is Lycopersicum cerasiforme,
which provides an agreeable tomato food with
important antiscorbutic qualities. In the Salvage
Islets there is also Monizaa Edulis, the carrot fern of
Madeira, with a species of the apterous Deucalion,
otherwise known only on the Madeira rocks, side by
side with the Canarian Samphire astadamya;_ this
seems to establish a balancing correlation or agreement
between the botanic and entomological features of
the two island groups.
An interesting illustration of sterility yielding to the
introduction of a new pollen is afforded by a species
of the Bignoniaceous jacaranda, while the sterility of
the banana and the complete loss of fertility in the
fruiting Solanum guatemalense show, on the other hand,
how we are constantly curbing the superabundant
seed growth of valued sub-tropical fruits, such as the
custard apple and the loquat, which in the fruit-vacant
months of Northern Europe should flood British
markets both in perfection and profusion.
Many introduced plant pests, such as Peronospera
and Oidium, have been brought under control, and
even the Phylloxera vastatrix, which destroyed the
Madeira vineyards before its life-history was made
out, has become almost negligible in its depredations ;
thus the wine of Madeira has returned in adequate
and superabundant supply. The Argentine ant may
be credited to some extent with restraining the activity
of the Phylloxera aphis. In view of the almost certain
invasion of the British Islands by this pest, the Board
of Agriculture should issue and circulate the American
official booklet on the subject, together with a reprint
of a paper read by me before the British Association
two years ago. No less than 47,000 of these ants
have been found engaged in draining a single lemon
tree of its vitality ; but various agencies of restraint are
now employed in the orange and coffee plantations.
The common flea and the house-fly do not seem to have
abated under the domination of the Iridomyrmex.
The winged ant-queens suffer dealation after mating,
and, discarding the cares of motherhood, they issue
forth with the workers and found new colonies wherever
conditions invite. The intelligent ingenuity of the
ant and its tenacity of purpose in the face of obstacles
is very remarkable.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
As regards oceanic research, organised exploration
of the ocean flora and deep-water biology is urgently
necessary in the national interest. This investigation
Is a part of our responsibility in Imperial expansion ;
a second Challenger expedition is long overdue, and
could be accomplished at a comparatively small cost.
The fisheries of Madeira provide several novel speci-
mens. The Sherny, Polyprion Cernier, freshly brought
from the deep sub-tropical water of the Madeira dis-
trict, 1s typical of the warmer seas, though occasion-
ally seen farther north. This is the wreck fish of
British nomenclature, so known from its association
with floating timber logs. The early life of the fish is
passed in the sunlit surface waters, but the proper
habitat of the full-sized creature, 100 lbs. in weight
or more, is in the open sea at the enormous depth of
2000 or 3000 ft.
The fish, when brought to the surface from that
profound depth, so distends at the removal from the
vast pressure below that it emerges from the water
like a cork or bladder, with its stomach forced through
the capacious mouth and the eyes protruding in front
of their sockets. No explanation is known of the
conditions which prompt the fish to descend from the
surface warmth into the cold darkness of the abysmal
region, where only the larger examples are to be found.
That the sea is nowhere azoic is shown by the plump
and well-fed condition in which the Sherny comes to
the surface. Its dull colouring, which is shared by
the Aplurus and Promethus Atlanticus, contrasts sur-
prisingly with the brilliant hues of Sebastes, Scorpcena,
and Lampris, which also live in the depths, though
rarely in close association with their sober-tinted
brethren. The Sherny has a large air- bladder
firmly attached to the spine, but knowledge of the
function of this organ is very imperfect. The regula-
tion of submersibility by a voluntary act of filling,
emptying, or compressing is probably only a subordi-
nate physiological function, for the structure of the
bladder is suggestive of pulmonary functions, and its
firm attachment to the spine and its prolongation
upwards to a cerebral connexion with the organ of
hearing, seem a sure indication of the use of the organ
as a resonator in the interpretation of weak sonorous
vibrations. The air-bladder, nevertheless, is totally
absent from the Aplurus and many other fishes.
Some of the fishes swimming near the surface are
believed to have their air-bladders charged with
nitrogen, but extensive observation does not confirm
the current idea that in deep water oxygen is the
inflating gas. The consumption of oxygen by fish is
small, and the standard of respiration in oceanic fish
of deep water is low ; the heart-beat in the Polyprion
will continue many hours after every other sign of life
has ceased. Stationary traps are necessary for the
investigation of the abysmal forms of life.
The surface plankton is abundant, but the con-
tracted empty stomachs of some of the deep-sea fish 1s
evidence against the idea that much food 1s dissolved
in deep-sea water. The Aphanopus Carbo is a voracious
monster which abounds in the lesser depths, and
ranges freely among the inexhaustible invertebrates
of those regions.
During a series of observations on earth-currents in
deep-sea cables, strange effects were noted which were
Juxy 8, 1922]
NATURE 47
found to be due to a submarine earthquake which
broke up many miles of the ocean floor. The occur-
rence may be compared with a similar commotion
which destroyed an important fishery in the sub-tropical
waters of the United States.
A full and comprehensive appreciation of sub-tropical
ichthyology is necessary to indicate the vast and
interesting variety of the fauna and the intrinsic charm
of scientific research. It is the duty and interest of
the community to discover the potential genius and
place him where he can accomplish that for which he
is fitted, unfettered by the suppressing restrictions of
a false communistic socialism or cramping of individual
effort.
Magna opera Domini exquisitae omnes
voluntates ejus.
Ten Years of X-ray Crystal Analysis.
By Dr Ay. He Turron, FURS:
A SPECIAL number of Die Naturwissenschaften,
£\ entitled ‘“Zehn Jahre Laue-Diagramm,” was
issued on April 21, forming Heft 16, 1922, which con-
tains eight articles by authors who have contributed
to the subject of X-ray analysis on the continent since
its first inception by Dr. M. von Laue, among whom
may be mentioned Drs. Friedrich and Knipping, who
collaborated with Dr. von Laue in the first discovery,
Prof. Debye, and Prof. Nigeli. Probably the article
of deepest interest to the general reader will prove to
be that of Dr. Fnedrich, who gives an account of the
circumstances in the year 1912 in Munich when the
first discovery was made. To the present writer,
who was himself in Munich in the summer of that
same remarkable year, this memoir is of fascinating
interest. It has to be remembered that the scientific
coterie at that time forming the professorial staff of
the University, Museum, and Institute, included Prof.
Ro6ntgen, the generally recognised discoverer of X-rays
(although their production had for some time previously
been almost a daily occurrence in the private laboratory
of the late Sir Wiliam Crookes); Yrof. von Groth,
the founder and editor of the Zeztschrift fiir Krystallo-
graphite and the doyen of crystallographers, whose
brilliant lectures on crystal structure and optics
attracted students from all over the world; Prof.
Sommerfeld, who had carried on the tradition of X-ray
physics bequeathed to him by his predecessor Boltz-
mann, and also extended the work of Haga and Wind,
and of Walther and Pohl on X-radiograms and the
general physics of X-rays; Prof. Ewald, who had
studied the behaviour of long electromagnetic waves
with space-lattices; and Dr. von Laue, who had
specialised largely on the interference phenomena of
ordinary optics. It was among this strong combina-
tion of crystallographers; X-ray specialists, and dif-
fraction (grating) opticians that the inception of the
attack on crystals by X-rays had its birth.
During a conversation between Laue and Ewald,
the former raised the question as to how electromagnetic
waves would behave which were small compared with
the grating constants, and from his optical experience,
he suggested that diffraction spectra should be pro-
duced. The order of the space-lattice cell dimensions
of crystals was already known to be about an Angstrom
unit (tro § cm.), from the density and molecular weight
of the crystal and the mass of a hydrogen atom. The
work of Sommerfeld and of Walther and Pohl had led
us to expect that the order of dimensions of the wave-
length of X-rays would be about one-tenth of this
(to * cm.). Consequently Laue suggested that the
conditions should be particularly favourable for the
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
origination of interference phenomena on the passage
of X-rays through crystals.
The discussion was continued in the common room,
and taken up. by the whole, deeply interested coterie,
and Friedrich, who was at the time acting as Sommer-
feld’s assistant, declared himself, with youthful en-
thusiasm, ready to test the idea practically. He
secured the assistance of Knipping, who had more
spare time at his disposal, and together they set up
the now famous arrangement of X-ray bulb, leaden
screens with slits for ensuring the exit of a definite
beam of X-rays, simple goniometer carrying the
crystal, and photographic plates to receive the ex-
pected radiations. At the first attempt the sensitive
plates were only arranged parallel to the primary beam
of X-rays, as any effect expected appeared likely to
be of the character of secondary rays from the crystal,
and it was only on repeating the exposure with a
photographic plate arranged behind the crystal, per-
pendicular to the direct beam, that the first Laue
radiogram with a crystal of zinc blende was obtained,
after several hours of exposure.
Friedrich describes how excited and delighted he
was when, alone in his working room at the Institute
late that night, he saw the spots appear on the plate
under the influence of the developer, due to the de-
flected X-rays, now known to be reflected from the
planes of atoms within the crystal, the planes of the
atomic space-lattice. Next morning he went early
to show the negative to Knipping, and together they
hastened to Laue and Sommerfeld, who were both
naturally equally interested and delighted. Prof.
Sommerfeld at once excused his assistant from his
ordinary duties, so that he might go ahead with further
experiments. Both Profs. von Groth and Rontgen,
to whom the result of the experiment was at once
communicated, supplied materials and gave valuable
advice. A much better and more accurate apparatus
was erected, including a good goniometer for the exact
adjustment of the crystal (which is particularly neces-
sary), and the excellent X-radiograms of zinc blende,
quartz, rock-salt, and other crystallised substances,
now so well known were obtained as the immediate
results.
Dr. Knipping directs special attention in his article
to the remarkable work of Siegbahn, who worked with
an evacuated apparatus, so as to exclude air absorption
of the X-rays, and measured the wave-lengths of the
“softer” long wave-length portion of the radiation,
eventually discovering and measuring rays as long as
ten Angstrém units. Compton, it will be remembered,
at the other extreme, has measured X-rays (y-rays
48 NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
from radium) on the short wave-length side as short
as o-o2 Angstrom units. Hence, the X-ray spectrum
now known comprises waves of all this great range of
wave-lengths. It will also be remembered that other
researches, such as those of Lyman and Kurth, Mohler
and Foote, and Richardson and Bazzoni, have intro-
duced us to rays, termed the K, L, M, and N series,
derived by radiations from carbon, oxygen, iron, copper,
potassium, sodium, magnesium, and molybdenum,
which have wave-lengths ranging to 375 gstrom
units, thus bridging over the gap between the shortest
ultra-violet rays and X-rays.
Prof. Niggli’s contribution offers a survey of the
substances the crystal structure of which has now
been ascertained by the various X-ray methods of
Laue, the Braggs, Debye and Scherrer, and Hull,
including a table of the absolute dimensions of the
space-lattice cells resulting from the Bragg spectro-
metric measurements. His concluding remarks are
well worth quoting (so far as is possible in a translation
from the German), especially when it is remembered
that Prof. Niggli has now taken over from Prof. von
Groth the editorship of the Zevtschrift fiir Krystallo-
graphie. ‘‘ By Laue’s discovery crystallography not
only obtains a new method of investigation, but
experiences a new ‘ liveliness’ in almost every one of
its branches. Most especially are we mineralogists
glad that our colleagues of the sister sciences now
bring to the crystal an entirely new attitude of mind
and interest than formerly, for only by the combined
and simultaneous labours of all can further research
move along right lines.”
With these words of Prof. Niggli we must all agree,
and it would appear that the sentiment is now so
universally accepted and recognised that the future
is bright with hope for a progress during the next
decade as glorious as that which is now recorded at
the termination of ten years of X-ray crystal analysis.
Obituary.
Pror. J. C. Kapreyn, For. Mem., RS.
ACOBUS CORNELIUS KAPTEYN was born at
J Barneveld, Holland, on January 19, 1851. He
studied at Utrecht from 1869 to 1875, and was then
appointed an observer at Leiden Observatory, where he
remained for two years. In 1878 he was appointed
professor of astronomy and theoretical mechanics at the
University of Groningen. He was in the unusual position
of an astronomical professor without an observatory,
and he immediately applied to the Dutch Government
for the means to equip a students’ observatory ; he
mentioned in particular a 6-inch heliometer as desirable.
The application, however, was unsuccessful, and for
a few years his lectures monopolised his attention.
Then, finding that he had time to spare and no instru-
ments, he began to look about for some useful astronomi-
cal work of a computational kind that he could carry
out. Circumstances soon brought a task well fitted
to his tastes.
Photography had been revolutionised by the intro-
duction of the gelatine dry plate about 1880, and its
astronomical possibilities were soon exemplified by
the successful photographs obtained of the comets of
1881 and 1882. In the latter case Sir David Gill
assisted the local photographers by letting them strap
their camera to an equatorial, with very successful
results ; he was impressed by the number of faint stars
that were visible on the plates, and the idea of a
southern photographic Durchmusterung quickly matured
in his mind. He found a willing collaborator in
Kapteyn, who volunteered to conduct the measure-
ments and reductions at Groningen. Funds were
collected from various sources; the Government
Grant Committee of the Royal Society voted 3ool. in
each of the years 1885 and 1886; this was, however,
stopped in 1887, it is believed from the notion that the
Astrographic Catalogue, which was then inaugurated,
would obviate the need for the Durchmusterung. If
that was the idea, subsequent events have proved it
to be incorrect. The Astrographic Catalogue is still
far from completion, while the Durchmusterung has
been available as a standard work for a quarter of a
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
century. It might have been made more perfect but
for shortage of funds: the plates admitted measure-
ment to seconds of arc, but in practice this was limited
to tenths of minutes. Moreover, it was only carried
to declination 18° S., instead of to the equator. With
a view of shortening the reductions, Kapteyn devised
an ingenious measuring instrument, which was practic-
ally a small equatorial placed in the position, relatively
to the plate, occupied by the centre of the camera lens,
the principle being that, since the rays through this
point suffered no bending, the star-images, viewed
from here, have the same configuration as the stars
themselves. Hence right ascension and declination
could be read from the circles.
The whole work occupied thirteen years, nearly
double the original estimate, but the time was spent
ungrudgingly by Kapteyn, and the close examination
and discussion of the results brought to light many
interesting facts, such as the change of colour-index
with galactic latitude, the galactic stars being bluer
than the non-galactic ones. It was also found by
careful counts that there was no sensible difference
in the number of stars recorded at the centres of the
plates and near their edges. Several cases of light
variation and of rapid proper motion were also found.
The question of photographic stellar magnitudes was
still in its infancy, but a simple formula was found,
mag.=B/(C+diam.), B and C being constants for the
plate ; as these are printed, it is possible to recover
the diameter of each star.
Kapteyn was elected an associate of the Royal
Astronomical Society in 1892, and received its Gold
Medal in 1902 in appreciation of his work on the
Durchmusterung. ‘This was, however, only one of the
numerous researches that he undertook to investigate
the structure of the sidereal universe. He saw the
need for increased knowledge of stellar parallaxes.
In 1886 he investigated the parallaxes of forty-five
stars by the method of meridian transits (since found
to be less accurate than the photographic method),
and endeavoured to secure that the astrographic
plates should each have three exposures at dates of
maximum parallactic displacement. This was not
Juty 8, 1922]
NATURE 49
carried out, but Prof. Donner tested the method at
Helsingfors, sending the plates to Kapteyn for measure-
ment; he deduced parallaxes for 246 stars, but
realised that direct parallax measures were insufficient
to gauge more than a small fraction of the universe.
He then set to work to deduce distances from the
proper motions, incidentally giving a new method
of deducing the solar apex by making the sum of the
resolved proper motions in the direction of the antapex
a maximum, that in the perpendicular direction zero.
From this work he deduced formule connecting parallax
with magnitude and proper motion, which, with some
modifications, have been found very serviceable. To
the end of his life he entertained a certain distrust for
spectroscopic parallaxes, though this scarcely seems
to be justified.
In the course of his studies on proper motion Kapteyn
made the notable discovery of the two star- drifts,
which has played a great part in all subsequent work
on stellar motions. It has been interpreted in various
ways—as the separate motions of two interpenetrating
star-clouds—as radial motions, respectively inward
and outward, of stars oscillating through the centre—
as rotational movements in opposite directions about
the centre. Kapteyn himself favoured the latter view.
He saw the necessity of obtaining more statistics about
the faint stars, and planned the “Selected Areas ”
uniformly distributed over the sky ; im these restricted
regions all available information should be obtained
about all the stars down to the faintest visible ; from
the results statistics for the whole sky could be formed.
One of his last wishes was that astronomers should
continue to investigate these regions after his death,
and his wish will doubtless be realised.
Of late years Kapteyn spent a good deal of time at !
the great American observatories, and took the keenest
interest in the physical investigations there in progress.
His last paper on the configuration and motion of the
stellar system was published in the Astrophysical
Journal a few days before his death.
A. C. D. CRoMMELIN.
Joun WarD.
Tue National Museum of Wales and the cause of
archeology in the Principality have sustained a serious
loss by the death, on June 18, of Mr. John Ward. Born
in 1856 at Derby, he started in life as a pharmacist, but
all his leisure time was devoted to the examination of old
buildings and other objects of antiquarian interest. It
was this work which in 1893 led to his appointment as
curator of the Cardiff Municipal Museum in succession
to the late Mr. John Storrie. Here he carried on the
same lines of research, which resulted in the publication
of several papers in the Transactions of the Cardiff
Naturalists’ Society and the Archeologia Cambrensis,
of which probably those on the Roman fort at Gellygaer
and the St. Nicholas chambered tumulus were the most
important. In addition he wrote for Methuen’s series
of “ Antiquaries’ Books ” two volumes on ‘“‘ The Roman
Era in Britain,” and “‘ Romano-British Buildings and
Earthworks.”
He naturally took a deep interest in the establish-
ment of the National Museum of Wales, and when the
Cardiff Museum was absorbed in that Institution he was
appointed to the dual post of Keeper of its Archzo-
NO. 2749, VOL. IIo]
logical Department and Curator of the Cardiff Collec-
tions ; these duties he discharged with energy and
success until failing health necessitated his retirement
two years ago.
A conspicuous service which Mr. Ward rendered to
the Museum was the accumulation of a large series of
obsolete and obsolescent appliances from farms and
rural homesteads. These were arranged by him in a
temporary “ Exhibition of Welsh Byegones,” for which
he prepared a valuable and interesting handbook. The
book found a ready sale and was soon out of print. It
was his intention (now, alas, impossible of accomplish-
ment) to prepare an enlarged edition of it, illustrated by
drawings from his facile pencil. ‘
One of his striking characteristics was the exquisite
finish of every piece of work which left his hands. A
conspicuous example of this is the series of models
illustrating geological structures, which gained him a
silver medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1900.
Mr. Ward had been for many years a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries, and in 1918 the University of
Wales conferred upon him the honorary degree of
Master of Arts. Unfortunately the state of his health
prevented him from attending the graduation ceremony.
He was a keen and enthusiastic student, a man of
enlightened views on Museum policy, a loyal colleague,
and a warm friend. W. E. H.
Sir GeorcE R. Parkin, K.C.M.G.
Born in New Brunswick in 1846, George Robert
Parkin was one of many notable men whom the Mari-
time Provinces have given to the Empire; but few
have had so clear a vision of what Empire means, or
have devoted their lives with such ardour to its service.
Life in Lower Canada in his early days was strenuous.
Farm work, study when body and brain were tired, a
meagre living earned by teaching in the common
schools, a B.A. degree secured by the practice of severe
economy, the Douglas gold medal for proficiency in
science. In after days Parkin attributed his in-
tellectual awakening to the influence of a teacher who
had been a pupil of Agassiz, although his own bent,
after he left the University of New Brunswick, was
for the humanities. In 1874-75 he was so fortunate
as to spend a year as an unattached student at Oxford,
where his eloquence gained for him the office of secretary
to the Union at a time when Asquith, Milner, and
Thomas Raleigh were its leading speakers. But most
notable of the friendships consolidated at Oxford,
. although it originated through correspondence before
he left Canada, was that with Edward Thring, the
strength of which is evidenced by the request in
Thring’s will that Parkin would write his biography.
In 1875 he returned to Canada as headmaster of the
school at Fredericton.
Parkin was a great talker. His ebullient enthusiasm
| overflowed in speech ; and, just as his enthusiasm was
the product of fervid conviction, so also was his talk
sincere. He had no conscious mission. His advocacy,
in consequence, was irresistible. In 1889 the Imperial
Federation League induced him to make a tour through
Canada and Australasia. That he should be chosen
by the Rhodes Trustees, in 1902, as their first organising
secretary, was a proof that it was generally recognised
50 NATURE
[JuLy 8, 1922
that, for such a position, his qualifications were unique.
Before he resigned this office in 1920 he was able to
boast that he had visited every State in the Union and
spoken in every University of the Empire. Univer-
sities will hold his name in remembrance, not the least
of the causes for their gratitude being the paper which
he read to the Congress of 1912 on “‘ The Establishment
of a Central Bureau ; its Constitution and Functions.”
Re-reading this paper with a knowledge of the develop-
ments which have taken place since it was written,
one is impressed with the practical character, and even
the prescience, of the proposals it contains.
WE note with regret an announcement in the
Chemtker Zeitung of June 15 that Prof. Wilhelm
Wislicenus, director of the Chemical Institute of the
University of Tibingen, died on May 8, aged sixty-one
years. Prof. Wislicenus was one of the foremost
chemists in Germany, and his researches on organic
chemistry and stereochemistry are well known.
Current Topics and Events.
At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Society
of Arts on June 29, the president, H.R.H. the Duke of
Connaught and Strathearn, presented the Albert Medal
of the Society for the present year to Sir Dugald
Clerk, ‘‘ in recognition of his important contributions,
both theoretical and practical, to the development
of the Internal Combustion Engine.”’
Tue James Scott Prize of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, established in 1918 for a lecture or essay
on the fundamental concepts of natural philosophy,
was presented on June 5 to Prof. A. N. Whitehead
for his lecture entitled ‘‘ The Relatedness of Nature.”
Pror. L. Batrstow has been elected chairman of
the Royal Aeronautical Society for the year 1922-23
in succession to Lieut.-Col. M. O’Gorman, whose
period of office terminates on September 30 next.
At the annual meeting on June 27 of the Research
Defence Society, Sir Walter Fletcher, secretary of the
Medical Research Council, gave an address on the
work that is being done, by medical research, for
the advantage of the life of the nation. He took
two instances: the study of the vitamins in food, and
the action of pituitary extract. Both are good
examples of work already fruitful, but not yet com-
plete. But they are only two examples, taken almost
at random, from a great wealth of material. It
would need a big book to describe all that has been
done of late years, under the Medical Research
Council, for our health and welfare, and it is strange
that there should be members of the House of Com-
mons opposed to the spending of public money on
this work. The opposition, of course, is to the
necessary use of experiments on animals. The
spirit which goes by the name of anti-vivisection was
described as one of the enemies of the people.
Happily, in this matter, we have all the help which
the Government can give to us.
Ir is reported in the Times that Mr. T. W. Bagshawe
and Mr. M. C. Lester have returned to England after
an adventurous wintering in the Antarctic. Landed
at Andvord Bay on the west of Graham Land (lat.
64° 45’ S.) by a Norwegian whaler in December 1920,
Messrs. Bagshawe and Lester hoped to be able to
undertake some exploration in the interior of Graham
Land; but the site of their base was ill-chosen for
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
this purpose, and they were unable to do any survey
beyond the immediate locality. Their work ampli-
fied the rough surveys of the Belgica on this coast
in 1898. Meteorological observations were taken
throughout the winter. From Mr. Bagshawe’s
account of the adventure it would appear that he
and his companion were most inadequately supplied
with stores and equipment for an Antarctic winter,
having to improvise a hut from their boat with the
help of canvas and packing-cases. For food they
wisely relied largely on seals and penguins. For-
tunately the west side of Graham Land has a relatively
open winter climate. The men were rescued by a
Norwegian whaler from Deception Island in December
1921.
AN exhibition of Egyptian ornaments, tools, and
carvings belonging to the First Dynasty, and of
numerous papyri of different ages, the fruits of a
season’s work by the British School of Archeology in
Egypt, under the direction of Prof. W. M. Flinders
Petrie, will be open at University College, Gower
Street, until July 29. Admission is free and without
ticket.
THE twentieth session of the International Congress
of Americanists will be held in Rio de Janeiro on
August 20-30 next, under the presidency of Dr. Joao
Teixeiro Soares. The arrangements are in the hands
of a strong local committee. As the celebration of
the centenary of Brazil’s independence begins on
September 7, it is anticipated that there will be a
large attendance. The subjects which are to be
discussed at the congress are the origin, history,
languages, customs, and religions of the native races
of America ; the ancient monuments and archeology
of America; and the history of the discovery and
European occupation of America. At the close of the
congress arrangements will be made for excursions
to the States of Minas Geraes, St. Catherina, Espiritu
Santo, and Sao Paolo. Members of the congress will
be afforded an opportunity to return by way of Para,
where there is, in the museum, the collection of ancient
pottery from the island of Marajo, which is of great
interest to students of American archeology.
Arrangements have been made by the Royal Mail
Steam Packet and Nelson lines for members of the
congress to travel at reduced rates. Information
Juty 8, 1922]
INA LORE.
pe
respecting the congress may be obtained from the
Secretario Geral, XX Congreso de Americanistas,
Sociedade de Geographia, Praca 15 de Novembre, No.
tor, Rio de Janeiro.
Some interesting points in the work of officials
connected with scientific and technical bodies, especi-
ally in relation to the scientific and technical press,
were raised in an address on the duties of secretaries,
delivered by Mr. P. L. Marks at a meeting of the Circle
of Scientific, Technical, and Trade Journalists on May
30. There are few men gifted with the power of
presenting scientific knowledge in an easily assimi-
lated form, and it is here that a really competent
secretary reveals itself. Editors are busy men, often
with a wide but not a detailed knowledge of scientific
subjects, who require information conveyed within
a small compass; and if a secretary, in issuing matter
to the press, can select certain journals for individual
treatment, providing them with matter closely allied
or linked to their respective fields of operations, his
efforts will not be vain. This applies particularly to
bodies the aim of which is the popularisation of
science. The ideal secretary must be able to take a
wide view and sanction some departure from the
limits of absolute scientific truth, if essential to
simplicity and popular appeal. While rejecting fal-
lacious statements—involving inaccuracy arising from
ignorance rather than an effort after simplicity—suchas
are apt to creep into daily non-technical papers, it is not
necessary to adhere to the standard rightly demanded
in scientific transactions. With regard to secretaries
who exercise editorial functions in connexion with
their societies, Mr. Marks inclines to the view that
no radical alteration in contributions or discussion
should be permitted. Nevertheless we think it ad-
visable in the interests of a society that its transactions
should not contain statements that are manifestly
incorrect or absurd, or in conflict with its policy.
In general the authors of such remarks are open to
correction, if tactfully conveyed. A secretary of a
scientific body may not receive high remuneration,
may not even enjoy the esteem and appreciation he
deserves, but he has the knowledge that by his work
he is shaping the scientific destiny of the nation.
WITHIN recent years most of the leading industries
have founded Research Associations, and in 1919 the
Council of the Institute of Brewing decided to make
provision for investigating problems of a general
character in the brewing and allied industries. To
obtain the necessary funds for carrying out the scheme
a new class of members, known as Research Fund
Members, has been created. These members consist
of firms who are invited to join the Institute at a
minimum annual subscription of ro guineas. At the
end of 1921, the total subscriptions amounted to
nearly 6000/7. per annum, so that the scheme is now
wellin being. Two reports have already been issued,
and particulars are given of the investigations so far
carried out in connexion with hops, barley, and
timber.. An account is given of the experiments on
breeding new varieties of hops at the South Eastern
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Agricultural College, Wye, and their testing on a
commercial scale at the East Malling Research Station,
under the direction of Mr. E. S. Salmon. Photo-
graphs and a detailed description of the kilns erected
by the Institute at Beltring, Kent, for investigating
the various factors involved in the drying of hops are
also given in Report II. Manurial experiments on
hops are being carried out at Chilham and Horsmon-
den by Mr. F. Ivo Neame and Mr. T. I. Nicolson
respectively, while the chemical investigations are
being conducted, under the direction of Dr. F. L.
Pyman, at the College of Technology, Manchester.
With regard to barley it is intended to make a sys-
tematic study of barley and malt from the agri-
cultural, botanical, chemical, and physiological stand-
points, and arrangements have been made for field
trials, under the direction of Sir John Russell,
of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, on farming
conditions in East Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Somerset,
Essex, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, Wiltshire, and
the East Lothians. Trials are also being made at
the Rothamsted and Woburn Experimental Stations.
Mr. H. F. E. Hulton has drawn up a report on the
relation of the nitrogenous matters in barley to
brewing value, while botanical and chemical investiga-
tions on timber for casks, with special reference to
American oak, are being carried out at the Imperial
College of Science and Technology, under the direction
of Prof. P. Groom and Prof. S. B. Schryver, re-
spectively.
Art the meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on
June 20, a paper was read by Mr. J. W. Verdier
dealing with the statistics of shipping casualties and
loss of life at sea. Discussing the occupational risks
run by seamen, the author gave comparative esti-
mates, based on the recorded deaths by accidents in
the five years ended 1913. The yearly death-rate
among seamen was 4:05 per thousand employed,
compared with 1-56 for underground workers in coal
mines, and 0-59 for railway servants. It is estimated
that the number of deaths per million man-hours of
employment was 0-97 for seamen, 0-68 among under-
ground workers in coal mines, and 0-20 among railway
servants. Mr. Verdier also compared the accidents
involving deaths of passengers on steam vessels with
those on railways. Assuming that, in the foreign
trade, sea passengers are at sea for twenty days on
the average, and that railway passengers (excluding
season ticket holders) are on the train for about an
hour, then, in the period about 1900, the railway
passengers’ deaths were o-12 per million passenger-
hours, while the sea passengers’ were I-5, or more
than twelve times as great. In the period about
1910, the railway passengers’ deaths were about o-1
per million passenger-hours, and the sea passengers’
0-3, or three times as great, showing that there has
been a general progress towards safety.
Tue address prepared by Sir Robert Hadfield for
the Sheffield Association of Metallurgists and Metal-
lurgical Chemists last October has been published
under the title of ““ The Work and Position of the
52
NATORE
[Jury 8, 1922
Metallurgical Chemist,” and is illustrated by a number
of plates. The address covers a very wide field, the
history of metallurgical research being surveyed, with
special reference to the part played by Sheffield
workers. This is brought into relation with the
general history of science, and with the early work of
the Royal Society in establishing the experimental
method of investigation. The international character
of metallurgical research is éxemplified by a descrip-
tion of the new Japanese Institute for Steel Research,
just opened at Sendai under the direction of Prof.
Honda. The speaker’s own work is dealt with,
particularly in the application of manganese steel
to the purposes of the war. This aspect of metallurgy
was illustrated by the exhibition of a very fine series
of specimens of this alloy as employed in the arts
of peace and war. The exhibition also included
specimens of the author’s other technical work,
and books and other objects of historic interest.
The plates are finely produced, and are of great
interest.
AccorDING to the June issue of the Decimal
Educator, the official organ of the Decimal Associa-
tion, the Association proposes to concentrate its
efforts for the time being on securing an alteration
of the value of the pound weight from 454 to 500
grams, that is, half a kilogram. The ounce of 16 to
the pound would in the first instance be retained,
so that 4 ounces would be 125 grams. The new ton
would be 2000 new pounds, equal to the metric ton
and a little more than 1-5 per cent. greater than the
present ton. All denominations between the pound
and ton, such as hundredweights, quarters, and
stones of all kinds, would be eliminated and inter-
mediate weights expressed in pounds. This decision
will not interfere in any way with the movement,
which has the support of bankers and chambers of
commerce, for the change of the value of the penny
to one-tenth of a shilling.
THE Review of the work of the Rockefeller Founda-
tion for 1921, compiled by the president, George E.
Vincent, has just been issued. Grants have been
made to numerous educational institutions for cam-
paigns against hook-worm disease, malaria, yellow
fever, and tuberculosis; for the promotion of the train-
ing of nurses; for libraries, fellowships, and other
purposes. A sum of more than seven and a half
million dollars has been expended on the world-wide
activities of the Foundation.
Tue Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Com-
merce of Brazil has just published the first number
of a new journal, Revista Mensal de Meteorologia,
which will be devoted to meteorological interests in
that country. The review will be divided into (a)
memoirs, etc. ; (b) notes, reviews, and critiques ; (c)
bibliography ; (d) notices; (e) papers by the Director
of Meteorology. The first number contains an
article on the applications of meteorology to every-
day life, the report of the Director of Meteorology
from June to December 1921, the reorganisation of
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
the meteorological service in the Minas Geraes
province of Brazil, notes from foreign sources, and
a number of reviews, among other interesting
features. c
THE firm of Messrs. Pastorelli and Rapkin, Ltd., of
46 Hatton Garden, London, has forwarded to us a
list of thermographs and hygrographs. The instru-
; ments are of two types, for meteorological observers
and a stronger make for factory work, such as fruit
preserving and drying, cold storage chambers, dye
works, wall paper printing, and other branches of
industry. Two patterns are recommended—the
Peandar and the Edney. The former is suggested for
meteorological observers and has a small, stem-divided
thermometer fixed near the thermometric coil, so
that the readings shown by the self-recording instru-
ment can be compared and if necessary readjustment
can be made. A pattern of the Edney is adapted as
a hair hygrometer which records directly the per-
centage of humidity by the alterations in the length
of a string of human hair. The dry and wet bulb
thermometers, known as Mason’s hygrometer, have
long maintained their utility. The instrument maker
would improve the hygrometric results if he contrived
that a good flow of air should be driven over the wet
bulb, a consideration of growing interest on both sides
of the Atlantic.
WE have received from the City Sale and Exchange,
81 Aldersgate Street, E.C.1, the catalogue of the
KXoristka microscopes and accessories, for which
they are sole British agents. Several different types
of microscope stands are listed, from simple students’
models to instruments suitable for research work
and photomicrography. A travelling portable fold-
ing microscope is also supplied, which, with objectives,
etc., weighs less than 7 lb. and folds into a leather
case measuring 7$%*5 x7 in. Photomicrographic
cameras, warm and detachable mechanical stages,
dark-ground illuminators, microtomes, hand lenses,
and other accessories are also included in the catalogue.
A complete series of apochromatic, semi-apochromatic,
and achromatic objectives are manufactured by the
firm. The ~Koristka Co. has a deservedly high
reputation both for their mechanical and for their
optical work, and the prices charged compare favour-
ably with those of other firms.
Messrs. W. HeEFFER & Sons, Ltd., Cambridge,
have in the press “Cements and Artificial Stones :
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Specimens in the
Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge,” by the late J.
Watson, edited by Dr. R. H. Rastall, in which will be
found a brief history of the origin and development
of the cement industry, and notes on the manufacture
and uses of the various kinds of cement, concrete,
and artificial stone which are exhibited in the economic
department of the Sedgwick Museum of Geology,
at Cambridge. The same publishers also promise
“« An Introduction to Forecasting Weather,” by P. R.
Zealley, which aims at presenting in a clear and
simple manner the principles on which weather fore-
casting is based.
Jury 8, 1922]
NATURE
on
Os
Our Astronomical Column.
EPHEMERIS OF SKJELLERUP’S COMET, 1922 b.—
This ephemeris is for Greenwich midnight from the
elliptical elements given in Nature of July 1, p. 20,
which are approximately true.
R.A. N. Decl. R.A. N.Decl.
H. M. S. H. M. S~.
July 6 15 58.43 37°53’ July 14 16 37 46 31°47’
S L6qro, DH 36° 19 16 16 45 45 30 16
TO! Q6y20 14 34 45 Meeerowss, 4) 28) 40)
2 LOe2Oe30) 33 13 20 16 59 32 27 29
During the interval, June 30-July 20, log y increases
from 0-0486 to o-1131; log A from 9-5124 to 9:6830.
Owing to its short period, it is important to follow
it as long as possible in order to facilitate its recovery
on its return.
Pror. PLAsKeT?r’s MasstvE STaR.—Some further
particulars about this star (see NATURE, |fesates aez7,
p. 791) may be ot interest. It is in Monoceros, in
the middle of the Galaxy, its place for 1900 being
R.A. 65 32:0™, N. Decl. 6° 13’, visual magnitude
6:06. The spectral type in the Henry Draper
Catalogue is Bop, but Plaskett prefers Oe5; the
orbital velocities of the two components are 206-38,
and 246:7 km./sec., the period 14-414 days, the
eccentricity 0-0349, the minimum masses of the
components 75°6 sun and 63:3 sun. From the non-
occurrence of eclipses it is inferred that the orbit
is at least 17° from the edgeways position, and the
masses I4 per cent. greater than the minimum values.
The centre of gravity is receding at 23-94 km./sec.
The H and K lines of calcium show no orbital motion,
but a steady recession of 15-9 km./sec., which is
exactly the amount of the sun’s resolved motion,
so that the calcium is at rest with respect to the
star-system, a result obtained in other spectroscopic
binaries. The following estimates are given of the
star’s size and distance: density o-o1 of sun’s, surface
brightness 4 magnitudes in excess of sun’s, diameters
20 and 18 times sun’s, distance between centres 65
sun-diameters, distance from the earth 10,000 light-
years, absolute magnitude of brighter component
—5:65. It is noted that the recession of the centre
of gravity, corrected for solar motion, is 8 km./sec. ;
with the estimated dimensions and masses, the
Einstein spectral shift would account for 2-8 km./sec.
of this quantity.
Since this star, the most massive known, lies so
near the mean galactic circle, it may be suggested
as a suitable zero of galactic longitude; it seems
wrong to use the terrestrial equator as the zero
point, for it reintroduces precession, which it is the
object of galactic co-ordinates to avoid.
ORIGIN OF THE ASTEROIDS.—Dr. K. Hirayama
discusses this old problem once more in the June
number of Scientia. He recalls the early suggestion
of an exploded planet, and its abandonment when
the wide range of the orbits became known. He
then mentions the rival hypotheses, one by one,
showing that they too have difficulties. Thus many
have suggested that it was the disturbing action of
Jupiter that prevented the nebulous ring, assumed
to have existed in this region, from forming into a
single planet; but he notes that the four great
satellites of Jupiter are quite near it, and yet much
larger than any of the asteroids. He also notes
objections to the theory that the asteroids came from
a distance, and had been captured by Jupiter, like
NO. 2749, VOL. I10] .
the short-period comets. The orbits of many of
them do not approach near enough to Jupiter for
this, and their major axes are almost free from
perturbation.
Dr. Hirayama himself favours a theory, put
forward by Young, which invokes not one but
several explosions. Each ‘“‘ family ’’ of asteroids, of
which many have been traced, is explained as the
result of an explosion of a single body. In support
of this view he refers to the rapid and irregular light-
variation of many asteroids, notably Eros. He
supposes that they are irregular, angular fragments,
their own gravitation being too weak to compel
them to take a spherical form ; if they were rotating
about an axis that was not a principal axis, both the
position of the axis in the body and the period of
rotation would vary; this agrees with observed
facts. It would be possible, by assuming a sufficient
number of explosions, to trace the whole system of
asteroids to a single primitive planet. As the whole
mass of the known asteroids is only some 1/2000 of that
of the earth, he thinks it possible that many fragments
may have been absorbed by the sun and Jupiter,
and in conclusion suggests a similar origin for the
ring of Saturn, noting the many resemblances between
it and the asteroid system.
NorMAN LocKYER OBSERVATORY (192I—1922).—In
his report for the year 1921, April 1, to 1922, March 31,
Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer, the director of the Observatory,
directs attention to several advances which will be of
interest to observers who have followed the progress
of this new institution.
At present the greater part of the work is confined
to stellar investigations, and observations were made
on 137 of the 149 nights which were sufficiently clear.
The McClean telescope, with the 12-inch prismatic
camera, has been used for obtaining stellar spectra
for classification and parallax determinations. During
the year 654 negatives have been secured.
With the 9-inch Kensington prismatic camera 79
negatives have been obtained in the progress of a
scheme to photograph the spectra of all stars down
to about the fourth magnitude. Special attention is
being paid to large-scale spectra of standard giant
and dwarf stars of types F to M. These are being
examined by Adams’ method for the determination
of stellar parallax. At the present time 1200 nega-
tives are available, and 370 have been measured,
giving preliminary curves showing correlations be-
tween absolute magnitude and line-intensity difter-
ences. A wedge method of determining the line
intensities has been devised, and details of the pro-
cedure have been published.
The routine classification of stellar spectra by means
of the Kensington nomenclature of generic class
names has been discontinued, and the Harvard sys-
tem, based on numerical measures of line-intensities
in the spectra, combined with the separation of stars
into groups of increasing (giant) and decreasing
(dwarf) temperatures, has been adopted in its place.
For laboratory investigations a t1o-feet Littrow
spectrograph, by Hilger, has been presented to the
Observatory by Lady Lockyer.
It is evident that an observatory of this character,
with extensive instrumental equipment, is well suited
to further the prosecution of investigations beyond
those covered by the immediate routine, and it is
pleasant to note that during the past year two
student observers have been encouraged to spend
short periods at the Observatory.
54 NATURE
[Jury 8, 1922
Research Items.
Tue PEOPLING oF Asta.—Dr. Ale$ Hrdlitka, the
distinguished American ethnologist, contributes to
the Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society (vol. Ix. No. 4) an important paper on the
peopling of Asia, which ‘constitutes one of the
greatest problems of anthropology.’’ He concludes
that the cradle of humanity was essentially south-
western Europe, with, later, the Mediterranean
basin, Western Asia, and Africa. It is primarily
from Europe and secondarily from these regions
that the earth was peopled, and this peopling was
comparatively recent. Early man was unable to
people the globe owing to his insufficient effective-
ness, and until the end of glacial times and his old
stone culture he had evidently all he could do to
preserve mere existence. Only an advance in culture
could enable him to control his environment and
secure a steady surplus of births over deaths. The
cause of man’s peopling of the world was not a mere
wish to do so, but the necessity arising from growing
numbers and correspondingly decreasing supply of
food. It was this which eventually led to agriculture.
This spreading over the globe was conditioned by
three great laws—movement in the direction of least
resistance ; movement in the direction of the greatest
prospects ; movement due to a force from behind, or
compulsion.
Coins oF CRrorsus.—A party of American arch-
aeologists working in Anatolia, among the ruins of
Sardis, has discovered thirty gold staters of Croesus,
dating from the period between 561 B.c., when Croesus
ascended the throne, and 546 B.c., when his capital was
taken by Cyrus, king of Persia. They are in excellent
condition, although some are a little worn. The only
five staters hitherto known to exist are in the British
Museum, but only one is in good condition. Dr.
Leshe Shear, the archaeologist of Columbia Univer-
sity, who has brought the news of this discovery,
states that the coins were found in a small earthen
vessel in the ruins of a tomb, where they may have
been hidden by a Lydian merchant during the siege
of the city by Cyrus. The coins, which are in charge
of the discoverers, cannot be brought to America
until the right of ownership is decided, but according
to the treaty of Sévres, such articles discovered in
territory assigned to Greece should be divided, half
to the Constantinople Museum, and half to the finders.
The coins of Croesus are made of electrum, or mixed
gold and silver, and are of two types, weighing
respectively 8-40 grams and 11-20 grams. Those
hitherto discovered are oblong in shape, bearing the
heads of a lion and a bull.
AN UPPER PALAEOLITHIC STATION, AVELINE’S
Ho1e.—The report of the Spelaeological Society,
University of Bristol, for 1920-21, describes the
excavation of Aveline’s Hole, a rift cavern in the
mountain limestone forming the east wall of Burring-
ton Combe. It was first discovered in 1797, and
Rutter, writing in 1829, states that nearly 50 skeletons
were found lying with their heads under the north
side of the rock and feet extended towards the centre
of the cave. The Society commenced work in roro,
and it has continued regularly ever since. Associated
with numerous animal remains characteristic of the
late Pleistocene were found artifacts of the early
Tardenoisian or late Magdalenian periods, agreeing
with the determination of the fauna. The human
remains belong to the same horizon, since no trace of
polished stone or metal weapons, or of any culture
other than late Palaeolithic, has been found in the
cave, which seems to have been closed with a block
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
of stone very shortly after the bodies were deposited.
The people whose remains were found were con-
temporaries with the late Magdalenians of southern
France, and their culture was Tardenoisian, possibly
a transitional stage between the Magdalenian and
Aurignacian, an industrial evolution which may have
taken place in England.
THe Rep CracG FLInts oF FoxHALL.—In the June
issue of Man Mr. S. Hazeldene Warren discusses the
question of the signs of human handiwork on flints from
the Red Crag, Foxhall. He sums up his conclusions as
follows: ‘‘ The Foxhall flints give us another instance
of the association of striated surfaces with exclusively
mechanical characters in the flakes themselves and
in their trimmed edges. And that this association
and limitation to the mechanical group of forms does
not constitute an unsatisfactory, or doubtful case of
not proven, but (from the point of view of a human
industry) a definite, complete, and conclusive case
yo
of ‘ proven not ’.
Parasitic CopEpops.—Mr. C. B. Wilson contri-
butes to the Proceedings U.S. Nat. Mus. (vol. 60,
art. 5, 1922, 100 pp., 13 plates) his sixteenth paper
on the parasitic copepods in the museum collection.
The present paper is devoted to the Dichelesthiide,
which are parasites on the gills of fishes, but do not
burrow into the tissues of their host after the manner
of the Lerneide, though one genus, Cetrodes, pro-
duces irritation of the gill tissue, causing the latter
to grow up as a flap or fold entirely surrounding the
body of the copepod and holding it securely in place.
Other genera provokeirritation by their prehensile claws
sufficient to cause the gill tissue to grow up around
the claws. The transformations common in the
Lernzide are not met with in the Dichelesthiide. No
material change in the bodily form or structure of
these copepods takes place subsequent to their
attachment. The author gives a history of the family,
a short account of the ecology, external features,
and internal organs, systematic descriptions of and
keys to the 20 genera and 107 species. The only
stage of development known for any of the members
of this family is the nauplius, and a description of
the known nauplii is given. In the account of the
internal structure is included a short note on the
closed vascular system of the genus Lernanthropus,
which consists of two ventral longitudinal trunks
below the intestine, and a single dorsal trunk above
the intestine, from all three of which branches pass
to the appendages, and there is a network of capillaries
over the dorsal surface and in the laminate swimming
legs. No part of this system is connected with the
body cavity (hemoccel). The trunks and capillaries
contain a yellowish red fluid which streams backwards
and forwards under the influence of the peristaltic
movements of the alimentary canal. Neither blood
corpuscles “‘nor any other definite constituents ”
were found in this fluid.
INTERSEXUALITY.—Dr. R. de la Vaulx has given
(Révue générale des Sciences, March 30, 1922) a short
review of recent work on _ intersexuality — the
occurrence of examples intermediate between the
normal male and female of the species. Some of
these are intersexes, others are more correctly termed
gynandromorphs. The former are intermediate in
structure between male and female, and are the same
on both sides, whereas gynandromorphs consist
typically of a mosaic of male and female structures—
often one side is male and the other female—and
these cases are comparatively rare. The author cites
examples of intersexuality from invertebrates—the
Juty 8, 1922]
NATURE
butterfly Lymantria dispar, the lice Pediculus humanus
vars. capitis and corporis, Gammarus and Drosophila,
and describes some examples from his own cultures
of Daphnia. In Daphnia the intersexes appear not
among hybrid examples as in the other cases cited
above, but arise during parthenogenetic reproduction,
and, on the whole, they seem to have been biassed
originally towards the male sex and then to have
been secondarily feminised. Dr. Vaulx proceeds to
discuss whether the intersexual condition is due to
the action of two determining factors acting simultan-
eously or to two forces, e.g. hormones, working
successively, and remarks that sex appears to depend
on numerous factors or elements, and it has hitherto
been found possible to investigate only some of
these. He considers that the facts examined lead
to two inferences: (a) That sex does not depend on
discontinuous factors, or the absence or presence of
something as chromosome formule suggest, but on
complex causes resulting in continuous variation ;
(6) every unisexual individual possesses potentially
the attributes of the other sex, and these may be
revealed under certain conditions; it does not seem
that one sex can be really homozygous.
Arctic Rotirera.—In a short account of the
Rotifera of the Canadian Arctic Expedition (Report,
vol. vill.) Mr. H. K. Harring records 64 species, four
of which are new, among which is a pelagic Syncheta
—an addition to the extremely small number of
rotifers known to exist in the open ocean in waters
of normal salinity. The total absence of the genus
Brachionus so abundant elsewhere is noteworthy.
CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL IN OILSHALE.—Mr. E.
H. Cunningham Craig’s recent paper on kukkersite,
the oilshale of Esthonia (read before the Institute of
Petroleum Technologists on May 9), reopens—among
other controversial matters—the question of the
origin of the carbonaceous material present in oilshale,
a problem upon which the study of this particular
deposit may be destined to shed considerable light.
The shale is of Ordovician age, and forms part of a
Lower Paleozoic sequence remarkable alike for its
sedimentary characters and its simplicity of geological
structure. Palzontologically the shale has received
recent attention from Mr. H. Bekker, who has not
only described the Kukkers stage (C,), but has given
some account of the lithology and mode of deposition
of the deposit, together with his views on the origin
of the bitumenous matter present. His conclusions
differ in many respects from those of Mr. Cunningham
Craig, the latter regarding the deposit as a relic oil-
field, the former stressing the importance of the part
played by diatomaceous alge and bacteria under a
changing environment. Mr. Cunningham Craig re-
gards the shale as being formed by impregnation
with inspissated petroleum, derived from the under-
lying Cambrian beds, a theory presenting many
difficulties, some at least as formidable as those
possibly occasioned by the phytoplanctonic theory.
Apart from this, the commercial possibilities of the
shale are extremely favourable, though one gathers
from Mr. Cunningham Craig’s remarks that the type
of retort used in the past has not been the success
anticipated. He estimates the available reserves as
tooo million tons. The yield of oil, at present varying
from 40 to 50 gallons per ton, could easily be raised
to 70 or even 80 gallons per ton, the oil having a
specific gravity not higher than 0-93 and containing
very little sulphur. Labour is cheap, and the cost of
working and refining the shale should not be great.
Altogether Esthonia possesses a deposit valuable
alike from scientific and economic standpoints, and
the progress of development of this shale will be
watched with wide interest.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
55
THE DrRouGHT OF 1921.—A communication is
given in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteoro-
logical Society for April by Mr. C. E. P. Brooks and
Mr. J. Glasspoole, of the Meteorological Office, on
the drought of 1921, dealt with under the headings of
the rainfall of the British Isles and the causes of
drought in the British Isles. The year 1921 was in
certain areas a year of unprecedentedly small rainfall.
The only years since 1850 at all comparable with
I92I were 1854, 1864, 1870, and 1887. In 1854 the
deficiency of rain reached its maximum in the south-
east, where it was more than 30 per cent., to the
east of a line roughly from Bournemouth to Lincoln.
In 1864 the maximum deficiency exceeded 30 per
cent., over large areas along the east coast and in
Devon and Herefordshire. In 1870 the greatest
deficiency, exceeding 30 per cent., occurred in the
central plain of Scotland and locally in the south and
centre of England. In 1887 deficiencies of more
than 30 per cent. were widespread in the centre of the
British Isles, especially in the south-west of Ireland
and in a broad band across England from Southport
to Hull. For England and Wales, 1921 was the
driest year since 1850, while for the British Isles as
a whole, only one year, 1887, was slightly drier.
Indeed, 1921 was probably the driest year since 1788
for England and Wales. A comparison is also made
between the general rainfall in 1921 with that of
other dry periods of three to nine months’ duration,
and maps are given showing the several percentages.
In the second part of the communication the drought
is considered as related to abnormalities in the
circulation of the atmosphere. Droughts in the
British Isles are closely related to the establishment
and the persistence of local anticyclonic conditions,
and an attempt is made to find how these abnor-
malities are related to others in different parts of the
world. Maps of the world showing deviations of
pressure from normal during the chief periods of
drought in the British Isles are given for the occur-
rences since 1864. Generally speaking, low pressure
over the polar regions appears to be an essential
feature of drought in the British Isles, and in conse-
quence is considered to be an important factor in
forecasting droughts.
Focat Drprus or EARTHQUAKES. — The first
number of the Geophysical Supplement to the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
(for March 1922) consists of a valuable paper by
Prof. H. H. Turner on the arrival of earthquake
waves at the antipodes and on the measurement of
the focal depth of an earthquake. To a distance
A=go0°, the usual tables give good results for the
arrival of the primary waves of an earthquake.
Beyond this distance there is some uncertainty, but
near the antipodes of the epicentre the records again
become clear and regular. From 130° to 180° the
time of traverse in seconds is given approximately by
the expression
1217 — (180 — A)? x 0:0235.
For a single earthquake, the mean error of the
expression is about +3°5 secs., but for the great
earthquakes from 1913 to 1916 it is about +14 secs.
There is thus a systematic error for each particular
earthquake ascribable to a particular depth of focus,
which must be greater than 0-021, and may have a
value such as o-04, of the earth’s radius. Prof.
Turner suggests that the antipodes of the epicentre
should be called the hypocentre, a term which has
been used for the last thirty years to denote the
seismic focus. In Italy its use for this purpose is
practically universal. Outside that country, it has
been adopted by M. de Montessus de Ballore and
Prince Galitzin.
56
NA TORE
[JuLy 8, 1922
Coral Reefs of the Louisiade Archipelago.!
By Prof. W. M. Davis, Harvard University.
HE Louisiade archipelago, consisting of four
medium-sized and many small islands east of
New Guinea, is well represented on British Admiralty
chart 2124 on a scale of about 1 : 280,000; chart 1477
shows part of the archipelago in greater detail on
a scale of about 1: 140,000. According to brief
accounts by Macgillivray,? Thomson,’ and Maitland,
the chief islands are composed of steeply inclined and
deeply eroded schists and slates, traversed by quartz
veins; they are evidently parts of the mountain
range that extends for hundreds of miles along the
northern coast of New Guinea, from which they have
been separated by strong subsidence after having been
eroded to about their present form. The largest
island is Tagula, 30 miles in length east-west along
the trend of its schists, and 8 or 9 miles in width; it
has an embayed shore line and rises in ten summits to
heights of from 1330 to 2645 feet. Near by is the
Calvados chain of satellite islands, which begins about
7 miles north of the middle of Tagula and extends 70
miles westward; it includes more than a score of
members, the largest having a length of 11 miles and
a height of 1110 feet. Tagula and its chain of satel-
lites are enclosed by a superb barrier reef, the irreg-
ularly oval circuit of which measures 112 miles in
east-west diameter by about 30 miles north-south ; it
is unquestionably one of the finest reefs of its kind in
the whole Pacific.
The smaller islands of Rossel to the east and De-
boyne to the north-west of Tagula are also surrounded
by sea-level reefs, partly as fringes but mostly barriers.
Misima, north of Deboyne, measuring 22 by to miles
and reaching 3500 feet in height, is peculiar in having
no sea-level reefs and in descending rapidly into deep
water, although it is terraced by unconformable reefs
at various altitudes. It has therefore suffered a
recent uplift after having previously taken part in the
subsidence which characterises the other islands ; but
its subsidence must have been more rapid than theirs
as it has no widely developed barrier-reef lagoon floor,
either near present sea-level or above or below it.
The Tagula barrier reef and its great lagoon merit
special attention from the evidence that they give
regarding the verity of certain coral-reef theories.
The reef is best developed around the south-eastern
or windward half of its great oval circuit, where it is
interrupted by only four passes in a curved distance of
110 miles, and where the reef flat has a width of 2 or
3 miles. The north-western or leeward half of the
barrier is strikingly discontinuous and consists in part
of small patches, but more commonly of atoll-like
loops and rings, thirty-six in number, from 1 to 5 miles
in diameter, enclosing little lagoons from 10 to 17
fathoms in depth. The loops and rings of this half
of the circuit are separated by as many passages, from
+ to 3 miles wide and from 15 to 35 fathoms deep.
But the most remarkable features of this part of the
barrier are the small or minute but high islands, here
to be referred to as outposts, which rise in twenty-two
of the reef loops. The largest of them is only 4 miles
in diameter ; their heights vary from 40 to 530 feet.
Some of them appear to consist of schist, judging by
1 Reprinted from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences?
Washington, D.C., U.S.A. (vol. 8, No. 1, Jan. 1922).
* J. Macgillivray, ‘‘ Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake,”
London, 1852, 2 vols. Seei. 182; ii. 72.
* B. H. Thomson, ‘‘ New Guinea: Narrative of an Exploring Expedition
to the Louisiade and D’Entrecasteaux Islands,’ Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc.,
11, 1889 2).
APACKG: land, ‘‘ Geological Observations in British New Guinea,”
Queensland, Geol. Surv. Pub., 85, 1892. ‘‘ Salient Geological Features of
New Guinea,’ Journ. W. Austral. N. H. Soc., 2, 1905 (32-50).
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
their trends ; but according to Maitland some of the
others are volcanic and a few are made of limestone.
As elements of a barrier reef, these small but high out-
post islands are so exceptional as to be almost unique.
The great Tagula lagoon is divided by the Calvados
chain of satellite islands into a smaller northern and
a larger southern compartment ; the northern com-
partment is of triangular outline, with its base along
the dividing chain and its vertex about 10 miles away
at the most northern point of the reef; it occupies
about one-sixth of the entire reef-enclosed space, which
is about 2000 square miles in total area. Thesouthern
compartment measures 20 miles across, and extends
east-west along the whole 112 miles of the lagoon
length ; it occupies about four-sixths of the enclosed
area ; the remaining sixth is taken by Tagula and the
satellite islands. The greater part of the lagoon floor
in both compartments is a gently undulating plain
usually from 25 to 35 fathoms in depth. The depth
of the southern compartment increases gradually for
a moderate distance from the broad enclosing reef,
and more rapidly from the islands of the Calvados
chain. The greatest depths, 46 fathoms in the
southern or windward compartment and 49 fathoms
in the northern or leeward compartment, are in both
cases found much nearer the dividing island chain
than the outer barrier reef. The exterior slopes of the
reef fall off rapidly into deep water ; a few soundings
show depths of more than 600 fathoms two miles
from the reef on the west and north-west.
A correct theory of the Louisiade reefs must take
account of the great subsidence that the islands have
suffered. It would therefore appear that the present
sea-level reefs should be regarded as the successors of
a long-lived series of upgrowing reefs which have been
formed, essentially according to Darwin’s theory, by
more or less intermittent upgrowth from earlier shore
lines of the subsiding mountainous islands. It is
probable that where the island slopes were very steep,
the reefs, presumably inclining inwards as they grew
up, remained attached to the shore as fringes; con-
versely, where the island slopes were gentler or where
low slopes have been broadly submerged, the reefs
now form offshore barriers. During the upgrowth of
the reefs, some of their detritus must have been swept
seaward, to form the submarine talus that descends
into deep water; the rest must have been swept into
the lagoons, where, reinforced by local organic detritus
and probably in smaller measure by detritus from the
islands, it appears to have aggraded the “‘ moats ”’
between the reefs and the islands.
It thus seems that the formation of the great under-
mass of the Louisiade reefs, and especially of the
Tagula reef, may well have been consistent with the
conditions and processes of Darwin’s theory. It
should be added that the evidence for the strong
subsidence of the Louisiade islands is, in view of their
constitution, much more direct than that furnished
for the similar subsidence of most reef-encircled
volcanic islands in the central Pacific ; and that this
well-certified subsidence of the foundations on which
the Louisiade reef-masses have been built up gives
immensely greater support for Darwin’s theory than
is afforded by the atolls of the open Pacific, where the
occurrence of subsidence is indicated only by indirect
evidence. It remains to inquire whether the Louisi-
ade sea-level reefs, which surmount the great under-
mass, accord with or contradict other coral-reef
theories, especially the newly framed Glacial-control
theory of sea-level reefs. This theory was proposed
JuLy 8; 1922]
more particularly to account for the atolls and barrier
reefs of the supposedly quiescent central Pacific than
for the barrier reefs of much disturbed regions like
the Louisiade archipelago: nevertheless the Tagula
reef in particular affords critical evidence against that
theory, as will be made clear by the following con-
siderations.
The Glacial-control theory appears to be based on
the conviction that it is the smooth lagoon floors
rather than their enclosing reefs which are most in
need of explanation, and that the bathymetric relation
of the lagoon floors to the level of the ocean reached
by the enclosing reefs is normally so nearly constant
in al] the coral seas that their explanation by Darwin’s
theory in terms of reef upgrowth and lagoon aggrada-
tion on subsiding foundations of irregular form is
impossible. A long period of nearly perfect stability
of the mid-ocean floor is therefore assumed, although
instability is admitted for islands in the south-
~western Pacific; and instead of postulating that
lagoon floors represent ““moats’’ that have been
heavily aggraded behind the upgrowing reefs during
the subsidence of their foundations, a series of in-
genious suppositions is invented, of which the chief
are: that during Preglacial time many still-standing
islands, more or less reef-surrounded, were either
worn down to low relief by subaerial erosion or cut
down to shallow platforms by marine abrasion ; that
during the Glacial epochs of the Glacial period the
ocean surface was lowered by about 35 fathoms by
the withdrawal of water to form continentalice sheets ;
that the surface waters of the ocean were then so
chilled as to kill or greatly to weaken reef-building
organisms ; that islands were then attacked by the
waves, which cut low-level benches around them if
they were high, or if they were low completely trun-
cated them in platforms at a depth of 35 to 40 fathoms
below normal! sea level; that as the waters warmed
and rose, reefs grew up on the margins of the benches
and platforms, whereupon the lagoons behind them
were moderately aggraded ; and that the thickness
of the aggrading deposits is greater, and consequently
the lagoon depth is less in small than in large lagoons,
because the detritus supplied from a linear front-foot
of a reef has a smaller interior sector to aggrade in a
smal! lagoon than in a large one. In brief, the long-
continued stability of reef foundations and the
abrasion of sub-lagoon platforms upon them are
leading factors of the Glacial-control theory.
It should be noted here that neither the stability
of reef foundations nor the abrasion of sub-lagoon
platforms is proved by any direct evidence ; both of
these leading factors are, like the subsidence of atoll
foundations in Darwin’s theory, assumed because
they are thought to be necessary for the explanation
of observed facts ; and both assumptions are believed
to be true because of the apparent success of the
explanation that they provide. Hence if it be shown,
even in a single instance, that a lagoon floor of typical
form and depth has been produced around an island
which provides independent evidence contradictory
to stability and abrasion and, indeed, requires strong
subsidence, the fundamental assumptions of the
Glacial-control theory will be seriously invalidated.
The bearing of Tagula reef and lagoon on the
Glacial-control theory may now be apprehended.
Tagula is, as has already been shown, not in a region
of long-continued and nearly perfect stability, but
in one of marked instability ; and as will next be
shown, it has not suffered abrasion by the lowered
ocean ; yet its lagoon floor is smooth and of a depth
accordant with that of other large lagoons in various
parts of the Pacific. Hence long-continued stability
and extensive low-level abrasion are not essential
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
NATURE 57
factors in the production of this fine example of a
barrier-reef lagoon floor. But if these factors are
not essential in Tagula, they should not be regarded
as essential anywhere else; and their adoption as
the leading postulates of the Glacial-control theory
is therefore unnecessary; flatness of lagoon floors
and their accordant depths may be explained else-
where as well as in Tagula as the result of long-
continued aggradation on subsiding foundations of
uneven surface.
The evidence that Tagula has not suffered abrasion
by the low Glacial ocean, and hence that the reef-
building organisms around Tagula were not seriously
weakened by the lowered temperatures of the lowered
ocean in the Glacial epochs, is found partly in the
absence of chartered cliffs on the shores of the main
island where the barrier reef becomes a fringe, partly
in the absence of similar cliffs on the exposed sides
of the satellite islands at either end of the Calvados
chain where it approaches the barrier reef, and partly
in the presence of the outpost islands in the barrier-
reef loops around the northern lagoon compartment.
As to the first line of evidence based on the absence
of cliffs on Tagula: If abrasion by the lowered ocean
had operated long enough to cut a platform to or
20 miles wide beneath the present floor of the southern
compartment, it ought at the same time to have cut
spur-end cliffs on the north shore of the main island,
where the defending reef is a fringe only half a mile
wide ; and these cliffs ought still to show the upper
part of their faces as plunging cliffs, now that the
ocean has resumed its normal level; but the charts
show no such cliffs.
The second line of evidence based on the absence
of cliffs on the Calvados islands is similarly argued.
It may be added that the absence of cliffs at these
significant points on the charts of the Louisiade
islands does not appear to be due to poor charting ;
for on the coast of Misima, where Maitland observed
the white limestone scarps of elevated reefs, the
charts clearly show a shore cliff, and a legend is
printed along it: “‘ Cliffs 100 feet high.”’
As to the third line of evidence: The little outpost
islands are so numerous in the Tagula barrier-reef
loops around the northern lagoon compartment and
around the western part of the southern compart-
ment that it seems unreasonable to believe the waves
of the lowered Glacial ocean could have cut their
way behind the outposts efficiently enough to abrade
a platform to miles in width. Not only so, the
outpost islands show no sign of. having cliffs on their
outer sides. One of them, Utian, a mile across and
480 feet high, is reported by Maitland to consist of
volcanic rocks; but it is not a young volcanic cone
built up in Postglacial time, for the chart shows it
to have well-dissected form, with three slender points
enclosing two small bays turned toward the outer
ocean; yet the points are not cut back in plunging
cliffs. Another outpost not far away is said by the
same observer to consist of limestone; this island
cannot have been made and elevated since an
assumed platform was abraded, for the height of the
island, 530 feet, is so great that in such case the
platform thereabouts ought to be more or less
emerged ; and it cannot have been made and raised
before the platform was cut, for in such case the
limestone ought to have been consumed by the waves
that cut the platform.
The small outpost islands of the Tagula barrier
reef therefore give strong confirmation of the evidence
against abrasion derived from the absence of plunging
cliffs on the north side of the main islands and on
the terminal members of the Calvados chain. But if
the northern compartment of the Tagula lagoon,
58
NAL ORE
[JuLY 8, 1922
which alone is as large as many an atoll, is thus shown
not to be underlaid by an abraded platform, there
is no sufficient reason for thinking that the southern
compartment, or indeed any other barrier reef or atoll
lagoon in the whole Pacific, has any such smoothly
prepared foundation. Surely if the flatness of the
floor and its normal depth in both compartments ot
the Tagula lagoon have been brought about in a
region of instability, and without the aid of abrasion
in furnishing a smooth sub-lagoon platform, there
is no sufficient reason for assuming that other flat
lagoon floors of ordinary depth can have been pre-
pared only on smooth platforms abraded at a standard
depth across still-standing islands. It is possible
that the Glacial lowering of the ocean surface by a
moderate amount may have contributed, in a manner
that I have suggested elsewhere,’ to the production
of many lagoon floors 30 or 40 fathoms in depth ;
but Glacial changes of ocean level do not seem other-
wise to have left recognisable marks of their occur-
rence in the Louisiade archipelago. Crustal deforma-
tion has been dominant; and the great changes of
shore lines thus determined appear to have been
merely played upon by the inferred oscillations of
ocean level during the Glacial period.
This discussion is believed to show that, apart
from such changes of ocean level as are inherently
probable although they are not well-known either
in amount or in effects, the assumptions of the Glacial-
control theory are not applicable in the production
of Tagula reef and lagoon floor; and hence we
may fairly conclude that these assumptions are not
essential to the production of similar reefs and
lagoon floors elsewhere. This argument, in which
the evidence furnished by one outspoken witness for
5 “ Problems associated with the Study of Coral Reef,’’ Sci. Monthly, 2,
1916 (565).
Darwin’s theory and against the Glacial-control
theory is given wide application, would not be valid
if other witnesses were equally outspoken elsewhere
against Darwin’s theory and for the Glacial-control
theory; but such is not the case. It must be
remembered that the two main postulates of the
Glacial - control theory, namely, long - continued
stability of reef foundations in the mid-Pacific and
the abrasion of sub-lagoon platforms by the lowered
Glacial ocean, are not based on direct evidence but
are assumed because they are supposed to be neces-
sary for the explanation of smooth lagoon floors of
standard depths. Not asingle example of an abraded
platform has been discovered under recently uplifted
reefs; and a large number of mid-Pacific islands
which have a decipherable recent history are found
not to have been long stable but to have suffered
various changes of level. In other words, where
other outspoken witnesses are found, their testimony
is, like that of Tagula, for Darwin’s theory of up-
growing reefs on subsiding foundations of whatever
shape. A large number of examples of this kind
could be adduced if space permitted.
But although the inhibition of reef growth and the
resulting abrasion of low-level platforms by the
Glacial ocean thus appear to be excluded from the
greater part of the coral seas, it is highly probable
that reef-building organisms may have been weakened
or killed and that abrasion of platforms may have
taken place around islands near the margin of the
coral seas; and at least some of those islands ought
now to show plunging cliffs in evidence of their
possession of submerged platforms ; but even there
the islands need not have been stable. This aspect
of the coral-reef problem is examined in an essay
submitted to the Geological Society of America for
| publication in its Bulletin.
Root Respiration.
LTHOUGH so much work has been done on the
question of root respiration, it is only within the
last few years that the importance of the air content
of the soil in this connexion has been clearly demon-
strated. With the growth of ecological work has
come the indication that this air content is a primary
factor in many habitats and a controlling one in wet
soil and water, but even yet this is not generally
recognised.
Mr. F. E. Clements has endeavoured to clear the
ground for further research in this direction by
summarising the available information in allits aspects.
From the time of Mayou (1668) the necessity of oxygen
for root activity has been recognised, and numerous
investigations have since added to the bulk of evidence
with studies of germination, anaerobic respiration, and
the respiratory behaviour of underground parts other
than roots. The excretion of carbon-dioxide by the
roots was first noted by Hales (1727), but the possible
excretion of other substances is still a matter of
controversy at the present day. Mbolisch first showed
that roots exhibit the phenomenon of aerotropism or
response to different concentrations of various gases. |
This is of great significance in plants inhabiting bogs
and swampy land, as in order to obtain the oxygen
necessary for respiration they develop aerotropic roots
which run horizontally above the oxygen-free swamp
soil, as in Alnus, or rise vertically in the air, as in
Avicennia. : j
The composition of the soil air varies considerably
with the nature of the soil, time of year, and seasonal
1 «Aeration and Air Content: the Réle of Oxygen in Root Activity,”
by Frederic E. Clements. Pp. 183. (Publication 315.) (Washington:
Carnegie Institution, 1921.) 2 dollars.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
changes, and is also affected by cultivation and plant
growth, which increase the carbon- dioxide and
diminish the oxygen in proportion. It has been
suggested by Bristol that the presence of algae may
also affect the soil gases.
Anaerobic respiration is of much significance in
connexion with reduced oxygen supply. The general
effect of the reduction or absence of oxygen on respira-
tion is to reduce its intensity, but respiration under
anaerobic conditions differs with the species. Carbon-
dioxide and alcohol are the regular products of such
respiration, which is consequently regarded by most
investigators as essentially identical with alcoholic
fermentation when carbohydrates are present. Under
certain conditions acetic, formic, and lactic acids
are excreted from the roots and other parts of flower-
ing plants. After considering the relation of photo-
synthesis, transpiration, and germination to oxygen
supply, Mr. Clements enunciates the general rule that
growth is decreased or prevented by the absence of
oxygen. The movement of protoplasm in plant cells
is stopped, and practically all tropistic responses are
suppressed.
Field studies of aeration, approached from the
agricultural, pathological, and ecological standpoints,
corroborate the results of physiological investigation
as to the basic importance of oxygen for root activity
and the injury wrought by the accumulation of
carbon-dioxide. The practical importance of this
appears most strikingly in irrigated regions where
the common practice involves the use of too much
water, with consequent economic loss, due to the
production of an oxygen deficit in the soil.
Juy 8, 1922]
The problem of soil aeration and the way in which
it works injury to plants is much under discussion,
but it appears certain that in some soils the lack of
oxygen and the accumulation of carbon-dioxide are
primary factors, while the organic acids and salts
arising from anerobiosis may play some part. In
other cases acidity brings salts of aluminium, iron,
NATURE 59
or manganese into solution, which then exert a toxic
effect.
Finally, after putting forward the present position
of affairs with regard to toxic exudates and soil
toxins, the author concludes his valuable survey
with a comprehensive bibliography which contains
more than seven hundred references. Wiese:
Radio Direction Finding in Flying Machines.
HERE is little doubt that radio direction finders
and other radio devices will soon be in regular
use to enable aeroplanes to land at night, during
fogs or at other times of poor visibility. The usual
method is to transmit signals from an antenna in
the landing field to the direction-finder on the aero-
plane. This, however, gives merely the direction
of the landing-field and provides no indication to the
navigator of his distance from his destination.
Some years ago the Bureau of Standards in
America experimented with induction signalling. A
large horizontal single turn coil, 600 by 800 feet,
was erected at the landing-stage. It was tuned to
resonance at a frequency of 500 so that it produced a
very powerful alternating magnetic field over a wide
area in the neighbourhood. It was found that
induction effects could be detected at considerable
distances when the aeroplane was at a low altitude,
but at the height of a mile they could be detected
only throughout a small area directly over the coil.
The tests showed that what was wanted was a hollow
conical beam of radiation, the vertex of the beam
being on the landing ground. At low altitudes it
was very important that the signal should be audible
over only a very limited range.
This has been effected by means of two equal
coaxial coils with their planes horizontal and at
different altitudes. The current, which has a radio-
frequency of 300,000, flows in opposite directions
in the two coils. Under these conditions the signals
are received at the aeroplane only when the machine
is in the immediate neighbourhood and approaching
or receding from the station.
Gregory Breit, a physicist of the Bureau of Stan-
dards, has worked out mathematically the nature of
the field from the two horizontal coils. It is proved
that the maximum intensity of the signals occurs
when the angle which the line joining theaeroplane with
the landing-stage makes with the vertical is approxi-
mately 30°. The region of space within which the
signal can be detected is nearly the space between
two inverted coaxial cones with their axes vertical
and their common apex at the transmitting station.
The signals are inaudible directly overhead and
rapidly die away when the aeroplane passes through
the conical surface where the sound is a maximum.
The lower the aeroplane also the louder the noise.
The theoretical results have proved of great value in
designing stations for emitting landing signals, and
should be of considerable practical importance.
Industrial Research in India.
@ = of the bye-products of the new constitution
legalised by the Government of India Act of
1919 was the transfer of certain “‘ heads of business,”
previously administered by the bureaucratic regime,
to the control of popularly elected Ministers in each
province. The subjects so transferred included
agriculture, forests, and the development of in-
dustries, with, therefore, the scientific and technical
services attached to these departments. Realising
that ‘“‘ decentralisation of authority and responsibility
must necessarily tend to give rise to loca] variations
in policy, apart altogether from those variations that
follow local diversity in natural resources,’’ Sir
Thomas Holland, when designing the new Depart-
ment of Industries and Labour in 1920, elaborated
a system which would facilitate concerted action
among the provinces while leaving them free to
develop in any way that seemed to their respective
legislatures best suited to their special needs. The
new Ministers were, in the first instance, provided
with a monthly circular summarising the information,
often of a semi-confidential nature, collected by the
Intelligence Branch of the Munitions Board. Out
of these circulars grew the agenda of half-yearly
conferences, followed by a quarterly Journal and a
series of Bulletins suitable for publication.
During 1921 four parts of the first volume of the
Journal, amounting to 568 pages, well illustrated
and fully indexed, were issued, and we have now
received the first part of the new volume for 1922, to-
gether with twenty-three Bulletins on special subjects.
The first part of the Journal published in 1921 was |
noticed last year in Nature of April 7 (vol. 107,
p. 179), and it is satisfactory to observe that the
quality of the papers and the fundamental object of
the publication have both been faithfully maintained.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Some of the articles, like those by Dr. E. R. Watson
and Mr. Mukerji on the alkaline “‘ bad lands’ of the
United Provinces, by Mr. B. M. Das on the tan-stuffs
of the mangrove swamps on the Gangetic delta, by
Mr. Appleyard on the manufacture of acetone and
butyl alcohol, and by Messrs. Gadre and Mukerji on
rose otto, include the results of original research ;
but generally the articles and notes have an industrial
rather than a scientific bias, avoiding the ground
covered by those scientific and technical departments
that have established journals of theirown. Problems
of factory welfare, which are beginning to assume
embarrassing importance in India, occupy a con-
spicuous place among papers describing local ven-
tures in glass manufacture, paper-making, tanning,
pottery, oil-extraction, perfume distillation, wire-
drawing, textile manufacture, and mineral enter-
prises.
The progress reports provided quarterly by the
provincial Directors of Industries show the efforts
being made to carry out the recommendations of
the Industrial Commission which delivered its report
towards the end of 1918. The reports generally give
some justification for the claim made by Lord
Chelmsford in his article in the United Empire
for December last (vol. xii. p. 778) that ‘“‘ never has
effect been given more expeditiously’ to a Com-
mission’s report. Differences of provincial outlook,
however, still retard the adoption of the excellent
scheme of chemical research drawn up by Prof.
Thorpe’s Committee in 1920; and without some
such organisation to this end, by co-operation among
the provinces, the industries of India must always
retain their primitive “ configuration ’’ and remain
distinctly behind, for example, those of a country
like Japan. ;
60
NATURE
[Jury 8, 1922
Rainfall in Southern Italy and Tripoli.
ROF. FILIPPO EREDIA, of the Italian Meteoro-
logical Service, has recently contributed some
further climatological studies to the many which he
has already published. One of these (Nuovi Annali
del Ministero per |’ Agricoltura) deals with the seasonal
conditions of rainfall in the province of Apulia and
the relation of the quantity of precipitation to the
number of days of incidence. The matter is im-
portant in connexion with the somewhat precarious |
water supply in that southern Italian province, which
during the summer months is affected by the Saharan
regimen of drought.
In another publication, on the rainfall of Tripoli
(“ L’ Agricoltura Coloniale,’’ Anno xv., No. 8, 1921),
Prof. Eredia shows that there is no foundation for
the supposition that the rainfall of the region is
steadily diminishing because the country shows signs
of progressive desiccation. One might remark that
progressive desiccation is considered to be the fact
in many parts of Africa other than Tripoli, and that
it has been explained by Schwarz and others as due,
not to diminishing rainfall, but to a continental
configuration which is slowly inducing baneful hydro-
logical changes.
Two other papers on the climates of Gharian and
Cussabat on the interior plateau of Tripoli (Bollettino
di Informazioni, Nos. 3-4, 7-8, 1921) give an interest-
ing glimpse of general climatic conditions based on
a few years’ records for meteorological observations
since the Itahan occupation. The mean annual
temperature at Gharian, high up on the plateau and
more than 2000 feet above sea-level, is about 65° F.,
ranging between 83° in July and 48° in January,
and the mean daily range varies from 30° F. at
midsummer to less than half that value at mid-
winter. The absolute extremes of temperature
recorded at this station were 121-1° F, in June and
32-1° F. in December, whilst extreme fluctuations of
relative humidity characterise this dry region. The
general rainfall of Tripoli is less than 20 inches a
year, chiefly confined to winter. In this region we
have another instance of the fact that occasional
snowfalls at sea-level make a much closer approach
to the tropics than is commonly supposed.
University and Educational Intelligence.
Bancor.—Prof. D. Thoday of the University of
Cape Town has been appointed to the chair of
botany, in succession to Prof. R. W. Phillips, who
retires after thirty-eight years’ service.
BrirMINGHAM.—At the Degree Congregation held
on July 1, in the great hall of the University at
Edgbaston, the number of degrees conferred was the
largest hitherto recorded for the University. Many
of the new graduates are ex-service men, and the
Principal (Mr. C. Grant Robertson) paid a tribute
to the work of these men and their valuable help
in creating afresh traditions of the University after
the war: ‘“‘ They have given us invaluable service
in that necessary work. They brought to the
University a breadth and a variety of experience,
a maturity of judgment, and an energy and enthusiasm
which those who know the University from the inside
recognise has been invaluable, and which will leave
a permanent imprint on our University life and a
permanent addition to our University traditions.”
The institution by the Government of grants to ex-
service men was a unique educational experiment
and, judging by the experience of Birmingham
University, it had proved an unqualified success.
The following degrees were conferred: Doctor of
NO. 2749, VOL. I10]
Science: Mr. R. H. Whitehouse ; Doctor of Medicine :
Mr. O. J. Kauffmann, Mr. J. Robertson, and Mr. J.
W. Russell; Philosophie Doctor: Mr. F. Adcock,
MiG. Bs (Childs, Wit VaeAy Collins) Miri Ayers
Reeve, Mr. J. D. M. Smith, Mr. R. E. Stradling, Mr.
E. H. Wells; Master of Surgery: Mr. L. P. Gamgee.
For the degree of Master of Science, 45 candidates
were presented ; for the degree of B.Sc. with Honours,
there were 74 candidates, and for the ordinary B.Sc.
degree, 157.
The Vice-Chancellor, Sir Gilbert Barling, announced
that a war memorial was to be erected on the east
wall of the entrance hall, in the form of three marble
panels bearing the names of the members of the
University of all ranks who fell in the war. It is
expected that the memorial will be unveiled in
October next.
Mr. C. G. Payton has been appointed demonstrator
in anatomy. ,
The Ingleby Lecturer for 1924 will be Mr. A. W.
Nuthall.
CAMBRIDGE.—In connexion with the meeting of
the Royal Agricultural Society (the ‘“ Royal Show ’’),
honorary degrees are being conferred on H.R.H. The
-Duke of York, the Honourable W. H. Taft, Mr.
C. R. W. Adeane, Sir G. Greenall, Sir Daniel Hall,
Mr. E. S. Beaven, Mr. A. E. Humphries, Mr. E>
Mathews, and Mr. G. P. Hawkins. Mr. L. C. G
Clarke, Trinity College, has been appointed curator
of the Museum of Archeology and of Ethnology.
Lonpon.—Prof. H. S. Birkett (Dean of the Faculty
of Medicine, McGill University) will deliver the Semon
Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole
Street, W.1, on Wednesday, July 12, at 5 o'clock.
The subject will be “The development of Trans-
Atlantic Rhino-laryngology.’’ Admission will be free
and no tickets will be required.
Oxrorp.—At the Encaenia, held on June 28, the
honorary degree of D.Sc. was conferred on Prof. J.
Perrin of Paris and Prof. F. Gowland Hopkins of
Cambridge. In introducing Prof. Perrin, the Public
Orator (Dr. Godley) referred particularly to his
experimental researches in the character and con-
stitution of the atom, and to his determination of the.
velocity of the component electrons. His scientific
investigations had been used in the service of his
country, and had contributed largely to its victory
in the war. Of the work in biochemistry of Prof.
Gowland Hopkins, the Orator found it difficult to
speak “in hac patrii sermonis egestate.’’ He was
able, however, to pay tribute in general terms to
Prof. Hopkins’s abstruse researches into the nutrition
and metabolism of living bodies. His discovery of
the importance of vitamins was not only of high
scientific value, but had also a practical bearing of the
greatest interest in the study of disease. Prof.
Perrin was greeted by the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. L. R.
Farnell, Rector of Exeter College) as ‘‘ Vir doctissime ;
maxime physicae scientiae auctor’’; and _ Prof.
Hopkins as “ Vir eruditissime ; chemiae explorator
insignis ; Universitatis Cantabrigiensis decus.”’
SHEFFIELD.—Honorary degrees have been conferred
on Sir Charles Parsons for his work on the turbine
engine, and on Mr. T. W. Hall for researches in
paleography and archeology.
Dr. R. H. CHITTENDEN, the well-known authority
on dietetics, is retiring from the post of director of
the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, which
he has held since 1898. He is to be succeeded by
Dr. C. H. Warren, now professor of mineralogy at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a
former assistant at the Sheffield Scientific School, of
which he is himself a graduate.
JuLy 8, 1922]
NATURE 61
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
July 1, 1860. Charles Goodyear died.—The father
- of the American rubber industry, Goodyear was born
at New Haven, Connecticut, on December 12, 1800,
his father, Amasa Goodyear, being known as an
inventor of agricultural implements and a manu-
facturer of hardware. The failure of his father’s
business about 1830 led Goodyear to study the
problem of “‘curing’’ rubber, which at that time
became soft and sticky in summer and brittle in
winter. Always in debt, sometimes in prison, and
often regarded as a crank, Goodyear persevered
until, in 1839, he accidentally discovered that by
partly melting rubber and sulphur the rubber could
be given varying degrees of hardness and elasticity.
His first patent was taken out in 1844, and though he
reaped no fortune he continued to improve the manu-
facture and extend the use of rubber until his death.
July 2, 1798. John Fitch died.—One of the pioneers
of steam navigation, Fitch was the son of a farmer
of Windsor, Connecticut, and was born on January
21, 1743. After a few sea voyages he engaged in
clockmaking and brassfounding, and as a gunsmith
to the American troops during the War of Independ-
ence made a considerable fortune. His project of
driving boats by steam was launched in 1785, and
the following year he formed a company and secured
exclusive rights in New Jersey and other States.
A boat built by him and placed upon the Delaware
in 1790 was the first steam vessel to convey passengers
forhire. The undertaking, however, proved financially
unsuccessful, and three years later Fitch met with
no more success in France. Reaping nothing but
disappointment and poverty, his mind gave way,
and he died by his own hand at Bardstown, Kentucky.
July 5, 1826. Joseph Louis Proust died.—Trained as
a chemist by his father, Proust made one of the earliest
balloon ascents, was for some years employed by
the King of Spain, and discovered a process of making
grape sugar. He was also known for the enunciation
of the law of constant proportion and for his con-
troversies with Berthollet.
July 5, 1883. Robert Spence died.—Beginning life
as a grocer, Spence afterwards found employment
in the Dundee Gas-works and became the proprietor
of chemical works in London, Manchester, and else-
where. In 1845 he discovered the process of making
alum from the refuse shale of collieries and the waste
ammoniacal liquor of gas-works, and became the
chief alum manufacturer in the world. He also took
out many patents in connexion with industrial
chemistry and metallurgy.
July 7, 1850. Timothy Hackworth died.—Born at
Wylam, near Newcastle, in 1786, Hackworth became
a foreman smith and assisted in some of the pioneer-
ing work on the locomotive. Appointed in 1825
resident engineer and manager of the Stockton and
Darlington Railway, he built the Royal George, which
definitely asserted the superiority of steam over
horse traction, and in 1829 produced the Sans Pavreil,
a worthy competitor with Stephenson’s Rocket, at
Rainhill.
July 7, 1896. Sir John Pender died.—A successful
merchant in textile fabrics in Manchester and Glasgow,
Pender was an enthusiastic supporter of submarine
telegraphy, and was one of the 345 subscribers who
each risked a thousand pounds in the Atlantic Cable
of 1857. He personally guaranteed 250,000/. to the
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company
in 1865, and at his death was the head of various
concerns owning 73,640 nautical miles of submarine
cable and having a capital of fifteen millions.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
July 10, 1867. Thomas Richardson died.— Trained
as a chemist under Thomas Thomson, Liebig, and
Pelouze, Richardson became a chemical manufacturer
at Newcastle, introduced improvements in the
production of lead, and began the manufacture of
superphosphates. He lectured on chemistry in
Durham University, published information about the
industries of the north, and with Ronalds translated
Kknapp’s ‘“‘ Technological Chemistry.”’
July 10, 1874. John Grantham died.—The author
of a standard work on iron shipbuilding, Grantham
designed many sailing-ships and steamships, patented
a screw-propeller, and devised a method of sheathing
iron ships with copper. He was also joint engineer
with his brother to the northern railway of Buenos
Aires and planned the first tramway in Copenhagen.
He was one of the founders of the Institution of
Naval Architects.
July 12, 1892. Cyrus West Field died.— Born in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 1810,
Field built up a large paper-manufacturing business,
and then in 1854 turned his attention to submarine
telegraphy, ultimately becoming the chief promoter
of the Atlantic Telegraph. It has been said, “ Let
who will claim the merit of having said the Atlantic
cable was possible, to Mr. Field is due the inalienable
credit of having made it possible, and of giving to
an abortive conception all the attributes of healthy
existence.’’ Hissharein the great enterprise was recog-
nised by the award to him by Congress of a gold medal,
and he received the thanks of the American nation.
July 12, 1910. Charles Stewart Rolls died.—A
pioneer of the motor-car in England, an expert
aeronaut, and the first English victim of aviation,
Rolls was the son of Baron Llangattock and was
born August 28, 1877. Educated at Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied practical
engineering, and in 1895 purchased his first motor
car. Nine years later he founded the well-known
firm of Rolls-Royce, Ltd. To study Wilbur Wright’s
experiments he visited France in 1908, acquired a
Wright aeroplane, and became an expert flyer. In
June 1910 he crossed and recrossed the Channel
without stopping. His death was due to an accident
to the machine he was flying at Bournemouth.
July 14, 1806. Emiland Marie Gauthey died.— A
student at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, under the
celebrated Perronet, Gauthey rose to eminence in
the French service, and was especially known for the
construction of the Canal du Centre in Burgundy.
His ‘‘ Traité complet sur la construction des ponts
et des canaux navigables’’ was published in 1809 by
his nephew Navier.
July 14, 1808. John Wilkinson died.— The father
of the iron trade in Staffordshire, Wilkinson was
born in 1728, and learned the art of smelting from his
father. In 1748 he built a blast furnace at Bilston,
Staffordshire, using coke for fuel, and afterwards had
works at Bersham and Broseley. He introduced the
boring of cannon, in 1787 he constructed an iron barge,
and he also patented a method of making lead pipes.
July 14, 1887. Alfred Krupp died.— The son of
Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826), who opened a small
iron forge at Essen in 1810, Alfred Krupp was born
April 26, 1812, and at an early age succeeded to the
management of the business which, in his hands,
became of world-wide importance. He made the
first steel gun, established the first Bessemer works in
Germany, and manufactured large quantities of
ordnance and railway material. The works at Essen
cover an area of about five square miles, while the
firm, in its various establishments, employs some
80,000 men. Be Cis:
62 NATURE
[Juty 8, 1922
Societies and Academies.
Lonvon.
Royal Society, June 22.—Sir Charles Sherrington,
president, in the chair.—G. I. Taylor: The motion
of a sphere in a rotating liquid. There are an
infinite number of solutions to the equations of
motion of a rotating fluid, when a sphere is moved
uniformly along the axis of rotation, which satisfy
the boundary conditions and the conditions at
infinity. They are characterised by spherical rota-
tional waves which accompany the sphere. The
radius of the sphere may be reduced to zero without
reducing the disturbance in the fluid to zero. The
equations then represent a motion which is finite and
continuous at the centre, and consists of a central
core of fluid which rotates more slowly than the
surrounding fluid and travels along'the axis with a
constant speed.—T. R. Merton and D. N. Harrison:
On errors arising in the measurement of unsymmet-
rical spectrum lines. The instrumental displace-
ments occurring while spectra are being photo-
graphed can be rendered innocuous, for wave-length
determinations, only when the spectrum lines are
symmetrical. With uniform displacement of a
line during exposure, the maximum on the photo-
graphic plate occurs where the intensity distri-
bution curves at the beginning and end of the
exposure intersect. When the/ratio of the widths
on either side of the maximum of the curve remains
constant for all values of the intensity, the displace-
ment of the maximum is simply related to the
“index of asymmetry ”’ of the line—E. F. Arm-
strong and T. P. Hilditch: A study of catalytic
actions at solid surfaces. Pt. VIII. The action
of sodium carbonate in promoting theShydrogenation
of phenol. Small amounts of mild alkali, especially
anhydrous sodium carbonate, stimulate the hydro-
genation of liquid phenol in presence of nickel.
The amount of sodium carbonate has a specific
influence, the optimum being about 25 per cent. of
thejweight of metallic nickel present. The hydrogen-
absorption time curves for phenol in presence of
nickel and in absence of sodium carbonate are of
logarithmic type ; with the optimum concentration
of carbonate they are approximately linear. The
sodium carbonate suppresses a retarding or poison-
ing influence, leaving the nickel free to exercise
its normal function. The toxic agent appears to
be some stable association between the nickel and
phenol, or a product from the latter, possibly nickel
phenate. Pt. IX. The action of copper in pro-
moting the activity of nickel catalyst. Copper-
nickel catalysts prepared at 180° C. are not so
active as the plain nickel catalyst, distributed to
give the maximum surface area, reduced at a higher
temperature. For maximum activity, the pro-
portions of the mixed carbonates must be such that
nickel a-cupri-carbonate is present in the precipitate.
The preparations yielding active catalysts respond
to*Pickering’s tests for complex cupri-carbonates.
The production of a little reduced nickel at this low
temperature is conditioned, perhaps, by the heat
liberated in the reduction of the copper.—E. A.
Milne: Radiative equilibrium : the relation between
the spectral energy curve of a star and the law of
darkening of the disc towards the limb, with special
reference to the effects of scattering and the solar
spectrum. For stars in radiative equilibrium the
darkening of the disc towards the limb in wave-
length \ depends only on the product AT, T being
the effective temperature. The ratio of the intensity
NO. 2749, VOL. IIo]
at the limb to that at the centre increases as \T
increases, but never exceeds 0-8; it approaches
zero for small values of AT. For stars not in radia-
tive equilibrium the coefficient of darkening in the
integrated radiation must lie between * and 4, and
the temperature distribution near the surface can
be deduced. Selective absorption in the continuous
spectrum alters the law of darkening. A scattering
atmosphere round a star should make the co-
efficients of darkening in all wave-lengths tend to the
same value, about #. The observed darkening of
the continuous solar spectrum differs very little from
the theoretical darkening for radiative equilibrium ;
it is not possible to correlate the spectrum with the
darkening, either on the hypothesis of selective
absorption or on that of a scattering atmosphere.
Probably there is no scattering atmosphere of
appreciable optical thickness round the sun, and
the bulk of the emergent radiation is not scattered
light.—C. N. Hinshelwood: On the structure and
chemical activity of copper films and the colour
changes accompanying their oxidation. The gradual
activation of a copper surface in a series of oxida-
tions and reductions has been studied at pressures
of a few millimetres. A limiting state appears to be
reached in which the copper film has an open struc-
ture consisting of granules of radius a small fraction
of ru. During oxidation, brilliant diffraction colours
are observed, depending upon the composition of the
separate granules. The mechanism by which the
film becomes granular is discussed.—R. C. Ray: Heat
of crystallisation of quartz. The difference between
the heats of solution of quartz and silica glass in
aqueous hydrofluoric acid, and the specific heats of
aqueous hydrofluoric acid represents the heat of
crystallisation of quartz at the ordinary temperature,
and is 6-95 kilogram calories. Grinding converts the
crystalline material partly into the vitreous state.
Near the melting-point the heat of crystallisation
is probably nearly equal to that at air temperature.
—C. G. Schoneboom: Diffusion and intertraction.
With fluid-mixing, in addition to diffusion, another
specific operating factor called ‘‘ Intertraction ’’ has
been found experimentally. Clerk Maxwell, in dis-
cussing interfacial tension, concluded that an inter-
penetrating movement of this kind was a priori to be
expected. The phenomenon has been described by
Sir Almroth Wright in the special case of the ad-
mixture of serum and salt solutions, but it can be
obtained with practically any substance in any
solvent.
Geological Society, June 14.—Dr. G. T. Prior,
vice-president, in the chair—P. G. H. Boswell:
The petrography of the Cretaceous and Tertiary
outliers of the west of England. The outliers of
Upper Greensand on the Haldon Hills, the Eocene (?)
of Marazion, Buckland Brewer, and the Haldon Hills,
and the Oligocene of Bovey Tracey and Petrockstow
are discussed. Andalusite, topaz, and tourmaline are
the typical minerals. Minerals foreign to the West
Country, such as kyanite and staurolite, are also
abundant in the Cretaceous and Pliocene. The
mineralogical constitution yields evidence of a
progressive restriction of drainage-area, commencing
with the marine and glauconitic Greensand and
continuing through the fluviatile (?) Eocene to the
lacustrine Bovey deposits, and of a reversion to
marine conditons with a polygenetic mineral assem-
blage in the Pliocene.—W. N. Benson and S. Smith:
On some rugose corals from the Burindi Series (Lower
Carboniferous) of New South Wales. The corals were
obtained from the western foothills of the New
England Plateau, in the north-eastern portion of the
Jury 8, 1922]
NATURE
63
} country. The region consists mainly of Upper
| Paleozoic rocks, Devonian to Permian. The Burindi
| Series is made up of olive-green mudstones and tuffs,
| with occasional lenticular masses of oolitic and
| crinoidal limestone. From these intercalations the
corals, which are related to Cyathophyllum and
| Lithostrotion, were obtained. Both forms have
| abnormally large columelle. The species of Litho-
strotion have small peculiarities of structure, which
distinguish them as a group from British species.
| EDINBURGH.
dent, in the chair.—A. N. Whitehead: The related-
ness of Nature. Hume disposed of the theory of
| the relatedness of Nature as it existed in the current
| philosophy of his time. We can discern in Nature
a ground of uniformity of which the more far-reaching
example is the uniformity of space-time, and the
more limited example is what is usually known
under the title of ‘‘ The Uniformity of Nature.”
Our arguments must be based upon considerations
| of the utmost generality, untouched by the peculiar
| features of any particular natural science. Every
entity is an abstraction from the concrete, which in
its fullest sense means totality. The important
point of that doctrine is that any factor of Nature,
by virtue of its status as a limitation within totality,
|naturally refers to factors of totality other than
eee Equality of limitude is the significance of
factors. The uniform significance of events becomes
;the uniform spatio-temporal structure. In that
| respect it is necessary to dissent from Einstein, who
assumes for that structure casual heterogeneity
arising from contingent relations. The structure is
uniform because of the necessity for knowledge that
there should be a system of uniform relatedness, in
{terms of which the contingent relations of natural
factors can be expressed. Otherwise we can know
|nothing until we know everything. It is evident
tthat a scientific object such as an electron must
‘qualify future events, for otherwise the future
contingency is unaffected by it. In that, a scientific
\object differs decisively from a sense-object. A sense-
object qualifies events in the present. Thus, the
Peoely contingent play of the senses is controlled
iby the conditions brought about by its dependence
upon the qualification of events introduced by the
scientific object.
| Royal Society, June 5.—Prof. F. O. Bower, presi-
} SHEFFIELD,
Society of Glass Technology, June 21.—Prof. W. E.
‘S. Turner in the chair.—Y. Amenomiya: The de-
lvitrification caused upon the surface of sheet glass
by heat. Heat causes devitrification, or crystallisa-
tion of window glass. This alteration takes place
etween 700° and 800° C.—K. Kamita: The influence
of alumina in preventing the devitrification of sheet
lass during the drawing process. As the amount
f alumina in the glass increased in the samples used,
80 the temperature at which devitrification occurred:
was raised; 5 per cent. of alumina caused a rise of
approximately 100° C. in the temperature at which
evitrification commences.—L. E. Norton: The
pparent swelling of sand on the addition of water.
Vith three typical sands the addition of water caused
ficulty in packing equivalent to swelling which
ight be 12-15 per cent. of the total dry sand. The
aximum effect occurred when 5-6 per cent. of water
as mixed with the sand.—W. E. S. Turner: The
g of batch. Taking three works samples from
t
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Satch mixed by hand, the maximum variations were |
44-77 per cent. sand and 4-8-8-3 per cent. lime, while
a similar batch mixed by different machines showed
variations of 69-73 per cent..sand and 4-2-6-6 per
cent. ime. Machine mixing, by giving a much more
regular batch, assisted the melting, and materially
reduced the time necessary for the production of good
glass.
Paris.
Academy of Sciences, June 12.—M. Emile Bertin
in the chair.—Henry le Chatelier: The geometric
representation of saline equilibria. Remarks on a
question of priority raised by Prof. Jaenecke.—
Charles Depéret: An attempt at the general chrono-
logical co-ordination of quaternary time.—Maurice
Leblanc: The use of air as a cooling agent. A
theoretical and practical comparison of the use of
liquid ammonia and compressed air as cooling agents,
with a study of the best conditions for using the
latter—A. Rateau: General theory of the turbo-
compressor for aviation motors. The compressor
is worked by the exhaust gases from the engine and
delivers the air to the cylinder at about double the
“atmospheric pressure. It is especially designed for
use at high altitudes.—M. Riquier: Singular integral
figures of passive systems of the first order involving
only a single unknown function.—Jules Andrade:
Three classes of non-maintained isochronal vibrations
and three types of timepieces. New instruments for
the experimental study of viscosities—G. Friedel
and L. Royer: Liquids with Grandjean’s equidistant
planes.—Torsten Carleman: Asymptotic series.—
G. Valiron: Hermite’s method of approximation.—
Georges Rémoundos: The general problem of the
thrust of earth—M. Sudria: The elastic deformation
of an isotropic body.—E. Merlin: The calculation of
heliographic co-ordinates.—M. Dufour: The refrac-
tion of a luminous pencil in the general case.—A.
Andant: The variations of critical opalescence with
the filling of the tubes and the nature of the liquids
studied. The effects of the variation of critical
opalescence with the temperature and with the wave-
length of the incident light have been described in an
earlier paper. The ratio of liquid to vapour in the
tube (D) also affects the phenomenon, and the
temperature of reappearance of the meniscus is now
shown to be a parabolic function of D. A study of
the acetates of methyl, ethyl, butyl, and isobutyl
shows that the opalescence increases in intensity
and extent, passing from the first to the fourth of
these acetates.—A. Dauvillier: The exact measure-
ment of the energy levels of the barium atom and
the appearance of the L ionisation spectrum.—M. de
Broglie and A. Dauvillier: A new absorption pheno-
menon observed in the field of the X-rays.—aA.
Damiens: The crystallisation of amorphous tel-
lurium. According to Berthelot and Fabre, the
crystallisation of tellurium is an endothermic pheno-
menon, thus forming an exception to the general rule.
A repetition of the experiments of Berthelot and Fabre
has shown that the reaction used by them (bromina-
tion of tellurium) is not complete in the case of
crystallised tellurium, and by substituting bromine
in hydrochloric acid for bromine and water it is
proved that the change from amorphous to crystal-
lised tellurium is accompanied by an evolution of heat.
Tellurium thus falls into line with other amorphous
substances.—R. Locquin and Sung Wouseng: The
preparation of the dialkylvinryl-carbinols. A general
method for preparing the unsaturated alcohols of the
type RR’-C(OH)-C=CH has been given in an
earlier communication. By a _ suitable catalyst
(reduced nickel) these can be reduced by hydrogen
to the corresponding tertiary ethylene alcohols
64
NATURE
[Jury 8, 1922
RR’—C(OH)—CH=CH, ; the preparation and_pro-
perties of three of these are described.—E. E. Blaise
and Mlle. Montagne: The action of thionyl chloride
on the a-acid alcohols. With lactic and a-oxy-
isobutyric acids, thionyl chloride forms anhydro-
compounds of a new type.—MM. Pastureau and
Henri Bernard: The chlorhydrin of mesityl oxide
and its transformation into the chlorhydrin of tetra-
methyl glycerol Edmond Gain: The comparative
resistance to heat of the growing points of the embryo
of the sunflower. If the seeds have been submitted
before germination to temperatures just below those
capable of destroying life (rr0° to 155° C.) the
various points capable of growth are shown to be
unequally sensitive, that of the root being most
easily destroyed.—Maurice Lenoir: Somatic kinesis
in the aerial stem of Equisetwm arvense. From the
facts described it would appear that the fundamental
substance of the chromosome is the nucleolin ; the
chromatin is derived from it.—Mlle. Marguerite
Larbaud: The anatomy of flowers of the same species
at different altitudes. A detailed comparison of
plants of Silene inflata grown at about sea-level
and at 2000 metres altitude.—Gabriel Bidou: An
artificial musculometer.—Clément Vaney and Jean
Pelosse: Origin of the natural coloration of the silk
of Bombyx mori. The colouring matter from the
silk and that derived from the leaves of the mulberry
tree give identical absorption spectra in alcoholic
solution. This confirms the view of Conte and
Levrat that the silk cocoons derive their colour
from the pigments of the leaf serving as food for the
silkworms.—M. Aron: The development of the
primary sexual characters in Triton cristatus. Hypo-
thesis on its determinism.—P. Bouin: Dipyrenid of
the sperm in certain double spermatogeneses is
obtained by a heterotypical mitosis produced in the
course of development.—A. Pézard: The idea of the
“ seuil différentiel’’ and humoral interpretation of
the gynandromorphism of the bipartite birds. In
these birds the plumage is divided into two parts
following the plane of symmetry of the body, one half
having a male appearance, the other female. The
reproductive organs show corresponding peculiarities.
—A. Desgrez, H. Bierry, and F. Rathery: A balanced
food regime and diabetic acidosis.—Pierre Goy:
Microbial physiology and the accessory growth
factor. It appears to be impossible to determine
Vitamine B by studying its action on the growth
of yeast.—Charles Lebailly: The duration of the
contagious period in aphthous fever.
CAPE Town.
Royal Society of South Africa, May 17.—Dr. J. D.F.
Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—J. R. Sutton: The
control of evaporation by the temperature of the air.
The rate of evaporation from the surface of the water
ina metal gauge sheltered by a louvred screen increases
as the air temperature rises above that of the water.
In the space just above the water the relative
humidity is much higher than, while the temperature
there is about the same as, that of the free air. The
results illustrate the general law that water vapour
diffuses along the relative. humidity gradient.—Sir
Thomas Muir: Note on a determinant with factors
like those of the difference-product.—J. Moir: Colour
and chemical constitution, Pt. XVII. The azo dyes
and other monocyclic colours. By spectrophoto-
graphic means, and replacing N by CH and eliminating
N or CH, the azo dyes are calculable from oxy- and
amino - benzaldehyde, previously calculated in Pt.
XIII. Quinone and its imines all have six bands,
one pair for neutral, another pair for acid, and a
third pair for alkaline solution.
NO. 2749, VOL. 110]
Official Publications Received.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Bulletin No. 16: Education in the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
Ee ha S. Learned and Kenneth C, M. Sills. Pp. iv+50. (New
ork.
Department of the Interior: United States Geological Survey.
Bulletin 726-E: Geologic Structure of Parts of New Mexico. By
N.H. Darton. Pp. vii+173-275. (Washington: Government Print-
ing Office.)
Classified List of Smithsonian Publications available for Distribution,
April 15, 1922. Compiled by Helen Munroe. (Publication 2670.)
Pp. vi+30. (Washington: Government Printing Office.)
Department of the Interior: United States Geological Survey.
Professional Paper 129-G : The Flora of the Woodbine Sand at Arthurs q
Bluff, Texas. By Edw. W. Berry. Pp. 153-181.
129-H: Geology of the Lower Gila Region, Arizona.
Ross. Pp. 183-197. Professional Paper 129-1:
Cheyenne Sandstone of Kansas. By Edw. W. Berry. Pp. 199-225,
(Washington : Government Printing Office.)
Smithsonian Institution: United States National Museum. Con-
tributions from the U.S. National Herbarium. Vol. 22, Part 6%
Grasses of British Guiana.
(Washington : Government Printing Office.)
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station.
A Classification of the Cultivated Varieties of Barley.
Wiggans. Pp. 363-456. Memoir 49: The Biology
Subopaca Loew. By Chih Ping. Pp. 555-616. Memoir 50:
Relative Growth-promoting
Professional Paper
Memoir 46:
By R. G.
Stuffs. By L. A. Maynard and F,. M. Fronda.
Anatomy, and Histology. By Laura Florence. Pp. 635-743. Memoir
52: Studies in Pollen, with Special Reference to Longevity. By H. BE.
Knowlton. Pp. 745-793. (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University.)
Diary of Societies.
FRIDAY, JuLy 7.
Roya Society OF MEDICINE, at 5.—Dr. A. F. Hess: The Effect of ]
Light in the Prevention and Cure of Rickets.
TUESDAY, Jury 11.
INTERNATIONAL NEO-MALTHUSIAN AND BIRTH CONTROL CONFERENCE
(at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2), at 10.—Dr. C. V. Drysdale 3
Presidential Address.—At 2.30.—Dr. Jane L. Hawthorne : Birth
Control as it affects the Poor.—E. Cecil : C3 Motherhood.—Mrs. B.S
Drysdale : The Individual and the State.—Miss F’. W. Stella Browne:
The Feminine Aspect of Birth Control.—Dr. Frances M. Huxley :_
Birth Control from the Point of View of a Woman Gynecologist.
Socinry FOR THE STUDY OF INEBRIETY (at 11 Chandos Street, W.1),
at 4.—C. J. Bond: The Influence of Hospitals on Temperance
Reform (Presidential Address).
WEDNESDAY, Juty 12.
INTERNATIONAL NEO-MALTHUSIAN AND BIRTH CONTROL CONFERENCE
(at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2), at 10.—Dr, ©. V. Drysdale +
The Criterion of Overpopulation.—Dr. B. Dunlop: A Malthusian
View of Death Rates and of the Average Duration of Life.—Prof. K.
Wicksell: The Crux of Malthusianism.—Prof. R. Michels : Emigra-
tion and the Birth Rate.—Baron Keikichi Ishimoto : The Population
Problem in Japan.—A. M. Carr Saunders: The Historical Aspect o
Birth Control.—Prof. E. Punke: Birth Control and Organised
Labour.—At 2.30.—Moral and Religious Section.
FELLOWSHIP OF MEDICINE (at Royal Society of Medicine), at 5.—Prof.
‘A. H. Todd: Surgery in Rheumatoid Arthritis. F
THURSDAY, JULY 13.
INTERNATIONAL NEO-MALTHUSIAN AND BIRTH CONTROL CONFERENCE
(at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2), at 10.—Prof. E. W. Mac-
Bride: Birth Control and Biological Law.—M. Pollock :
Problem of the Unfit.—Prof. W.
between American Races, Negro and White——Miss Mary Winsor:
The Cost to the State of the Socially Handicapped and the Socially —
Unfit—Prof. P. W. Whiting: Relation of Recent Advances in
Genetics to the British Control Programme.—Dr. H. Hart: Differ-
ential Fertility in Iowa—Prof. K.
By Clyde P. 5
The Flora of the |
By A. S. Hitchcock. Pp. x+439-515. —
of Ephydra —
Them
Value of the Protein of Coconut Oil Meal, —
and of Combinations of it with Protein from various other Feeding —
Pp. 617-633. —
Memoir 51: The Hog Louse, Heematopinus Suis Linné: Its Biology, —
The ;
F. Willcox: Economic Competition |
in Birth Control—aAt 2.—H. Cox: International Aspects of Birtl
Control.—Dr. A. Nystrom: Overpopulation of the Barth and i
Dangers.—J. O. P. Bland: The Far Eastern Population Question.
Mrs. Anne Kennedy: Birth Control in the United States.—Prof.
Tsoo Abe: The Birth Control Movement in Japan.—Dr. FE. Gold.
stein: Birth Control the Saving of Civilisation.
FRIDAY, JuLy 14.
INTERNATIONAL NEO-MALTHUSIAN AND BIRTH CONTROL oe
(at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2), at 10.—Dr. C. K. Millard :
Birth Control and the Fertility Question.—Dr. A. Nystrom: The
Necessity for abolishing Laws against Preventive Measures.—
Dr. H. Rohleder: Neo-Malthusianism from the Medical Standpoint,
—pr. D. R. Hooker: Effect of X-rays upon Reproduction in the
Rat. j
PUBLIC LECTURE. |
WEDNESDAY, Juty 12.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE, at 5.—Prof. H. S. Birkett : The Develop-
ment of Trans-Atlantic Rhino-Laryngology (Semon Lecture).
|
Dunlap: Psychological Factors”
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
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Of Nature trusts the mind which butlds for aye.” —WORDSWORTH.
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Applications are invited for vacant appointments as EDUCATION
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Present rates of pay are from 4365 per annum on entry to a maximum of
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mum of £1277, 10S. per annum.
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allowances in lieu.
An allowance of £50 towards the provision of necessary uniform is payable
on satisfactory completion of probationary service.
For further particulars apply in the first instance to the SECRETARY OF
THE ADMIRALTY, Whitehall, S.W.1.
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.
CHAIR OF ZOOLOGY.
Applications are invited for the above position. Salary (fixed), £1100
per annum, and £150 allowed for travelling expenses to, Sydney from
Europe. Duties commence March 1, 1923.
Further details of terms of appointment may be obtained from the under-
signed, to whom applications (in sextuplicate), stating age and qualifications,
accompanied by reference and copies of testimonials, should be sent not
later than Thursday, A °
AGE YERAL FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.
Australia House, Strand, London, W.C.2,
July 3, 1922.
ne
WOMEN TEACHERS OF SCIENCE,
chiefly BOTANY, required for GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOLS in
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vacancies apply to the SECRETARY,
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With
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ZEALAND. For full details of
[JuLy 15, 1922
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN.
CHAIR OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY.
Applications are hereby invited for the CHAIR of INORGANIC
CHEMISTRY at the University of Cape Town, which will be vacant from
March 1, 1923.
The salary for a man is £900 per annum.
The Professor must become a member of the University Teachers’ Super-
annuation Fund.
Appointments are generally restricted to candidates under 35 years of age,
but in the case of a candidate who has been engaged in teaching or in
research in South Africa this restriction need not apply.
Applications (six copies) must reach the SECRETARY, Office of the High
Commissioner for the Union of South Africa, Trafalgar Square, London,
from whom further particulars may be obtained, not later than July 31,
1922.
The successful applicant will be required to assume duty on March 1,
1923.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
FACULTY OF MEDICINE.
PROFESSORSHIP OF PATHOLOGY.
The Council of the University invites APPLICATIONS for the CHAIR
of PATHOLOGY, vacant by the resignation of Professor SHaw Dunn.
The stipend offered is £1000 a year.
Applications (12 copies) may be accompanied by testimonials, references,
or other credentials, and should be received by the undersigned, on or before
August 7, 1922.
Further particulars may be obtained from
GEO. H. MORLEY, Secretary.
MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE,
: SWANSEA.
Applications are invited for the post of FULL-TIME LECTURER in
each of the following departments: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Metallurgy, and Nngineering (Electrical).
Salary in accordance with the Burnham Scale.
Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom
applications, together with copies of three recent testimonials, must be
forwarded uot later than July 19.
T. J. REES, Director of Education.
Education Offices, Swansea,
June 23, 1922.
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
LECTURESHIP IN BACTERIOLOGY.
Applications are invited for the post of LECTURER in BACTERI-
OLOGY within the DEPARTMENT of PATHOLOGY.
Salary, 4600 per annum.
Federated Superannuation System for Universities compulsory.
Applications, together with full statement of qualifications, age, and 16
copies of not more than three testimonials, to be lodged before July 31, 1922,
with the SecRerARY TO THE University, MariscHAL COLLEGE,
ABERDEEN.
H. J. BUTCHART, Secretary.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS.
Applications are invited for the post of ASSISTANT in the DEPART-
MENT of PHYSICS, under Professor Sir WiLL1amM Brace.
Commencing salary, £300.
Particulars may be obtained on application to :—
WALTER W. SETON, M.A., D.Lit.,
University College, London, Secretary.
Gower Street, W.C.
LEEDS UNIVERSIGY:
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING.
The UNIVERSITY COUNCIL will shortly proceed to the appointment
of a DEMONSTRATOR in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. Works
experience in addition to good academic qualifications essential. Salary,
4250. Iurther particulars may be obtained from the RecisTRar, the Uni-
versity, Leeds, by whom applications will be received up to July 24.
DERBY TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
An ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in
CHEMISTRY will be required in September next. Good qualifications
essential. Burnham scale. Forms of application may be obtained from
the PRINCIPAL.
Fr. C. SMITHARD,
Secretary to the Derby Education Committee.
IVA PORE 6
on
SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1922,
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Specialisation in Universities . : : 5 5
More Light on the Bantu Languages. By Miss A.
Werner . é a 0 | ay
Chemistry and Medicine. By Prof. George Barger,
Bake: ° é 9 é . a (89)
The Hegelian Method and Modern a speicnce: By
13h Wher ee 5 5 Ff)
Soaps and Proteins. - JO
Commercial Metallurgy. By He @ Hees Wak
Scientific Activities in the United States: A Bio-
logist’s View . é 3 F 2
Our Bookshelf. c : : a ; : A 78}
Letters to the Editor :—
Interspecific Sterility. —Dr. W. Bateson, F.R.S. 76
Geology and the Nebular Theory.—Prof. J. Joly,
F.R.S.; W. B. Wright . 7 470
Wegener's ‘Displacement Theory. —Philip Lake Ba. SH
Opalescence Phenomena in Liquid Mixtures. —Prof.
¢.V. Raman . 77
Transcription of Russian ‘Names. —Maj. -Gen. Lord
Edward Geichen, K.C.V.O. 78
The Influence of Science.—Sir G. Greenhill, F.R.S.,
The Editor - 78
Science and Education at South Kensington, (illus-
trated.) By T. Ll. Humberstone . 5 ; oS ()
Dark Nebule. By Prof. H.N. Russell . me Mol
The Corrosion of Ferrous Metals. By J. N. F. > Ge
Obituary :—
Ernest Solvay. By JohnI. Watts . 3 - 84
The Hon. V. A. H. H. Onslow . 85
Dr. A. R. Willis. By A. R. R. and G. Ww. (Chey
Current Topics and Events . - 87
Our Astronomical Column . c : : “ > &a)
Research Items . go
Annual Visitation of the National Physical Labora-
tory “ 0 Oz
Agricultural Research in Great Britain . 93
The Magnetic Work of the Caveere Institution.
By Dr. C. Chree, F.R:S. . , 94
New Social Coleoptera. By Dr. A. D. Imms 5 95
Spectroscopic Studies of Stellar Velocities. ey Dr.
William J. S. Lockyer . 95
Geology of Antarctic Lands. Ry G. A. ‘Ib ic: 96
Durability of eeteal Glass. By Dr. dames Weir
French : : 5 = hy
Volcanic Activity i in Nigeria % : 5 5 OF
University and Educational Intelligence : : - 98
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . 5 Q ; + 199
Societies and Academies . : c : , 5 ie)
Official Publications Received . é : : - 100
Diary of Societies ; ; é : ; : . 100
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NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
Specialisation in Universities.
T is not the function of a university to make
| provision for teaching all the sciences; still
less is it the function to confine its work to one narrow
branch of specialised study. In one case, apart
from the difficulties inherent in such an aggregation,
the financial cost would be prohibitive ; in the other,
a limitation of such a nature would be wholly alien
to the modern conception of a university, where, in
place of the breadth and proportion of view which
comes from the attrition of minds engaged in diverse
studies and pursuits, would be found the narrowness
and exclusiveness of intellectual segregation. We may
therefore dismiss one extreme as impracticable and the
other as undesirable.
The universities of to-day have many subjects of
study in common. Happily the freedom to develop
according to their own individualities, which has
hitherto been their lot, has resulted in certain character-
istic differences. It is devoutly to be hoped they may
not lose these distinctions. The studies common to
all universities form a broad humanistic and scientific
foundation which is the basis of the intellectual life
of the university. Superimposed upon this are the
more highly specialised studies, which may in some
cases cover a very narrow field, but not seldom form a
department in the university linked up in innumerable
ways with one or more branches of industrial or com-
mercial life outside. This development has been
gradual and, in general, continuous, and it is due to
a variety of causes of which probably the two most
effective may be defined as historical and regional or
environmental. As matters now stand, some studies
have already been specialised in certain of the uni-
versities and, until quite recently, largely by a process
of natural development. To overlook or to under-
estimate the importance and bearing of this fact would
be a mistake.
If the universities were self-supporting or mainly
so, it is unlikely that the present system, which on
the whole has worked well, would be challenged—it
may yet prove to be the best in any circumstances
—but since they are not self-supporting, and since
they are coming to rely more and more upon assistance
from State funds and local rates, they need not be
surprised if a time comes when a critical eye is turned
upon their activities. Such a time is with us now.
The cry for economy, the reduction in the Government
grant, the threat of lean years ahead, apart from other
considerations, have brought to the forefront the ques-
tion of the overlapping of university studies, and the
possibility of better co-ordination and co-operation of
the universities in the future, especially with regard to
66
NATURE
[Jury 15, 1922
the ever-increasing expansion and development of
technology and applied science.
With regard to the question of overlapping it should
be remarked that at the recent conference in London
of the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland, no
statement was more generally applauded than that
of Prof. Ripper, of Sheffield, who reminded the con-
ference and the public that at present there was no
unnecessary overlapping in university studies. Over-
lapping there may be, but whether this is unnecessary
and wasteful is quite another question and one which
cannot be answered by mere statistics. This is where
co-operation would be most useful both now and in
the future. The Minister of Education was on sound
lines when, in addressing the conference, he advised
the universities to take counsel with one another and
husband their resources. Possible wastefulness due
to overlapping ought not to be disregarded at any
time and most certainly not at a time of financial
stringency.
If, for example, each university were to attempt to
cover all the main branches of technology, though per-
haps the demand for university-trained technologists
in a particular field did not reach a score annually,
then disappointment and ineffective work must be
the result. Obviously where the demand for trained
technologists in a particular subject is limited to a
comparatively small number, there is distinctly a
case for specialising the study in one university.
How far universities would attempt to compete with
one another in such cases it is difficult to say. But
it is worth recalling that, at the conference to which
we have already alluded, Mr. Fisher directed attention
to the public-spirited action of the University of Leeds
a few years ago when glass technology was proposed
as a subject for university research. It appears that
either Leeds or Sheffield might have been the seat of
the new department, but after a conference Leeds
agreed to the new work being centred in Sheffield on
the ground that the Yorkshire glass industry as a
whole was more accessible from there than from Leeds.
The method of procedure by conference should be
noted.
Cases such as this are obviously cases for special-
isation and are perhaps not difficult to settle. It would
seem that the limited demand points to concentration
and the “regional pull” to the particular university.
On the other hand such highly specialised subjects as
technical optics, oceanography, hydro-electrics cannot
be said to have so localised a regional pull, nor Chinese,
Assyriology, and a host of others. Again, departments
of study connected with agriculture, forestry, leather
industries, dyeing, textile industries, metallurgy, fuel
and coal gas industries are already established in one
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
or more of our universities. If, as is more than likely,
any further specialisation of studies is to be made
in these departments, especially if it involves con-
siderable expense, obviously there would arise an
occasion for co-operation among the various univer-
sities interested with the view of suitable distribution
of the work.
So far we have been considering the subject of
specialisation in universities from the point of view
either of the more highly specialised studies or of
technology or applied science generally, and have
indicated our opinion that in these fields there will be
ample scope and real necessity for co-ordination and
co-operation. But there is another aspect of the
problem which is apt to be overlooked or even in
danger of being confused with the one just considered.
It has relation to those basic humanistic and scientific
studies which are the foundations of the intellectual
life of the universities. Among them are included
such subjects as the classics, English, history on
one side, and mathematics, physics, chemistry on the
other. They are found in all our universities, and
rightly so, and so long as the university is conceived
as ‘“‘ a spirit, a principle of life and energy, an influence
. caring for the spirit and mind of man, regardless
of considerations of utility,” so long will they remain
there. While, therefore, it is not disputed that the
more fundamental of them should be taught in every
university, it may be urged in the interests of a specious
economy that the prosecution of research in them
should be specialised in certain universities. This, we
believe, would be a most dangerous principle to adopt,
and would be quite contrary to the true spirit of the
university. The effect upon the teaching would be
little short of disastrous. In its Report of 1921 the
University Grants Committee is clear that “ sufficient
leisure to pursue research is as essential as adequate
remuneration,’ and that ‘“‘no institution claiming
university rank can rest content while it fails to pro-
vide opportunities for the advancement of knowledge,
nor can junior teachers hope to rise in their profession
or indeed carry out their teaching duties efficiently
unless such opportunities are open to them.” This
extract amply confirms the general opinion expressed at
the second Congress of the Universities of the Empire,
rg21, regarding the great importance and value of
research to a university teacher. Without research
behind him a university teacher fails in the freshness,
mastery, and inspiration required of a good teacher
of university students. Whenever such fundamental
studies are found in a university some opportunities
for research in them should be provided. This may
mean overlapping, but it is not overlappimg volving
wastefulness.
Juty 15; 1922]
NATURE 67
The case is almost equally strong for a subject which,
while not absolutely fundamental in the sense indicated
above, is necessarily included in the studies of a uni-
versity for regional or local reasons. If it is argued
that the undergraduates might travel to another
university for the necessary instruction, it may be
replied that in most cases it would be inconvenient
and expensive and not seldom impossible. Assuming
that the subject is taught in the university, the argu-
ments adduced above show conclusively that oppor-
tunities for research are indispensable. A possible
alternative would be to bring a teacher from another
university to give a course of instruction in it. This
is a plan which, though it has been adopted with good
results in some universities, is not always possible or
desirable. One can picture a case, in economics for
example, where investigations into local conditions are
absolutely necessary for the proper development of
the teaching of the subject, and no substitute can
adequately replace it.
While we are sensible of the need for economy and
the avoidance of all unnecessary overlapping in our
universities, we are also sensible of the wonderful
developments which have taken place in higher and
specialised studies in the few decades during which
-the modern universities have come into being and
attained some degree of maturity. It may well be
said that ‘‘ not since the monastic period of the twelfth
century, or the scholastic revolution of the sixteenth,
has England known an educational movement so rich
in romance, in courage, in devotion, and in promise.”
This extraordinary expansion and development,
which has changed the whole face of education in
England, is one of self-development untrammelled by
vexatious restrictions. The modern university has
developed under the wing of the State; it can no more
dispense with Government assistance than it can with
its students or staff. But if it is to fulfil its rightful
destiny it must retain its freedom to develop from
withm. By all means let there be co-operation and
co-ordination among the various universities, just as
there are within the university itself. But if, un-
happily, any attempt to lop or prune activities, hitherto
self-determined, were to succeed, the measure of its
success would be the measure of the nation’s loss.
More Light on the Bantu Languages.
A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu
Languages. By Sir Harry H. Johnston. Vol. 2. Pp.
xui+544. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.) 3/. 3s.
FTER numerous and vexatious delays, the second
volume of this monumental work has at last
seen the light. It contains “an analysis and com-
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
parison of the phonology and word-roots and a com-
parative examination of the syntax of the Bantu and
Semi-Bantu languages, together with the conclusions
to be derived from this evidence.” In accordance with
this plan we have, first, a review of the various groups
of Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages, following the
arrangement adopted in the first volume. (An alpha-
betical index of languages, by the bye, would greatly
facilitate research, though the student is helped to a
considerable extent by the table on pp. 2-13. In vol.
1, those not gifted with a remarkable memory for
numbers had to turn over the pages till they found
the particular language required.)
The classification adopted is open to some objections
in detail—as was almost inevitable in the circum-
stances: but one had hoped to see some outstanding
inaccuracies corrected in vol. 2, e.g. the treatment of
the two distinct languages Lala and Lamba as one and
the same. This, of course, is due to Madan, the only
authority accessible when the vocabularies were pre-
pared; but other sources of information have since
become available. Again, there is some confusion
(vol. 1, p. 281, vol. 2, p. 79) as to the languages entered
under 70: Chopi, to adopt the ordinary orthography,
is a distinct language from Tswa, and also, we believe,
from Lenge, which, again, is not the same as Hlengwe.
(See e.g. Junod’s map in the “ Grammaire Ronga.”
Sir Harry Johnston dissents from this writer’s view,
but it is supported by good recent authority.)
The paragraphs dealing with “‘ Group T: the Zulu-
Kafir languages’ contain several points calling for dis-
cussion. It is surely by an oversight that the palatal
click (gc, ¢) is said to be “confined mainly to Zulu and
Sesuto.” It does not occur in Zulu, and only doubt-
fully in Xosa. (Bleek: “‘ Vide Boyce-Davis, p. 4,
where the gc is probably intended to indicate this
sound.”) The fact that it is found in Sesuto
is interesting, as showing that it was probably
borrowed direct from Hottentots or Bushmen—not, as
usually assumed, from the Zulus. The same paragraph
contains a somewhat perplexing assertion: “In Zulu
the employment of clicks instead of diminishing is
extending, through the same spirit of tribal self-
assertion as may be met within the Basuto. Whenever
a present-day Zulu or even a Kafir” (why “even,”
seeing that click-words are more numerous in Xosa
than in Zulu ?) “ wishes to coin a new word—and they
are doing this on an immense scale—he nearly always
introduces a click into it... .”
It is difficult to check statements of this kind unless
one is in constant touch with natives, but a rough test
may be made by consulting the list of neologisms at
the end of Colenso’s Dictionary (edition of 1905,
pp. 721-724). Among 236 words we find only three
68
NATURE
[JULY 15, 1922
containing clicks, and two of these—isiggoko “hat”
(adapted from isigcogco “‘head-ring”), and uTixo
“God ”’—are not of very recent introduction. As,
however, it may be objected that great linguistic
changes may take place in seventeen years, we have
examined a copy of the native newspaper, “ Ilanga
las’ e Natal,” dated February 17, 1922, and find, in
two columns, averaging about 175 words each, 31 click-
words, excluding repetitions and proper names. Of
these, all, with the possible exception of three (two of
which may be wrongly printed), are either to be found
in Colenso’s Dictionary, or are obvious derivatives of
words there given.
It is strange to see -gundu- “ rat
to the Swazi dialect, when igundane is very commonly
used in Natal Zulu. Similarly, on p. 86, we have,
apropos of the Sesuto -liba “ (deep) water,” the note,
“This is a very interesting penetration far to the south
of the Zambezi of a root which is very archaic (-udiba
or -diba), and particularly characteristic of the N.W.
Bantu.” But surely it is the same word as the Zulu
ist-giba, the Ronga tba, the Swahili ziwa, etc.
This survey extends over five chapters and is followed
by a similar review of the Semi-Bantu languages, after
which we have a highly controversial chapter on
phonetics and phonology. The note on p. 215 we may
leave to be dealt with by scientific phoneticians, but
must protest, in passing, against the dictum that
99 oat _
given as peculiar
“proficiency in speaking an African tongue exactly as
it is pronounced ... is only to be acquired by a
parrot-like imitation of the natives.” While “ parrot-
like imitation” can only be compassed by those
possessed of a really good ear, a faultless pronunciation
can often be acquired even by persons of inferior ear-
capacity, by attending to the instructions of the
phonetician. But this presupposes an analysis of the
sounds carried out with that meticulous accuracy for
which our author appears to entertain so great a con-
tempt. Under the heading “ Lingual-palatal-sibilant ”’
(p. 217), no notice is taken of the fact that the symbols
¢,j cover at least two different sounds, one of which,
the palatal plosive, is mot a compound consonant
“ composed of a blending of ¢ and sh.” The difference
is Important, because sometimes, as in Chinyanja and
Zanzibar Swahili, it serves to discriminate between
otherwise similar words. Perhaps, however, this point
is covered by what is said on p. 222 as to the palatal-
ising of d and ¢. The final paragraph of this section
(p. 219) fails to make clear the distinction between
sentence-intonation and significant word-intonation.
Sir Harry Johnston seems inclined to agree with
Prof. Meinhof as to the probable absence of vowel-
roots in Proto-Bantu. ‘A comparison of all the
recorded forms often leads to the deduction that the
NO. 2750, VOL. IIo]
oldest root of two syllables commenced with a con-
sonant, very often a guttural.” This term is now
disused as not sufficiently precise—it would cover
velar, uvular, and faucal consonants. It is not quite
accurate, however, to say that Meinhof in all cases
“replaced the dubious or missing consonant by a
gamma (y).” He sometimes postulates v (bilabial v)
and has left the question open for at least sixteen stems,
where he was unable to decide what the primitive
consonant could have been. It is not quite easy to
see what is meant by the next sentence: “My own
researches, however, lead me in restoring the missing
consonant to greater definiteness ; to a g instead of a
y, a k instead of an x, a labial instead of an aspirate.”
The fact that the form yenda, for instance, is found in
a small group of languages (only Shambala and Pare-
Gweno, so far as I am aware), while genda, jenda, and
enda are common, coupled with the greater difficulty
of pronunciation of the voiced velar fricative—a
difficulty which seems to be felt very generally in
Bantu—seem to indicate that Meinhof may be right
here.
The chapter dealing with “ Prefixes, Suffixes and
Concords connected with the Noun ”’ is of great interest.
Sir Harry appears to show convincing reasons why the
fi- or pi- diminutive class (Meinhof’s 19th) should be
identified with the 8th (v-) instead of maintaining a
separate existence. That it is singular while 8 is
plural constitutes no objection, since we find 14 (bu-)
fulfilling a similar double function—or rather being
treated as plural in some cases (Luganda, Herero, etc.),
while in itself it is, strictly speaking, neither singular
nor plural. With this example in view, it seems to
us that it would have been more logical to place fi-, etc.
under 8 without creating for it the special subdivision
of 8a. This prefix occurs in Karanga (as noticed on
p- 75) in the form sz7- (or rather o7-, with the peculiar
“whistling s ”’),1 with ya- corresponding to it as plural.
We should have thought it probable that the “ hono-
rific ” prefix ka- belonged to a different class (now lost
as such, but leaving traces, e.g. in Luganda, in such
words as Kabaka, Katonda) from the diminutive (13).
There are indications, in Konda, Lamba, and elsewhere,
of a class of animals with the prefix ka-. Whether this
was originally identical with the last-named, or had
any connexion with the Chinyanja words beginning
with nanka- (as nankabai “ hawk ”’), is a problem which
remains for solution.
It seems a pity to confuse the class of infinitives
(verbal nouns) with the locatives in ku-, which should
properly be Class 17, though no doubt the prefixes had
originally the same origin. Words like kuboko “ arm,”
1g is the International Phonetic Association’s symbol for this sound,
which (or a similar one) is written by Meinhof s and by Junod §, Sir
Harry Johnston has nowhere noticed it.
[orp Ts, 1922
NATURE 69
kutu ‘“ ear,” etc., are locatives which have quite usurped
the place of the original noun—usually of Class 5,
which accounts for the plural in ma- (maboko, matu)—
the locative, as such, having no plural. Similarly, the
locative in mu- accounts for the appearance of parts of
the body in Class 3. An interesting illustration of this
is found in Swahili : the Mombasa dialect has preserved
the old word for “ foot,” gua 5 (for li-gulu), pl. maguu,
which, at Zanzibar, has become m-guw 3 (properly “ in
the foot ”), pl. mig.
It is a little difficult to accept in its entirety the
following : “ Class 18 [Meinhof’s 20] implies * hugeness,’
something ‘ gigantic,’ ‘ brutal” . . . augmentative in
an ugly sense. And Class 19 (Ga-) is its plural in
Luganda ; otherwise the plural applied to Gw- is usually
Mi-.” Asa matter of fact, the plural mz- really belongs
to a distinct augmentative class, with the prefix y7- or
gi-; still surviving in Swahili, though now practically
indistinguishable from the 5th. The prefix is still
traceable with monosyllabic roots, as in jibwa and jit
—elsewhere (by false analogy) it has been dropped, as
in dege, augmentative of mdege. In Mombasa Swahili,
the proper plural prefix of these augmentatives is m-.
But these two classes, the Depreciative (“‘ augmentative
in an ugly sense ”’?) and the Augmentative proper have
become hopelessly confused—as shown by the Masaba
example, gumundu, plural gimindu.
It is difficult to estimate duly the enormous amount
of labour which has gone to the making of this volume,
and not least to the collating and cross-indexing the
word-roots grouped under the English equivalents,
after having been enumerated separately under their
several languages. With all criticisms that may be
possible as to matters of detail (easily corrected if the
_ criticisms are found valid), this work must remain for
many years to come the standard guide to the subject.
Nothing else that has yet been attempted gives the
same comprehensive view of the whole Bantu family,
and its possible relationships to the languages adjoining
on the north-west. Perhaps the examination of these
Semi-Bantu forms of speech is the most valuable part
of the whole; and the discovery of the Homa and
Bangminda languages (hitherto unsuspected forms of
Bantu) in the Bahr-il-Ghazal may help to throw light
on a difficult question. A. WERNER.
Chemistry and Medicine.
Préparation des médicaments organiques. Par Ernest
Fourneau. Pp. vilit+350. (Paris: J. B. Bailliére
et Fils, 1921). 25 francs.
NE of the minor effects of the late war has been
the increased production of books on technical
chemistry in the allied countries. Dealing with the
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
manufacture of organic medicinal substances, hitherto
very much a field of German activity, there recently
appeared in this country a monograph by Barrowcliff
and Carr, primarily concerned with industrial pro-
cesses, plant, and patents. Prof. Fourneau, on the other
hand, describes in the book under review the prepara-
tion of organic medicaments on a laboratory scale.
Here are exact directions for all stages of the synthesis
of phenacetine, stovaine, veronal, salvarsan, and many
others, starting from common materials ; for each step
the yield is given, which in the author’s experience can
be obtained. A student of organic chemistry who has
worked through these will have acquired quite as much
manipulative skill as he usually obtains from Cohen’s
“ Practical Organic Chemistry” or Gattermann’s
“ Kochbuch,” and he will have made more interesting
substances.
The preparative directions constitute, however,
little more than a quarter of the book under notice.
Prof. Fourneau begins with a theoretical section, dis-
cussing such diverse matters as the relative costs of
different processes of large-scale production, the
pharmacological methods for testing antipyretics, the
considerations which should govern the search for a
new local anzsthetic, the chances of finding a useful
organic compound of mercury. Like the practical
section, the more theoretical one is excellent, and
worthy of the discoverer of stovaine, but in a different
way. The precision of the experimental part, with
its homogeneity and wealth of detail, may recall to
some readers that its author is a pupil of Willstatter.
The more theoretical portion, less systematic than many
German books, is, on the other hand, eminently
readable. We feel that Prof. Fourneau has chosen
for review just those topics in which he was really
interested ; thus we are given admirable accounts of
adrenaline analogues, phosphatides and nucleic acids,
in excess of their pharmacological importance, and in
greater detail than his rapid review of alkaloidal
chemistry.
The advice to beginners on the setting-up of apparatus
gives an interesting glimpse of the author’s personality.
“Il faut toujours se préoccuper du montage soigneux
et élégant des appareils et y consacrer le temps néces-
saire ; The laboratory
should be kept like a drawing-room, and Moissan’s
ideal is quoted that the chemist should be able to work
“sans se salir, en habit, en cravate blanche, en escarpins
on le retrouve toujours.”
vernis, sur un parquet ciré.”
However, the esthetics of the laboratory do not
extend to the printing-offce, for Prof. Fourneau’s
book shows a Latin disregard for Teutonic spelling.
Aronsohn (p. 22), Warmestich (p. 23), Friinkel (pp. 57,
229), Fildes (p. 109), Laidlaw (p. 176), Rosenheim,
(Mi
70 NATURE
uLy 15, 1922
Tebb, Thudichum (p. 187), Strecker (p. 188), Zeisel
(pp. 219-221) are all spelt more or less inaccurately.
We do not for a moment suggest that such trivial
errors in typography constitute a serious blemish on an
admirable work ; we mention them rather in illustra-
tion of what we believe to be a national peculiarity.
Chemical errors seem nearly all to have been collected
in a list of errata, but the structural formule of
quinine (p. 37) and of trypaflavine (p. 10g) still require
revision. It is perhaps open to discussion whether
quinotoxine (p. 39) can be strictly described as the
ketone corresponding to quinine, and whether, in
French, phenyl potassium sulphate (p. 236) should
really be an “‘ éther sulfonique ” (but here we may be
getting on dangerous ground).
Prof. Fourneau’s book should find a place wherever
organic chemistry is taught to advanced students. It
may be warmly recommended to the pharmacologist
as a source of information on the chemistry of his
subject. To recommend to technical chemists a book
by the former director of the Poulenc laboratories
seems superfluous. GEORGE BARGER.
The Hegelian Method and Modern Science.
The Ethical Theory of Hegel : A Study of the Philosophy
of Right. By Prof. H. A. Reyburn.
(Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1921.)
Pp. xx+271.
8s. 6d. net.
HE “ Rechtsphilosophie”’ was the last of the
works published by his lifetime.
Originally it consisted of the rigorous, consecutively
demonstrated, chain of numbered paragraphs, which
he used as the framework of his courses of lectures.
In the form in which we now know it in the collected
edition published in 1833 two years after his death,
the editors have added the notes and emendations,
the celebrated Zusdtze, with which Hegel was accus-
Hegel in
tomed to elucidate his theory in lecturing.
Prof. Reyburn in this admirable study which he
entitles Hegel’s Ethical Theory, deals mainly with the
‘*Rechtsphilosophie ”’ but treats it as a general introduc-
tion to the whole philosophy of Hegel. It is doubtful
if for the modern student he could have chosen a
better way. Hegel had no ethical theory in the
technical meaning of the term. His philosophy is
_ ethical theory and his ethical theory is his philosophy.
It cannot be otherwise if we once accept the view that
the real is the rational and the rational is the real.
If there be no realm of existence outside of and in-
different to value there is no need for a transcendental
theory of morality like Kant’s or a utilitarian principle
like Bentham’s.
The study of Hegel is of peculiar interest at the
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
present time, and more especially to those who are
conscious of the new methodology of science which
is manifesting itself in the most modern mathematical
and physical theories. So striking indeed is this that
had Hegel’s place in the history of philosophy been
after instead of before the great scientific achieve-
ments of the end of the nineteenth and the opening
of the twentieth centuries, it would have heen im-
possible to resist the belief that the Hegehan dialectic
had been suggested directly to its inventor by the
discoveries of What finer illustration of
identity in difference, of advance by negation, of the
union of opposites in a higher synthesis, is to be found
than that afforded by the electrical-theory of matter ?
There have been repeated attempts since Hegel to
reform philosophy by introducing into it what has
been called scientific method, but the great reform
which we are witnessing to-day is the introduction
of philosophical method into science. Its keynote is
that the concrete only is real. Science is discovering
that there is no means of giving self-hood, consistency,
independence, to the abstract, and this is the alpha
and omega of the Hegelian philosophy.
Anyone who desires an easy introduction to the
thought of this most powerful and vet most difficult
philosopher of the modern period may be recommended
to read Prof. Reyburn’s book.
science.
EL WenG:
Soaps and Proteins.
Soaps and Proteins ; Their Colloid Chemistry in Theory
and Practice. By Prof. M. H. Fischer and others.
Pp. ix+272. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons,
Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., rg2r.)
24s. net.
HE principal author of the volume under notice,
who is a physiologist. states in his preface that
he is principally interested in the colloid chemistry of
the proteins, that this is too complex for direct analysis,
and that therefore he turned to the soaps, as sufficiently
analogous to the proteins in their colloidal behaviour
to enable one “from the surer ground of the soaps
. . to step over into the more slippery one of the
proteins.”
by analogy will strike most people as decidedly light-
hearted, even in cases where the results to be thus
applied are unassailable, a condition which cannot be
This view of the possibilities of reasoning
claimed for the author’s views on the nature of soap-
liquid systems.
The experimental work described consists in the
preparation of a very large number of pure soaps (in
the widest sense) and their examination under practi-
cally one aspect—their power to form gels with water
JULY 15, 1922
NATURE 71
and other solvents. The results are used to support
the author’s theory of the sol-gel transformation,
which, according to him, is “a change from what is,
at the higher temperature, essentially a solution of
soap in water to that which is, at the lower temperature,
a solution of water in soap.” The methods of physical
chemistry are held to be mapplicable to the latter type,
and the author is thus relieved of the task of con-
sidering the fundamental work of McBain and his
school. Various experiments are quoted in support
of this gel theory, thus (p. 80): “ A drop of phenol-
phthalein solution dropped upon a ro per cent.
sodium stearate water gel remains uncoloured. I,
however, the gel is slightly squeezed (which breaks
the encircling hydrated sodium stearate film and
squeezes out the enclosed solution of soap-in-water),
the spot turns bright red.” If any one will take the
trouble to put a drop of indicator on an acid or alkaline
gelatin gel, he will see it turn without squeezing, so
that the behaviour of soap gels is not, as the author
claims, typical or universal, nor is it any clue to that
of protein gels.
The chapters on proteins are trifling, and analogies
like that drawn between the heat coagulation of
albumin and the behaviour of a boiled solution of
sodium palmitate can scarcely be taken seriously.
The author almost throughout dismisses the work of
other investigators in the airiest fashion ; most strik-
ingly, perhaps, in his chapters on emulsions and froths.
Surface and interfacial tensions, adsorption and film-
formation are all irrelevant: the decisive factor is a
curious and novel physical property of the phases,
their “ breaking length.” An extradrdinary feature
of the book are the illustrations—half-tones of more
than 1300 tubes and bottles containing soap solutions
which, at their worst, convey nothing and, at their
best, no more than the text. They may in part
account for the high price of the book, which is difficult
to explain on any other grounds.
Commercial Metailurgy.
The Metallurgy of the Common Metals: Gold, Silver,
Iron (and Steel), Copper, Lead, and Zine. By L. S.
Austin. Fifth edition, revised and enlarged. Pp.
xvii+6r5. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.
London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., rg21.) 42s. net.
HE first edition of Prof. Austin’s book was pub-
lished in 1907—it has now reached a fifth
edition. In his preface the author states that since
1913, the date of the last edition, such radical changes
and improvements have been made in the metallurgy of
the common metals that the present book has been
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
largely rewritten to bring it in accord with present-
day practice. It is refreshing to come across a book
which treats metallurgy as a whole and does not, as
is so frequently the case, subdivide it into the so-
called ferrous and The
practice of differentiating the metallurgy of iron and
its alloys from that of the other metals has its origin,
of course, in the outstanding practical importance of
these materials and the scale on which they are manu-
factured, but there is no scientific reason for making
any distinction of this kind, and indeed, there is little
doubt that if there were more interchange of opinion
between those engaged in the various metal industries
it would be of considerable benefit to all concerned.
The first ten chapters deal with general metallurgy
under the headings (1) ores and metals, (2) fuels, (3)
non-ferrous metallurgy.
refractories, (4) the preparation of ores, (5) crushing,
grinding, screening, and classifying, (6) metallurgical
furnaces, (7) combustion, (8) metallurgical thermo-
chemistry, (9) roasting, and (10) concentration of ores.
Inasmuch as these aspects of metallurgy are com-
pressed into 117 pages, the treatment is necessarily
somewhat brief. The author, however, has economised
space In not attempting to describe methods not now
in use. Compactly as the subjects are dealt with, it
would appear that terseness has been carried to an
extreme in attempting to describe the concentration
of ores by gravity, by concentrating tables, and by
oil flotation in three pages, a considerable part of
which is occupied with diagrams.
The remainder of the book treats of the metallurgy
of gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, and zinc in so far as
extraction and refining processes are concerned. No
attempt, however, is made to deal with the mechanical
treatment of metals, either in the hot or cold state,
One of
the characteristic features of American metallurgy is
nor their working up into finished products.
its emphasis on the efficient mechanical handling of
the materials used in producing the metals and it is
natural, therefore, to find this aspect of the subject
well treated. The author’s account of the metallurgy
of gold, silver, copper, and lead is, on the whole, satis-
factory. The metal iron, however, receives something
less than its share of credit, for an attempt is made
to describe the production of wrought iron in less than
three pages. To try to deal with the manufacture
of wrought iron without any account of the mechanical
treatment necessary, except in the most perfunctory
fashion, is certainly unusual. With regard to zinc,
it is somewhat curious that, considering the importance
of the present-day production of electrolytic zinc, very
little more than one page is devoted to it.
The last two chapters give a brief account of plant
and equipment and their cost and the business of
72 NATURE
[JuLy 15, 1922
metallurgy. A satisfactory feature of the book is the
calculation of furnace charges in reference to typical
metallurgical operations. As has been generally in-
dicated, the book gives a good, if at times too brief,
account of the principal operations involved in the
metallurgy of the six metals discussed. It is well
printed, particularly well illustrated, and bears evidence
of careful and judicious preparation.
1a, (C5 lal, (C,
Scientific Activities in the United States:
A Biologist’s View.
Universities and Scientific Life in the United States.
By Prof. Maurice Caullery. Translated by James
H. Woods and Emmet Russell. Pp. xvu+ 269.
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press ;
London: Oxford University Press, 1922.) tos. 6d.
net.
EFORE the war inter-university exchange of
professors was much in vogue as between
Germany and America. More recently several ex-
changes of this kind have taken place between America
and France, and Prof. Caullery’s book is a result—
a very useful result—of one of these exchanges. It
gives a remarkably lucid and sympathetic interpreta-
tion of impressions received by the writer during a
stay of five months in America in 1916, when he filled
the post of exchange professor of biology at Harvard
and visited many of the principal seats of learning
in the United States.
The greater part of the book is devoted to the
universities and colleges as centres of research and as
providing the environment in which future workers
are trained. These institutions have, in general,
envisaged as their main task the training and equip-
ment of their students for successful leadership in
all branches of social activity ; and they have come
to recognise that with the incessant extension of the
fields of application of science to social needs it concerns
them to provide the best possible teaching in applied
as well as in pure science. Thus the tendency is for
science, as the basis of preparation for practical life,
to inspire all the activity of the university.
It is sometimes asserted that the study of science
in America is apt to be cramped by an excessively
utilitarian bias, and such a bias has undoubtedly
characterised the State universities, most of which
originated in the “Colleges for Agriculture and
Mechanic Arts” established under the Morrill Act
of 1862. The policy inaugurated by this Act was one
which Congress adopted owing to the refusal of the
colleges to
independent provide. urgenily needed
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
teaching in technology. About the same time the
growth of scientific knowledge led to the breaking
down of the old uniform curriculum and its replace-
ment by the elective system, and to the organisation
of ‘Graduate Schools” by the more important
colleges, which thus became full universities and
began to cultivate a spirit of original research. Com-
petition with the new State universities soon led to the
abandonment of the attitude of aloofness in regard
to applied science and proved beneficial to the interests
of pure science, both because the broadening of the
basis of studies in the old institutions brought them
into closer touch with the nation at large and greatly
increased their prosperity and resources, including
laboratory equipment, and because the State universi-
ties have made, and continue to make, successful
efforts towards rivalling the others in the cultivation
of scientific research of all kinds.
In this connexion Prof. Caullery is able to elucidate
and point his argument by reference to science progress
in French institutions, where the Napoleonic system
of public instruction has shown itself deficient in
adaptability to changed conditions and faculties
of science have few points of contact with schools of
technology. In America adaptation to their environ-
ment is reflected in the remarkable growth shown
by the universities and colleges during the past thirty
years. The student population of the collegiate and
graduate departments has twice doubled within this
period, and shows, according to statistics summarised
recently in Nature of April 1, p. 425, no tendency
towards abatement of this rate of progress. Buildings
and equipment have more than kept pace, their value
having increased from r1o8/. to 279/. per student,
and this is due largely to the enormous development
of laboratories which has taken place in all branches
of science. Recent visitors to the United States are
unanimous in admiring the wealth of material equip-
ment for science teaching and research, and some even
describe it as excessive. This development has been
made possible by a belief, prevalent among all classes
of the community, in the practical value of such work
and, especially for the private universities, by the
spirit of intense loyalty to the Alma Mater on the
part of college graduates. The Harvard rule, that at
the twenty-fifth anniversary of graduation each class
gives the university a sum of 100,000 dollars, affords.
an example of the very practical forms in which this
spirit manifests itself.
When the Graduate School movement began there
arose a demand for facilities for scientific research, and,
as this could not at the time be met in America,
students resorted to Europe, and found that of Euro-
pean countries, Germany best suited their requirements.
JuLy 15, 1922]
NATURE 7
>
o
x
A tradition of Germany’s scientific supremacy became | more or less narrow limits, some being established
firmly established, and for forty years America’s most
promising young workers, coming under the spell
of this tradition, became for life “ intellectual subjects
of Germany.’”’ A reaction had begun to set in before
the war, and has acquired considerable force, but the
German influence on American science has been pro-
found and its effects will be lasting.
Scientific research is unanimously recognised by
American intellectuals as an essential function of the
university, but while the material requisites for it
have been abundantly supplied, there exist certain
other conditions less favourable to its development.
Students come up to the university ill prepared as
regards both acquisition of knowledge and intellectual
discipline. Like many other observers, Prof. Caullery
regards secondary school teaching as the weakest
part of the American system of education. It is, he
says, not merely that the college is burdened with the
task of imparting knowledge which should have been
acquired in the high school, but that the schools defer
too much to the taste, or rather whim, of the pupil.
“Americans try to compel the child as little as
possible, to present life to it under its most smiling
form, to spare it opposition, to make work appear to
it under the form of pleasure rather than of duty . . .;
they treat the schoolboy’ too much like a student,
to the detriment of healthy intellectual discipline.”’
The “spoon feeding ” which is consequently resorted
to in the college (where the student is apt to be treated
too much like a schoolboy) is unfavourable to the
development of capacity for original work. While
this does not prevent the colleges from turning out
graduates well qualified to achieve success in life, nor
stifle the development of exceptionally gifted in-
dividuals, in the average case the college gives ‘“‘a
culture not sufficiently deep to be fertile.”
The connexion between the college and the graduate
school of the University,in which most of the advanced
work in pure science is done, is very close. In all
except a few of those universities (about thirty) in
which a graduate school has been developed, it has no
Separate teaching staff: its professors are also those
of the undergraduate college, although the work is
organised quite separately, and is carried out under
the superintendence of the Dean of the school. In
most universities, moreover, the college tradition, with
its emphasis on athletics and the social side of life, is
still dominant. Some high authorities in America
who believe that the destiny of the universities is to
become primarily great schools of research have urged
that the time has come to free the graduate school
from this domination. Meanwhile there is a clear
. tendency to create special institutes for research within
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
within, or in association with, the universities and
others with no such connexion.
As regards the actual contributions to science of
American universities, Prof. Caullery notes that in
zoology and general biology, the sciences in which he is
specially interested, they have produced of late years
many very remarkable works. He instances. those of
Edmund Wilson (cytology), E. Conklin (cell-lineage),
R. G. Harrison (experimental embryology), T. H.
Morgan (Mendelian heredity and mutations in Droso-
phila), Calkins and Woodruff (Infusoria, senescence,
etc.), and others.
Scientific activities outside the universities and
colleges are dealt with by Prof. Caullery in a series
of interesting sketches of the more important of the
research institutes, the Carnegie and Rockefeller and
other foundations for promoting research, the great
museums, the Federal scientific services, and the
scientific academies and societies. From the first
category the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research
may be selected as an example of an establishment
for pure research attached to a university—Pittsburgh
—hbut retaining a large measure of autonomy. A
manufacturer having a problem to solve turns it over
with a definite sum of money to the Institute, which
proceeds to engage the services of a.man of science and
provides the requisite laboratories and equipment. The
man of science, who is styled a fellow, conducts his
researches in secrecy, and the results are the property
of the donor of the subvention. The plan is reported to
have worked very successfully.
For an indication of the scale on which scientific
research is being fostered by these various bodies
(except the Federal services) and by great industrial
corporations, one may refer to a bulletin published last
year by the National Research Council, now the chief
agency for co-ordinating scientific research in America,
This bulletin (noticed in Nature of August 4 last)
enumerated 170 bodies other than universities and
colleges which provided funds for this purpose of the
aggregate annual value in 1920 of more than 18 million
dollars. The Government (Federal and State) grants
for research in agriculture, engineering, and the in-
dustrial arts have been estimated to amount to ro
million dollars in rg2t.
Our Bookshelf.
A Text-book of Wood. By Herbert Stone. Pp. vii+
240+41 Plates. (London: Rider and Son, Ltd.,
LO21.) 21s. net.
Tuts book deals with the anatomy, physical and
mechanical properties, anomalies, defects, and decay
of wood. Although intended for “‘ advanced students,”
74
it abounds in elementary errors as regards facts,
botanical and mechanical. For example, the account
of the production of wood by cambium is truly fan-
tastic, while the implication is made that when dead
wood is absorbing water and swelling, the cells of the
medullary rays exert great pressure by reason of their
turgidity. But quite inexcusable are misquotations
of various scientific workers, including R. Hartig
and Mathieu (who is made responsible for the statement
that heartwood and sapwood are synonymous “ expres-
sions ’’).
Errors as regards matters of fact are matched by
the author’s methods of reasoning and the conclusions
that he draws. According to him the wood-vessels
cannot have very important functions, “ inasmuch as
Conifers do without them.” Or, again, he writes of a
beam under transverse bending load that “ the height
may be reduced and yet the beam be stronger” ; and
in dealing with mechanical tests he not only “ hopes
and believes’ that practical men do not “ pay any
attention to the figures so far supplied by physicists,”
but also advises the abolition of “all calculations what-
soever.’ A number of excellent photographs of wood-
structure impart some value to the book.
Textile Design and Colour: Elementary Weaves and
Figured Fabrics. By W. Watson. Second edition,
with an Appendix on Standard Yarns, Weaves,
and Fabrics. Pp. xi+436. (London: Longmans,
Green and Co., 1921.) 215. net.
THE comprehensiveness of Mr. Watson’s training is
reflected from the pages of this book. A student in
the Textile Industries departments of the University
ot Leeds and the Bradford Technical College, and
successively head of the Textile Departments at Salford
and the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, Mr. Watson
has naturally produced a volume whichis both broad
in outlook and sequential in treatment. In the maze
of small weave effects, for example, it is so easy to
degenerate into mere statement and illustration that
any writer who can introduce a sequential and
reasonable treatment leading to that imaginative
insight, which is so much to be desired in the cloth
constructor, is to be congratulated. In the future
probably more conventional scientific treatment of
the structures here referred to will be necessary, for
not only do such matters as combinations and per-
mutations appear, but, as was quite accidentally
discovered at the meeting of the Mathematical Asso-
ciation last year, the problem of sateen cloth structure
is the problem of atomic grouping in crystal structure.
Mr. Watson’s treatment of the colour problems
involved in textile designing is by no means so satis-
factory: it largely resolves itself into ‘“‘ colour and
weave” form. The technical treatment of figured
fabrics is excellent, and the appendix upon Standard
Fabric should prove very useful to all designers and
manufacturers. TNS An.» 1B}
Principia Ethica. By Dr. George Edward Moore.
Pp. xxvil+232. (Cambridge: At the University
Press, 1922:))) 15s met.
Tuts volume is the reprint of the famous and much-
discussed treatise of Dr. G. E. Moore, the present Editor
of Mind, which was first published in 1903. Readers
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[JuLy 15, 1922
will turn at once with interest to the brief note added
to the preface in which the author tells us that he is
still in agreement with its main tendency and con-
clusions. His thesis is that ‘“‘ good” is indefinable,
but that “the good” can be defined. The good is
the thing, simple or complex to any degree, to which
the indefinable predicate good belongs. He illustrates
his meaning by an extreme case. He asks us to imagine
a world exceedingly beautiful, and then to imagine the
ugliest world it is possible to conceive. Weare asked,
in comparing these worlds, to accept the limitation
that “‘ we are not entitled to imagine that any human
being ever has, or ever, by any possibility, cam, live
in either.’”’ Is it irrational, he asks, to hold that it is
better that the one should exist and not the other ?
To most students of ethics the limitation makes the
question nonsense in the literal meaning of the term.
It is interesting to find that Dr. Moore can still think
it a rational question after the lapse of twenty years.
Yet we must admit the force of his logic, for if value
is to have any meaning at all to the realist, it can only
be by finding some way of attaching it to the object
and presenting it in complete abstraction from the
subject, for the mind is limited in its activity to
contemplation.
Rocks and Fossils and How to Identify Them. By
J. H. Crabtree. Pp. 63. (London: The Epworth
Press ; J. Alfred Sharp, n.d.) xs. od. net.
WE have here a book, very prettily illustrated by photo-
graphs ; but the text is not in keeping with the author’s
daring statement that “geology is, of all concrete
science studies, most exact in its observations and
conclusions.” The loss of land at Dunwich (p. 14)
should not be ascribed to subsidence ; faults (p. 18)
do not imply that “the two parts are pitched at
different angles ” ; limestones are said to be “ generally
combined with mineral matter’’; Radiolaria are
photographed in one of the admirable plates as “ flinty
shell remains of foraminifera” ; and in another plate
a very mixed assemblage of fossils, including halysites
and Fenestella, is attributed to the Old Red Sandstone.
“Interlocking teeth” are given as a characteristic
of Labyrinthodon, and Tyrannosaurus is said to have
preyed upon the mammoth. We must not dilate on
the reappearance of Eozoon and the * Laurentian
system,” or on the “ boreal-climate” of the Trias
(p. 56). If we interpret his remarks on ~ sauroid
fishes” as referring to Sauripterus, the author has
been diligent in his reading, and we must regret that
he has shown so little regard for exactitude in “ obser-
vations and conclusions.” Ce iy je (Ce
The Mineral Resources of Burma. By N. M. Penzer.
(Federation of British Industries: Intelligence
Department.) Pp. vili+176. (London: G.
Routledge and Sons, Ltd.; New York: E. P.
Dutton and Co., 1922.) 315. 6d. net.
Mr. Penzer, on behalf of the Federation of British
Industries, has undertaken with conspicuous success
the task of summarising ‘the information hitherto
inconveniently scattered through various unrelated
publications concerning the mineral resources of the
province of Burma.
He has taken care to secure the
co-operation of recognised authorities with special
ne
a
a ee ali a nhs
eel ee
JULY 15, 1922]
local experience, such as Sir George Scott, Mr. La
Touche, and Dr. Coggin Brown ;
reference work of exceptional value to prospectors
and commercial men. In addition to precise sum-
maries of the recorded information regarding each
mineral occurrence, the book contains a very useful
sketch of the physical geography, geology, history,
administrative systems and communications of Burma,
a full index to the local vernacular names in common
use, anda yery full, conveniently classified bibliography.
The Statesman’s Year-Book : Statistical and Historical
Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1922.
Edited by Sir John Scott Keltie and Dr. M. Epstein.
s9th Annual Publication. Revised after Official
Returns. Pp. xlviit+1568. (London: Macmillan
and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 205. net.
THE new edition of the “‘ Statesman’s Year-Book,’’ which
appears earlier than usual this year, maintains all the
features that have gained for it a unique place among
volumes of reference. The number of independent
states has now been increased by the addition of
Egypt and Lithuania. Various secession states, the
status of which is not vet fully recognised, are still
grouped with their parent countries. The organisation
of the Irish Free State, together with the full Treaty
between Great Britain and Ireland, are given in the
introductory pages, which also furnish information
on the organisation of the League of Nations and the
Imperial and Washington Conferences. While the
whole volume has, as usual, been carefully revised,
special attention has been devoted to Russia and China.
We note some discrepancies in the figures for area
and population of the countries detached from Russia,
as given under the heading of Russia, and of those
countries respectively ; but the last census returns in
this part of Europe were by no means complete. Two
coloured maps show the division of Upper Silesia by
the League of Nations and the Burgenland settlement
between Austria and Hungary.
The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at
Home and Abroad for the Year 1921. Pp. xii+332
+180. (London: Longmans, Green and Co,. 1
30s. net.
THE scope of the “ Annual Register ”’ is well indicated
by its sub-title, and a truly remarkable amount of
information is gathered together within the covers of
the volume. Part 1 consists of some three hundred
pages, of which about half are devoted to events of
importance occurring in England during the past year: a
large portion of this section deals with events in Ireland,
culminating with the Peace Conference in London and
the signature of the treaty of peace. The remainder
of Part 1 is devoted to brief summaries of outstanding
events in other countries of the world. Part 2 is of
a more’ general nature and contains, among other
items, a retrospect of science during the past year.
The section is divided into two parts ‘dealing with the
biological and physical sciences respectively, and all
outstanding events in the world of science appear to
be mentioned.
To cover the ground, the articles are of necessity
brief, but the whole is welded together so skilfully
that the volume, besides serving as a comprehensive
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
922.
INA TU Re: 75
reference book for world affairs, provides an in-
and the result is a } teresting and readable account of man’s activities
during the year 1921.
Cotton Spinning. By W.Scott Taggart. Vol. II. Sixth
edition with Appendix. Pp. xv+z291. (London :
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 8s. 6d. net.
Ir is not surprising that Mr. Scott Taggart’s work on
“Cotton Spinning” should already be in its sixth
edition. Books of this type arrange themselves under
one of two heads—either they are “descriptive”
or they are ‘‘ demonstrative’: rarely are they both.
This work, although by no means void of the “ why ”
and “ wherefore”? and the “for” and ‘‘ against,” is
mainly descriptive. Thus in dealing with the dis-
tribution of drafts on pages 259 to 266, “ fibre move-
ment ” does not seem to have been considered. with
the result that even here Mr. Taggart is in difficulties
in making theory fit with practice. But the treat-
ment of each section of the subject throughout is so
clear and concise that even the very limitations of the
treatment stand out clearly and thus are not dangerous.
This book should certainly be in the hands, not only
of every cotton spinner, but of every spinner of materials
of a like nature. ACE Be
A History of the Association Psychology. By Prof.
H. C. Warren. Pp. x+328+1 chart. (London:
Constable and Co., Ltd., en) 16s.
THE volume under notice, by the well-known professor
of Princeton University, contains a great deal of
matter which cannot fail to be useful to the student,
and it is presented in a serviceable form. It is not,
however, as the title would lead us to expect, a history
of the movement in mental science which followed the
adoption of the empirical principles of oe and
explained knowledge by the laws of
theory often described by its critics as psy Tlencl
atomism. It is rather an attempt to show that an
idea which has no history is to be discovered in all
the historical systems of philosophy. It begins with
the ancient philosophy of Greece and ends with an
account of some of the psychological experiments now
being conducted in college laboratories and reported
in current journals.
Lubricating and Allied Oils. By E. A. Evans. Foreword
by Sir Charles Cheers Wakefield. (The Directly-
Useful Technical Series.) Pp. xv+128. (London :
Chapman and Hall, Ltd.
THE greater part of this book is taken up with descrip-
tions of the physical and chemical tests usually carried
out on oils with the view of determining their com-
mercial value. Sufficient is given to enable the chemist
to carry out these tests in ‘the orthodox manner and
to reduce the results. The book should also be of
value to the engineer, who must understand the
meaning of the experimental results ; his requirements
are considered in later chapters on the selection of
lubricants and oils employed in practice. Most of the
existing works on lubrication and lubricants are too
comprehensive and technical to be of much service to
the user of oils, and the author of the present work is
to be commended for the brief and clear account of
the principal properties he has presented.
, 1921.) Price gs. 6d. net.
76 NATURE
[JuLy 15, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
Editor does not hold himself responsible for
expressed by his correspondents. Netther
undertake to return, or to correspond with
of, rejected manuscripts intended for
No notice ts
[The
opinions
can he
the writers
this or any other part of NATURE.
taken of anonymous communications. |
Interspecific Sterility.
THE implications of modern genetics have been so
little considered by biologists in this country that the
criticism of my address by Dr. Cunningham (NaTuRE,
June 17), though in purpose destructive, is not
unwelcome. Of the points he raises one chiefly calls
for reply. I directed once more the attention
of naturalists to the fact that we still await the
production of an indubitably sterile hybrid from
completely fertile parents which have arisen under
critical observation from a single common origin.
So far as our knowledge goes, all the domesticated
races—for example, of dogs, of pigeons, of fowls
among animals; and of cabbages, of peas, of Primula
sinensis, and many more among plants—when inter-
crossed among themselves never produce this sterility
in their mongrels, though the races are often distinct
enough to pass for species. But if we begin crossing
natural species, even those which on our reckoning
must be very closely allied, we constantly find either
that they will not interbreed, or that, if they can be
crossed, the result is more or lesssterile. Dr. Cunning-
ham takes exception to my speaking of this inter-
specific sterility as the chief attribute of species,
but he will not dispute that it is a chief attribute of
species.
The races of fowls might, as he holds, on account
of their enormous divergences, be without impro-
priety compared to natural species. They may
also, as he thinks, all descend from Gallus bankiva
(though I find that difficult to believe) ; but inasmuch
as they do not show interspecific sterility they do not
help us to understand how that peculiar ‘property
of species arose in evolution. In contemporary varia-
tion we witness the origin of many classes of differ-
ences, but not this; yet by hypothesis it must again
and again have arisen in the course of evolution of
species from a common ancestry. The difficulty is
no new one; but I emphasised it because naturalists
should take it more seriously than they have done
hitherto. Especially now that a great deal of
experimental breeding is in progress, watch should
be kept for such an occurrence. I by no means
declare that the event cannot happen, but, so far as
I know, it has not been witnessed yet.
Dr. Cunningham tries to fill the gap by adducing
two instances. The first is that of Oenothera gigas.
Now I had not forgotten the tetraploids, which so
often do not breed freely with diploids, but the
applicability of that example is exceedingly doubtful.
Interspecific sterility or incompatibility may well be
a consequence of nuclear diversity, though we can
scarcely regard an unresolved pair of twins, such as
the tetraploid must be, as a specifically distinct
organism.
His second illustration, if authentic, would be
more nearly what is wanted. He says that “‘ two
mutants of Drosophila in Morgan’s experiments are
almost completely sterile with one another.’ The
allusion is probably to a paper of Metz and Bridges
(Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 1917, iii. p. 673), in which they
claimed to have found two mutants of D. virilis
which gave partially sterile hybrids when intercrossed.
Dr. Cunningham is not perhaps aware that this claim
NO. 2750, VOL. I10]
was afterwards withdrawn (Metz, ibid., 1920, vi.
p. 421), inasmuch as one of the mutants was found to
have been partially sterile. Metz and Bridges did
adduce another example in D. ampelophila, but for
a variety of reasons that, even if substantiated, would
scarcely be to the point. As a matter of fact, how-
ever, in so far as opportunity of repeating the
cross has occurred, complete fertility resulted. I
know of no other example to which Dr. Cunningham
can be referring.
Mr, Crowther (NatuRE, June 17, p. 777) mistakes
my meaning. It is, as he says, not difficult to
“imagine ’’ interspecific sterility produced by a
gradual (or sudden) modification. That sterility may
quite reasonably be supposed to be due to the in-
ability of certain chromosomes to conjugate, and Mr.
Crowther’s simile of the sword and the scabbard may
serve to depict the sort of thing we might expect to
happen. But the difficulty is that we have never
seen it happen to swords and scabbards which we
know to have belonged originally to each other. On
the contrary, they seem always to fit each other,
whatever diversities they may have acquired.
W. BATESON.
July 2, 1922.
Geology and the Nebular Theory.
I po not deserve the reproaches of Prof. Coleman
(NATURE, June 17, p. 775). My molten earth did
not, in point of fact, owe its thermal energy to
primitive condensation, but to accumulated radio-
active heat, as the concluding part of my lecture
might have shown. I am committed neither to the
nebular theory nor to the planetesimal theory.
Had I adopted the wider definition of the Archean
favoured by Prof. Coleman, I could not, of course,
have described the Archean sediments as scanty. I
referred to an Archean limited to the Keewatin,
and to the Laurentian outpourings of granitic
materials. The Keewatin is generally described as
mainly volcanic in origin. The definition of Archean
and Algonkian favoured by Van Hise and Leith
(Bulletin 360 of the United States Geol. Survey) would
bear me out.
While many geologists would agree with Prof.
Coleman as to his estimates of Archean sediments,
many, I think, will disagree with him in his contention
that there was nothing exceptional in the thermal
conditions attending the lLaurentian revolution.
Prof. Coleman’s most interesting discovery of an
ice age in Huronian times has, I submit, nothing
to do with the matter. On the other hand, I think
geologists in their interpretation of the Archean
should keep in mind the possibility (or probability)
that the phenomena observed are due to paroxysmal
thermal developments traceable to deep-seated radio-
active substances: and that these developments,
which appear to have been world-wide in extension,
may have been sufficiently intense to have closed a
biological era. So that, in fact, we have in the
Archean the almost obliterated record of a prior
geological age. No Jax.
Trinity College, Dublin.
I HAVE read with interest Prof. Coleman’s timely
reminder, in NaTturRE of June 17, p. 775, of the
essentially intrusive relations of the Archean and of
the frequently made deduction that the oldest visible
rocks of the earth’s surface are sedimentary. Of
course this deduction is perfectly sound, provided the
age of an intrusive rock is taken, as ‘has been the
Umer: 922]
IMA TOTE igh
custom, to be that of its intrusion. We are entitled,
however, to consider the previous history of the
material composing these intrusive Archean masses,
and, in view of their predominantly banded structure,
which marks them off as in some way different from
later intrusive masses of similar composition, such
consideration seems forced upon us.
Now the banded character of the Archean gneiss
suggests a partial derivation by melting from some
stratiform materials such as sedimentary or volcanic
rocks, or at any rate from rocks showing marked
small-scale differentiation into basic and acid types.
I do not think that stratiform differentiation during
or previous to crystallisation can be seriously put
forward as a cause of the banding, in view of the
rarity of this phenomenon in more recent granites, and
the fact that in them it is largely a marginal effect.
May we not then have in these Archean gneisses
the recrystallised remnants of still older sediments
and lavas, and who is to say that they may not also
embrace portions of the original surface on which
water first settled, but so obscured by recrystallisa-
tion that the question of its molten or planetesimal
origin is now unsolvable ?
The difference between the two views is simply
that one regards the history of sedimentation on the
earth as cut off sharply by intrusion, while the other
sees it extending still further back into the mists of
the past, beyond the point where human vision is
any longer capable of discrimination. Where, on
either view, is the decisive criterion between the
nebular and planetesimal hypotheses ?
W. B. WricuHrt.
Manchester, June 27, 1922.
Weégener’s Displacement Theory.
WEGENER’S speculations have attracted so much
attention that there must be many who would be
glad to find some simple means of testing his fittings
and coincidences for themselves. Owing to the
distortion present in all maps such tests must be
carried out on a globe. Wegener himself uses
tracing paper, which must be cut and slashed in
order that it may even approximately fit the surface ;
and any one who has tried it will admit that it is
difficult to obtain satisfactory results. An easier plan
is to roll out a lump of modelling wax or plasticine
into a sheet of moderate thickness. The sheet may
then be pressed upon the globe and cut to the required
shape. According to my own experience, the best
method is to cut the sheet a little smaller than the
area that is to be represented, so that the actual
margin appears all round it, and to build it outwards
to this margin by the addition of small pieces of wax.
Old plasticine which has become rather dry works
very well and does not stick to the globe.
But much more precise tests can be carried out with
the help of some form of triangular compasses. The
three points of the compasses may be placed on three
critical points of the globe and afterwards transferred,
without altering their relative positions, to any other
part of the globe that may be desired. The ordinary
triangular compasses of the draughtsman are very
little use upon a spherical surface, but a fairly
convenient instrument can be constructed with an
ordinary one-jointed two-foot rule as its. basis.
A point about an inch long is fixed near the joint, and
each arm is provided with a sliding carrier. Each
carrier bears a short sleeve through which a pointed
rod, such as a knitting needle, slides rather stiffly.
These rods form the other two points, and all three
should stand approximately at right angles to the
plane of the rule.
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
This is an easily constructed type, but much more
convenient forms can be devised. If, for example,
the arms are arcs of circles, of suitable diameter, so
that they may stand concentric with the globe,
the points may all be of fixed length, and the most
troublesome of the adjustments required by the
straight-armed form will be avoided.
This is not the place to discuss Wegener’s views,
but the use of triangular compasses seems to show
that a rather high degree of plasticity is necessary
in the masses of “ Sial’’ in order to produce the
coincidences on which he bases his calculation of the
probability that his theory is correct.
PHILIP LAKE.
Sedgwick Museum,
Cambridge, June 21. 2
Opalescence Phenomena in Liquid Mixtures.
Ir is well known that liquids which mix completely
above a certain critical temperature, e.g. phenol and
water, exhibit a strong and characteristic opal-
escence as the temperature of the mixture is lowered
to a point slightly above that at which the com-
ponents separate. A quantitative theory of this
phenomenon was put forward by Einstein (Annalen
dev Physik, vol. 33, 1910) on the basis of thermo-
dynamical reasoning, the spontaneous local fluctua-
tions of concentration of the mixture being taken
into account and the light-scattering due to the
resulting fluctuations of refractive index being
evaluated. He obtained as the expression for the
light-scattering
a) Ae
m?(M/NA4) . o(*) / ene) per unit volume,
OK OK
where is the refractive index of the mixture and
c(log p)/cx expresses the rate of change of the vapour
pressure of one of the components with concentration,
a quantity which becomes very large as the critical
temperature and concentration are approached, thus
giving rise to a marked opalescence. It should be
pointed out, however, that Einstein’s expression does
not include the whole effect, for we have also to
consider the result of the fluctuation of density of either
component taken separately, and to add to Einstein's
formula
(7°/18)(RT/NM) [83 (44? — 1)?(H44° + 2)?
+ Bo(Hg?— 1)*(Ha? + 2)°],
where fy, By, 4, #, are respectively the compressi-
bilities and refractive indices of the components.
Further, the light-scattering due to the anisotropy
and arbitrary orientation of the molecules of the
components has also to be added.
The result of these corrections of FEinstein’s
investigation may briefly be indicated. Very near
the temperature at which the mixture separates
into two phases, the fluctuations of concentration
contribute by far the larger portion of the effect.
But at higher and lower temperatures the effects
of fluctuations of density and molecular anisotropy
are no longer negligible, and when the temperature
is sufficiently removed from the critical point they
form a substantial part of the whole. Further, the
increase in relative importance of the effect of
molecular anisotropy in these circumstances should
result in an increase in the proportion of unpolarised
light in the transversely-scattered beam as we recede
from the critical temperature.
The foregoing indications of theory have been
confirmed generally in a series of experiments over
a wide range of temperatures on light-scattering
in phenol- water mixtures undertaken under the
writer’s direction by Mr. V. S. Tamma. It is found
that the increased opalescence of the mixture over
(C7
78
NAT ORE
[JULY 15, 1922
and above the effects due to the components taken
separately can be traced at temperatures far higher
than the critical point, and the indicated changes
in the polarisation of the scattered light are also
easily observed.
It is clear that the case of liquids which are com-
pletely miscible at ordinary temperatures stands on
the same footing as that of imperfectly miscible
liquids above the critical temperature, and the recent
observations of W. H. Martin on this point (Jour.
Phy. Chem., Jan. 1922) agree with the indications
of the theory outlined above.
I may take this opportunity of directing attention
to a very important result observed in experiments
on light-scattering in liquids conducted by Mr.
Seshagiri Rao and the writer. It is found that the
molecular anisotropy which results in a scattering
of unpolarised light is noticeably a function of the
frequency of the incident light. This indicates that
the anisotropy is really due to the difference of the
optical frequencies of the molecule in different
directions, a conclusion which has a bearing on the
recent interesting work of Havelock (Proc. Roy.
Soc., May 1922). Debye and others have suggested
that some molecules possess an appreciable permanent
electric moment, and would thus exercise perceptible
orienting influences on each other even in the gaseous
and liquid states. Indications are already forth-
coming that this may exercise an observable in-
fluence on the phenomena of molecular scattering of
light.
Finally, it may be mentioned that a very carefully
carried out series of experiments on the light-
scattering in ether, benzene, and normal pentane,
over a large range of temperatures above and below
the critical temperature, has confirmed quantita-
tively the Einstein-Smoluchowski theory of molecular
scattering of light. C. V. RAMAN.
210 Bowbazar Street,
Calcutta, May 25, 1922.
Transcription of Russian Names.
Mr. Druce’s letter in Nature of June 17, p. 777,
makes little of my typographical objection to a Czech
transcription for the names of Russian men of science,
by saying that Nature and other journals already
employ letters with diacritical marks. For my part,
I venture to estimate that not one in twenty English
newspapers has Czech type among its founts, or, if
it had, would know how to use it in transcription.
Are, then, Russian scientific names to be rendered on
one system in NATuRE and on another in almost every
other newspaper—or even book? And are Russian
scientific names to be rendered differently from
Russian literary and musical names—or place-
names ?
Nobody questions that it is possible, and indeed easy,
to transliterate Russian into Czech, all Slavonic
tongues being closely akin. But is it more helpful
to Britons to render 4 by ¢ than by ch, or y by ¢ than
by ts, even though you save a letter by doing so ?
(I wonder how many Britons would pronounce this
“c”’ correctly!) Czech journals naturally transcribe
Russian names into Czech, but that seems to be no
reason why journals in other languages should do so.
Mr. Druce, by the way, ignores my remark that
Serbo-Croatian, with its ready-made official system
of transliterating Cyrillic into Latin characters, has
as good a claim as Czech, if a Slavonic language is to
be used for this purpose. 5
Surely what is wanted in this country to replace
the old conventional French and German (and
hybrid) forms of Russian names is not a Croat nor a
NO; 321750; VOL LO)
Czech system, but an intelligible British system of
transcription, uniform for all Russian names alike :
and this we have ready-made in the R.G.S. II.
system (obtainable at any of the geographical book-
sellers, or at the Royal Geographical Society). Why
not use it ? EDWARD GLEICHEN.
Royal Geographical Society,
Kensington Gore,
London, S.W.7, June 23.
The Influence of Science.
Tue defect of the disappearance of Greek from
scientific education makes itself felt in the treatment
of the history of science (NATURE, June 24, p. 801),
The controversy between Galileo and the Inquisition
was carried out with pretended hostility, but amicably
in reality in the manners of good scientific society,
as an academic university disputation on an agreed
accepted thesis, taken from Plutarch’s “ Aetia
Physica,’ the source of such disputations as ‘“ An
detur vacuum ?”’ or “de tempore,’’ or whether the
tide is due to the influence of the moon.
The Pythagoreans were prepared to maintain
against all comers that the sun was the centre of
our cosmos, in opposition to the Stoic philosophers;
and so on for other subjects of disputation in the
University of Athens.
Mr. Lones, of the Patent Office, has retrieved for
us at last the passages in “‘ De caelo ’’ and elsewhere,
of Aristotle that set Galileo to make a test by experi-
ment, with the two weights dropped from the Cam-
panile of Pisa, of density such as not to be affected
appreciably by the resistance of the air. The weights
struck the ground with one thud apparently ; but
if Galileo had thrown himself over after, his thud
would have been distinctly later.
Because Aristotle was discussing the terminal
velocity of rain and hailstones, or even a meteoric
stone, from a height high up in the air, the ascent of
a bubble in air, or else in water, compared with a
stone sinking; he had no air-pump except his lungs,
he could not be certain whether air was really a
substance in Nature.
“Don'ts for Students in Science and History,”
compiled by G. S. Boulger (Tract 74, Catholic Truth
Society), should be consulted before accepting the
common version of many similar controversial stories.
Huxley is quoted, writing to Prof. Mivart in 1885:
“IT gave some attention to the case of Galileo when I
was in Italy, and I arrived at the conclusion the Pope
and College of Cardinals had rather the best of it.”
And so the Inquisition was entitled to a parting
shot of jubilation, as it would be again to-day on the
doctrine of Relativity.
The rival theories of the Greek philosophers could
serve as dialectical exercises till the crucial experi-
ment of the “ optic tube of Fiesole’’; and here Galileo
destroyed all previous uncertainty by his use of the
telescope, the most powerful instrument in history
for revolutionising the ideas of science.
G. GREENHILL.
Staple Inn, June 27, 1922.
[Fortunately, inability to maintain a scientific
thesis before philosophic or other authorities no
longer involves such penalties as those to which
Galileo was subjected. The whole purpose of the
article to which Sir George Greenhill refers was to
show that the freedom of experimental inquiry thus
secured had far-reaching social and _ intellectual
consequences, and we judge from his last paragraph
that he agrees with this view.—Ep1ror, NATURE.]
—— a mt ei i ene
iimmy as, 1922)
NATURE
7Q
Science and Education at South Kensington.
By, T. Lt. HUMBERSTONE.
A LARGE part of the area shown in the accom-
4 panying photograph was at one time Brompton
Park, a fine estate famous for its snipe-shooting and
for its mild and salubrious air. In 1675 the park
became a market-garden, the first of its kind in England.
A short distance eastwards was Knightsbridge, an
outlying hamlet of London, the scene of frequent
Cromwell’s associa-
skirmishes during the Civil War.
started from Hyde Park Corner at regular intervals
in bands for mutual protection, and a bell was rung
to warn pedestrians when the party was about to set
out. Thus the effective history of the district for our
purpose begins in 1851, when the great International
Exhibition was opened in Hyde Park. Its initiation
and success were largely due to the Prince Consort,
and appropriately, therefore, the estate, which was
A=NaruraLt History Museum.
D=Royat CoLLecr or Science (NEw Buitpinc).
G=Royat. ScHoot or ArT NEEDLEWORK.
J=Royat ScuHoor oF Mines. K=Inpertat CoLLeGe.
N=Royat CoLiecer or Sciencr (BoTany) AND IMPERIAL COLLEGE
P=Royat Coiirce or Science (OLp Buit ING). Q
tion with the district—there is a tradition that he lived
near what is now Queen’s Gate—is preserved in the
name Cromwell Road. Knightsbridge and Brompton
maintained their sequestered character until com-
paratively recent times. It is recorded that until the
middle of the nineteenth century, which must be well
within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, people
1 It is fitting that Nature should take advantage of the method of obtain-
ing “ bird’s-eye’ views by means of aerial photography. Arrangements
have been made for a short series of articles dealing with certain London
areas_of scientific interest illustrated by such photographs. The first of
these, on South Kensington, is here printed. This will be followed by an
article on Bloomsbury by the same contributor.
NO. 2750, VOL. IIo]
B=Vicroria AND ALBERT Museum.
TIe=Science Lisrary.
H=Inpia Museum.
C=Science Museum.
F=Imvertac Instirure AND UNIVERSITY OF Lonpvon.
I=City anv Guitps ENGINEERING COLLEGE.
L=Roya. CouLLeGceE or Music. M=Royav Acsert Hatt.
Union. O=Brompron Oratory.
ERPENTINE IN HypbE Park.
purchased for the modest sum of 150,000. from the
profits of the Exhibition, is dominated on the northern
and higher side by the Albert Memorial in Kensington
Gardens and by the Royal Albert Hall. Would it be
possible to find, in the whole educational history of the
country, an example of money spent to greater advan-
tage for the promotion of science and art ? Sites have
been provided for a splendid group of educational and
public buildings and in addition a considerable annual
income is received which is devoted to scientific pur-
poses. The Exhibition of 1851 justified the hopes of
its founders. It was to be for the nineteenth century
80
what the tournament had been in medieval times—
a challenge to every land, ‘‘ not to the brightest dames
and bravest lances as of yore,” but to its best produce
and happiest device “ for the promotion of universal
happiness and brotherhood.” Happy days! Never
perhaps was the spirit of the English people more
buoyant, hopeful, confident. This was due in part
to a growing appreciation of the benefits which science
would confer on humanity.
The Albert Hall was designed to carry out the Prince
Consort’s expressed ideas as forming “a central point
of union where men of science and art could meet,
where the results of their labours could be communi-
cated and discussed, and where deputies from affiliated
societies could occasionally confer with the metro-
politan authorities.” Public response to the appeal
for the Prince Consort’s memorial was less generous
than was expected. The memorial in Kensington
Gardens, which cost 130,000. and took twenty years
to complete, absorbed all the free-will offerings, in-
cluding 50,000/. from Parliament, and it was therefore
necessary to establish the Albert Hall on a commercial
basis with the financial assistance of the 1851 Exhibi-
tion Commissioners, and even of the builders. A capital
sum of 200,000. was raised and seats were retailed (with
a generous tenure of 999 years) for rool. each. The
foundation-stone was laid by Queen Victoria in 1867
and the Hall was opened in 1871. Those who, in view
of the uses to which the Hall is occasionally put,
may feel doubt as to the high ideals of its founders
should read the inscription on the frieze, which asserts :
“This Hall was erected for the advancement of the
arts and sciences and for the works of industry of all
nations, in fulfilment of the intentions of Albert,
Prince Consort.”
Not far south from the Albert Hall is the most
beautiful building on the estate, and possibly in the
kingdom, the Imperial Institute. ‘This magnificent
pile is the permanent memorial of the completion of
the first fifty years of Queen Victoria’s beneficent reign.
Initiated by the Prince of Wales with the co-operation
of the Lord Mayor of London, contributions to the fund
poured in from all parts of the Empire. By 1892
a capital sum of 413,000/. had been obtained, including
236,862/. in private donations from Great Britain and
101,550l. from India, and a public grant of 20,0001.
from Canada. Queen Victoria laid the foundation-
stone on July 4, 1887. On this occasion the Prince of
Wales expressed the hope that the Institute would
hereafter exhibit not only the material resources of
the Empire, but be “ an emblem of that Imperial unity
of purpose and action which we believe has gathered
strength h and reality with every year of your eee
reign.” Mr. T. E. Collcutt was the architect, and the
style is Italian Renaissance, with rich and abundant
ornamentation. The central tower, 280 feet high,
contains the Alexandra Peal of ten bells, given by an
Australian lady.
Alas! the founders of the Imperial Tragistine gave
more thought to raising the necessary capital than
to sordid considerations of current income and ex-
penditure. A somewhat fanciful scheme for electing
Fellows, who were given certain club facilities and
the right to use letters after their names, came to
an untimely end. Call a building a white elephant
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
NA TORE
[JuEy 15, 1922
and close its doors may be accepted as a paraphrase
of a well-known proverb. In serious financial diffi-
culties, the Institute sought the protection and assist-
ance of the Government, which adopted the familiar
expedient of taking in lodgers. Thus it came about
that the University of London, which during the
whole course of its existence had flitted like an em-
barrassed shade from one set of Government lodgings
to another, including Somerset House, Marlborough
House, and Burlington Gardens, obtained possession
in 1900 of the larger part of the Imperial Institute for
administrative purposes. In the remaining part of
the building, the Imperial Institute continues its work
of investigation and propaganda. Let us hope that
in the near future the University may find its Canaan
in Bloomsbury and this monumental building may
again be wholly used for the noble purposes, sealed
and sanctified by the War, for which it was originally
founded; thus may Queen Victoria’s earnest prayer
at its Inauguration in 1893 be fulfilled that the Institute
might ‘“‘never cease to flourish as a lasting emblem
of the unity and loyalty of the Empire.”
Reverting to the history of the Commissioners’
estate, we find that at an early stage a large piece of
ground, 12 acres in extent, was sold to the Government
for the purposes of the Science and Art Department
and its colleges and museums. This Department,
originally founded in 1853 as a branch of the Board of
Trade, became a few years later a distinct department
of the Privy Council. It was moved westward from its
quarters in Marlborough House in 1857 and drew up
a programme of educational and scientific work which
made “South Kensington” famous throughout the
civilised world. ‘The mere catalogue of the institutions
which the Department administered is sufficiently
impressive, including the South Kensington (now the
Victoria and Albert) Museum, the Science Museum,
the Science Library, the Royal College of Science,
the Royal School of Mines, and the Royal College of
Art. The Royal College of Science and Royal School
of Mines claim descent from the Government “ School
of Mines and of Science applied to the Arts,” estab-
lished in Jermyn Street in 1851, and from the Royal
College of Chemistry, originally established in Oxford
Street, which combined with the School of Mines in
1853. The various departments were transferred to
South Kensington between 1872 and 1880 to the
old building in Exhibition Road, an early and beautiful
example of building in terra-cotta. In 1905 the new
chemical and physical laboratories, designed by Sir
Aston Webb, were opened in the Imperial Institute
Road, and, at about the same time, the new Victoria
and Albert Museum, built to the designs of the same
architect. The work of the Science and Art Depart-
ment as a separate department came to an end under
the Board of Education Act of 1899. It must be
admitted that its adventures into the domain of second-
ary education were less happily inspired, and that
there was need for co-ordination between secondary
and technical education. In its day and generation,
however, the Department did a great work, from which
the impartial historian of national education will not
withhold grateful appreciation and the historian of
the late War may trace some of the silver threads of
victory.
umyens. 192 2']
South Kensington was not only closely associated
with the early history of general scientific education,
but it recapitulates that history. A permanent
memorial there to the technical education movement
of the ’seventies and ’eighties is the City and Guilds
of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical
Education. The Institute was formed in 1878 by the
Livery Companies of the City of London, one of its
principal objects being the establishment of the
Central Technical College to supply higher technical
education to productive industry. It was designed
originally as the coping-stone of a system of technical
schools, and particularly for the training of technical
teachers. The foundation-stone of the College was
laid by the Prince of Wales in 1881, and the building
was completed three years later. Its work is now
confined to engineering education, and it is one of the
largest and best-equipped schools for this subject in
the country.
The next important movement, which had for its
object the development of teaching and research in
applied science, culminated in 1907 in the establish-
ment of the Imperial College of Science and Technology,
to which a Royal Charter was granted. The Board
of Education transferred to the new governing body
of the Imperial College the control of the Royal College
of Science and the Royal School of Mines; and the
Central Technical College, renamed the City and
Guilds (Engineering) College, was also brought into
the scheme of common administration. Remarkable
progress has since been made in developing the re-
sources of the colleges for teaching and research. A
new building has been erected for the Royal School
NATURE 81
of Mines, and an extension (provided by the Gold-
smiths’ Company) of the City and Guilds College
and others for botany, plant physiology and patho-
logy, and chemical technology, while the social
needs of the students have been met by the pro-
vision of a special building for the Imperial College
Union.
The foregoing list by no means exhausts the buildings
at South Kensington. The Natural History Museum
(a branch of the British Museum) is in grey terra-cotta,
built to the designs of Alfred Waterhouse, and was
finished in 1880. It is both a museum and a centre
for natural history study and research. The Royal
College of Music, a less austere enterprise, was built
by Sir Arthur Blomfield and opened in 1894; and the
Royal School of Art Needlework and the headquarters
of the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington
Gore must also be mentioned.
Some final reflections. First and most cbvious,
the available space at South Kensington is now practi-
cally exhausted. Almost the only science which has
not been practised at South Kensington is town
planning, and there can be no doubt that the area
might have been planned more economically. Much
still remains to be done in providing new departments
of pure and applied science. Under no possible re-
organisation of higher education in the metropolis
can South Kensington cease to be a most important
centre for education and research in science and art.
It has great resources in traditions, in men, in materials ;
and if, like Oxford, it is already the home of some lost
causes, it has a marvellous power of adapting itself
to new conditions.
Dark Nebulz.1
By Prof. H. N. RusseLt, Mount Wilson Observatory.
le is now generally believed that many of the dark
markings in the Milky Way, and dark starless
regions in the sky, are produced by the interposition
of huge obscuring clouds between us and the more
remote stars. A long list of such dark markings has
been given by Barnard,? who has done more than any one
else to point out their importance and probable nature.
In some cases, as in the Pleiades, Orion, and Ophiuchus,
these “regions of obscuration”? merge into faintly
luminous nebulosity in the vicinity of certain stars, in
such a way that there can be no doubt that they le
near these stars in space.
It thus appears that the obscuring masses or dark
nebule in Ophiuchus and Scorpius are at a distance
of 100 to 150 parsecs, those in Taurus at probably
about the same distance, and those in Orion some 200
parsecs from us, while the dimensions of the individual
clouds are themselves measured in parsecs.
The occurrence of these three great regions of
obscuration within a distance which is so small com-
pared with that of the galactic clouds indicates that
such objects are probably of great cosmical temperature.
These dark nebulz usually appear to be quite opaque.
In some cases the stars can be seen faintly through
1 Communication to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, on
March 14. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Academy, vol. 8, No. 5,
May 1922.
2 Barnard, E. E., Astrophys. Journ., Chicago, 49, 1919 (1-23).
NO. 2750, VOL. I10]
them, apparently without much change in colour ;
but in some examples? stars imbedded in dense
luminous nebulosity are abnormally red.
Of the various forms in which matter may be dis-
tributed in space, by far the most efficient in producing
obscuration is fine dust, since this has the greatest
superficial area per unit of mass. In a cloud composed
of spherical particles of radius x and density p, dis-
tributed at random so that the average quantity of
matter per unit volume is d, the extinction of a beam
of light in passing through this cloud will be e stellar
magnitudes per unit of distance, where e=o-814 qa|pr.
The numerical factor is independent of the physical
units which are employed. The factor q is introduced
to take account of the complications which occur when
the size of the particle becomes comparable with the
wave-lengths of light.* For particles more than two
or three wave-lengths in diameter g is sensibly equal
to unity. For smaller particles it increases and is a
maximum, 2°56, when the circumference of the particle
is 1:12 times the wave-length. It then rapidly
diminishes and becomes nearly equal to 14/3 x (27r/A)
for particles of less than half this diameter.? The ratio
3 Seares, F. H., and Hubble, E. P., ibid., Mt. Wilson
Contr., No. 187.
4 Schwarzschild, K., “ Sitzungsberichte der K. B. Akad. der Wiss.
Math.-Phys. Kl., ‘Miinchen, 31, es (293-338) ; Proudman, Monthly rh,
R.A.S., London, 73, 1913 (535-5
P Barnard, ELE. Asnonnie By ts, Chicago, 38, 1913 (496-501).
52, 1920. (8-22) ;
82 NA FORE
[JULY 15, 1922
qg/y is a maximum, 2°42, when the circumference equals
the wave-length.
For clouds of the same mean density d the opacity
reaches a sharp maximum when the particles are of
this size. At the same time the absorption changes
from the non-selective type to the selective type, vary-
ing as A~4. For visual light the maximum opacity
occurs when the radius is 0-086 p. A cloud of particles
of this size, and of the density of rock 27), will exert
an absorption of one magnitude if it contains only 1/86
of a milligram of matter per square centimetre of cross-
section, regardless of its thickness. If the particles
are of half this size, or smaller, the selective absorption
is almost as complete as for a gas, but may be nearly
roo million times as great.
Obscuration of light in space, therefore, whether
general or selective with respect to wave-length, will
be produced mainly by dust particles a few millionths
of an inch in diameter, unless such particles form a
negligible proportion by weight of the obscuring
cloud.
It is just these particles, however, which will be most
influenced by the pressure of the radiation of the stars.
Calculations from more accurate data confirm Schwarz-
schild’s conclusion that for a particle of the optimum
size and the density of water, the repulsive force of the
sun’s radiation is about ten times the gravitational
attraction, and also show that for stars of the same
brightness, but other spectral types, the radiation
pressure will be about two-thirds as great for Class M and
increase for the whiter stars, till for Class B it is fully
ten times as great as for solar stars.
Dwarf stars will scarcely repel dust at all, but giant
stars, and especially the very luminous one of Class B,
will repel it very powerfully. Only the coarser particles
can come near such a star—the finer ones being driven
away. This selective removal, from the vicinity of
bright stars, of the particles which are most efficient
in cloud formation, may explain the fact that the
luminous portions of these dark nebule, though
centred upon stars, do not brighten up in their im-
mediate neighbourhood so much as might have been
anticipated.
The finest dust must continue to be repelled by the
stars, whatever their distance. It may congregate to
some degree in interstellar regions, where the repulsive
forces from stars on opposite sides are nearly equal,
but it can be in no true equilibrium there, and must
escape ultimately to an indefinitely great distance.
Some force, however, operates to hold these dark
clouds together, for their outlines are often sharp. This
is probably the gravitational attraction of the cloud
itself.
Taking a spherical cloud as an example we find
that, if its mass is M times that of the sun, and its
radius R parsecs, the velocity of escape at the surface
is 0-092 M? R~? km./sec. The internal velocity of the
nebular material is known only in the case of the Orion
nebula, where the luminous gas shows irregular varia-
tions in radial velocity from point to point, amounting
to about 5 km./sec. on each side of the mean.®
For a nebula 1 parsec in diameter (which may be
taken as a rough representation of the small black,
almost round spot about 15’ in diameter, discov ered
® “ Publications of the Lick Observatory, Berkeley, Cal.,’” 13, 1918 (98).
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
by Barnard 7 in Ophiuchus) the mass must be 60 times
that of the sun, if the escape velocity is to be r km./sec.
If all this matter were in the form of particles of
rock of the optimum size, the extinction for ight passing
centrally through the cloud would be 2000 magnitudes.
An extinction of 10 magnitudes (quite sufficient for
opacity) would be produced if the radu of the particles:
were 72 pL.
Thouph these numerical values are largely con-
jectural, it appears probable that the aggregate mass
contained in one of these great obscuring clouds must
be very considerable—probably sufficient to form
hundreds of stars—and that a sensible fraction of the
whole mass must be in the form of dust less than o-r
mm. in diameter.
It can easily be shown that any dust cloud which is
impervious to light must also be impervious to particles
such as those of which it is composed (and to free-
moving electrons as well) in the sense that such a
particle could not traverse the cloud without a practical
certainty of collision. These collisions may account
for the existence of dust within the clouds, even if it
was not a primitive constituent.
The transition from these dark nebule to luminous
nebulz in the vicinity of the stars appears to occur in
two ways. The first is by simple reflection of the light
of the stars: this appears to occur in the nebulosity
surrounding the Pleiades, the star p Ophiuchi, and
probably in many other cases. The second is by the
excitation of gaseous emission, as in the Great Nebula
of Orion, which is connected with one of the greatest
known regions of obscuration and itself shows signs
that obscuring masses lie in front of it.
Both theoretical considerations, as suggested by the
writer? and the facts of observation collected by
Hubble,’ indicate that the luminosity of gaseous
nebule is probably due to excitation of the individual
atoms by radiations of some sort (aethereal or corpus-
cular) emanating from neighbouring stars of very high
temperature. In the Orion nebula the stars of the
Trapezium (6 Orionis) appear to be the source of
excitation.
There is no reason to believe that the luminous gas
forms the whole, or even any large part, of the matter
present within the region—only “that it is selectively
sensitive to the incident excitation, and therefore gives
out most of the light, just as the gases (carbon com-
pounds and nitrogen) do in the coma and tail of a comet.
If the turbulent motions of the various parts of this
nebula are of the same order of magnitude in the other
two co-ordinates as in the radial direction, they must
correspond to an average proper motion of 1: 5 astro-
nomical units per year, or about o”:8 per century (with
Kapteyn’s parallax of 0”-0055). Ina million years this
would carry a nebulous wisp through 2° , which i is more
than the whole extent of the nebula.
It appears probable, therefore, that the aspect of the
Orion nebula was entirely different a million years ago
from what it is now, as regards its details. There is no
reason, however, to suppose that the nebula was not
there. We may rather imagine that wisps and clouds
of dust, carrying gas with ‘them, are slowly drifting
about. Some of them pass through the field of excita-
7 Russell, H. N., The Observatory, London, 44, 1921 (72).
8 Hubble, E. P., ‘‘ Annual Report of the Mount Wilson Observatory,”
TOZ0 swe eals Book of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,” 1921.
JiuLy 15, 1922]
NEA TO ED 8
io)
tion due to the radiations from the Trapezium stars,
and, when in this field, the gas is set shining—faintly
near its outskirts, and without excitation of the nebular
lines ; more strongly, and with the nebular lines, near
the middle.
According to unpublished investigations by Hubble,
it appears probable that the absorbing clouds in Orion,
not far from the nebula, weaken the light of stars
behind them by at least ten magnitudes. The exciting
radiations probably penetrate to a relatively small
depth into the mass and, even if they went deeper,
little of the excited light could get out again. The
Orion nebula, on this hypothesis, may be regarded
almost as a superficial fluorescence of the gaseous por-
tion of this vast dark cloud, in the limited region where
it is stimulated by the influence of the exciting stars.
The Corrosion of Ferrous Metals.
HE fact that iron readily perishes when exposed
to the forces of Nature must have been observed
by man practically as long as the metal itself has been
recognised. But it is only comparatively recently that
the problem of the preservation of iron from corrosion
has developed into one of such stupendous economic
importance as at the present day. Sir Robert Hadfield
estimates the wastage of the world’s steel on account
of rust alone to reach some 29 million tons for the year
1920. ‘This, at an average figure of 2o0/. per ton, repre-
sents a loss to the community of at least 580,000,000l.
One interesting feature of this calculation is that
the annual increase in the world’s total stock of iron
and steel is only some 30 per cent. of the annual
production, the remaining 7o per cent. being absorbed
in replacing wastage consequent upon fair wear and
tear and upon corrosion.
In a paper read before the North-East Coast Institu-
tion of Engineers and Shipbuilders in April last, Mr. A.
Pickworth most opportunely directs the attention of
marine engineers to this aspect of the subject. It is
pointed out that the repairs necessary to counteract
the ravages of rusting during ten years’ service in the
case of a single battleship have, for structural work
alone, been known to cost some 150,000/. Any one,
therefore, who can assist in combating this destructive
plague to iron and steel merits the gratitude of the
community.
It is now well recognised that, in addition to air, the
presence of liquid water is essential to corrosion. Rise
of temperature accentuates the evil, the rate of oxida-
tion of iron immersed in water at 80°C. being more
than seven times as great as that at o° C. It is easy,
therefore, to offer an explanation, as Mr. Pickworth
points out, for the fact that corrosion assumes more
serious proportions in the vicinity of boiler-room tanks
on steamers than elsewhere. The tanks, whether used
for ballast or feedwaters, are alternately filled and more
or less completely emptied, but are rarely, if ever,
thoroughly dry, for obvious reasons. The residual
moisture, coupled with unequal distribution of waste
heat from the boilers, and erratic cooling from the floor
and shell plating in contact with the sea under the
vessel, results in rapid corrosion. The steel work of
the bunkers of a vessel frequently requires patching or
renewing on account of corrosion. This is particularly
the case with pocket bunkers at the sides of the boilers
or “tween-deck bunkers above the boilers. Not only
does the heat from the boilers and the moisture in the
coal tend to produce a corrosive atmosphere, but the
abrasive action of the coal as it enters from the shoots
and while it is settling as the lower layers are worked
out all tend to accentuate the destruction of the metal.
In practice it is found that the lower parts of the bunkers
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
are the most seriously affected, and this is attributed to
the accumulation of a mixture of small coal and mud
which is rarely removed except at special surveys.
Although in exceptional cases the outside surfaces of
the shell plating of a ship may be seriously pitted and
corroded, as, for example, when the vessel has been
lying in very foul waters, the general rule appears to
be for the wastage to be greater on the inside surfaces.
This is due, in the main, to the extra cleaning and
general attention received by the outside surfaces.
Special care should be paid to those portions of the
inside shell immediately under the sidelights, for the
constant trickling of rain or water of condensation from
the glass induces most serious corrosion, resulting at
times in actual perforation of the plating.
As might be expected, the most serious external
corrosion of the shell plating occurs in the neighbour-
hood of the wind and water line, the metal being
alternately drenched and exposed to air. The surface
water also is in motion relatively to the plates, and
this tends to stimulate corrosion. One interesting
point deserving of consideration is the fact that the
external portions of a vessel above the water-line
receive deposits of sodium chloride in consequence of
the evaporation of sea spray. Owing to the hygro-
scopic character of the deposit, as well as to its chemical
activity, corrosion is readily induced thereby.
It is difficult to obtain trustworthy comparative data
on the relative efficiencies of different methods of avoid-
ing corrosion. Early man frequently surrounded his
iron with copper or bronze, so that his implements
might possess the strength of the former combined
with the incorrodibility of the latter metal. Modern
developments of this process are galyanising, tinning,
electroplating, and the like. The Bower-Barff process
consists in coating the iron or steel with magnetic oxide,
which is an excellent protection so long as it remains
unbroken. The metal is cleaned, heated in a closed
chamber by means of producer gas, and finally oxidised
in a current of superheated steam for a couple of hours.
If, however, the resulting coat of oxide should crack or
chip off at any point, the layer of unprotected metal
thereby exposed is rapidly attacked. The oxide
functions as cathode and the metal as anode, so that
deep pitting ensues. Mr. Pickworth mentions that a
certain shipowner, relying on the protective action of
mill scale, gave instructions for a ship to be built, the
shell plates of which were to retain their mill scale as
completely as possible. For a time all went well on
service, but suddenly the vessel developed leaks and
was almost lost. Upon docking it was found that many
of the plates had been deeply pitted and even perforated
in a number of places where the mill scale had been
destroyed either during construction or through
84
INA TO Tee
Wile 115, O22
S)
abrasion in service. It is now usual to remove scale
by pickling, by weathering, or by some other suitable
method, prior to painting, in order to avoid such
disaster.
A second method of combating corrosion consists
in alloying the iron with some other element that will
render it incorrodible. This is the principle under-
lying the so-called “ stainless steel,’ which contains
some 12 to 14 per cent. of chromium, and is remarkably
resistant to neutral corrosion, although acids dissolve
it with ease. Unfortunately the cost is high, but once
that difficulty is surmounted, a vast future lies in store
for stainless metals. To realise this it is not essential
that the price should fall to that of an ordinary
carbon steel. To the writer’s own knowledge the
cost of painting the steel work in a certain large
works recently averaged nearly 5/. per ton of steel
painted. Assuming the paint will not require renewal
within five years, the average annual cost is still 11.
per ton of steel. A firm could thus clearly afford to
pay considerably extra in initial outlay if by so doing a
really incorrodible structure could be obtained which
would not require subsequent periodic treatment.
Yet a third method of reducing wastage by corrosion
has been investigated, namely, the removal of the active
corroding agent, dissolved oxygen, from waters in
contact with the metal. The various means of doing
this are discussed by Mr. Frank N. Speller! in an interest-
ing paper entitled ‘‘ Control of Corrosion by Deactiva-
tion of Water.’’ The method has its limitations, but
for hot-water heating systems it would appear to be
particularly suitable. The oxygen may be removed
either chemically or by purely physical means. A
1 Journ, Franklin Institute, April 1922.
satisfactory plant was erected in Pittsburgh in 1915 in
which the water is first made to flow through a “ de-
activator ’”’ which is a tank filled with a special type
of expanded steel lathing. The steel rusts and thus
deoxygenates the water, which then passes on to the
heating system and is now non-corrosive. The prin-
ciple is simple enough, but in practice it is necessary
to pay great attention to the manner in which the
deactivator is charged. Miscellaneous steel turnings
usually rust together into a tight mass which offers
serious resistance to the flow of the water. In a later
form of deactivator installed in Boston in 1917 a filter
was provided in order to remove all suspended hydroxide
of iron.
Many types of mechanical de-aerators have been
designed. The apparatus made by “ Balke” in
Germany appears to have given satisfactory results.
The water at ordinary temperature is sprayed into a
chamber carrying a go per cent. vacuum, and the
released gases are pumped off into a condenser. The
efficiency of mechanical de-aerators is of course limited
by the solubility of the gases, the temperature, and the
power of the vacuum. Normally, therefore, there will
always remain a certain amount of unextracted oxygen
which may be sufficient to induce gradually serious
corrosion in the plant. On the other hand, chemical
processes can remove all the dissolved oxygen under
favourable conditions. Speller therefore suggests that
where very large volumes of water require de-aeration,
an economical type of apparatus would be one in which
the bulk of the dissolved oxygen is first removed by
some simple form of mechanical de-aerator, and the
residual oxygen, say the last 5-10 per cent., by
chemical treatment. we NESE.
Obituary.
ERNEST SOLVAY.
@: May 26 last, at the ripe age of eighty-five, there
passed away, at his residence in Brussels, in the
person of Ernest Solvay, one of the world’s greatest
industrial chemists. To Nicolas Leblanc belongs the
credit of inventing the first successful process for
manufacturing artificial soda; but it remained for
the brothers Ernest and Alfred Solvay to provide the
world with a pure and cheap product.
Ernest Solvay was born at Rebecq in Brabant,
Belgium, on April 16, 1838. He was the son of
Alexandre Solvay, a quarry proprietor and salt refiner.
In 1838 two English chemists, Harrison Gray Dyar
and John Hemming, patented a process for producing
carbonate of soda by acting upon sodium chloride
with ammonium bicarbonate and producing sodium
bicarbonate and ammonium chloride. The sodium
bicarbonate upon calcination yielded soda ash, and
the ammonium chloride was decomposed by lime to
free the ammonia for re-use. The patentees themselves,
and several well-known chemists, erected works to
manufacture by this process, but all proved failures,
principally on account of the high loss of ammonia.
The young Belgian chemist, Ernest Solvay, at the age
of twenty-four, was attracted by the process, and, after
two years of study and experiment, he devised such
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
modifications as appeared to him to ensure its practica-
bility, and embodied them in a patent in 1863.
Calling to his aid his brother Alfred, who had been
trained for a commercial career at Antwerp and at
Hull, they erected works at Couillet, near Brussels, as
Solvay et Cie, with a capital of 54407. With the
starting of these works in 1865 the brothers met with
most of the troubles and disasters that had daunted
the earlier experimenters. Their experience is perhaps
best described in Ernest Solvay’s own words :
“ With the starting of the works in 1865 began the
everlasting struggle, the incessant need for improve-
ments in apparatus, and the series of accidents in-
separable from every new industry. This was the
hill of Calvary which we had to climb, and its rough
road might perhaps have stopped me if I had not been
sustained by my confidence of success in the task that
had to be accomplished, and above all by that devoted
helper, my brother Alfred.”
In the following year (1866) the works were pro-
ducing only 14 tons of soda ash per day, but by 1869
the process had proved so successful that the works
were doubled in size. During these fateful four years,
Solvay had encountered all the difficulties that had
baffled his predecessors, both technical and financial ;
but, by his application of wonderful scientific skill and
his tireless attention to work, he succeeded in evolving
JuLy 15, 1922]
a remunerative process of manufacture. It was, how-
ever, far from perfect, and for the next fifty years
Solvay ever strove to reach perfection, sparing neither
time nor money to make it approach the ideal. At
the time of his death, there are very few methods of
manufacture that have so nearly reached the ideal as
the Ammonia Soda process.
In 1873 Solvay granted a licence to John Brunner
and Ludwig Mond to work the process in England,.and
Brunner, Mond and Co. started works at Winnington,
Northwich, in that year. From this business con-
nexion there sprang up a friendship among the three
men that lasted as long as their lives, and it is difficult
to decide whether Solvay or Mond effected thereafter
the greater number of improvements in the process
and apparatus.
In the same year Solvay and Co. erected their large
works at Dombasle near Nancy, introducing all such
improvements in plant as experience at Couillet had
shown to be advisable.
From this time onwards to 1914 few years passed
without some new works being erected to carry on the
manufacture ; in the United States in 1881, in Russia
in 1881, in Germany and Austria in 1885, and later in
Hungary, Spain, Italy, and Canada, until in 1914
there were scattered throughout the world twenty-
three separate works engaged in the Solvay Ammonia
Soda process, which were capable of producing nearly
2,000,000 tons of soda ash per year.
With the growth of the Ammonia Soda process, the
production of alkali by the Leblanc method gradually
declined, until it reached the point where it had to
depend upon its chlorine products for its continued
survival, and of late years even this monopoly has been
seriously challenged by the electrolytic processes. In
1863 the world’s production of soda, by the Leblanc
process, was 300,000 tons a year. In 1913, the total
production amounted to nearly 3,000,000 tons, of
which almost two-thirds was made by the Solvay
process, while the sale price had dropped to one-
quarter. The essential raw .materials for the Solvay
process are salt, limestone, coke, coal, and ammonia,
and in selecting sites for new works, Solvay was ever
careful to choose them as near as possible to the source
of supply of some of these.
In seeking for a cheap and plentiful supply of
ammonia, Solvay was led to study the production of
coke, and eventually, in conjunction with Mr. Semet-
Solvay, he designed a bye-product coke oven which
yielded ammonia through the scrubbing of the gas
before its combustion for heating purposes. Many
thousands of these Semet-Solvay ovens have been
built in Belgium, France, England, Germany, the
United States, Italy, and Japan, and in 1913 they were
producing about 1o million tons of coke a year.
In the midst of his immense industrial activities
Solvay was ever mindful of the welfare of his employees.
Working a process that must of necessity be continuous,
he was one of the first to reduce the hours of labour
from 12 to 8-hour shifts. He insured his workmen
against accidents, instituted savings-banks and retiring
allowances, provided them with medical attention,
built houses for them, and remitted the rent in cases
of long service or distress, made free grants of land for
culture, built schools and gave scholarships, and made
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
NATURE 8
Nn
grants in aid of higher education both in Belgium and
abroad.
On the occasion of the company’s fiftieth anniversary,
a number of grants were made, among which were :
200,000 francs to the Université du Travail, Charleroi,
500,000 francs to provide prizes every fourth year for
work on such contagious diseases as the poor are
specially liable to suffer from, 500,000 francs to the
University of Paris towards the Institute of Applied
Chemistry, 500,000 francs to the University of Nancy
to complete the Electrical Institute and found a chair
of electro-chemistry. In addition, their workpeople
received substantial concessions and bonuses. Ernest
Solvay’s sympathies and interests were not confined
to his own workpeople, for he was absorbingly interested
in the intellectual and social advancement of mankind
in general. He published not only many treatises on
these subjects, but also from his immense wealth
financed or created numerous institutions for their
study ; e.g. the Solvay Society of Brussels and institutes
of chemistry, physics, physiology, and sociology. In
order to encourage the development of chemical and
physical science, by providing funds for research workers
and by holding conferences, he also inaugurated the
Solvay International Institutes of Chemistry and of
Physics, and endowed each with a capital of 1,000,000
francs.
During the war, Solvay elected to remain in Brussels
in order that he might alleviate the suffering which he
foresaw would be the lot of the poor. He devoted
his energies and his fortune to this object throughout
the whole of the German occupation, and the city will
never forget his beneficence. Upon his return to the
capital, King Albert personally expressed his thanks
to him and created him a Minister of State. He was
also the recipient of many other honours. He was a
Grand Commander of the Order of Leopold, a Chevalier
of the Legion of Honour, a Doctor of the University
of Brussels, an honorary member of the Royal In-
stitution of London, and of the German, French,
American, and Dutch Chemical Societies, and a corre-
sponding member of the French Academy of Sciences.
At the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
formation of his company, he was presented by Prof.
Haller in the name of the French Institute with the
gold Lavoisier Medal, and by Prof. Appell with the
medal of the University of Paris.
In private life Ernest Solvay’s tastes were simple,
and he was ever happiest in his own family circle.
He attracted to his side many men of exceptional
ability and formed lasting friendships. By nature
he was generally optimistic, and he had a very keen
sense of humour. He was an ardent mountaineer,
and regularly his summer holidays were spent among
the Alps. He could climb vigorously at the age of
seventy-five, and abandoned the sport only a few
years prior to his death. Joun I, Warts.
THE Hon. V. A. H. H. Onstow.
Huta OnsLow, son of the fourth Earl of Onslow, was
born in New Zealand in 1890, where his father was
Governor-General. Educated at Eton and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he met with a calamitous accident
at the close of his University career : an injury received
in diving left him paralysed below the waist, with no
86
NATURE
[JuLy 15, 1922
hope of recovery. Though broken in body, his courage
never left him, and with splendid bravery he devoted
to scientific work such as remained to him of life.
Special facilities for research led him to settle in Cam-
bridge, where he turned one of the rooms of his house
into a laboratory into which his couch could be wheeled.
Here he became a pioneer in establishing contact
between the two growing branches of biology—bio-
chemistry and genetics. Genetical research had
recently demonstrated the existence of two distinct
kinds of white in the coat of certain animals—one
dominant and the other recessive to colour. It had
been surmised that in the former case the coat carried
something which inhibited the production of colour,
and that in the latter either the chromogen was absent,
or else some substance which activated it. Onslow’s
chemical work took the question out of the realm of
speculation, and placed it on a solid ground of fact—
a notable contribution, which will be found in the
Proc. Roy. Soc., 1915. At the same time he was
carrying out extensive breeding-experiments with mice
and rabbits, both at Cambridge and Pyrford, which
helped materially in laying the foundation of a sound
genetical knowledge of coat-colour. But it was the
biochemical side that attracted him most, for he
realised that the geneticist could not go very deep
without the help of the chemist. He wished to
approach the problem from both sides, and, with this
end in view, started breeding-experiments with moths,
concerning himself chiefly with melanic forms as likely
to be of service for the chemical side of the inquiry.
The results were published in a series of papers on the
“Inheritance of Wing Colour in Lepidoptera,’ which
appeared in the Journal of Genetics, 1919-21. Mean-
while, he became interested in the brilliant iridescent
colours exhibited by many insects, and on this sub-
ject contributed last year an important paper to the
Philosophical Transactions. Full of fresh and suggest-
ive observations, it is pervaded by a critical power
of thinking, and a knowledge of the physics involved,
which must make it a landmark for future investigators
of an intricate and fascinating series of problems.
And all this from an invalid couch, full of suffering,
and stricken beyond hope of recovery. But fine as
is the achievement, finer still was the way in which
it was won. With life seemingly wrecked at the very
start, his spirit rose above the physical crash, bravely
accepted what had to be, and created out of the ruins
a fresh life which was the wonder of those who knew
him. What he did, and what he was, will assure him
of that immortality that lives upon the lips of men;
and with that we may
“ Leave him still loftier than the world suspects,
Living and dying.”
Dr. A. R. WILLIS.
Many students will regret the death of Dr. Ambrose
Robinson Willis, at the age of seventy-two, on May 23
last. From 1872, when he entered the Royal School
of Mines as a Royal Exhibitioner, until r911, when he
retired owing to ill-health from the Imperial College
of Science and Technology, he had been continuously
associated with the South Kensington institution.
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
In 1875 he obtained the A.R.S.M. in mining, metal-
lurgy, and geology, the Duke of Cornwall's scholarship,
the Murchison medal and prize, and the Edward Forbes
medal and prize. The wide range of his studies is
indicated by the facts that in 1876 he obtained first-
class honours in zoology and chemistry at the London
B.Se. ; in 1879, the London B.A.; in 1881 the M.A.,
and in 1883 the D.Sc. in mathematical physics. He
was made assistant-professor in mathematics and
mechanics at the Royal College of Science in 1884,
being associated first with Goodeve and later with
Perry. He also acted as examiner in mathematics
for the Universities of London and Manchester.
It was as an instructor that Dr. Willis will be re-
membered, not only by old students of South Kensing-
ton, but by an enormously wider circle, in his capacity
as an examiner in mathematics to the Science and
Art Department and afterwards to the Board of
Education. With his fellow-examiners Twisden and
Wrigley, he exercised a tremendous influence for many
years on students of mathematics and mechanics in
all parts of the country. It was no small task virtually
to direct the studies of an army of men, the majority
with little time to spare from manual work, without
means and often without a teacher, and whose only
inspiration and incentive came from the desire to pass
the various Board of Education examinations. That
the duty was ably and wisely carried out will be
readily admitted, and by none more than by those
who, entering the Royal College of Science as ex-
hibitioners or scholars, came into personal contact
with the man who had done so much to direct their
earlier studies.
Times have changed, and it is not so easy now to
bring home the realisation of what it meant to men
whose training had been on these lines, to attend Dr,
Willis’s lectures and listen to his extraordinarily clear,
orderly, and inspiring exposition of mathematics. In
his prime few can have equalled him in this respect—
he radiated enthusiasm as he developed the argument,
and his triumph as the full power of the attack made
itself felt was delightful to see. Many hundreds of
science teachers will still remember wistfully Dr.
Willis’s carefully prepared lectures in the short
“summer courses ” for teachers, which were arranged
each year at South Kensington by the Board of Educa-
tion,
Dr. Willis took a real personal interest in his students
and possessed the faculty of making the shyest of
men feel quite at ease with him. Many of his students
can testify to innumerable kindnesses unobtrusively
performed, and to his quiet support of any movement
which would activate the social side of the College’s
work. His whole-hearted thoroughness, wide experi-
ence, geniality, North-country shrewdness, and sound
common sense were greatly appreciated in university
circles. His retirement in 1911 was made the occasion
of a demonstration of affection and good-will from
hundreds of old students, and he then voiced the great
satisfaction that he felt to see so many of his old
students playing prominent parts in the scientific
world, not least in the development of aeronautics.
AC Ren Re
Gs Wi Gaks
WwEY 15, 1922]
NAGBORE
2)
“SI
Current Topics and Events.
THE portrait medallion of Sir Norman Lockyer, by
Sir Hamo Thornycroft, which is to be erected at
the Norman Lockyer Observatory, Salcombe Hill,
Sidmouth, will be unveiled by Sir Frank Dyson,
Astronomer Royal, on Saturday, July 22. Lt.-Col.
F. K. McClean, a generous benefactor to the observa-
tory, will present the medallion on behalf of the
subscribers, and it will be received by Sir Richard
Gregory, chairman of the council. The observatory
was erected in 1912 upon a plateau 550 feet above
sea level, and is unique of its kin in Great Britain,
being vested in a registered corporation which pos-
sesses the whole of the property and controls the
operations. It was founded by Sir Norman Lockyer,
and was formerly called the Hill Observatory, but
since that distinguished astronomer’s death the name
has been changed to the Norman Lockyer Observatory
in honour to his memory. The director is Major
W. J. S. Lockyer, and there is a research committee
consisting of Sir Frank Dyson, Prof. A. S. Eddington,
Prof. A. Fowler and Prof. H. H. Turner. The ob-
servatory possesses an equipment of the first rank
for spectroscopic work, and photographs of stellar
spectra taken in it are being used for the determina-
tion of the parallaxes of stars. The method used was
first worked out at the Mount Wilson Observatory
and it represents one of the most remarkable develop-
ments of astrophysics ever achieved. The gifts of Sir
Norman and Lady Lockyer, Lt.-Col. McClean, Mr.
Robert Mond, Capt. W. N. McClean and others,
together with subscriptions of members, have been
sufficient to establish and maintain the observatory
hitherto, but additional funds will be required if the
work is to be carried on efficiently. In the United
States, generous donors to astronomy seem to be
forthcoming whenever they are needed, with the
result that the chief advances of astronomical science
are being made there. The Norman Lockyer Ob-
servatory, on account of the elasticity of its con-
stitution, offers similar benefactors in this country an
excellent opportunity for emulating the example
afforded by America, and we trust that one or more
of them will provide the means to continue and
extend the work to which a few devoted people have
already contributed their full share.
UnusvuaLty heavy gales for the season of the year
have occurred over England during the early part of
July, especially during the night of July 5-6, and the
tempestuous winds were accompanied by torrential
rains. On the south-east coast of England the wind
attained the velocity of about 60 miles an hour, and
at Kew Observatory the velocity registered 53 miles
an hour. London experienced considerable inter-
ruption to telephone communication, and in the open
country much damage was done to the fruit crops.
A renewal of the stormy conditions occurred on
July 8-9.
Owinc to the early breaking of the monsoon the
attempt on Mount Everest planned for June 3 had
to be abandoned. The Times announces that the
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
members of the expedition are now returning to India.
Col. Strutt, Dr. Longstaff, and Mr. Finch have already
sailed for England. Mount Everest thus remains
unconquered, at any rate for the present, the greatest
altitude that was reached being 27,300 feet, or about
1700 feet below the summit. Col. Strutt believes
that given favourable weather a future expedition
should be able to reach the summit.
THE Quest with the Shackleton-Rowett expedition
has left Cape Town and arrived at Simonstown on July
7. After a few days there, according to the Times,
she sails for home via South Trinidad and Rio de
Janeiro. It is proposed to spend two days at South
Trinidad, the uninhabited volcanic island in the
South Atlantic., The island has been frequently
visited, notably by the Discovery in 1901 and the
Valhalla in 1905. At an earlier date it obtained
fame by reason of several searches for buried treasure.
The Quest may be expected at Plymouth about
September 21.
AccoRDING to the Meteorological Magazine of June,
a new record height of 10,518 metres (34,500 feet)
was attained by J. A. McCready in an aeroplane
flight at Dayton on a Lepére machine, with a 400-h.p.
Liberty engine, during September 1921. The previous
record, by Major Schroeder, has been reduced by the
authorities responsible for the official figures from
36,000 feet to 33,114 feet.
Ir is reported in the Times that Captain Amundsen,
aboard the Maud, left Nome, Alaska, for Cape Barrow,
on June 30. Early in August he proposes to make
his flight across the Pole, either to Greenland or, more
likely, to Spitsbergen. The route to Spitsbergen
is the longer of the two, but Capt. Amundsen believes
he can make the journey in eighteen hours. His
aeroplane has been tested in a thirty-two hours flight.
The Norwegian Government is taking steps to afford
all possible assistance to Capt Amundsen in the event
of his reaching Spitsbergen or Bear Island.
InviITATIONS to serve on the Committee on Intellec-
tual Co-operation of the League of Nations have been
accepted by Mr. D. N. Banerji, Prof. Henri Bergson,
Mlle. Bonnevie, Prof. A. de Castro, Mme. Curie,
M. J. Destrée, Prof. A. Einstein, Prof. G. Gilbert
Murray, M. G. de Reynold, Prof. F. Ruffini, M. L. de
Torres Quevedo, and Dr. G. E. Hale. The committee,
which will be entrusted with the examination of inter-
national questions regarding intellectual co-operation,
will hold its first meeting in Geneva on August I.
SINCE the eruption of 1906, Vesuvius has remained
inactive on the whole until the early part of the
present year. On February 26 the main cone, which
had grown since 1906 to a height of about 230 feet,
collapsed during an eruption, and shortly afterwards
lava issued from several fissures; it has flowed ever
since in amounts that are considerable, though not
sufficient for it to escape from the crater. Since
February, a new crater has been formed and has
grown with great rapidity. Towards the end of June,
88 NATURE
[JULY 15, 1922
a large fissure appeared in its western side, and from
it there came a stream of lava about thirty feet wide.
Owing to these recent flows and to the presence of
sulphur fumes, it is difficult to reach the floor of the
crater. In the Times for July 3 are reproduced,
however, two photographs taken from within the
érater, one of the new cone, and the other of the lava-
stream issuing from it and showing very clearly the
fluxion-structure of the lava.
May and June were both comparatively dry
months this year at Greenwich Observatory, the
rainfall in May being only 57 per cent. of the 100 year
average, while June was 70 per cent. of the 100 year
average for the corresponding month. In January,
February, and April the rainfall was in excess of the
average. In 1921, each of the first six months had a
rainfall less than the normal. The total for the first
half of the present year is 10-73 in., while in 1921 the
total for the same period was only 5:97 in. The 100
year average for the six months is 10-47 in., and for
the 35 year average, used by the Meteorological Office,
to-21 in., so that the period from January to June
shows an excess on the normal. There was an absolute
drought this year from May 26 to June 12, a period of
18 days, the only drought as yet registered in 1922.
July bids fair to be a wet month ; practically the
average rainfall for the month in London fell in the
first week.
Tue Natural History Museum Staff Association
held their summer scientific reunion in the board room
of the Museum on July 5. There was a large attend-
ance. Among other interesting exhibits were the
following : specimen of the supposed gigantic Gastro-
pod (Dinocochlea ingens) from the freshwater sand-
stones in the Wadhurst Clay, Hastings; the natural
cast of a footprint of an Iguanodon from the Wealden
Beds, between Bexhill and St. Leonards; opalised
Mollusca of Cretaceous age from New South Wales
and South Australia; skin with scutes of a stego-
saurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous, Alberta,
Canada; specimens from the collection of Swiss
minerals bequeathed to the Museum by the late Rev.
J. M. Gordon ; one of the four meteoric stones which
fell in the Strathmore district of Perthshire and
Forfarshire on December 3, 1917; living specimens
of a branchiopod crustacean (Leptesheria dahalacensis)
hatched from eggs contained in dried mud from
Bagdad; ammonites with the operculum preserved
and associated fossils from the same bed in the Lias
at Charmouth, Dorset; Horse Chestnut seedlings,
illustrating three different methods of replacing the
bud of the primary shoot; a very rare British orchid
(Orchis hircina) recently found near Lewes ; examples
of the remarkably different, smooth and partly rough,
skinned fruits borne on the same tree of the Khatta
orange, North India ; model of Commerson’s dolphin
(Cephalorhynchus Commersoni) from Port Stanley,
Falkland Islands; and the model, enlarged 740
diameters, of the itch mite (Savcoptes Scabiet) recently
made for the Museum by Miss Grace Edwards.
Messrs. R. and J. Beck exhibited their most recent
forms of microscope, and Duroglass Ltd. showed
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
examples of their glass-ware for preserving specimens
in spirit and for use in chemical analysis.
At a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
on June 5, Dr. C. G. Knott, general secretary, gave
an account of a correspondence between the Academy
of Sciences of Paris and the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, in which the Council of the latter Society
directed attention to the fact that the “‘ Cable Guide ””
system which was being accepted as the invention
of M. Loth during the late war, was invented by Mr.
C. A. Stevenson thirty years ago, and described in
the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
in 1893. In 1921 M. Loth was awarded an important
prize for his valuable work in connexion with naval
problems, and the report of Vice-Admiral Fournier,
in recommending the award, referred pointedly to
the method of the pilot cable for guiding ships by
electrical signals into harbours during night or at
times of fog. A comparison of this report with Mr.
C. A. Stevenson’s patent of 1893 showed that the two
systems were fundamentally identical. Compared
with M. Loth’s beautiful devices, made possible in
these days by the remarkable developments in methods
for detecting electric and magnetic charges, Mr.
Stevenson’s early methods may appear crude, but
that does not invalidate his claim as the originator
and the first experimenter along these lines. Not
only did he invent the pilot cable, but he was the
first to demonstrate practically how it could be used
in guiding vessels up estuaries and into harbours by
means of electric signals from a sunken cable. It
was a simple act of justice that these historical facts
should be recognised and due credit given to Mr.
Stevenson for his valuable pioneer work. A French
translation of the statement prepared by the Council
has been sent to the Academy of Sciences with the
request that it be published in the Comptes rendus.
THE Paris correspondent of the Tzmes states that
the late Prince of Monaco has bequeathed sums of one
million francs each to the Académie des Sciences, the
Académie de Médecine, the Institut Océanographique,
the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine de Paris, and
the Musée Océanographique de Monaco.
THE Council of the Marine Biological Association
of the United Kingdom has passed a resolution
expressing “‘ their respectful homage to the memory
of His Highness the late Albert I., Sovereign Prince
of Monaco, and their deep appreciation of the great
services rendered by him to the advancement of the
Science of the Ocean.”’
THE undermentioned Fellows of the Geological
Society have been nominated as Delegates of the
Society to the Brussels Geological Congress, 1922:
Dr. J. W. Evans, Prof. E. J. Garwood, and Prof.
W. W. Watts.
AccorDING to the Electrician the posts of electrical
adviser to the Government of India and chief engineer
of the Hydro-Electric Survey of India, at present held
by Mr. J. W. Meares, are shortly to be abolished.
JULES 1922 |
NATURE 89
Lorp Cotwyn will open the research laboratories
of the Research Association of British Rubber and
Tyre Manufacturers at 105-7 Lansdowne Road,
Croydon, Surrey, on Wednesday, July 26, at 3 P.M.
THE third report of the departmental Committee
on Lighting in Factories and Workshops, just issued,
deals mainly with the definition of ‘‘ adequacy” of
lighting, which it has already been recommended
should be required by Statute and defined by Order
of the Secretary of State for different industrial
processes. The Committee considers that much
work still remains to be done before the regulation
of factory lighting can be established on a basis of
definite legal minima for illumination. Ample proof
is forthcoming of the relation between lighting and
production and safety. It is therefore suggested
that the chief industries should be invited to assume
partial responsibility by sharing in further investiga-
tions into the lighting requirements of work in these
industries. Meanwhile, as an indication of what is
desirable, the Committee furnishes an appendix in
which processes in the chief industries are classified
as “‘ fine work,’’ requiring 3 foot-candles, and ‘“‘ very
fe work,” requiring 5 foot-candles. In other
appendices values demanded in American codes on
industrial lighting are given. It is gratifying to
observe that there has already been a substantial
improvement in industrial lighting since the Com-
mittee commenced its labours, and there is no doubt
that the moderate course they recommend in regard
to legal minima will meet with general approval.
Messrs. GALLENKAMP AND Co., referring to the
paragraph in Nature, July 1, p. 19, on the efforts
made by the Museums Association to get rectangular
glass jars manufactured in this country, remind us
that they are prepared to supply such jars. They
| have been exhibiting samples at the Museums Associa-
tion Conference at Leicester this week; we under-
stand that they were unable to make these jars when
approached by the Association.
Tue attention of archeologists may be directed
to a lecture delivered by Mr. G. B. Gordon at the
University Museum, Philadelphia, and published in
the Museum Journal (vol. xii. No. 4), issued by that
institution, in which he describes the walls and other
antiquities of Constantinople. Mr. Gordon gives a
graphic sketch of the history of the city in relation to
the existing remains, and his lecture is illustrated by
an admirable series of photographs.
A USEFUL list (No. 432) of publications on agri-
culture and gardening, including some rare herbals,
has just been circulated by Mr. F. Edwards, 83 High
Street, Marylebone, W.1. It is obtainable free, upon
request, of the publisher.
Our Astronomical Column.
SKJELLERUP’S ComMET.—This comet was photo-
graphed by Mr. Davidson at Greenwich on June 21
and July 3. The results show that a slight lengthen-
ing of the period (previously given as 4:72 years)
is needed, and 5-1 years is probably near the truth.
This is not unfavourable to the suggested identity
with Grigg’s Comet 1902 II. Dividing the interval
by 4, 4:96 years is obtained as the mean period since
1902, and 5-1 years is quite within the limit of change
that might have been produced by Jupiter-perturba-
tions. These would have been considerable early
in 1905, and sensible in 1915. The new period is
much the same as that of Tempel’s Comet, for which
the value 5-16 years was found in 1920. This has
hitherto been reckoned the second shortest cometary
period.
Profs. Crawford and Meyer of Berkeley Obser-
vatory, California, find the period 5:53 years for
Skjellerup’s Comet, but this appears to be somewhat
too great, judging by recent observations.
PERIODICAL CoMETS.—An investigation has recently
been completed by Miss J. M. Young, instructor of
mathematics at the University of California, ‘‘on the
causes which have prevented certain periodical comets
being redetected on their predicted returns.”’
She has brought a number of interesting facts
together, with regard to Barnard’s Comet of 1884
and Denning’s Comet of 1881, and concludes that
the most probable period for the former is 5:39 years,
and for the latter 8-84 years. Neither of the comets
alluded to have been redetected since the years of
their discovery, but at certain returns the conditions
have been very unfavourable. Miss Young concludes
that periodic comets often escape observation owing
to the fact that they have not been searched for over
a sufficiently large extent of the heavens.
NO. 2750, VOL. ITO]
It is to be hoped that greater efforts will be made
to rediscover some of the numerous comets of short
period which have only been observed at one return.
Denning’s Comet of 188r is due in 1925, when the
conditions may be favourable; but there is consider-
able uncertainty as to the date of perihelion.
Rocue’s Limit FoR SATELLITES.—It is not always
remembered that the limit assigned by Roche as
the minimum-distance of a satellite from its primary
(depending on the density of the latter, but of the
order of 24 times its radius) takes no account of the
force of cohesion in keeping the satellite particles
together. In the case of bodies of the size of the
earth or moon, the disruptive forces would be so
large that the force of cohesion might be neglected
compared with them; but the case is different when
we consider little bodies like Phobos, the inner
satellite of Mars. Prof. George Darwin, in his well-
known work on the tides, etc., suggested that Phobos
was so near Roche’s limit that future astronomers
might witness its disintegration. Dr. E. O. Fountain
gives some useful calculations on the subject in the
Journal of the British Astronomical Association for
May. He assumes as the tenacity of the material
forming Phobos about 300 lbs. per square inch, the
figure for brick and cement. On this basis he finds
that Phobos would still hold together even close to
the surface of Mars, while in its present situation a
satellite of 200 miles diameter could exist without
destruction. He also finds that bodies some 200
miles in diameter could exist without destruction
at the inner edge of Saturn’s ring, so that the doctrine
of Roche’s limit can scarcely be invoked to explain
the disintegration of the matter of the ring into such
tiny fragments as those which appear to constitute
the ring particles.
90
WAL OF
(iuLY 15, 1922
Research Items.
ENGLISH Gypsy CHRISTIAN NAMES.—In the second
part of vol. i. of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore
Society, which has been revived under promising
auspices, is a contribution by Mr. E. O. Winstedt on
English Gypsy Christian names. This question has
hitherto been inadequately treated, and in this
branch of Gypsy lore, as in others, there has been a
tendency to confine attention too exclusively to
Gypsies, and to regard them as more peculiar than
they really are. But recent research tends to show
that many of their customs, superstitions, folk-tales,
and peculiarities of dress are borrowed from the
Gorgios among whom they have lived. It is only by
foraging among parish registers and similar docu-
ments that the remarkable examples collected by
Mr. Winstedt can be discovered. Many are certainly
of foreign origin, having been brought with them by
gypsies as a relic of their trav els, and the frequency of
Greek n names indicates a survival of their sojourn in
Greek-speaking countries. Others, again, stem to
be English names extensively modified by settlers in
this country. These have been traced with much
research and ingenuity, and the interest of Mr.
Winstedt’s paper to philologists and ethnologists is
obvious.
SocraL ECONOMICS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.—
The relation of religious beliefs and economics to the
environment is well illustrated by an important
memoir on the Ifugao, who inhabit one of the most
isolated districts in the Philippines. They have
practically no foreign market for their products, and
for their imports they must pay middlemen’s profits
three or four times over as well as high transport
charges. They live in a series of mountain valleys,
and this isolation leads to hostility between the
groups. The country is fertile, but the climate most
uncertain, the latter directly affecting crops and
health, and indirectly, it has been a factor which the
writer (Mr. R. F. Barton, University of California
Publications on Archzeology and Ethnology, vol. xv.
No. 5) calls “ one of the richest religions in the world,”
for in order to obtain the favour of good weather and
consequent good crops, the Ifugao performs a round
of religious feasts, the provision of animals for which
is the principal economic motive in his life. The un-
certainty of the climate causes much disease, and
expensive religious feasts must be given to relieve
sickness. “The wealth of the religion has arisen
from the variation of climate and the rough and
dangerous nature of the mountains, and the perils
of the torrents and the landslides. Religion isa great
factor, the greatest by far in the commercial activities
of the ‘tribe ; ‘and in the economic activities of the male
Ifugao.”’ This survey of an isolated tribe living under
special conditions which promote isolation and super-
stition, is most instructive.
PARASITOLOGY IN S. AFRICA.—In the South African
Journal of Science, vol. xviii., 1921, among the reports
of papers read at the South African Association for
the Advancement of Science, we note Dr. A. Porter’
abstract on the life-histories of some trematodes,
including the two African species of Bilharzia infect-
ing man and the liver fluke of sheep, the intermediate
hosts of which in S. Africa have been ascertained.
Prof. H. B, Fantham records observations on parasitic
protozoa in S. Africa, including an Entamceba—
believed to be new—from the horse.
Myrrapopa.—The attention of workers on: this
class may be directed to two recently published
papers—one by Mr. H. W. Brolemann in Proc. R.
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
Soc. Edinburgh, vol. 42, 1922, on material collected
by Capt. W. E. Evans during the Mesopotamia
campaign, comprising 17 species, and by Mr. R. V.
Chamberlin, in Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 60, art. Fie
1921, on the centipedes of Central America.
CRETACEOUS Fosstt REPTILES IN INDIA.—Dr. C. A.
Matley, whose services were lent to the Military
Accounts Department in India during the later
stages of the war, took the opportunity of mapping
in detail around the cantonment of Jubbulpore the
cretaceous formations locally known as the Lameta
beds, which are found underlying the great spread
of trap-flows in the Central Provinces. In a paper
published in the Records of the Geological Survey
of India (vol. liii., Part 2), Dr. Matley shows that in
this area the Lametas and trap-flows follow in
conformable succession above the so-called Jubbul-
pore group of the Gondwana system of freshwater
beds. Accepting for the Lametas an age of albian
to cenomanian, based on correlation with the marine
cretaceous beds of western India, the lowest trap-
flows are probably not younger than middle
cretaceous, while the Jubbulpore group, which was
regarded by Feistmantel on paleo-botanical evidence
as middle jurassic, should now be included in the
cretaceous system. Dr. Matley’s work thus tends
to restrict the stratigraphical range previously
accepted for these associated formations, and his
observations, which were necessarily hurried in
places through official duties of an entirely different
sort, indicate the desirability of making a detailed
re-examination of the strata immediately below and
intercalated with the Deccan trap-flows in the
Central Provinces of India. The Lameta beds are
famous as having yielded the fossil bones on which
Lydekker founded the dinosaurian genus Titano-
saurus. Dr. Matley, in the course of his work,
collected further vertebrate remains from previously
known localities and discovered some new occurrences.
The locality from which General Sleeman, the famous
suppressor of “ thuggy,’’ first obtained fossil bones
in 1828 has been explored systematically with the
help of officers lent by the Geological Survey of
India, and a large quantity of fresh material has
now been obtained, including about 5000 scutes as
well as some hundreds of bones, which will certainly
yield results on critical examination of the greatest
paleontological interest.
THE STRUCTURE OF RocKALL.—In June last year
Dr. J. B. Charcot, cruising in the Pourquoi Pas ?,
visited the little-known island of Rockall, which lies
some 200 miles west of the Hebrides. One of his
chief aims was to obtain rock samples in the hope
of throwing further light on the origin of this
curious rock. In this Dr. Charcot was successful, and
to an account of his experiences in La Geographie for
May 1922, is added M. A. Lacroix’s report on the
geological collections. The prevailing rock of the
island is a coarse- grained aegirine granite of a some-
what unusual but not unique type. The so-called
rockallite which was described by Prof. J. W. Judd
some twenty-five years ago, turns out to be relatively
rare. It is a fine grained rock with more aegirine
than the normal granite, and it occurs only in patches.
Previous to Dr. Charcot’s visit the only rock specimens
from the island were rockallite. All the rocks contain
elpidite, which is known also in certain beds in Green-
land. Dredgings in the vicinity of Rockall brought
to light basaltic rocks, probably the remains of a
submerged plateau of basalt, as was suggested some
JuLy 15, 1922]
NATURE
gl
years ago by Prof. G. A. J. Cole. There can be little
doubt that Rockall is the last remnant of a former
extensive land surface.
THE GEOLOGICAL MapPpING OF THE GLOoBE.—In
these columns attention has been directed from time
to time to the maps issued in connexion with regional
memoirs, such as those on Australian states, Sinai,
and Mesopotamia. We may now add Lange Koch’s
geological map of Paleozoic strata in north-west
Greenland, 1 : 2,000,000, attached to his paper on
“ The Stratigraphy of North-west Greenland "' (Med-
delelser fro Dansk. geol. Foren., vol. v., No. 17, 1920—
foreword dated May 1921). In this memoir the
earlier Paleozoic systems are shown to have been
involved in the Caledonian folding, which is thus for
the first time traced across the Atlantic interval.
R. C. Wilson, in “‘ The Geology of the Western Rail-
way’ (Geol. Surv. Nigeria, Bull. 2, 1922, price
17s. 6d.), includes a coloured map of country north
of Lagos, scale 1 : 250,000, and records Eocene beds
near the coast, followed by areas in which composite
gneiss is prominent. An immense amount of informa-
tion as to geological knowledge of the countries
bordering the Pacific has been brought together in
the Proceedings of the First Pan-Pacific Conference,
part 3, published at the office of the Honolulu Star
Bulletin, 1921. M. Emm. de Margerie (Annales de
Géographie, vol. xxxi., p. 109, 1922), in criticising,
with a query, ‘“ Une nouvelle carte géologique du
monde?” points out that the production of such a
map is beyond the powers of any one geologist.
While indicating defects in a recent publication, he
provides valuable notes on material not yet utilised.
Hence his essay usefully records a number of publica-
tions on regions recently explored.
GLazE STorM IN AmMERIcA.—The great glaze
storm of February 21-23 in the Upper Lake region of
the United States of America is discussed by Prof.
A. J. Henry and Messrs. J. E. Lockwood and D. A.
Seeley of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and is published
in the U.S. Monthly Weather Review for February.
A large amount of damage was done to overhead
telegraph, telephone, and other transmission lines
in the upper Mississippi Valley and in the States of
Wisconsin and Michigan. A serious loss was sus-
tained by shade and ornamental trees and orchards,
a loss which cannot be replaced within the lifetime
of the present generation. The storm, in common
‘with others of a similar nature, had a2 cold surface air
current which was overrun by a warmer current,
the rain which was condensed in the upper current
falling upon objects having a temperature some degrees
below 32° F. was frozen as it reached them. The dia-
meter of the ice-covered wires varied from a few tenths
of an inch to 2-5 in. or more, forming a rod of ice as
thickas a man’s wrist, and added to this was the weight
of icicles which formed along the wires, often very close
together, and varying in length from 3 to 12 inches.
Often 2 or 3 miles of telephone wires went down at one
time. At Oshkosh a small piece of ice-covered branch
weighed 2 pounds; without the ice it weighed 2
ounces. In Michigan the ice, sleet, and snowstorm
was one of the heaviest on record. Millions of dollars
worth of property was destroyed. In many orchards,
25-75 per cent. of the older trees were broken off
entirely. At Arcadia a short twig weighing 1 ounce
had an ice coating of 2 pounds. Several observers
reported the ice coating to weigh 20 to 40 times as
much as the supporting branch or wire.
New THEORY OF CycLtones.—During the last
twenty years our knowledge of the actual movement
of the air in a cyclone has increased materially,
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
and it has become more and more difficult to reconcile
it with the theory of cyclone formation advanced by
Ferrel 60 years ago. It is only recently that the
work of meteorologists in this country and abroad
has led to a more satisfactory theory, which has
been given a precise form by V. Bjerknes and his
son J. Bjerknes, in a series of papers dating from
1917 to 1921. A thoroughly readable account of
the present state of the theory will be found in an
article by Dr. E. Kuhlbrodt in the issue of Die
Wissenschaften for May 26. According to Dr.
Kuhlbrodt the north polar regions are covered by
a cap of cold air which thins out as it extends down-
wards into temperate latitudes and ends in general
about latitude 40°, but may disappear at latitude
50° over a few degrees of longitude. Above the
cold cap is a considerable thickness of warm air
derived from the south and having a motion to the
east. Where the surface of separation of warm and
cold air comes down to the earth’s surface at an
unusually high latitude a cyclone is produced, which
is carried to the east by the movement of the warm air.
The distribution of wind and weather to be expected
in such a region is shown to be in agreement with
observation.
WEATHER AT BLur Hitt, U.S.—Meteorological
observations made at the Blue Hill Observatory,
under the direction of Prof. Alexander McAdie, during
1921, are published in the Annals of the Astronomical
Observatory of Harvard College. The observational
data complete an unbroken period of thirty-six
years, 1886-1921, and include pressure, temperature,
wind direction and velocity, humidity, sunshine,
cloudiness, and precipitation. It is estimated that
the series should extend over at least fifty years for
the establishment of proper normals. A table is
given showing advance of the seasons for thirty-six
years, 1886-1921. It is interesting to note that the
earliest autumn frost for the whole period occurred
on August 21 in 1908, and in this year the first snow-
fall in autumn occurred on December 7, which is the
Jatest of the whole period, an anomaly which would
scarcely be expected. The rainfall table giving the
monthly amounts for the several years shows a large
and varying range of measurement in all months.
The average annual rainfall is 46-59 in., ranging from
4°7 in. for March to 3:20 in. for June.
A DIFFERENTIAL REFRACTOMETER.—Messrs. Bell-
ingham and Stanley, Ltd., has constructed a
differential refractometer for measuring very small
differences between the refractive index of two
liquids. The design of the instrument is based on
the method described by Hallwachs. The liquids
are contained in a glass cell and are separated by a
thin glass plate. Light from the source is admitted
to the liquid of lower refractive index at grazing in-
cidence on the separating glass plate, which it traverses
and then passes through the second liquid at a
small angle to the glass plate, the magnitude of this
angle depending on the difference between the
refractive indices of the two liquids. By means of
an observation telescope the axis of which is ap-
proximately in the plane of the separating glass
plate, the limiting position of the emergent ray from
the cell can be observed and the position measured
by the screw motion which rotates the cell with its
supporting table. In the case of liquids having
indices approximating to that of water a difference
in index of 0-o0001 corresponds to an angle of emerg-
ence of about 4 of a degree. The instrument can
thus be made extremely sensitive, and is particularly
valuable for the detection of small quantities of
impurities in liquids.
NATURE
[JuLy 15, 1922
Annual Visitation of the National Physical Laboratory.
/AN LARGE number of visitors were present at the
a National Physical Laboratory on the occasion
of the Annual Visitation on June 27. The guests
were received by Sir Charles Sherrington, president
of the Royal Society and chairman of the General
Board; and Sir Joseph Petavel, Director of the
Laboratory. As is usual on such occasions, the
various departments were thrown open and an
interesting series of exhibits was arranged, illustrative
of the work carried on in the institution.
In the Department of Aerodynamics, exhibits
were shown in most of the six wind tunnels. In
the largest of these, which has a cross section of
14 ft. x 7 ft., an aerofoil model was set up showing
the methods of measuring the lift and drag. The
section of the aerofoil under test was on a scale
approximately one-fifth of full size. In another
channel were shown additions made to the standard
type of balance, whereby for one setting of the model
the component forces and moments in three directions
can be determined. This represents a considerable
saving of time in the process of testing. The dis-
continuous flow of air past a barrier was demonstrated
in an effective manner by means of smoke released
into the stream of air before it reached the obstacle.
Other exhibits included an aeroplane model showing
the method of obtaining the distribution of pressure
over the wing, an apparatus used for determining the
thrust and torque of model propellers, and an in-
genious wind direction finder.
The additions to the Engineering Department,
consisting of a large experimental shop and a set of
offices, have been completed during the year and have
much relieved the congestion. Among the exhibits
were two machines for testing the efficiency of spur
gears and chain drives. In both of these machines
the regenerative principle is made use of, so that the
power consumption is only that absorbed by the
element under test. Thus, to determine the losses
corresponding to an actual transmission of 100 h.p.,.
a power of the order of 5 h.p. suffices. The efficiencies
can be measured to an accuracy of o-1 per cent. A
new machine for testing reinforced concrete slabs and
columns was also shown. The slab specimens can
be tested in sizes up to 16 ft. x6 ft. and 14 inches in
thickness, and the columns from 8 to 20 feet in
length; the maximum load is 60 tons. It was
interesting to note that it was found possible to
support the columns by means of knife-edge pivots.
During the year, a plant has been completed for the
production of asphalt road carpets. This enables
the constituents to be mixed accurately in the
proper proportions, prior to laying and testing in the
standard road-testing machine. Other exhibits in
this department included apparatus. designed for
the measurement of the temperature and pressure
of the oil film in lubricated journals, the investigation
of heat losses through pipe covers, the determination
of the fatigue ranges of stress in materials by the
strain method, and for the investigation of the
detonation of a mixture of air and liquid fuels in
closed vessels.
In the Metallurgical Department, a much-needed
extension of space has been provided during the year
by the addition of an extra floor on the Wernher
building. Considerable attention has been devoted in
this Department during recent years to the study of
aluminium and its alloys, and examples were shown
of an alloy developed at the Laboratory which
is specially suitable for aeroplane engines. Pistons
and piston rings of this material were on view. A
specimen of aluminium was exhibited which had been
NO. 2750, VOL. 110]
submitted many times to an alternate treatment of
rolling and melting without any effect on its tensile
strength. !
(Washington : Smithsonian Institution.) ‘
Department of Agri-
|
|
Report |
on the Agricultural Department, Grenada, January—December 1921. |
Pp. iv+15. (Barbados.) _ 6d. 4
Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. Report
on the Agricultural Department, Montserrat, 1920-21. Pp. iii+33._
(Barbados.) 6d. ;
‘
Diary of Societies. ai
FRIDAY, Jury 14. }
INTERNATIONAL NEO-MALTHUSIAN AND BIRTH CONTROL CONFERENCE |
(at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2), at 10.—Dr. C. K. Millard:
Birth Control and the Medical Profession—Dr. A. Nystrém: The- 5
Necessity for abolishing Laws against Preventive Measures.— —
Dr. H. Rohleder: Neo-Malthusianism from the Medical Standpoint. —
—N. Haire: Sterilisation of the Unfit—Dr. D. R. Hooker: Effect.
of X-rays upon Reproduction in the Rat. {
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF SETTLEMENTS (at Toynbee Hall, 28
Commercial Street, E.1), at 10 and 2.15.—A. Greenwood, Miss E, M.
McDowell, F. J. Marquis, J. J. Mallon, and others: Settlements and
Industry.
SATURDAY, Juuy 15.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF SETTLEMENTS (at Toynbee Hall, 28°
Commercial Street, E.1), at 10—H. R. Aldridge, T, Adams, Capt.
Reiss, Rev. D. MacFadyn, and othy:s: The Relation of Settlements
to Health and Housing Reform, j
WEDNESDAY, Suny 19. y
FELLOWSHIP OF MEDICINE (at 1 Wimpole Street, W.1), at 5.—V.
Bonney : Myomectomy as opposed to Hysterectomy.
{
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:
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
“* To the solid ground
Of Ne ature trusts the mind which butlds for we. ”__WoRDSW VORT H.
No. 2751, VoL. 10] ee _SATURDAY, _JULY 22, 1922 = auaiiaa ONE SHILLING | =
Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office,] Nee | x = pia ae All Rig ghts Reserved.
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XXV1
NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
FOULERTON RESEARCH PROFESSORSHIP.
Subject to candidates of sufficient distinction presenting themselves, the
President and Council of the Royal Society of London propose to create a
FOULERTON RESEARCH PROE ORSHIP at a stipend of £1400
per annum, the duties of the holder being to conduct such original researches
in Medicine or the contributory sciences, on lines approved by the President
and Council, as shall be calculated to promote the discovery of the causes of
disease and the relief of human suffering. The Professorship will be tenable
in the first instance for five years, but may be extended for further periods
of five years. Members of either sex are equally eligible.
FOULERTON RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP.
Subject to candidates of sufficient merit presenting themselves, the Presi-
dent and Council of the Royal Society propose to createa FOULERTON
RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP at a stipend of £700 per annum, the
duties of the Student being to conduct researches in Medicine or the con-
tributory sciences under the supervision and control of the Managing Com-
mittee, to whom he will be required to report from time to time. The
Studentship will be tenable for three years, but may be renewed from year
to year with a maximum total tenure of six years. Members of either sex
are equally eligible. Applications must reach the Royal Society not later
than October 31, 1922. Further particulars can be obtained from the Assis-
TANT-SECRETARY of the Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W.t.
ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES
FRECHEVILLE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS.
The Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington,
London, S.W.7, with which the Royal School of Mines is incorporated,
is offering two RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS of £309 a year each, tenable
for one year and possibly renewable for a second year, to aid in carrying
out any investigation or research connected with Mining, Mining Geology,
Metallurgy, or the Technology of Oil, which in the opinion of the Selection
Committee is of sufficient use or promise.
Applicants, who may be Associates of the Royal School of Mines or others,
and preferably men with some practical experience, should apply in writing
to the SECRETARY OF THE COLLEGE (from whom further particulars may be
obtained) before September 1, 1922, giving the nature of the proposed in-
vestigation, qualifications for the work, and references:
It is anticipated that the Committee will make the awards by the end of
November, so that the Fellowships and work may begin on January 1, 1923.
Holders will be expected to devote their whole time to the work, which may
be conducted at the Imperial College or in special circumstances elsewhere
at the direction of the Committee.
ROYAL NAVY.
APPLICATIONS are invited for APPOINTMENTS as
STRUCTOR LIEUTENANTS in the Royal Navy.
Candidate$ must be under 30 years of age, have had a University Train-
ing, and have taken an Honours Degree in Mathematics, Science or Engin-
eering.
Present rates of pay are from 4365 per annum on entry to a maximum of
4949 per annum as Instructor Commander.
Promotion, by selection, to Instructor Captain is also open, with a maxi-
mum of £1277, Ios. per annum.
Retired pay may be granted to Officers over 40 years of age, with a mini-
mum of 12 years’ service, up to a maximum of £450 a year for an Instructor
Lieutenant Commander, 4600 a year for an Instructor Commander, and
4900 for an Instructor Captain, according to age and service.
Service victualling, cabin accommodation, and servant are provided, or
allowances in lieu.
An allowance of £50 towards the provision of necessary uniform is payable
on satisfactory completion of probationary service.
For further particulars apply in the first instance to the SECRETARY OF
THE ADMIRALTY, Whitehall, S.W.1.
IN-
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
KING'S COLLEGE.
The Delegacy require the services of an ASSISTANT LECTURER in
BOTANY (man), one with a knowledge of Physiology preferred ; salary,
4300 per annum. The duties will commence in October. Opportunities
will be given for research work.
Applications, with two copies of not more than three recent testimoni
should be received not later than August 2, by the SECRETARY, King
College, Strand, W.C.2, from whom further particulars may be obtained.
SUDAN GOVERNMENT.
Applications are invited for the appointment of ASSISTANT GOVERN-
MENT CHEMIS1, SUDAN, at an initial salary of £(E.)480, plus £(E.)84
temporary war bonus.
Candidates should possess a good chemical degree, and have had experi-
ence of Research Work in General or Agricultural Chemistry. Applications,
giving particulars as to age, education, scientific training and experience,
should be sent before July 31 to Dr, A. F, JosErn, 6 Willesden Lane,
London, N.W.2, who will arrive in London on July 26. Until that date,
further particulars may be obtained from the Recisrrar, Institute of
Chemistry, Russell Square, London, W.C.1.
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.
CHAIR OF ZOOLOGY.
Applications are invited for the above position. Salary (fixed), £1100
per annum, and £rso allowed for travelling expenses to Sydney from
Europe. Duties commence March 1, 1923.
Further details of terms of appointment may be obtained from the under-
signed, to whom applications (in sextuplicate), stating age and qualifications,
accompanied by reference and copies of testimonials, should be sent not
later than Thursday, August 31, 1922.
AGENT-GENERAL FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.
Australia House, Strand, London, W.C.2,
July 3, 1022.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
FACULTY OF MEDICINE.
PROFESSORSHIP OF PATHOLOGY.
The Council of the University invites APPLICATIONS for the CHAIR
of PATHOLOGY, vacant by the resignation of Professor SHAw Dunn.
The stipend offered is £1000 a year.
Applications (12 copies) may be accompanied by testimonials, references,
or other credentials, and should be received by the undersigned, on or before
August 7, 1922.
Further particulars may be obtained from
GEO. H. MORLEY, Secretary.
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
LECTURESHIP IN BACTERIOLOGY.
Applications are invited for the post of LECTURER in BACTERI-
OLOGY within the DEPARTMENT of PATHOLOGY.
Salary, £600 per annum.
Federated Superannuation System for Universities compulsory.
Applications, together with full statement of qualifications, age, and 16
copies of not more than three testimonials, to be lodged before July 31, 1922,
with the SECRETARY TO THE UNIVERSITY, MariscHAL COLLEGE,
ABERDEEN.
H. J. BUTCHART, Secretary.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.
THE COUNCIL OF THE BRITISH BOOT, SHOE, AND
ALLIED TRADES RESEARCH ASSOCIATION invite applications
for the whole-time post of DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH. Salary, £700
per annum, plus superannuation payments. For form of application and
particulars apply to THe Secrerary, Mr. T. A. Roserts, Regent House,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
WANTED, complete sets or long runs of
“Chemical Abstracts,” ‘‘ Jour. American Chemical Society,” “‘ Jour.
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry,” ‘‘ Jour. Society of Chemical
Industry,” ‘‘ Zeit. f. angewandte Chemie,” ‘‘ Tonindustrie Zeitung.”
Apply Box 270, c/o NaTuRE Office.
THE PROPRIETORS OF THE PATENT
No. 11,818 of 1915, for Improvements in the Electrolytic Refining of
Tin, are desirous of entering into arrangements by way of licence and
otherwise on reasonable terms for the purpose of exploiting the same
and ensuring its full development and practical working in this country.
All communications should be addressed in the first instance to:
Hasevtine, Lake & Co., Chartered Patent Agents, 28 SourHAMPTON
BuILpinGs, CHANCERY LANE, Lonpon, W.C.2.
GREAT MICROSCOPE BARGAIN.
EXCEPTIONAL OFFER TO STUDENTS.
We offer a few only of the famous Koristka model Da Microscopes
absolutely new, and latest models, listed at £27, at the special price of
£19. Offer cannot be repeated. Will supply on Deferred terms—£4
down, and twelve instalments of £1:7:6-—strict approval, money back
if unsatisfactory.
Koristka 1922 Da Microscope, circular stage, centring screws, fine
and coarse adjustment, three eyepieces, two dry objectives, 3”, }”, and ys”
oil immersion, triple nosepiece, swing-out Abbe condenser, iris, screw
adjustment, 60 to 1ooo magnifications, in case. Further particulars and
illustrated catalogue detailing same, free.
'THE CITY SALE & EXCHANGE,
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NATURE
SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1922.
IOI
CONTENTS.
The Preservation of Food by Freezing
The Victorian Age ¢ 5 ‘
Natural History of Pheasants. By W. E. C.
oe Book on the Andamans. (ustratet.) By
Hydro-Electric Fuainestite By F, c. L.
Progress in Fat and Oil Chemistry. By E. F. A.
Our Bookshelf. ‘ 3 ; : : 3
Letters to the Editor :—
Cosmical Theory and Radioactivity. —Prof. J. Joly,
F.R.S - . 6 6 5 - i
Gas Pressures and the Second Law of Thermo-
dynamics.—R. d’E. Atkinson ; Arthur Fair-
bourne
Polarisation of Diffused Light umder the San, “3, E.
Brooks
Discoveries in Tropical Medicine.—Lieut.-Col. A.
Alcock, F.R.S. 4 4 ; 4
Ouramceba.—G. Lapag
Histological Stains, PPro A.E. Boycott, F.R.S.
The Structure of Organic Crystals. (With diagrams.)
By Sir William Bragg, K.B.E., F.R.S. : :
The Action of Cutting Tools. ae rated, )
E. G. Coker, F.R.S. b
The New Building of the National Academy of
Bye Prof.
Sciences, U.S.A. nee) By Drie D:
Walcott a
The Internal Gombustiod Engine By Prof. Ww. E.
Dalby, F.R.S. . o%
pre Hull Apecdng of the BHege Association: By
Wee ¢
Current Topics ond Events’ é 3 ¢ : 6
Our Astronomical Column .
Research Items . : : c
Glasgow Meeting of the Society of Ghenic In-
dustry. By R. M. C.
The Development of Research in Universities, By
Principal Irvine, F.R.S. . : : 5 .
English Place-Names : 0
University and Educational Tatelligence °
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies . é
Official Publications Received
114
114
114
Ee Bea) Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NOn2751, VOL. 1rG)|
|
The Preservation of Food by Freezing.
ONSERVATION of our sources of energy is
=|
G essential to and the food-
stuffs whence human energy is derived are not the least
important of our “
national welfare,
fuels.”” Quite casual enquiry is
sufficient to show that serious wastage of food con-
stantly occurs.
gluts of fish or fruit for which no cold-storage accom-
modation is available, and large quantities of these
foods are consequently lost, while in the successive
stages of transit from the abattoir abroad to the retailer
at home, infection by putrefactive bacteria accounts
Markets are at times unable to absorb
for the loss of an appreciable proportion of our meat
supplies. Such losses can be minimised by the develop-
ment of the methods of cold storage and by a thorough
scientific understanding of all that is involved in the
refrigeration industry. This industry is now an essen-
tial characteristic of life in crowded communities ; its
expansion during the past forty years, enabling the
supply of food to keep pace with the needs of a growing
population, has been a remarkable achievement. The
importance of the industry is magnified in the case of
an island community, such as our own, whose supplies
of home-grown food are strictly limited. In an industry
of this importance a scientific stocktaking cannot fail
to give valuable results.
The refrigeration industry makes wide dernands upon
the sciences. It calls for the co-operation of physicist,
engineer, physiologist, chemist, botanist, zoologist, and
mathematician for the solution of its problems.
arranging, through the Food Investigation Board, a
In
joint attack upon the problems of food preservation
from these different points of view, the Department
of Scientific and Industrial Research
a most important function. To meet the needs a
comprehensive organisation is necessary—if only
visualise the field for research—and since those needs
are of vital national importance, it is fitting that the
organisation should be initiated and supported. by
Government.
There has long been lacking a summary of our know-
ledge concerning the scientific aspects of cold storage,
but it has now been supplied by Prof. Walter Stiles,
who, at the request of the Food Investigation Board,
has prepared a report upon the preservation of food by
We believe that this is the first general
is undertaking
to
freezing.t
systematic study in this country of the scientific prin-
ciples underlying the preservation of food in the frozen
condition. For much of the information.which follows
we are indebted to Prof. Stiles’s report.
“ The Preservation of Food by Freezing with Special Reference to Fish
a Meat,” by Walter Stiles, Special Report No. 7 of the Food Inv estigation
Board. Published by H.M. Stationery Office, oom price ros. net.
ro2
NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
Of the two refrigerative processes—chilling and freez-
ing—employed for the preservation of food, the former
is much inferior. In this process the temperature is
kept at about o°C., the physical state of the fresh
material being maintained unchanged. In the freezing
process, on the other hand, the temperature of storage
is kept well below the freezing point of the food sub-
stance, which consequently becomes frozen into a solid
block, the physical condition being profoundly changed.
When it is remembered that, as a rough approximation,
_the velocity of a chemical reaction is halved by a fall
of ro® C., it will be seen that the chilling process affords
greater scope for the progress of the reactions incidental
to putrefaction than does the freezing process. More-
over, the solid state of frozen tissue inhibits, or greatly
reduces, the growth of micro-organisms and practically
puts a stop to such putrefactive chemical actions as
take place in aqueous media. While all foods can be
preserved for a certain time by the chilling process,
comparatively few are at the present time preserved
by the freezing process. As Prof. Stiles points out,
one of the objects of scientific investigation should be
the transference of as many foods as possible from the
chilling to the freezing process ; and this was the object
of many of the experiments of the Food Investigation
Board which he describes. His report is restricted to
the discussion of the processes and problems involved
in the preservation of food in the frozen state. This
method of preservation involves freezing, storage in
the frozen state, and finally thawing of the frozen
material, and the more nearly the condition of the food-
stuff so treated resembles the original, the more success-
ful has the storage been from the economic as well as
the physiological standpoint.
In the freezing of foods the time of cooling is an all-
important matter. It depends upon a number of
factors, each of which Prof. Stiles examines in detail
and indicates, by reference to the principles of physical
chemistry, the extent to which they are controllable
in the refrigeration industry. In foodstuffs other than
liquids we are dealing with delicate and complex
physical systems. True aqueous solutions of organic
and inorganic substances and colloidal systems com-
prising both hydrosols and hydrogels are enmeshed in,
or otherwise associated with, more or less definitely
solid materials. Foodstuffs comprising such systems
are obviously most susceptible to changing physical
conditions, and it is only by careful study and control
of the latter that successful food preservation can be
ensured. The report directs attention to the gaps in
our knowledge of matters of fundamental importance
in refrigeration, such as, for example, the effect of rate
of cooling upon the nature of sols and gels; in some
cases the gaps have recently been filled by the work of
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
Prof. Stiles and his collaborators. Thus he has made
the interesting observation that, when rapidly frozen,
a chlorophyll hydrosol is reversible; when slowly
frozen the hydrosol yields visible “ flocks ” of chloro-
phyll, and the sol is not re-formed on thawing. Simi-
larly he finds that the reversibility of the changes
taking place in certain gels on freezing is largely
dependent upon the rate of cooling, a gel which
is rapidly cooled being reversible. Rapid cooling
produces a fine-grained frozen mass, and, if this 1s
sufficiently finely grained, the original structure of the
sol or gel is restored on thawing. The statement may
be extended to the freezing of plant and animal cells
and tissues ; such information as we have all indicates
that, if these be frozen sufficiently rapidly, the changes
in structure following freezing are reversed in thawing.
The essential importance of the vitamins for animal
nutrition has made it necessary to ascertain the in-
fluence of low temperatures upon these accessory food
substances. If the influence is markedly destructive,
the nutritive value of foods must be seriously de-
preciated by cold storage. There is very little
evidence upon this point at present, but it has been
shown by Prof. A. Harden that the vitamin content of
butter is undiminished by preservation in this way ;
investigations of the effect of low temperatures upon
the antiscorbutic vitamins are at present in progress.
Perhaps of little less importance than the vitamins are
the enzymes in foodstuffs. Here more information is
tohand. Generally speaking, enzymes survive exposure
to the temperatures employed in refrigeration, and can
exercise their catalytic functions when temperature
and environment again become normal ; in some cases,
indeed, the catalytic activity may be increased by
exposure to low temperatures.
Practically there are only two general methods
employed in the freezing of foods on the large scale.
These involve freezing in cold air, and in a cold brine
solution, respectively.
Prof. Stiles’s report includes a comparative account
of the principles utilised in these processes.
ing is effected either by means of a system of cooling
pipes placed inside the refrigerating chamber or by
blowing into the chamber air which has been cooled
outside by passage over a similar cooling-pipe system.
Each method has obvious advantages and disadvan-
tages, and the choice in any particular case will depend
upon whether it is more important to reduce desiccation
to a minimum or to avoid growth of micro-organisms.
Fish depreciates rapidly by desiccation, but 1s not very
liable to attack by micro-organisms; meat, on the
other hand, does not lose water readily, but favours
the growth of moulds.
The freezing of foodstuffs in salt solutions is a process
eS Te a ee
6a Se eet re
on
ca ct a a mt
Air cool- —
3]
|
JuLy 22, 1922]
NATURE
103
still in the experimental stage, although a description
of it is to be found in the British patent specification
of Hesketh and Marcet of 1899. The advantage of the
method over that of air freezing lies in the much more
rapid cooling that results, and rapid cooling, as men-
tioned above, is a characteristic of the most successful
refrigeration. Brine is the only salt solution employed
in present practice, but other salts, such as magnesium
or calcium chloride, might conceivably be used. The
process of brine freezing has its inherent difficulties ;
not only may the food cell contents pass outwards into
the cooling medium, but salt may also pass from the
latter into the tissues of the food. Penetration of salt
into the food material is in some cases (i.e. fish) not
objectionable, but in certain instances chemical action
may occur between the foodstuff and the salt with
undesirable consequences. Thus, while large pieces of
beef frozen in brine were found to be in some respects
superior to air-frozen beef, a reaction takes place
between the salt and the pigment of the beef which so
changes the appearance of the latter that its market
yalue may be considerably reduced. The penetration
of salt into the food substance cannot be prevented,
but it can be minimised by a judicious selection of
physical conditions.
The methods adopted for the storage of frozen food
require the same careful consideration as those employed
for freezing ; the inherent difficulties are just as great.
Physical changes, such as evaporation of water and
aromatic flavouring substances, chemical changes in-
cluding autolytic reactions, hydrolysis of fats and
oxidation of the hydrolytic products, and finally the
growth of moulds and bacteria, must be guarded against.
All these changes can be retarded by lowering the
temperature of the storage chambers, but economic
conditions impose a limit at which reduction of tempera-
ture must stop. It becomes, once more, a question of
selecting the least injurious conditions for each particu-
lar food ; the conditions in storage chambers should,
it may be emphasised, be different for different foods.
The use of liquid air on a large scale in the freezing
and storage of food appears a remote possibility at the
present time ; but it is perhaps not entirely fanciful to
picture a liquid air plant supplying nitrogen for use in
the refrigeration industry and oxygen for other in-
dustrial purposes.
Prof. Stiles gives a brief summary of the available
information concerning thawing of food. This side of
| the subject is not without importance, since the rate of
thawing of frozen food has a significant effect upon its
character.
A considerable proportion of the report is devoted
' to an examination of the relative merits of air freezing
_ and freezing in salt solution in the case of both fish and
NO. 2751, VOL. IIo]
of meat. The comparison, so far as the ultimate value
of the food is concerned, is much in favour of the latter
process. Parenthetically it may be added that Prof.
Stiles does not deal with the economic side of the
refrigeration industry. Despitg its advantages and
the fact that it has been known for a considerable time,
the freezing of fish in a solution is a process which has
only been employed during recent years, and on a
small scale. Its chief advantages are the maintenance
of weight, appearance, and general food value of the
fish due to the reduced time of freezing and consequent .
minimised histological change. A quantity of experi-
mental evidence obtained by the author and his co-
workers under the Food Investigation Board, as well
as by other workers in the subject, is collected in the
report, and merits careful study by those who are
concerned with the design and installation of food-
preservation plant.
For the refrigeration of meat, freezing by immersion
in brine has not yet been technically employed ; the
only process utilised is that of freezing in cold air.
Beef which has been preserved in the frozen state is
frequently inferior to fresh beef on account of the drip
of meat juice which occurs on thawing. This loss may
amount to as much as 15 per cent. of the weight of
the meat. Consequently beef is, wherever possible,
transported in the chilled condition; but since it
cannot be kept in this state for more than three or four
weeks, it is not possible to import chilled beef into the
United Kingdom from Australia or New Zealand.
From far distant countries beef must come “on the
hoof” or in the frozen condition. Mutton, on the
other hand, can be imported in the frozen state from
the countries named in perfectly satisfactory condition,
The discovery of a method of freezing beef which will
obviate the difficulties mentioned is evidently a matter
of importance, and the attempts made by the Food
Investigation Board in this direction are of considerable
interest. Small preliminary experiments indicated
that rapid freezing by immersion in cold brine was an
effective way of preservation so far as absence of drip,
and appearance and flavour of the product after thaw-
ing were concerned. Larger-scale experiments have
not yet gone sufficiently far to yield conclusive results.
One rather serious objection has already been
mentioned. This is the discoloration of the surface
layers of the lean of the meat owing to the conversion
of hemoglobin into methemoglobin. The discolora-
tion detracts seriously from the appearance and market
value of the meat, but it is hoped that the cause, and a
method of prevention, will be discovered in the course
of further work. The successful application to beef of
the method of brine freezing would lead to a very
desirable expansion of our source of supply.
104
The Victorian Age.
The Victorian Age: The Rede Lecture for 1922. By
Dr. Wiliam Ralph Inge. Pp. 54. (Cambridge:
At the University Press, 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
N choosing the Victorian Age as the subject of
I his Rede Lecture, Dean Inge afforded his audience
ample occasion in which to enjoy the obiter dicta,
which so frequently characterise his public utterances,
and impart to them so piquant a flavour. It may
be said the theme itself provided its opportunities.
Its possibilities, in fact, of observations en passant,
without a too obvious breach of continuity, are well-
nigh limitless. The learned lecturer evidently revelled
in the wealth and suggestiveness of his material,
and the epigrams and aphorisms, at times, are almost
coruscant in their brilliancy. Not that we would for
a moment imply that the Dean’s prelection in any
way resembles the sermon of which King James
remarked ‘“‘that the tropes and metaphors of the
speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field
of corn, very pretty, but which did very much hurt
the corn.” The richness of the soil which the Dean
undertook to cultivate ensured the wealth and vigour
of his crop; his. flowers do but enhance the beauty
of the field.
It may, however, be questioned whether the Dean’s
obiter dicta are always as sound as they are brilliant.
For example, it is by no means invariably true that
the pioneer starts by being unintelligible or absurd,
has then a brief spell of popularity, and ends by being
conventional and antiquated. The general character
of the Civil Service in 1837 no doubt left much to be
desired, but it is a travesty to say that it was “a
* and that its clerks
were languid gentlemen with long whiskers, who, like
Charles Lamb, departed early from their offices
because they arrived late. The Dean occasionally is
in danger of risking his credit for veracity by his
irrepressible lore of paradox and his affection for the
epigram’s peculiar grace, and for
sanctuary of aristocratic jobbery,’
“Some unexpected and some biting thought
With poignant wit and sharp expression fraught.”
If, however, we make due allowance for the character-
istic foibles of the lecturer, the Dean’s brilliant survey
of the significant features of the time covered by the
reign of Queen Victoria is both illuminating and
instructive. As he truly says, that period extended
over the latter half of a saeculum mirabile, the most
wonderful century in human history. His word-
picture of England before what Toynbee styled the
Industrial Revolution, is done in his most characteristic
manner. The country then, we are told, was, on the
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
whole, prosperous and contented. ‘‘ The masses had
no voice in the government, but most of them had
a stake in the country. . . . Political power was in
the hands of a genuine aristocracy, who did more to
deserve their privileges than any other aristocracy
of modern times. . . . They were enlightened patrons
of literature and art, and made the collections of
masterpieces which were the pride of England and
which are now being dispersed to the winds... .
Those who have studied the family portraits in a
great house, or the wonderful portrait gallery in the
Provost’s Lodge at Eton, will see on the faces not
only the pride and self-satisfaction of a privileged
class, but the power to lead the nation, whether in
the arts of war or of peace’”’—a picture, in short,
which will bring solace to the shade of that ‘“‘ Great
Cham of Literature,’ the immortal Dr. Samuel
Johnson. Not that the Dean can be truthfully
described as a laudator temporis acti, for he is never
wholly content with any age, and least of all with
that in which he lives.
The whole account of the condition of England in
the earlier years of the Victorian Age is tinctured
with that flavour of mordant pessimism in which the
Dean delights, and practically every phase and in-
stitution of the period comes under the gentle lash
of his tolerant satire—its literature of complacency,
the Platonism of Ruskin, the vehemence of Carlyle,
the ugliness of the modern English or American town
(“Never since civilisation began has such ugliness
been created ”’) ; the gigantic blunder of the Industrial
Revolution; the problem of mending or ending
industrialism, foolishly called capitalism. (‘‘ Ruskin’s
own artistic life would have been impossible without
the paternal sherry and the rich men who drank it ;
and Morris’s exquisite manufactures depended absol-
utely on the patronage of the capitalists whom he
denounced.) Departmental inefficiency ; the systems
of judicature ; the slow emergence of the universities
from the lethargy of the eighteenth century, “when
they neither taught nor examined nor maintained
discipline,” when the Fellows “were most of them
waiting for college livings, to which they were allowed
to carry off, as a solatium, some dozens of College
port’; the state of the army, “when a Royal Duke
could not be given a military funeral, because there
were not troops enough to bury a Field Marshal ” ;
its glaring incompetence as revealed by the Crimean
War, etc.
But the age had its compensations. The Dean is,
constrained to admit with Lecky that, at least so far
as internal affairs went, no country was ever better
governed than England between 1832 and 1867.
“The one prime necessity for good government was
ee eee eee
ony 22,1922]
NATURE
105
present ; those who paid the taxes were also those
who imposed them. . . . Sound finance benefited the
whole population by keeping credit high, interest low,
and taxation light. Political life was purer than it
had been, and purer probably than it is now. The
House of Commons enjoyed that immense prestige
which has been completely lost since the old Queen’s
death.”
With regard to the intellectual and spiritual move-
ments of her reign the Dean, if not exactly eulogistic,
is at least more commendatory, and no part of his
lecture affords more delightful reading, or exhibits
sounder discrimination, than his account of the
literary glories of the Victorian Age. As regards
religion, he thinks it may be doubted whether organised
Christianity has ever been more influential in England
than during that period, “before the growth of the
towns threw all the Church’s machinery out of gear.”
At the same time, he admits that religious intolerance
was very bitter, and only the secular arm stopped a
whole series of ecclesiastical prosecutions. ‘ Real
hatred was shown against the scientific leaders, which
Darwin calmly ignored, and Huxley returned with
interest.”
In parting with his subject the Dean, as might
be anticipated, strikes no jubilant note. To him
the Elizabethan and the Victorian Age appear as
the twin peaks of English civilisation. But, he con-
cludes, “as regards the fortunes of this country, the
signs are that our work on a grand scale, with the
whole world as our stage, is probably nearing its end.”
To which we can only fervently reply, Absit omen.
Natural History of Pheasants.
A Monograph of the Pheasants. By William Beebe.
In four volumes. Volume III. Pp. xvi+204+pl.
XLV-LXVII+photogravure plates 40-60. (Lon-
don : published under the auspices of the New York
Zoological Society by H. F. and G. Witherby, 1922.)
t2l. ros. net.
HE third volume of this sumptuous work treats
of the true pheasants—the genus Phasianus—
and of the birds of the allied genera Puchrasia, Catreus,
and Syrmaticus. Mr. Beebe has made an extensive
study of the genus Phasianus, which embraces the
most familiar and important birds dealt with in the
monograph. His conclusions, based upon an exhaust-
ive examination of numerous specimens, and his unique
knowledge of the birds in their native haunts, are of
outstanding importance.
In order to treat clearly of the group, Mr. Beebe has
drawn a sharp line of demarcation between Phasiani
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
as they exist in their real zone of distribution, and the
forms which have been crossed indiscriminately and
acclimatised in all parts of the world. At least thirty-
five forms have been described as species, or sub-species,
or geographical races, according to the personal bias
of authors; but in the evolution of these forms,
mutation appears to have played little part, for most
of them actually grade into one another, and even in
their extremes are separated only by slight differences
of colour and pattern. A good deal of individual
variation occurs, especially in the more widely dis-
tributed forms, and this necessitates changing the
status of species in this genus. The genus has usually
included more forms than those recognised by the
author, who, by consistently applying his criterion
of genera—that of geographic non-overlapping—has
removed the birds of the genera Syrmaticus and
Calophasis from Phasianus, which is thus left “as
an exceedingly homogeneous group.”
In addition to a careful comparison of the numerous
types and study of their environment, distribution, and
barriers, Mr. Beebe has devoted much attention to the
classification of the birds of this genus. Two very
different lines of observation have contributed much to
his ultimate decision. First, the results of a single
day’s collecting in China revealed, out of four brace
of fully adult birds in freshly moulted plumage, several
belonging to one covey, three recognisable sub-species,
and two undescribed ones were obtained in two
moderate-sized rice-fields. The second array of facts
is derived from the conditions found among semi-wild
hybrids introduced into foreign countries. Thus, at
Tring, pheasants of colchicus, torquatus, and even of
versicolor blood were turned down. Later a strain of
pallasi was introduced, and from this mixture there
arose pheasants which were absolutely indistinguish-
able from the wild form known as satscheuensis, the
home of which is in the heart of China. From scores
of similar facts Mr. Beebe has decided to consider
every one of the continental forms of Phasianus as
sub-species of Phasianus colchicus. The Japanese
pheasant (P. versicolor) stands the test of a good
species and is the most distinct of all the Phasianus
group.
The distribution of the wild members of the colchicus
group extends across Asia, from the Sea of Azof and the
Black Sea eastwards to the Sea of Japan—a distance
of nearly 5000 miles—and from Manchuria in the north
to beyond the Tropic of Cancer. Throughout this wide
area they have penetrated into valleys or along moun-
tain slopes, sweeping through passes and adapting
themselves to semi-arid deserts.
The typical form of the entire group, the common
pheasant, the “Rion Caucasian Pheasant” of the
DI
106
NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
monograph, is a native of Caucasia, and is said to have
been introduced into Europe from the banks of the
River Phasis (now the Rion) in Colchis (now Kurtais).
Though not mentioned by Mr. Beebe, the remains of
Phasianus have been found in the Miocene of France
and Switzerland, in the Pliocene of Greece, and in the
Pleistocene of Germany—hence pheasants, possibly
forms of colchicus, existed in Europe long before the
advent of man.
With regard to the Koklass pheasants — genus
Puchrasia—Mr. Beebe alludes to the difficulty of placing
them with certainty in any linear scheme of classifica-
tion. They show traces of resemblance to several
groups, and perhaps come as close to the genus Syrmat-
icus, as defined by him, as to any other. The genus is
one of the most interesting of the Phasianine, and its
various forms reveal one of the rarest phenomena in
nature—a widespread series showing delicately gradu-
ated and increasing complexity within a single closely
related group of living creatures. Three species are
recognised—P. macrolopha, P. xanthospila, and P.
darwint, each with several forms.
The genus Syrmaticus, previous to Mr. Beebe’s re-
searches, contained a single species only—the gorgeous
long-tailed Reeves pheasant, but here it has been
expanded to include four additional species, namely,
the copper pheasant, S. soemmerringi, comprising three
forms ; Hume’s pheasants, S. hwmée, with two forms ;
Elliot’s pheasant, S. edlzoti ; and the Mikado pheasant,
S. mikado.
The Cheer pheasant (C. wallichiz) exhibits a number
of characters sufficiently distinct to warrant its in-
clusion in a separate genus, Catreus. It is confined to
a comparatively small belt in the west and central
Himalayas—Kumaon, Garhwal, and western Nepal—
where it is found at elevations of 4000-10,000 feet.
In addition to the author’s masterly treatment of
the taxonomic aspect of the subject, he has added a
charm to it by his graphic descriptions of the haunts
and habits of the various birds which came under
notice during his remarkable journeys, undertaken for
observing and procuring specimens in various stages
of plumage. He has also quoted copiously, when de-
sirable, from the experiences of others. This com-
bination of excellence, if it has ever been equalled, has
never been surpassed in such a monograph.
The coloured plates, twenty-four in number, are re-
productions from original drawings. Of these eleven
are devoted to the principal forms of the true pheasants,
and are from very careful drawings by the late
Major Jones. The rest are the work of several well-
known artists, among them Mr. G. E. Lodge, Mr.
Fuertes, and Mr. Gronvold, but their reproduction
is not so satisfactory as those which graced the pre-
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
ceding volumes. There are twenty-one photogravure
plates depicting the haunts amid which the various
forms are found and some of their nests. These are
mainly from photographs by Mr. Beebe, and add much
to the attractiveness of the volume. The maps
delineating the distribution of all the forms treated of
are a very useful adjunct.
W. E. €:
A New Book on the Andamans.
The Andaman Islanders: A Study in Social Anthro-
pology. (Anthony Wilkin Studentship Research,
1906.) By A. R. Brown. Pp. xiv+504+ 20 plates
+2 maps. (Cambridge: At the University Press,
1922.) 40s. net.
HIS handsome volume contains the anthropo-
logical results of a short residence of about
eighteen months in the Andaman Islands on behalf of
the ‘‘ Anthony Wilkin Students’ Research,” and may
therefore be taken as a sample of approved work by
the modern type of Cambridge-trained student. It
is well produced by the Cambridge University Press,
and is excellently illustrated from photographs taken,
it is presumed, by the author. Indeed, so good are
these last that the present writer recognises the originals
of several of the portraits. As regards photographs
illustrating these aborigines, their surroundings, habits,
manners, and customs, the scientific world is specially
well off, owing to the efforts extended over many years
by such competent illustrators as Messrs. E. H. Man
and M. V. Portman, the many magnificent volumes
of the latter observer, deposited in the India Office
Library, being not nearly so well known as they
should be.
The book may be divided into two parts : a running
account of Mr. A. R. Brown’s travels, giving the results
of his observations of facts, together with references
to and criticisms of his predecessors in this particular
field of research, chiefly of Mr. E. H. Man, and an
“interpretation ” of the observations. The plan of the
book is thus a good one. The writer states his own
observations and where he differs from his predecessors,
and then builds his theories on the results. It is where
he ventures to differ from Mr. Man that the plan seems
to fail to be as effective as it ought to be. He con-
stantly sets up Mr. Man’s views and statements only
to knock them down. He thus pits his opinions
against Mr. Man’s. This makes for comparison, and
leads to the observation that Mr. Man was thirty years
with the Andamanese, knew them intimately and their
language well, and studied them unremittingly: all
this, too, at a time when they were numerous, their
tribes well separable from each other, and the contact
a
uve 22,1922]
IVA TORE
107
with Europeans comparatively recent. Whereas Mr.
Brown was with them for a short time, depended on
interpreters, did not know the language except super-
ficially, and only met them after they had been so
decimated by epidemics that the tribes had had to
drop their old exclusiveness and mingle freely together.
It is true that Mr. Man was a pioneer who had to learn
|
te
+
3
" | are still difficult to beat.
nothing more than a witness—a good witness certainly,
trained to his work—but only a witness, and the reader
will have to decide for himself between him and Mr.
Man.
In the matter of recording language Mr. Brown has
not been fortunate, though he has laboured hard.
The older books and articles, from Mr. Man’s works
onwards, used an alphabet framed ad
hoc by no less an authority than the
late Mr. A. J. Ellis, whose skill, know-
ledge, and experience in such matters
The result
has been that a good trustworthy
system for recording these “ un-
written ” dialects for English readers
| has been in vogue for something like
’ half a century. Mr. Brown has
discarded it, and substituted the
,/ “Anthropos” Alphabet of Pater
- Schmidt. No one disputes the
capacity of Pater Schmidt in this
matter, but why in a book by an
Englishman for English readers, pub-
lished by an English University, go
to an Austrian for the transcription
of the language of the inhabitants of
a British possession, when an ade-
quate and well-known English trans-
cription has been established for a
long period, and has been used in
At any rate the result
Diacritical marks are
many books ?
is not happy.
used which are strange to English
readers, though common enough in
the Eastern European languages.
The vowels are not familiar to users
of English, and what are we to say of
an observer who cannot detect the
difference between “the e in error”
and ‘‘a in Mary,” and thinks they
represent the same sound (p. 496).
o in not” and the
o in nought ” (p. 496). Unhappily
Or between the
“ce
An Andaman Islander shooting fish in Port Blair Harbour
From “ The Andaman Islanders.”
his way, and that Mr. Brown was a trained observer
from the beginning, but all who know Mr. Man’s work
cannot also help knowing how meticulously and
conscientiously careful he is in recording an observation
of fact. It requires some boldness to differ from him
on the point of accuracy. Several observers have
tried, and not successfully. The result is that this
latest book on the Andamanese after all contains only
evidence and not judgment. Mr.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
Brown is, here,
for Mr. Brown all four sounds are
common in Andamanese, and he has
thus put himself out of court as a recorder of
languages, much more so as a critic of other people’s
work in this respect.
Like so many of his Oxford and Cambnidge con-
temporaries, Mr. Brown reverts too often to a bad
habit of the seventeenth-century writers on travel and
foreign countries in ignoring the bibliography of his
subject—in this case a long one—except to appropriate
without acknowledgment the information gathered,
108
often laboriously, by even living predecessors. There
are too many clear instances of this in his book.
Despite its drawbacks, however, the book supplies
much good evidence on its subject, and the student will
With the second
It propounds a
theory which cannot be gone into in a short review ;
but whether a theory stands criticism or not as time
goes on, it is a good thing to put it forward, as the mere
dissection of it promotes research and the acquisition
of knowledge resulting from the research.
do well to make its acquaintance.
part one is not inclined to quarrel.
Reis:
Hydro-Electric Engineering.
Hydro-Electric Engineering. Vol. 1, Civil and Mechani-
cal. Editor: Dr. A. H. Gibson. Contributors :
H. D. Cook and the Editor. Pp.x+232. (London:
Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1921.) 25s. net.
HE water resources of the world, from the point of
alu view of available power for domestic, industrial,
and agricultural uses, have received very considerable
attention in recent years, and in many countries a large
amount of information has been accumulated as to the
amount of water-power that is available for exploita-
tion. Not only have various sources of power, such
as those of the great waterfalls, been harnessed, but
in addition many schemes for impounding waters in
suitable valleys and utilising them for power generation,
irrigation, and for distribution to cities many miles
distant have been carried into effect and at the present
time many more are receiving serious consideration.
In this country much has been done to impound waters
for town and city purposes, but comparatively little
has been attempted to develop the water-power
available. Until the war came, with all its consequent
economic problems, not least of which is the very
serious increase in the price of coal, power could be
produced by steam-engines and internal combustion
engines at a price which made it practically impossible
for water-power to compete, involving as it does large
capital outlays per unit power produced and cost of
transit over long distances. It is perhaps not sur-
prising, therefore, that although Fairbairn and James
Thompson in the British Isles were largely responsible
for the very important developments which took place
in water wheels and turbines in the nineteenth century,
and the correct principles of design were very largely
developed here and in France, yet neither of these
countries have developed water-power as have, for
example, Switzerland, Norway, and the United States.
Students in Great Britain have not been encouraged
to take a very keen interest in the subject and the
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
‘NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
literature published in this country has been somewhat
scanty.
Recently, however, the Water Resources Committee,
which has issued a number of reports, has investigated
the power available in Great Britain, and a good deal
of interest has been aroused in the possibilities of the
development of hydro-electric power schemes. An
equal interest has been awakened in other parts of the
empire where the power available is much greater than
here and where coal is not so easily obtained. This
work on hydro-electric engineering comes, therefore,
at an opportune time, for it is desirable that engineers
and business men should understand clearly the
principles underlying the storage and use of water for
power purposes, and engineering students should have
available a trustworthy guide in the study of the
subject. A word of warning is required to those who
hope to take a short cut to knowledge of the subject.
In few branches of engineering have such diverse
matters to be dealt with, and thus only those who are
prepared by a sound training in engineering principles,
civil, mechanical, and electrical, can appreciate fully
and overcome the difficulties.
In the work before us, the authors have discussed
some of the important principles involved but a great
part of the work is occupied with descriptions and
details of actual works. The all-important subject
of the relationship of the water available to the rainfall
on a given watershed, the power that can be obtained,
and the problem of the flow of water and its measure-
ment receive adequate treatment in the first third of
the book.
The remaining portion of the book deals entirely
with turbines. The various types are described with
the aid of drawings of actual turbines, and the principles
of design are discussed. It is of the greatest import-
ance that the behaviour of turbines under variable
conditions of gate opening and speed should be known,
and typical characteristic curves are given for reaction
turbines in which unit power is plotted against unit
speed for various gate openings. Efficiency curves
are also shown for turbines working under varying
conditions of load. The Pelton Wheel is described
and the theory discussed. The all-important question
of the choice of the most suitable type of turbine for
particular conditions is somewhat briefly referred to
but the essential points to be considered are clearly
presented.
An important chapter is devoted to speed regulation,
and hydraulic problems connected with any attempt
to change suddenly the flow of a large volume of water,
and the theory of the surge tank are clearly discussed.
Johnson’s approximate formula for the movement of
the water in a large tank for a given change of velocity
JULY 22, 1922]
NATURE
109
in the pipe is also obtained. The danger of the period
of oscillation in the tank synchronising with the
governor is pointed out, and Johnson’s differential surge
tank, introduced to overcome this difficulty, is described.
The concluding chapters deal with the general arrange-
ment of stations and water-power reports. The text
is clearly written and the illustrations are very good.
1 (Ook
Progress in Fat and Oil Chemistry.
Chemical Technology and Analysis of Oils, Fats and
Waxes. By Dr. J. Lewkowitsch. Sixth edition,
entirely revised by G. H. Warburton. Vol. 1. Pp.
xviii + 682. Vol. 2. Pp. xii +959. (London:
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1922). 36s. and 42s. net.
HE successive editions of Lewkowitsch’s “ Oils
and Fats ’’—now carried on by his successor,
Mr. G. H. Warburton—are regarded almost as mile-
stones by those engaged, in whatever capacity, in the
industries based on these products, and their appear-
ance affords a fitting moment for taking stock. It is
perhaps of interest that the third edition was noticed
in NATURE of September 22, 1904, p. 502, the fourth
in the issue for August 19, 1909, p. 211, and the fifth
in the issue for December 18, 1913, p. 449. The book
is now of such size that this—the sixth edition—is like
its predecessor, divided into three volumes of which
only the first two have so far appeared. The index,
unfortunately for the reader and the reviewer, is con-
fined to the third volume, so that reference to these
volumes is far from easy. We would strongly urge
that this defect in so valuable a work be rectified in the
future, as the temporary use of the first two volumes
is impaired, and the reader in the future has to go to
the labour of consulting two heavy volumes for the
desired information.
Volume tr as heretofore is devoted to the chemistry
and analysis of the fats, a side which during the last
decade has been relatively neglected. Volume 2, after
an all too brief introductory section devoted to the
obtaining of oils by the various methods of practice,
deals in detail with the properties of the several oils.
Volume 1 is described on the title page as entirely re-
written and enlarged, and volume 2, more circum-
spectly, as entirely revised. Both volumes, however,
would be more properly described as revised, as little
more has been done than to bring them up-to-date by
the addition of new matter. No doubt in the remain-
ing volume, which deals with a section of the subject
in which very great progress has been made largely as
the result of the altered conditions brought about by
the war, much will have to be rewritten, but it is
scarcely correct to apply this phrase to these volumes.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
From this point of view the new edition is frankly a
disappointment : opportunity might have been taken
to prune much which was diffuse and indefinite, and
really to keep the work up-to-date in a crisp form. As
it is, the reader at all versed in the subject will more
often than not experience disappointment on consult-
ing it, while for those who have the former edition the
expenditure of a somewhat large sum on the new issue
cannot be justified.
It is to be regretted that the study of the chemistry
of fats and allied compounds is not at present fashion-
able amongst schools of chemical research, possibly in
part because of the difficulty of the subject and the
need to tackle it by what may be termed team work
before results can be obtained. However this may be,
the field of research is full of the most interesting
possibilities both in the domain of pure organic, of
physical and of biological chemistry. We may cite
the work of Hardy, Adam, Langmuir, and others in
this connexion, and the pioneer work on the synthesis
of mixed glycerides commenced by Emil Fischer just
before his death, with the hope that some of our workers
will once more be attracted into this field of inquiry.
Analytical work such as is embodied in volume 2 of the
book is of interest technically, but the number of oils
of prime industrial importance is limited to those which
can be produced in quantity, and with sufficient
regularity to make it an economical proposition to
instal the requisite machinery to deal with them.
Consequently, but few of the newer oils described
become of practical interest: the world shortage of
oils and fats so confidently predicted by the expert a
few years ago has failed to materialise, so that there is
no demand for new oils ; indeed, to-day most of the
vegetable oils are being marketed at prices unremunera-
tive to the grower and manufacturer.
What is mainly wanted at the present time is far
greater attention to quality: in this connexion it
should be emphasised how little is known as to the
manner of production of oils in plants, and the supposed
change in the proportion of saturated to unsaturated
acids in the oil during the ripening of the seed ; also
the cause of the development of fatty acid in the oil
and its increase during storage. There is an oppor-
tunity for much research on the part of the biochemist
in this direction.
The structure of a long open chain organic compound
and the points of weakness at which it is most sus-
ceptible to attack is a question of prime interest to the
chemist. The close packing hypothesis of Pope and
Barlow, the modern crystal structure theory of the
Braggs, and the recurrent spiral structure resembling
a drawn-out coil of wire attributed to it of others, all
have their adherents, and additional practical data are
IIo
most desirable. The hydrocarbons themselves are un- |
suitable for this purpose, but the fatty acids with their
crystalline derivatives afford much more desirable
material for research.
While in no way depreciating the enormous amount
of information contained in the book, which virtually
makes it an exhaustive dictionary, it is permissible to
suggest that from the point of view of the user, a much
more careful selection and limitation of the material
would be an advantage. 1D, 1G aXe
Our Bookshelf.
Die chemische Analyse. Herausgegeben von Dr.
B. M. Margosches. VIII.-[X. Band: Methoden
zur Untersuchung von Milch und Molkereipro-
dukten. Von Dr. Kurt Teichert. Pp. 374. (Stutt-
gart: F. Enke, 1rg0g.) 11.40 marks (England:
45-60 marks).
NATURE
On account of the interest now being shown in the
quality of our milk supply, attention may be usefully
directed to this book. It deals exclusively with milk
and dairy products and forms the eighth and ninth
volume of the general treatise on chemical analysis.
The greater part of the space is devoted to the standard
methods of analysis, but there is in addition a large
amount of information which ought to be of help to
the analyst and medical officer of health.
A preliminary section deals with the composition
and properties of milk and the factors which are
responsible for any change in the normal composition.
Following this comes the portion which is concerned
with the detailed analytical methods for the deter-
mination of fat, milk sugar, protein, etc. The chapter
on cleanliness of milk and its freedom from bacterial |
contamination puts the facts in a clear and convin-
cing manner, and is very valuable in view of the recogni-
tion of the dangers of uncleanliness both from the
standpoint of public health and the manufacture of
such products as butter and cheese. In this con-
nexion the employment of the reductase and catalase
tests has not become so general as was at one time
expected, although the direct determination of dirt
is now a regular practice in all analytical and public
health laboratories, and leads to the punishment of
those who dispose of filthy and insanitary milk.
Purely bacteriological methods of examination are
shown to be difficult, particularly when apphed to
the detection of pathogenic organisms. The fermenta-
tion test, which is easily and rapidly carried out, is now
being used to a greater extent both in connexion with
the public milk supply and the cheese factory.
The chapter on the adulteration of milk, and the
interpretation of the results of analysis obtained in
this connexion, is valuable, as is also the one on the
testing of cream, skim milk, whey, condensed milk, etc.
As in the case of milk, so with butter and cheese
there are given details of analytical methods and
hints on the interpretation of results. The detection
of adulteration by the addition of foreign fats is dealt
with, and other sections are concerned with the analysis
of materials used in the preparation of cheese.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
[JuLy 22, 1922
The volume is one for reference and the details
appear to be scientifically sound.
Aeroplane Performance Calculations. By Harris Booth.
(The Directly-Useful Technical Series.) Pp. xv+
207. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1921.)
2Is. net.
Tuer development of aviation appears to be entering
on a new phase in which “ safety in the air ”’ is singled
out as of primary present importance. This follows
an era of military devotion to the cult of ‘ perform-
ance,” and the object of the book under review appears
to be the statement of the detailed steps which have
hitherto been taken to secure the greatest speed and
maximum rate of climb of an aeroplane.
It is probable that the actual arithmetical processes
described will rapidly fall out of use, but that the
principles invoked will have a greater degree of
permanence. The interest of the book is not so much
in the relative merits of the four methods of prediction
of aeroplane performance described in chapter 11. as
in the statement of the problem as it appears to a
designer. Much of the book shows the individuality of
the author, but the general outlook is typically that of
the community of aeroplane designers.
It is perhaps desirable at this point to indicate the
established position as to aeroplane design and its
relation to performance. The data used by all are
common—derived mainly from sources external to the
aviation industry—and have been used with almost
equal success by a number of designers. In the result
it is found possible to predict the consequences of the
best efforts from preliminary sketch designs. To
realise completely the maximum performance, it is
necessary for a designer to consider the details of his
craft carefully, and Mr. Harris Booth’s book shows how
that may be done. Further, it illustrates an essential
element of progress, for it assesses in numerical form the
importance of separate items in the complete whole.
In illustration of this point, it will be found that 14 Ibs.
is estimated to be the resistance of a flying-boat hull if
the open cockpits and hydroplaning steps are excluded.
A further estimate shows that the steps account for
52 lbs. at the same speed and each cockpit for a further
t7 lbs. Here is a striking example of the fact that the
very small resistance of a smooth streamline body may
be increased five- or six-fold by departures required for
various reasons.
It is just because of its indications of the need for
care in design that the present volume may fairly be
accorded a place on the shelves of an aeronautical or
design office library. So far as can be judged its
importance is limited to such function, since the writer
is following common practice in supposing that “ per-
formance” does not include “ safety.”
The Principles and Practice of
3y Edwin J. Evans. (The
Pp. xvili+ 304.
tos. 6d.
Building Contracts :
theiy Administration.
Directly-Useful Technical Series.)
(London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.
net.
Tue building trade resembles a good many others in
that, while liberally supplied with works on the technical
side, there is very little literature dealing with the
business side. The present volume is intended to fill
this gap. The subject matter is divided into four
JuLy 22, 1922]
NATURE
Veer
parts, namely, the administration of contracts, office
management, book-keeping, and trade memoranda.
A glance at the table of contents will prepare the reader
for some interesting information regarding what goes
on behind the scenes. For example, among “ methods
usually adopted by contractors to obtain business ”
we find the following which refers to work undertaken
on a percentage basis :—‘‘It is surprising how many
commissions of this character are secured by some
contractors, and often well proceeded with, before their
competitors are aware that-the work is in operation.
It must therefore be obvious that a good portion of the
time and energy of these enterprising contractors is
spent by keeping in touch with and studying the wishes
and the requirements of architects and others who
have work to place. These contractors are usually
most obliging and amiable gentlemen who see no
trouble in doing anything which will bring about
business.” The author is equally candid in many
other matters, and it is impossible to read his book
without feeling that he is intimately in touch with all
the ramifications of his subject. The volume is a
mine of information on all matters connected with the
execution of building contracts, and will be of great
value both to contractors and students.
Handboek der Algemeene Erfelijkheidsleer.
M. J. Sirks. Pp. x+494. (S-Gravenhage: M.
Nijhoff, 1922.) 15 gld.
TexT-Books of genetics have lately appeared with
great rapidity. The most recent is that by Dr. Sirks,
now before us. It is a substantial and well-illustrated
volume, as good as its predecessors, covering the
ground which has been explored up to date. The
weakness of the book is that it attempts nothing new,
whether by way of presentation or analysis. In a
subject so new as genetics, something more than an
exposition of easily accessible records should be
demanded from a considerable text-book. The litera-
ture of horticulture and of animal breeding contains
abundant material, both illustrative of established
principles and suggestive of extensions, which has
not yet been drawn upon. An author need be at
no loss for novel themes of discussion, even if he has
no actual discovery to present.
Dr. Sirks shows a disposition to limit his survey to
the publications of the modern period and to subjects
which have acquired topical familiarity. His treat-
ment, moreover, is occasionally uncritical. The reader
should have been told more explicitly that some of the
interpretations, given as accepted doctrine, are highly
speculative, and that some of the statements of fact
are greatly in need of verification. Reports, for
example, of the production of mutations as a direct
consequence of changed conditions should not be
accepted without a warning that, until the experiments
have been repeated on an ample scale and confirmation
obtained, evidence of this class has only suggestive
value.
By Dr.
Manchester University Roll of Service. Pp. xvi+274.
(Manchester: At the University Press; London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) os. net.
Tue Roll of Service of the University of Manchester
contains 3765 names, of which 500 are those who lost
their lives on service during the war. In each of these
WOn2 750. VOL. MIC}
latter cases a brief account is given of the career,
including details of parentage, education, military
history, distinctions, and particulars of death. In
all, 842 distinctions were won, including two Victoria
Crosses.
A preface to the volume has been written by the
Vice-Chancellor, Sir Henry A. Miers. The record is
very well arranged and produced, and serves as an
adequate reminder of the service rendered by members
of the University. It is also, to some extent, a
memorial to those who laid down their lives in the
common cause.
James Stirling: A Sketch of his Life and Works, along
with his Scientific Correspondence. By Charles
Tweedie. Pp.xii+213. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1922.) 16s. net.
Mr. TWeEEDIe’s volume opens with an account of the
life of James Stirling, the distinguished mathematician
of the early eighteenth century. Next follows a
description of Stirling’s contributions to mathematical
knowledge, chief among them being his enumeration
of cubic curves and the Methodus Differentialis. This
latter is a remarkable piece of analysis, considering the
state of mathematical knowledge at the time when it
was evolved ; it leads to the well-known expansion for
log (mw!) associated with Stirling’s name. About
three-quarters of the volume is occupied by copies of
letters exchanged (during the period 1719-1740) between
Stirling and such contemporary mathematicians as
Maclaurin, Cramer, N. Bernoulli, Machin, Clairaut, and
Euler. In days before scientific journals were developed
new results were communicated by one worker to
another in such letters as these. Much care has been
expended by Mr. Tweedie in the reproduction of these
letters: his book would have been improved by the
addition of English translations of the French and
Latin ones and by further comments upon them.
W. EH. B.
Contemporary Science. Edited, with an Introduction,
by W. B. Harrow. (The Modern Library of the
World’s Best Books.) Pp. 253. (New York: Boni
and Liveright, 1921.) 95 cents net.
THe work under notice consists of a collection of
twelve essays on recent achievements in various
branches of science, by men who are masters in each,
All are written in a way which makes them intelligible
to readers whose special knowledge is not profound ;
yet even those who are engaged in advanced research
may find interest in perusing them. This applies with
special force to an excellent review of modern physics
by Prof. Millikan. Though perhaps none the worse for
the fact, the volume is a little unbalanced, articles of
general importance being placed side by side with those
dealing with such special topics as methods of gas
warfare, the physiology of the aviator, and the measure-
ment of brain-power. The inclusion of these is a
reflection of the preoccupations of war time; and if
their interest has waned, they serve to mark points
in history. Atomic structure, engineering (Parsons),
enzymes (Lister), duration of life, bacteriology (Flexner).
psychoanalysis and Einstein, will serve as clues to the
scope of the volume.
112 NATURE [JuLy 22, 1922
2 that, of the molecules passing through O, on the
Letters to the Editor. whole more than half will be reflected by AB or CD
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for | and less than half will pass through AD, since they
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
Cosmical Theory and Radioactivity.
Str ERNEST RUTHERFORD in his book “ Radio-
active Substances and their Radiations’”’ has sug-
gested the possibility that solar heat may be supplied
from radioactive energy derived from elements which
had become radioactive under the extreme thermal
conditions prevailing.
As possibly having bearings on cosmical theory
(formation of nebule, planetary genesis, etc.) I
would direct attention to the probability that such
induced radioactivity would be attended with
explosive phenomena on a very great scale and of
extreme intensity.
Let it be assumed that in some deep-seated region
of the sun the temperature has attained a potential
critical for some element present—that is to say,
adequate to disturb the atomic stability of this
element. Now normal radioactivity results from
internal atomic causes and the radioactive constant
is statistical in origin, like a death-rate. But here
instability is induced from without inwards. It
seems, therefore, difficult to imagine that a normal
radioactive constant can control the resultant effects.
What will happen must resemble no mere death-rate
based on statistics, but rather the mortality brought
about by earthquake or flood. A large number of
the specific atoms would be affected and a very great
local rise in temperature would follow. There is,
now, the further probability that this sudden rise
will involve yet other elements in the catastrophe.
If this inference is justified, explosive phenomena
in suns and nebule so far from being unaccountable
must be regarded as inevitable, as being associated
with gravitative attraction and the internal properties
of the atom.
It is to be expected that such explosive phenomena
would diminish in frequency and intensity as time
advanced and elements of higher atomic weight
became degraded. Thus, in primeval times, our sun
may have been many times rent by such explosions.
There appears to be evidence that central explosions
of great violence occasionally occur even to-day.
How would the principle of the conservation of
moment of momentum fare under conditions involv-
ing the translation of internal atomic energy into
molar forms ? OLY
Trinity College, Dublin, July 9.
Gas Pressures and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.
In the June Philosophical Magazine Mr. Fairbourne
endeavours to prove that in certain easily attainable
cases the second law of thermodynamics might be
circumvented. He attempts to show that if an en-
closure be divided by a partition, the chance that a
molecule of a rarefied gas will pass the partition,
from the space I to the space II, may be modified,
by a funnel, without affecting the chance of passing
from II to I, so that a pressure difference will arise.
He considers the simple case, shown in Fig. I, of a
right-angled “‘ funnel’ in two dimensions only, trun-
cated so that the diameter at the end BC is twice
that at AD. Taking a point O on BC he shows
NO. 2751, VOL. I10]
can approach from an angle 7 while the angle be-
tween the limiting paths by which they can get
through is in general less than 7/2. He deduces that
of 2N molecules striking BC in a given time less than
N will pass through AD, while all of the N molecules
reaching AD from the other side in the same time
will cross it, so that on the whole more will come
from II to I than vice versa.
The error in this argument lies in the fact that it
is impossible to construct a line BC out of a number
of points O; it is necessary to define the tolerance
before one can say whether molecules have passed
through O or not. As soon as this is done (by taking
an element of length d/ at O, and defining passage
through O as passage through this length), it is clear
that the chance of “ passing through O” is not
independent of the angle of incidence @, but is pro-
portional to cos #, since di is foreshortened for ob-
liquely moving molecules. In any given case it will
now be found that the total number of paths leading”
through AD is the same on both sides of the partition
ZZ’. However, the following general proof of this
equality should save the trouble of integrating par-
ticular cases. It applies to three dimensions and any
shape of funnel.
It is clear that before the funnel (AB,DC) was
added to the partition the chances of passing from
Ii
Fic. I.
II to I and from I to II were equal, and that adding
the funnel does not alter the chance of passing from
Il tol. Ifit is to have an effect then it must decrease
the number of paths from I to II. But for every
such path XY which it blocks it introduces a new
path X’Y, and this is true of every point in any
funnel. This result is of course well known in geo-
metrical optics ; if it were incorrect any temperature
and energy density of radiation would be obtainable
without work.
It may also be remarked that there is not only
molecular roughness in even a polished wall, but
thermal agitation of all the molecules of the wall;
the argument that if the wall reflects light it should
“reflect ’’ a molecule is vitiated by the fact that the
wave-length of visible light is about a thousand
molecular diameters ; and the argument that even if
the direction of rebound is fortuitous the funnel
should have an effect defies elementary hydrostatic
theory.
Lastly, the mean free path of the molecules is
irrelevant. Mr. Fairbourne assumes that his theory
would not apply if there were a large proportion of
encounters between gaseous molecules ; but it is clear
that if the effect of the funnel is to give on the whole
a bias away from II to the average molecule striking
it, it cannot matter whether that molecule retains
the bias or hands it on to another in an encounter.
JULY 22, 1922
NATURE 113
The effect, if there were one, should be proportional
to the number of molecules striking the funnel per
second, z.e. to the total pressure.
R. pD’E. ATKINSON.
Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, June 1.
In reply to Mr. R. d’E. Atkinson’s letter, I should
like to point out that, while his conclusion is un-
doubtedly true with regard to light, it is by no means
clear that analogy justifies his extension of this
conclusion to the molecular problem under con-
sideration in my paper. The fundamental conception
of unchanging uniform concentration would appear
incorrect when applied to particles proceeding
between collision centres and entering a minute vessel,
the diameter of which is considerably less than the
mean free path of the gas concerned. This confusion
of issue, introduced by regarding the problem of
light as identical with that I was considering, may
perhaps be brought out most clearly by the following
calculation, which is almost identical with the one
Mr. Atkinson suggests would be possible.
If ABCD (Fig. I) is the figure dealt with in the
paper, and DH, AF, PE all be inclined at angle a to
BC, while DI is perpendicular to BC, and D’ is the
D'
Ficiexs
mirrored image of D with respect to BZ, P being
the point on BZ such that angle EPB is equal to
angle DPA, then the following relationships may be
calculated.
Case 1, where a is not less than angle D’BC. By
the usual laws of reflection, light approaching BC
from below, approximately at angle a, must pass out
at AD if it enters between E and H, but will be
returned through BC if it enters either between B
and E or between H and C,
EH=EF+FH=PG+a=acota+a.
Case 2, where a is not less than angle DBC, and is
not more than angle D’BC. In this case only light
entering between b and H will escape through AD.
Boe ph Ht= sq 24
2 tana
=a(14—4 cota).
Case 3, where a is less than angle DBC. In this
case all the light will necessarily be returned through
BC. Where cis greater than aright angle these three
cases are merely duplicated.
Hence, if equal light intensity in all directions be
assumed, and if A be taken as a constant represent-
ing its uniform concentration, then the ratio of the
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
amount of light which passes from AD to BC to that
which passes from BC to AD in unit time must be
ra4—=90°
Afasina. da
J @=0°%
| ra=go° ra= 4D’ BC |
ae Af(a+a cota) sina. da+A| a(t} -}cot a) sina. da
| Ja=zD’BC J a=LDBC
| ra=go° fo— 2D’ BE
=Aa@: + Aa | (sin a+cos a)da+ Aa | (14sin a —} cos a)da -
| Ja=cD/BC J a=LDBC |
= Aa: Aa (0-643 +0-357), approximately,
=Aa: Aa.
The above integration to equality is essentially
dependent upon the axiomatic acceptance of the
unchanging existence of equal concentrations or
Fic. 2.
intensities in all directions, uniformly throughout the
medium in which the cone is placed. Such unchanging
uniformity of concentration might be presumed to
exist in perfectly diffused light, but it cannot exist
in gases, since changes of concentration occur as
intermolecular collisions, and must be important in
relation to the entering of vessels considerably smaller
than the mean free path of the gas. The light
problem is one of flow; the molecular problem may
be regarded as one of (interrupted) oscillation, at
least to a large extent.
If each of the little circles in Fig. 2 be taken to
represent equal areas (or spheres if three dimensions are
being considered), the probability of molecules pro-
ceeding outwards, from collision in one of these
circles, along a path X, is equal to that of their
proceeding from collision, in that same or any other
equal circle, along a path Y, this being true however
many circles are under consideration, even in the
limit of their occupying the whole space within free
path distances from the cone. If two directions, X and
Y, are considered for a large number of such circles,
regularly placed so as to be representative of the
equal probability of collision in all parts, it is obvious
that molecules approaching BC along directions X
)
!
!
'
'
'
'
'
)
necemco RRO E Cea Resa
x
Fic. 3.
and Y, and starting from collision sources, do not
cross BC in numbers proportional to the sines of the
angles of these paths with BC, as has to be assumed
in light calculations such as the one above, which
may be illustrated by Fig. 3 where no collisions occur,
D 2
114
and where the light approaches in two regular streams
of equal concentration. The difference is due to the
position of the opening BC relative to collision centres
below it within less than free path distances, from
which the approaching molecules will start, with
equal probability of movement in all directions. The
molecular problem would thus appear to approximate
to the simple statement in my paper, in which the
“points O’’ may consequently be regarded as little
elements of area, and to be quite different from light
calculations such as the one worked out above.
In connexion with Mr. Atkinson’s claim that ele-
mentary principles would be defied if an effect were
to occur, it is not obvious why this should be so
(provided, as has always been emphasised, that the
apparatus shall be sufficiently small to deal with the
oscillations or movements of molecules individually),
any more than in the case of the energy of a swinging
pendulum being converted into useful external work
by the agency of suitable mechanism.
The argument that if light is reflected, then
molecules must actually be so similarly, to which
Mr. Atkinson strongly objects, does not appear
in my paper, where, in fact, the exact opposite is
stated (page 1053, line 26), although such reflection,
as an average effect, is not regarded as being im-
possible. ARTHUR FAIRBOURNE.
King’s College, University of London,
Strand, W.C.2, June 22.
Polarisation of Diffused Light under the Sea.
I rook advantage of a recent opportunity to make
some observations on polarisation of the diffused
light in sea-water, using a detector consisting of
four quartz prisms made up on the De Senarmont
principle, combined with a Nicol. The depth was
30 feet, the sea-water very clear, and the day cloudy,
with no trace of sky polarisation. The diffused light
at the bottom was quite strongly polarised, the water
behaving like a turbid medium observed at right
angles to the incident beam, the plane of polarisation
being perpendicular to the surface.
The greatest intensity was in the horizontal
direction, diminishing rapidly as the angle of elevation
increased, and disappearing completely long before
the direction became nearly vertical. Repeated
observations created a strong impression that the
direction of maximum polarisation was not exactly
horizontal, but very slightly inclined downwards.
However, the difference, if any, was so small that it
must be regarded as doubtful.
I should have liked to repeat observations on a
day of blue sky, but the opportunity did not arise.
The light from the sandy bottom and from a white
plate did not show any trace of polarisation.
Apart from polarisation, it was interesting to
observe the surface. It is not easy to look vertically
upwards in a diver’s helmet, but there was evidently
a circular luminous area directly overhead, rapidly
falling off in intensity without any sharpness of tran-
sition. It was a kind of inverse penumbra effect.
E. E. Brooks.
Leicester City Technical School, June 30, 1922.
Discoveries in Tropical Medicine.
In Nature of June 24 Sir Ray Lankester repeats
his statement that the transmission of Fvlaria
bancrofti from infected to healthy men through the
intermediation of the mosquito is not a sufficiently
established fact. I trust you will permit me to state,
for the benefit of those of your readers who may be
puzzled by an assertion so discordant with current
teaching, that at this school we shall always be happy
to demonstrate sections of mosquitoes and of human
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
NATHOTCE
[JuLy 22, 1922
lymphatic gland that show the facts of that trans-
mission,
With regard to Sir Ray Lankester’s other em-
phasised statement that “Manson did mot discover
the part played by the mosquito ”’ in this transmission,
we shall be happy to show Manson’s original charts
and drawings made in Amoy, and other necessary
evidence that Manson did follow out the development
of the embryonic and larval Filaria bancrofti in the
stomach and body-cavity of the mosquito. This
evidence, quite apart from any additions to it or
corrected inferences from it, establishes the essential
fact that the insect is the vital agent of transmission,
since it releases the imprisoned embryo from the
blood-vessels of its host, nourishes it until certain
necessary organs are developed, and thus enables
it to make a start in life. A. ALCOCK.
London School of Tropical Medicine,
Endsleigh Gardens, Euston Road, N.W.1,
July 5.
Ourameeba.
WirH regard to the notes by Messrs. Rowley and
Kirkpatrick in Nature of July 8, on the occurrence
of Leidy’s genus Ouramceba in England, it may be of
interest to record that I have recently (a few days
before their letters were published) found one speci-
men of Ameba proteus in this condition, 7.e. infected
with a parasitic alga. I was very much interested,
because I have never encountered anything like
Ouramceba in the neighbourhood of Manchester,
where I have chiefly collected.
I have not Leidy’s book with me now for reference,
but am familiar with his figures, and have no doubt
whatever that the specimen which I found corre-
sponds exactly with his genus Ouramceba. It wasa
typical Ameba proteus, with filaments of the parasitic
alga projecting fanwise in two tufts, one tuft on each
side, nearer the end which was posterior in progression.
Its vitality certainly was not impaired in any way.
This specimen was taken from a small tarn near
Crag House farm, not far from Windermere. The tarn
lies at the summit of a ridge, the altitude of which is
given as 700 feet on the Ordnance Survey map. It
should be emphasised that, although the tarn contains
ordinary Ameba proteus in fair abundance, only
one specimen has so far been seen which was infected
with the alga. The other fauna of the tarn include
very numerous Thecamcebida, some _ Flagellata,
Ciliata, desmids, diatoms, etc., a fauna which
corresponds fairly closely with that dealt with by
Leidy in his book, and which is probably typical
of open moorland country at high altitudes.
Ameba proteus is found in other tarns in this
neighbourhood ; but I have never seen any other
specimen infected with the alga from these other
localities, although, since reading Mr. Rowley’s letter,
I have again searched fresh material.
; G. LAPAGE.
Bowness-on-Windermere, July ro.
Histological Stains.
With reference to Dr. Nierenstein’s remark (July 8,
p. 33) that the British dye industry would do well
to pay attention to the supply of dyes suitable for
histological work, it should be recorded that in 1919,
when pathologists here had a difficulty in getting
satisfactory stains, the Pathological Society of Great
Britain and Ireland approached Dr. Levinstein in the
matter and received from his organisation ample and
most useful help which carried us on until reasonably
good stains became available again through the
ordinary trade channels. A. E. Boycorr:
July 8.
JULY 22, 1922]
NATURE
The Structure of Organic Crystals.1
By Sir Witttam Brace, K.B.E., F.R.S.
T may be said with truth that modern advances in
physical science are due in the main to the
acquisition of the power to handle the individual atom.
Until the present time we have always attacked the
problems of matter by examining the behaviour of
atoms or molecules in groups. The new powers arise
in two ways :—
In the first the individual atom is endowed with
excessive speed and energy, and is able to make its
individuality felt on this account. The a-particle of
the radioactive radiations is a helium atom moving
with a speed of the order of one-tenth of that of light.
While in possession of the relatively tremendous energy
which the speed implies it can, unaided, make a visible
impression on a fluorescent screen. It can pass
through thousands of other atoms without sensible
deviation and, if occasionally it suffers violent deflec-
tion, it has penetrated to the very core of the atom
which has deflected it. Rutherford has shown us what
important deductions can be drawn as to the construc-
tion of the atom by examining these rare and sharp
deviations, and is going even further in examining the
shattering effect which the deflecting atom may itself
experience. So also, the electron endowed with
sufficient speed can traverse matter and bring about
its ionisation and other effects of great interest, but if
its velocity becomes less than one million metres per
second this free existence disappears. It is attached
to the first atom it meets.
The second method of attack upon the individual
atom proceeds on very different lines. It is by way of
the mutual action of X-rays and crystals. When we are
examining things by eyesight we follow the influence
of the objects that we look at upon the waves of light.
If we wish to penetrate deeper into the minute, we take
advantage of the optical effects of lenses and build
microscopes: but, even then we cannot attack indi-
vidual objects containing less than many thousands
of individual atoms. A limit is set by the difficulty
that light cannot show us the form of things which
are much smaller than the wave length of the light
itself. With the aid of the very short waves known
as X-rays we can make our way down to objects ten
thousand times smaller, but by itself this extension of
our powers would be inefficient, because the effect due
to one atom or one unit of pattern would be inappreci-
able. Here lies the value of the crystal, which, being
an ageregate of some small atomic pattern repeated
again and again through space, shows up on a measur-
able scale the properties of the atoms in the single unit.
By the combination of X-ray and crystal we can
examine the very foundations of material construction.
It is difficult to set a limit to what may be the con-
sequences of the exercise of these powers since we can
now examine all physical effects, so to speak, at their
source, and must in the end be able to refer all the
physical and chemical properties of materials to the
properties of the individual atoms and their mutual
forces. So far the new methods have scarcely begun
to show their full strength. A few inorganic crystals
have been examined with a view of discovering
1 Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, May 19.
WO. 2751, VOL. 110]
their structure, but the new field of research is barely
entered. Inviting roads lie before us pointing in
numerous directions.
Very little has yet been done in the way of applying
the new methods to the structure of organic crystals,
although no study could be more tempting. Their vast
variety of form, the perfection of their structure, their
importance, all urge us forward, and especially the fact
that the whole progress of organic chemistry shows
that the science depends upon laws of position with
which the X-rays are especially qualified to deal. The
difficulty at the outset lies in the complexity. In the
naphthalene molecule there are 18 atoms: in what
way can we expect by means of X-rays to solve the
intricate problem of their relative positions ? Our
first attempts to solve inorganic crystals depended for
their success upon two facts :—
The first, the simplicity of the structures which were
attacked.
The second, the guidance derived from the principles
of crystallographic symmetry.
The determination of the structure of rocksalt
opened a way to further determinations of such simple
crystals as the diamond, zinc blende, fluorspar, and
others. In all these the principles of symmetry
supplemented the knowledge derived from the examina-
tion of the intensities of X-ray reflection by the various
crystal planes. As the work has proceeded in the
hands of observers in many countries, other principles
have emerged or are emerging which render further
and very valuable aid so that problems appear to be
coming within our grasp that not long ago seemed most
difficult of solution.
Of these principles, one began to appear in con-_
sequence of the very earliest results. It was a very
striking fact that in crystals of polar substances the
molecule seemed to disappear; it was in fact dis-
sociated, and the structure of the crystal depended
upon the grouping of the positive ions round the
negative and of the negative ions round the positive.
In rocksalt each metal atom is surrounded by six atoms
of chlorine and vice versa. If we accept this as an
indication of the general character of such structures,
adding to it the condition that every atom is to be
like every other atom of its own kind in respect to
relative distances and orientations of all its neighbours,
it becomes possible to foretell the probable form of
structure, using the X-ray methods for subsequent
verification. This method of proceeding may be very
much easier than if it were taken in the reverse way.
We might for example have gone far to foretell the
structure of fluorspar. It is an ionic compound in
which the calcium atoms are doubly charged and
fluorines are singly charged. Each positive is to be
surrounded, therefore, by twice as many neighbours as
each negative by positive. The fluorspar structure
in which the metal atoms are arranged at the corners
and the face centres of the cube, while the fluorines lie
at the centres of the eight small cubes into which the
larger ones can be divided is one of the very few regular
ways in which this numerical relation of 2 to r can be
carried out. So also in ice, the 2 to 1 arrangement is
116
NATURE
[JuLy 22, 1922
carried out in a second of these ways, the relative
numbers of neighbours being four to two. It is the
lightest and most open of the 2 to 1 structures, and is
consistent with the low specific gravity of ice and with
the possibility of compressing the substance into denser
forms: at the same time it shows the six-pointed
arrangement and the featheriness of the snow crystal.?
The earlier results at the same time showed that in
the diamond we had a construction of very different
properties and nature. Here the atoms are electrically
neutral and are bound to one another, not by electrical
attraction from centre to centre, but by a more intimate
process which probably consists in some way of a
sharing of structural electrons. The diamond is on
this account the hardest of known substances.
These considerations amount to a recognition that
the bonds between the atoms may be of very
different characters though it may be difficult to draw
hard and fast lines between them. We can say that
there is a very strong electron sharing bond of which
the diamond is typical, and that there are ionic bonds
in polar compounds which in general are of a weaker
character, as, for example, in rocksalt, though on the
other hand they may be strong when, as in the ruby,
the ionic charges are large.
Lastly, there is a third type, which is found in the
organic crystal, where it would appear that the separate
molecule can be distinguished. The atoms in each
molecule are strongly tied together, but the forces that
bind molecule to molecule may be described as residual.
They would appear to be weak fields concentrated at
definite points on the molecule, the positive and
negative charges to which they are due lying
within it.
The second principle which emerged fairly early in
the experiments was described by my son in an address
which he gave in this Institution some time ago.? We
may call it the principle of radu of combination. The
distance between the centre of one atom and the centre
of a neighbour can in many cases be measured with
great accuracy : we can compare these distances when
substitutions are made in isomorphous compounds.
The replacement of fluorine by chlorine, chlorine by
bromine, bromine by iodine in a series of salts produces
changes in the distances which imply that the radius
of any one of the atoms mentioned may be treated as
a constant within the range of the substitution con-
sidered. The accuracy is amply sufficient to give
useful assistance in crystal analysis. It would not be
true, however, to say that each atom has an invariable
radius, and indeed the original statement of the prin-
ciple purposely refrained from going so far. It is not
right to speak of the radius of an atom; it is better to
speak of a radius of combination. We may take an
illustration from the behaviour of arsenic, antimony,
and bismuth. The crystals of these substances are
trigonal in form,* plainly showing that the properties
of each atom are not the same in all directions within
the crystal: in fact, analysis shows that each atom is
fastened to three on one side of it by much closer bonds
than to three atoms on the other side. One bonding
resembles more closely that of the diamond, the other
* Proc. Phys. Soc., London, vol. xxxiv. pt. 3, p. 98.
3 See Phil. Mag., Aug. 1920.
4 James and Tunstall, Phil. Mag., Aug. 1920 and July 1921; Ogg, Phil.
Mag., July 1921.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
ee
that of a metal where free electrons keep the atoms
together by electrostatic attraction. It may be said
that the atom behaves as a metal on one side and a
non-metal on the other. At any rate, there are two
radu of combination varying with the nature of the
bond. The metallic bond is the weak one and the
cleavage plane cuts only through such bonds. It
seems very likely that in this way we can understand
the formation of crystals of different type when these
elements enter into their composition. For example,
in the cubic form of senarmontite (Sb,O,) the atoms of
antimony are completely separated ; each touches six
atoms of oxygen, while each oxygen touches four atoms
of antimony. Antimony is here behaving as a metal
only, so that we represent it in a model as a sphere,
and the uniform spheres of antimony and of oxygen
naturally build into a simple crystal. It is a cube in
which the atoms of antimony occupy the corners and
centres of the faces while the six oxygen atoms lie at
the centres of six of the eight small cubes into which
the large one can be divided.
There is, however, an alternative form of Sb,O,
known as valentinite, which is ortho-rhombic. Analysis,
so far as it has gone, though it is not yet complete,
points emphatically to the conclusion that here atoms of
antimony are pairing, the bonds between the members
of a pair being of the stronger variety already referred
to. We now have an elementary body of a dumb-bell
shape which, when forming part of the crystal structure,
will naturally cause a deviation from a simple cube.
Yet again, there are principles which are barely
established as yet, though it seems probable that they
will be found of material assistance in analysis. The
greater expansion of some crystals in certain directions
than in others.seems to depend upon the nature of the
bonds. Bismuth expands more along the axis than
across it, as we might expect from the fact that in the
one expansion the weak bonds alone can be operative.
In the same way diamond has an extremely small
expansion co-efficient because all the bonds are of the
strongest kind, but in graphite, on the other hand, the
expansion along the axis may be described as enormous.
Mr. Backhurst finds an increase in length of 3 per cent.
for a rise of goo°C. At the same time, so far as can
be inferred, the expansion across the axis is still quite
small. In one case weak bonds only are concerned,
in the other, strong bonds of the same kind as in the
diamond.
It is when all these considerations are taken
into account that it seems possible to make an
attempt upon the structure of the organic crystals.
They are, of course, very complex; naphthalene
contains ro atoms of carbon and 8 atoms of hydrogen,
and our ability to interpret X-ray evidence, that is to
say, the relative intensities of reflection by the different
planes in different orders, is not sufficiently advanced
to enable us to place so many atoms in their proper
position in the cell from this evidence alone. We can
readily find the size of the unit cell, show that there
are two molecules in it, and that the points, each of
which represents a whole molecule, are to be placed as
is shown in Fig. 1, but without some further help we
can frame no hypothesis on which to proceed.
Suppose now that we compare the structures of
diamond and graphite. As my son showed long ago,
i A age
a
JULY 22, 1922]
NATORE
7
the structure of graphite must be derivable from that
of the diamond by separating to nearly double their
previous distance the sheets of atoms parallel to one
of the cleavage planes of the latter crystal. The
question has been very carefully considered more
recently by Hull in America and by Debye and Scherrer
on the Continent in the hope of findmg more exactly
the details of the movement : they do not quite agree.
Naphthalene, Anthracene.
Fic. 1.—Unit cells of naphthalene and anthracene drawn
to the same scale.
OA=a. OB=b OC=c
Naphthalene 8-34 6:05 8-69
Anthracene 7 6-1 11-6
é . o bE
Naphthalene a =BOC=90°, B=COA=122° 40’, y=AOB=g0°
Anthracene a=BOC=g90°, B=COA=124° 24’, y=AOB=90°.
Fig. 2 represents the change as described by Hull.
The bonds between the atoms in each sheet are un-
affected apparently, but those between sheet and sheet
are replaced by something much weaker. The diamond
is typical of hardness, the graphite is used as a lubricant.
If the hexagonal rings of which the sheets are formed
have survived this violent change, why not suppose
that they may survive the further change when the
sheets break up into ring structures? In other words,
suppose that the benzene ring Is really a fact, not merely
a diagram ; the distance between atom and atom in
©
Fic. 2.—The fine lines of the diagram show the structure of graphite. By
moving the top layer to the position shown by the broken lines the
diamond structure is obtained.
the ring is 1-54 A.U. as in the diamond, and perhaps.
we may add that the atoms are not all in one plane,
but are arranged, as may be seen in Fig. 3. We
then proceed to test this hypothesis by finding whether
we can fit together molecules of the assumed size and
shape into the cells which hold them. From X-ray
studies we know the exact form and dimensions of
the cells, and can learn also much concerning the
relative distributions of the molecules within them.
It appears at once that in the few simple cases which
have been examined an excellent fit is possible and,
more than that, we find encouraging signs that the
structural idea has been chosen rightly. For instance,
the comparison of the cells of naphthalene and anthra-
cene, one a two-ring, the other a three-ring combination,
NO. 2751, VOL. I10]
shows that two of the axes of the cell remain constant
while the third has grown by an amount which is nearly
the width of the benzene ring. From these and various
other indications we build a structure such as is repre-
sented in Figs. 3 and 4. It would seem that the
molecules are linked together side to side more strongly
than from end to end, and that is why these and similar
crystals cleave across the end or / position.
Fic. 3.—Showing mutual relations of three naphthalene molecules
and parts of others.
The unshaded circles between the two cleavage planes represent a molecule
as at Q (Fig. 1). The shaded represent molecules B and F in the same
figure. The small circles represent hydrogen atoms, but their size is un-
certain. Rae
Diameter of carbon atom=1:50. BH=4-92. Projection of AD on the
plane of the diagram=2:50, Benzene ring consists of atoms A... F only,
If we examine a-naphthol in which hydrogen at the
side of the naphthalene molecule has been replaced by
an OH group, we find that the standard cell contains
four molecules, which is what we should expect, for each
of the four « positions must be represented. When
the OH group is taken from the side and put at the
end, we find that the cell has shrunk sideways and
grown lengthways by the amount we should expect
to result from the addition of an oxygen atom. When
as in acenaphthene a complex group of atoms is
attached to one side of the molecule and the crystal
Fic. 4.—Section of naphthalene cell perpendicular to the axis of c,
showing a-hydrogens connecting the molecules side to side.
to our surprise becomes more regular than before,
right angled instead of oblique, we find an explanation
in the fact that there are now four molecules within
the cell instead of two, and that by sloping in pairs in
opposite ways they increase the symmetry of the
crystal.
These examples may serve to show how an attempt
may be made to arrive at a knowledge of the structure
of these organic compounds with, I think, some success.
It seems justifiable to see in the rigid and queerly
shaped molecule attaching itself at definite points,
and with great precision of orientation to neighbouring
molecules, a cause of the immense multiplicity and, at
the same time, the accurate form of organic crystals,
and indeed to find here the foundations of organic
chemistry.
118
NAROTE
[JuLy 22, 1922
The Action of Cutting Tools.
By Prof. E. G. Coxer, F.R.S.
> NGINEERING activity is so largely dependent on
~ the action of cutting tools, that it is not surprising
to find a very large amount of research work has been
devoted to its study, and at the present time there are
in England two committees actively pursuing researches
in this field, in addition to private investigators. At
the suggestion of the Cutting Tools Research Com-
Fic. 1.—Steel tool planing a strip of nitro-cellulose.
mittee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, of
which Sir John Dewrance is chairman, some experi-
mental studies of a preliminary character have been
made recently at University College, London, on
transparent bodies subjected to the action of cutting
tools, and the double refraction produced by stress
has been used to measure the stress distribution in the
cut material. Similar experiments have also been
carried out on some glass-cutting tools used for turning
and planing operations.
The photo-elastic method has many advantages over
direct experiment on metals, as up to and, in fact,
well beyond the elastic limit of the trans-
parent nitro-cellulose used, the stress distri-
bution produced can be measured with
considerable accuracy at all points in
a disk or flat plate under the action of a
tool. The optical effects give, at once, a
measure of the difference of the principal
stresses at a point, the lateral contrac-
tions afford a measure of their sum, and
the isoclinic lines map out the directions
of the stresses. Existing literature shows
how very difficult it is to obtain similar
information from the metal itself when
under the action of a tool. Since the
distributions are similar up to the elastic
limit of each material, owing to the
absence of elastic constants in the funda-
mental equation v*y=o, there are
obvious advantages in a study of the
characteristics of cutting tools by these means. The
general phenomena observed when a tool is cutting
are shown in Fig. 1, where a steel tool is planing a plate
of nitro-cellulose in a circularly polarised field of light.
It will be observed that colour bands spring from the
cutting edge of the tool and curve round in approxi-
mately circular arcs to meet the boundary, indicating
the existence of variable radial compression stress in
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
tool.
ISOCLINIC LINES
the area in” front of the tool, and a similar state of
tensional stress behind it. Measurements of the
principal stresses and their inclinations show that
this 1s approximately what obtains, and a very fair
idea of the stress conditions in the material can be
obtained from the photograph if radial lines are drawn
in all directions from the point of the tool to intersect
the colour bands. The outer bands pass through all
points at which the stress is 1150 pounds per square
inch, for the sharply defined boundary between the
purple and the blue, and the succeeding ones reckoning
inwardly mark stresses of twice and three times this
value. The fourth band indicates possibly a somewhat
different stress intensity than its numerical order
warrants, owing to its close proximity to the black
area in which intense plastic stress is developed at
and near the cutting edge of the tool. An interesting
feature is the partial recovery of the material, for the
black area is met with only at this place. The shaving
again shows brilliant colour effects after it has finally
left the tool, but later becomes obscured, again owing
to the further curl developed due to contact with the
parent material.
Careful measurements show, however, that the
actual state of stress, excluding the plastic field, is
somewhat more complicated. The stress is never
quite radial, and the isoclinics are therefore not straight
lines, but are always curved somewhat, as indicated in
Fig. 2, which shows a set of isoclinics obtained from
a disk of about six inches in diameter when subjected
to the action of a turning tool with a somewhat acute
cutting angle. The lines of principal stress confirm
this, and the valves of the minor principal stresses
appear to be small in the cases examined so far, and to
a first approximation the distribution of principal
LINES OF PRINCIPAL | STRESSES
Dotted line shows position of the red
band of 1st order.
Fic. 2.—Isoclinics and lines of principal stress in a disk under the action of an edge-turning
From the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, by permission of
the Council.
stresses RR and 00 may be taken to be of the type
RR =(—2P/z) . cos 6/r
where 90 is small, and the angles are measured from
the radial black brush dividing the tension from the
compression area. The position of this latter brush
1“ An Account of some Experiments on the Action of Cutting Tools,”’
by Prof. E. G. Coker and Dr. K. C. Chakko, Proceedings of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers, 1922.
JULY 22, 1922]
NATURE
119
depends on the cutting angle of the tool, and also
upon its rake and clearance, “but inv estigation has not
proceeded far enough as yet to define accurately the
influence which each element has upon its position.
A somewhat remarkable change from these conditions
is produced when the cutting edge is not so perfectly
sharp as it is possible to make it. It then becomes
apparent that the shaving is no longer cut from the
main body, but is broken or torn away by the continual
forcing of a wedge between the shaving and the main
body of the material, after the latter “has once been
penetrated. The shaving breaks away at a point A
above the cutting edge (Fig 3), mainly owing to the
FIG. 3.
bending action exerted by the raking face of the tool,and
isso much oyerstressed at this place that all colour effects
are obliterated. An intense and permanent black
patch is therefore produced separated by a less stressed
part B, in which plastic stress colour effects are observ-
able from a similarly much more overstressed part C
immediately preceding. These effects are repeated
at regular intervals as is indicated in Fig. 3 in 4
somewhat diagrammatic form, and are accompanied
by a rhythmic pulsation of the colour bands in
phase with this phenomenon. The tearing away of
the shaving in this manner produces a rough uneven
surface on the material, which in planed work is
therefore not truly flat, and in turned work is not
pertectly cylindrical. It is probable that this in-
fluences the character and kind of chip produced in
brittle materials, as it undoubtedly influences the
shaving from an elastic material which is capable of
assuming a plastic condition. Moreover, it is some-
times found that when this latter condition occurs the
tool is acting in a two-fold capacity, for not only does
it break off a shavi ing, but it may also pare off the
irregularities as the point of the tool comes in contact
with them, so that occasionally a second and much
thinner shaving, D, is produced, and peeled off as
indicated in Fig. 3, by a true secondary cutting action.
Double shavings are sometimes produced in this
manner when steel is turned ina lathe, and it is probable
that the fine powder, which can often be observed
falling away from a tool working on cast iron, is due
to this secondary cutting action.
In tools with multiple « cutting edges the same general
features of stress distribution are observed in the
NO. 2751, VOL. I10]
material. They are sometimes accompanied by addi-
tional phenomena, as, for example, with the milling
Fic. 4.—Steel milling cutter operating on a plate of nitro-cellulose.
cutter, shown in Fig. 4, where the depth of cut is
variable owing to the uniform movement of the
material up to the cutting edges, which are also turning
at a definite and uniform rate. The shaving cut from
the trochoidal contour is continuously increasing in
thickness therefore, as the cut advances, and in the
LOAD LINE
Fic. 5.—Isoclinic lines and colour bands observed and calculated for a
wedge of angle 60° when a load of 50 pounds is applied at an angle
of 20° with the axis. Colour bands observed are shown in full lines;
equivalent stress lines given by theory are shown dotted. From the
Proceedings of the Institution of Mec hanical Engineers, by permission
of the Council.
present instance is being torn off rather than cut, as
the characteristic markings for this kind of action
occur in a very pronounced manner. If sufficient
travel is given to the work, the separate lobed colour
bands springing from each cutting edge, and denoting
approximate radial stress, ultimately coalesce before
120
NATURE
[JULY 22, 1922
the end of the cut, and the stress distribution becomes
much more complicated. :
The stress in glass tools when cutting nitro-cellulose
has been studied, and it is found that w hen the material
is being removed in a thin shaving by a true cutting
action the stress system is of a ‘simple radial type.
The colour bands are very nearly arcs of circles
passing through the cutting edge as indicated in
Fig. 3, and are such as would be produced by the
action of a concentrated force applied at this place.
They are, in fact, of the same type as those obtained
when a non-axial force is applied at the apex of a wedge,
giving isoclinic curves and colour bands (Fig. 5), all of
which pass through this point up to the yield point
of the material. “The centres of the circular arcs of
these latter bands all lie upon a line passing through
the apex and perpendicular to the dark band shown
in Fig. 5, which marks the region of no stress. They
are, therefore, approximately consistent with Michell’s
theory of stress in a wedge,t and have been shown
z Proceedings of the London Mathematic al Society, vol. xxxiv.
and Love’s ‘‘ Theory of Elasticity,” 2nd edition, pp. 208-209.
, 1902,
experimentally, in the paper referred to above, to be
in good agreement therewith along the line of action
of the applied force. The stress system is found to be
almost entirely radial and expressed by
Ftd ed)
y
along this line—where a is the inclination of the outer
face to the line of centres of the colour bands, and ¢ is
the inclination of the applied force to the same face.
Along each colour band /7 is practically constant. The
value of the constant ¢ is also expressible in terms of
the force P, the angle « and the angle y of the wedge.
The stress system in the case when the material is
being torn off by the action of the raking face of the
wedge angle of the tool has not, so far, been made out.
Experiment shows, however, that it is of a more
complicated type, especially when the action is accom-
panied by the building up of a secondary wedge on the
tool from the material torn off in a manner which is
familiar to those engaged’ in machinery operations
involving heavy cuts.
The New Building of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.
By Dr.
ie 1863 Henry Wilson, United States Senator from
Massachusetts, asked a number of men eminent
in science to come together to form an organisation by
which the scientific strength of the country might be
brought to the aid of the government. This meeting
was directly the result of an Act of Congress passed
March 3, 1863, incorporating the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States’ of America. While
Senator Wilson presumably had aid and suggestions
from the incorporators, the bill had its inception with,
and was drawn by him, and did not incorporate the
Academy in any state or territory, or in the District
of Columbia. It seems to have been his idea that
the Academy should be national in its broadest
sens 2.
The Academy has held its annual meetings in
Washington at the Smithsonian Institution and its
autumn meetings in other cities. Joseph Henry was
president for many years and at the same time secre-
tary of the Institution. The records and library of
the Academy have been stored in several hundred
boxes at the Institution, awaiting such time as the
Academy may have a building of its own where this
material can be made available.
The semi-centennial in 1913 gave new life to the
activities of the Academy, and the foreign secretary,
Dr. George E. Hale, proposed then that the Academy
should have a home. He prepared tentative plans
and had them put in shape by an architect. These
plans provided laboratories and a library for the
use of the Academy and resident men of science for
research work.
The project was not to be long delayed, for the
world war coming in 1914 changed and broadened
the thought of the world. What started to be a battle
of armed forces turned to competition between the
countries at war in creative scientific research, looking
1 Paper read before the National Academy of Sciences on April 24.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
. D. Watcott.t
to the destruction of masses instead of individuals.
This led to the need in the United States of a body that
could bring together the most able men in the fields
of science for the solution of war problems. Dr. Hale,
conceiving the need for such a service long before it
was an actual necessity, proposed that the Academy
take preliminary steps in the organisation of the
scientific resources of the United States, and this was
the beginning of the National Research Council which
rendered such effective service at the request of the
President of the United States during the war.
Appreciation of this service from the Academy was
| shown in an executive order issued by President Wilson,
directing the National Academy of Sciences to continue
the Council. Under this order the Research Council
was reorganised on a permanent peace basis as an
agent of the Academy, and the need of the Academy:
for a home was accentuated. Dr. Hale’s precious plans
were discussed at length, but the question of available
funds continued. The quarters in the Smithsonian
Institution, already too crowded, could not afford
room for this new body, and temporary space elsewhere
was found in the Munsey Building; then a residence
at 16th and L Streets, having twenty-one rooms, was
secured. A little later a larger building at 16th and
M Streets was occupied, until the present location at
17th and Massachusetts Avenue was leased.
Early in these renewed activities strenuous efforts
were made to secure a permanent endowment and
money for a building for the Academy, and a suggestion
was made to the Carnegie Corporation of an endow-
ment and building for the Academy and Research
Council, resulting in an offer of 5,000,000 dollars,
provided the Academy would secure a site and present
satisfactory plans. The amount needed for the
purchase of this site was apportioned, so that the
entire country might have a part in the great enter-
prise. The raising of funds for the purchase of the
JULY 22, 1922]
NATURE
N24
ground was accomplished through the efforts of Dr.
Hale, Dr. Millikan, and others.
The lot purchased by the Academy is known as
Square 88. It contains 189,755 square feet. Origin-
ally its highest point was in north-west corner and
its lowest point was under water in the river at the
south-east. To-day its lowest point is about 24 feet
above high water and its highest 41 feet. The borings
show that there is a fill of from 5 to ro feet where the
building will stand, from 6 to 28 feet of clay and sand,
and from 7 inches to 3 feet of decomposed rock.
The building planned has a frontage of 260 feet and
is 140 feet deep. The height above the first floor is 60
feet. The vestibule is rz by 20 feet ; the entrance hall,
36 by 21 feet; the central hall, 64 by 24 feet; the
Facing the Lincoln Memorial, the marble building
in simple classical style will rise three stories from a
broad terrace. On the first floor there will be an
auditorium seating some 600 people, a lecture-hall
holding 250, a reading-room, library, conference rooms,
and exhibition halls. The basement will contain a
cafeteria and kitchen. The two upper floors will be
devoted to offices.
The building is the gift of the Carnegie Corporation
of New York, while the ground was bought at a
cost of nearly 200,000 dollars through the donations
of about a score of benefactors. Bertram Grosvenor
Goodhue of New York is the architect. He is one
of the best-known architects in the country, and
designed the St. Thomas Church, the West Point
Fic. 1.—New building to be erected in Washington, D.C., for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council.
library, 36 by 64 feet ; the lecture-room, 34 by 50 feet.
The five exhibition halls range in size from 26 by 14
to 34 by 21 feet.
The total number of square feet of floor space,
exclusive of elevators, doorways, and hallways, is
39,874. This includes exhibition space amounting
to 14,571 square feet, lecture and entertainment space
of 7982, and 14,786 square feet for administrative
purposes. Every modern convenience and _ facility
will be provided.
Having brought you thus far, let us assume that
we are on our way to the annual meeting in 1924.
Walking west along B Street, half-way between 21st
and 22nd Streets, we find a broad walk on our right,
with reflecting pools in the centre leading through
a formal effect of trees and shrubs to a building in the
middle of the square surmounting a series of terraces.
It is the home of the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Research Council—a marble structure
of fine proportions, standing out in bold relief against
the blue sky in the morning sunlight (Fig. 1).
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
Building, the Nebraska State Capitol, and many other
buildings. The contract for the construction of the
building has been let to Charles T. Wills, Inc., of New
York, and it is expected that the building will be
ready for occupation in the autumn of 1923. Lee
Laurie, the sculptor, has been selected to do the
decorations, which will symbolise and depict the
progress of science and its benefits to humanity. A
series of bronze bas-reliefs will show a procession of
the leaders of scientific thought from the earliest
Greek philosophers to modern Americans.
On passing through the entrance hall the visitor will
find himself in a lobby rotunda. Here he will see in
actual operation apparatus demonstrating certain
fundamental scientific facts that hitherto he has had
to take on hearsay. A coelostat telescope, mounted
on the dome of the central rotunda, will form a large
image of the sun on the white surface of a circular
table in the middle of the room. Here visitors will be
able to see the sun-spots, changing in number and form
from day to day, and moving across the disc as the sun
122
NATORE
iiwiy 22, ro22
=e
turns on its axis. A 6o-foot pendulum, suspended
from the centre of the dome, will be set swinging
through a long arc, repeating the celebrated experiment
of Foucault. The swinging pendulum will mark an
invariable direction in space, and as the earth of the
building revolves beneath it, rotation will be plainly
shown by the steady change in direction of the
pendulum’s swing over a divided arc.
Two great phenomena of Nature, the sun and the
rotation of the earth, are thus to be exhibited. Other
phenomena to be demonstrated in striking form in
the central rotunda are magnetic storms, earthquakes,
gravitational pull of small masses, the pressure of light,
the visible growth of plants, swimming infusorians
in a drop of ditch water, living bacteria, and other
interesting phenomena.
In the seven exhibition rooms surrounding the
central rotunda, the latest results of scientific and
industrial research will be illustrated. One room will
be set aside for the use of Government bureaus, another
for industrial research laboratories, others for the
laboratories, observatories, and research institutes
of universities and other institutions. The newest
discoveries and advances in the mathematical, physical,
and biological sciences and their applications will be
shown in this living museum, in which the exhibits will
be constantly changing with the progress of science,
One week there may be displayed the latest forms of
radio-telephony ; the next perhaps a set of psychologi-
cal tests or a new find of fossils or a series of synthetic
chemical compounds. Such a mutating museum will
continue to attract and instruct large numbers of
visitors and residents.
We call it the building for the National Academy of .
Sciences and the National Research Council, but in’
reality it should be the national home of science in
America, and will be looked upon by our fellow-citizens
and the world at large as the place where the creative
mind will be able to do much to bring about a better
existence for the future people of the world, for it is
to their enlightenment and advancement that it will
be dedicated.
The Internal Combustion Engine.
By Prof. W. E.
The Influence of the Internal Combustion Engine.
O engineers the terms horse-power and _horse-
power hour have strictly technical meanings.
They can be illustrated by comparing the weight
and efficiency of an aircraft engine and a_ loco-
motive engine. An aircraft engine can be built with
about 23 Ibs. of metal per horse-power as against
approximately 250 lbs. of metal per horse-power in a
locomotive engine. An aircraft engine requires about
8 lb. of fuel oil per H.P. hour as against 3 lbs. of coal
per H.P. hour used by the locomotive engine, in
addition to which the locomotive engine must carry
about 3 gallons of water per H.P. hour. All these, of
course, are round figures. It is the extreme lightness
of the petrol engine in relation to its power which has
made it possible to develope aircraft.
An internal combustion engine of the Diesel type is
built to use heavy oils, and has provided a prime mover
by means of which the submarine was able to develop
so considerably during the war. Thus the internal
combustion engine helped to sink our food ships, but
at the same time helped to save the situation by driving
the agricultural tractor. Few, perhaps, realise fully
how serious was our position in 1917. Horses were
required for the Army and were being taken from
the farms ; but the agricultural tractor replaced them
at the plough and thus made it possible to maintain
the necessary food supplies.
Probably the greatest effect of the internal com-
bustion engine on our national life is its influence on
road transport. Standing at Hyde Park Corner
twenty years ago a motor car would have excited
notice ; standing there to-day it is almost true to say
that the horse-drawn vehicle has practically dis-
appeared. ‘The internal combustion engine is displac-
ing the horse from the streets, and is even causing the
railway companies grave concern. The chairman of
one of them stated at the last half-yearly meeting that
1 From a Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, May 26.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
DaBy, F.R.S.
the companies had lost 9 million tons of goods, and 6
million passengers to the motor lorry and the motor
car. This is a remarkable achievement for the small
16-20 H.P. internal combustion engine which is fitted
in these vehicles. During 1921 about 800,000 licences
were issued to vehicles propelled by internal com-
bustion engines and the tax on them amounted to
about ten million pounds.
These brief considerations indicate how profound has
been and is the influence of the internal combustion
engine in shaping our destinies. It has conquered the
air, and has given us a prime mover useful in farming
and in transport. It is influencing the policy of our
railways, and will shortly so transform our outlook and
our modes of life that men of to-day will appear to be
separated from their boyhood not by a few decades
but by a few centuries.
Some Problems of the Internal Combustion Engine.
Considering combustion from the point of view of
the Kinetic Theory of gases, but without attempting
to explain the nature of the differential attraction
between molecules, most of the energy developed in
the cylinder of an internal combustion engine arises
from the fact that oxygen combines with carbon and
hydrogen to develop large quantities of heat. The
function of the engine is to convert as much as possible
of this heat into mechanical work.
It can be deduced by the laws of gases that the
molecules at 22° C. and atmospheric pressure require
729 times the volume they occupied as a liquid. This
can be illustrated by ‘‘air patterns” representing the
distribution of molecules in the air. Actually the mole-
cules are flying about at a high velocity across the
vessel the sides of which they are continually bombard-
ing and therefore exerting pressure on them.
Calculation from the kinetic theory of gases shows
that at 22° C. the oxygen molecules in the air are flying
at a velocity of about 1600 ft. per second, the nitrogen
WULY 22, 1922 |
NATURE 12
ios)
molecules at about 1700 ft. per second. This velocity
is not the mean but the square root of the mean square
of the actual velocities of the particles. The molecules
collide and zig-zag about in the enclosing vessel so that
it is only by imagination that we are able to conceive
them as standing still and forming a pattern some-
thing like the pattern on a wall-paper.
When a spark is passed in a mixture of air and a
hydrocarbon such as pentane a re-arrangement of the
molecules takes place. The 5 atoms of carbon in the
pentane molecule produce 5 molecules of carbon di-
oxide ; 12 atoms of hydrogen produce 6 molecules of
steam. Before ignition there are 41 molecules in-
cluding 32 molecules of nitrogen. After the explosion
there are 43 molecules, nitrogen taking no part in the
change. Oxygen ceases to exist as a separate entity.
The result is that every pound of pentane so trans-
formed produces 10,000 |b. calories of heat.
The immediate effect of this production of heat is to
increase the velocity of the flying molecules. The
actual velocity of the products of combustion in the
vessel depends on the mean temperature. Direct
measurement of the temperatures of the working
charge of a gas engine gives 2570° abs. as a reasonable
temperature from which to calculate molecular velo-
cities. At this temperature the carbon dioxide mole-
cules are moving at 3950 ft. per second, the steam
molecules at 6166 ft. per second, and the nitrogen
molecules at 4950 ft. per second ; these numbers being
the square roots of the mean squares of the actual
velocities.
The next point for consideration is the time taken
to effect this change. The time-interval taken by
oxygen to combine with carbon and hydrogen lies
along a time scale beginning with a detonation and
ending with slow burning. In a mixture of air and
pentane the oxygen molecules are a long way, on the
average, from the carbon and hydrogen of the pentane
molecule, and also the freedom of action of the
oxygen molecules is clogged by the imert nitrogen
present, but the rapidity with which oxygen can
combine when the circumstances are favourable is
shown by nitro-glycerine.
Chemists have discovered how to produce this nitro-
glycerine molecule so that oxygen lies side by side with
the carbon and the hydrogen. Its action is unclogged
by any other substance, and the molecular distances
have been annihilated, or perhaps it would be better to
say that they have become atomic distances. Moreover,
themolecule contains almost the exact quantity of carbon
and hydrogen required to satisfy the oxygen present.
As Lord Moulton once put it, it 1s a case of the lion and
the lamb lying down together. A mechanical shock
causes an immediate transformation—the lion devours
the lamb; and the time-interval for the meal is so
short that it is not measurable. This is called a
detonation. Chemists have by their researches shown
how to combine nitro-glycerine with other substances
in order to control the rate of combustion.
Engineers are also trying to get control of the rate of
combustion of some of the mixtures used in the internal
combustion engine. Thus the chemist and the engineer
are working in different parts of the same wide field
of research.
Experiments initiated by Sir Dugald Clerk are now
BOw27 51; VOL. 110]
proceeding at the National Physical Laboratory under
the general supervision of the Aeronautical Research
Committee for the Air Ministry. Apparatus of the
most refined nature has been devised, and the research
is bemg carried out by Mr. Fenning. Various com-
bustible mixtures are made up in a bomb. These are
exploded and then the time taken for the chemical
combination to take place is recorded. Two results may
be mentioned: a mixture of one part by volume of
hydrogen, 23 parts by volume of air, was compressed
to 64 lbs. per sq. inch and then exploded. Between
the passage of the spark and the beginning of the rise
of pressure about four-thousandths of a second elapsed.
The combination was complete in about the same
interval of time. In another experiment the mixture
was diluted with one part of hydrogen and 6 parts of
air; this caused delay in the combination, which took
six-hundredths of a second to complete. In such
diluted mixtures the energy has to be shared by
all the molecules which do. not take part in the
change.
The engineer is faced with two problems: the
problem of a too rapid combustion, becoming a detona-
tion, and the problem of a combustion too slow for
complete combustion at high speeds.
In practice the turbulence and eddies caused by the
rapid admission of a charge through the narrow
annulus of an open admission valve results in quicken-
ing the rate of combustion, and it is owing to this
cause that the gas engine can run at speeds greater
than those corresponding to the measured rate of
flame propagation for an efficient mixture. Sir Dugald
Clerk found a striking difference in the area of
indicator diagrams according to whether the mixture
was exploded immediately after the admission valve
was closed or whether it was exploded after precautions
had been taken to damp out the eddies.
Among the problems arising from running internal
combustion engines at high speeds is that of torsional
oscillations, and synchronous oscillations. There is
also the balancing problem. The four-cylinder petrol
engine is usually constructed so that it is perfectly
balanced for primary forces and couples, but gives the
maximum error for unbalanced secondary forces. At
certain speeds a model of this type suspended from
springs will oscillate twice as fast as the speed of
rotation of the engine, while at the same speed and
on the same springs a model, balanced to eliminate
the secondary forces, will run steadily at all speeds.
Other problems have also to be considered. Accurate
records of the pressure-volume relation in the internal
combustion engine must be obtained, and the diffi-
culties are increased owing to the high speed at which
the cycles take place. The direct measurement of
temperature is also a difficult matter, and there are
various fuel problems.
Sufficient has been said to show that the future of
the internal combustion engine is not settled; it is
full of problems requiring continuous and laborious
research. The question is what provision has been
made for this research. Before the war purely scientific
research on the internal combustion engine was focussed
largely in the Research Committee of the British
Association established at the Dublin meeting in 1908.
This Committee was the only one of its kind, and the
J24
work was carried on vigorously until the war under
the successive distinguished chairmen, Sir William
Preece and Sir Dugald Clerk. The Committee is still
in existence. There is also the Research Laboratory
at Shoreham under the direction of Mr. H. R. Ricardo,
himself a distinguished scientific investigator.
During the war official organisations have been
established, and now the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research provides aid in money, apparatus,
advice, and encouragement to any individual worker
who has ideas and is qualified to carry on a research
alone or under direction. This is a great national
asset. But above all, so far as the petrol engine is
concerned, there is the powerful organisation for
Research within the Air Ministry itself, generally under
the supervision of Air-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond
(known as the Director-General of Supply and
Research), but under the immediate direction of
Brigadier-General Bagnall-Wild, officially known as
the Director of Research. The Air Ministry is advised
by the Aeronautical Research Committee under the
chairmanship of Sir Richard Glazebrook. This Com-
mittee has grown from the old Aeronautical Advisory
INL OR ae,
(ivny 22, T9622
Committee of the late Lord Raleigh. Work of the
highest scientific value is now in progress at the
National Physical Laboratory, at Farnborough, and
at other places under the direction of the Ministry.
All I have done here is to hint at some of the
work now going on at the National Physical Laboratory ;
it would take a whole evening merely to epitomise
the researches in progress at that institution. Farn-
borough is now entirely a research establishment
in its widest sense, for it is organised both for
laboratory and for full-scale work. Work on the
internal combustion engine has reached a magnitude
and an intensity undreamt of before the war. The
war has, in fact, shown that the internal combustion
engine instead of being a convenient prime mover to
put in our motor cars, to drive our workshops, or even
our ships, has become an engine vital to our very
existence. The Aeronautical Research Committee
realises this, and the Air Ministry also. Let us hope
that the nation will realise it too, and that in the need
and passion for economy our legislators will not starve
research on this vital national prime mover.
The Hull Meeting of the British Association.
Locat ARRANGEMENTS.
RRANGEMENTS are well in hand in connexion
4 with the meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science at Hull, September 6-13.
Hull is particularly well provided with suitable rooms
for the evening discourses, public lectures, and sectional
meetings. Its large City Hall, centrally situated,
accommodates three thousand people, and trams for
every part of the town start at its doors. In this the
inaugural meeting on Wednesday, September 6, will be
held at which Sir Charles S. Sherrington (President of
the Royal Society) will deliver his presidential address
entitled “Some Aspects of Animal Mechanism.” On
the following day the City Hall will be the scene of the
Lord Mayor’s reception.
Hull’s new magnificent Guildhall provides an excel-
lent reception-room, adjoining which the banqueting
chamber makes a very fine lounge and writing-room.
On the same floor are suitable rooms for the various
officers of the Association, the press bureau, the meteoro-
logical demonstration given by the Air Ministry, etc.
This last named will be very welcome in the reception
room, where it will be seen by everybody, and in an
adjoining room the methods of preparing the chart will
be available to the members.
Across the road from the reception-room are the
British Association refreshment rooms, the Queen’s
Hall (Section F (Economics) and joint meetings).
Section A (Mathematics) meets in the Central Hall,
Pryme Street; B (Chemistry) in Waltham Street ;
C (Geology) and H (Anthropology) in the Museum and
Royal Institution; D (Zoology), E (Geography), K
(Botany), and M (Agriculture) in the new Art School ;
I (Physiology) in the Church Institute ; J (Psychology)
in the Albion Hall; and L (Education) in the Lecture
Hall, Jarratt Street. All these buildings are within
three minutes’ walk from the terminus of the various
tram routes in the City Square.
The Local Committee is providing each member with
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
a small badge, which has been artistically designed and
will serve as a more convenient means of identification
than the somewhat cumbersome members’ ticket (this
latter, however, is this year to be waistcoat-pocket size
and once more includes, as formerly, a map of the
meeting-rooms). Each badge bears the number of the
member’s card, so that a reference to the index at the
end of the list of members will enable the identity of
any particular member to be ascertained, if desired.
With regard to the accommodation, while it is not
expected that there will be any difficulty in providing
for as many members as care to visit the city, the hotel
accommodation which will be available for visitors is
exceedingly limited. This year, therefore,a list of hotels
and lodgings will not be prepared, but a special com-
mittee is sitting with the object of meeting the require-
ments of the members. In this connexion rooms are
being provided at Bridlington, Hornsea, Withernsea,
Beverley, Cottingham, Brough, Ferriby, Hessle, and
other places in the immediate vicinity, but the provision
of special late trains and of exceptionally favourable
weekly contract tickets for this meeting will help
considerably. It is desired to impress upon intending
visitors to the Hull meeting the necessity of filling in
the cards on the back of their preliminary programme,
and returning them to the Secretary at the earliest
possible moment, in order to prevent unnecessary
trouble, which will certainly be caused if members
arrive at the meeting without having previously notified
their intention of being present. This warning seems
particularly necessary, as several members have inti-
mated their intention of being present, but neither state
that they have found accommodation nor that they
wish accommodation to be found forthem. Those who
have applied will receive particulars of their rooms
shortly.
In a previous article reference was made to the
various presidential addresses, with the exception of
JULY 22, 1922]
NATURE
2
on
Section J (Psychology), which was to have been
by the late Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. We are now
pleased to announce that Dr. C. S. Myers has accepted
the presidency of this section and will deliver an address
on “ The Influence of the late Dr. W. H. R. Rivers on
the Development of Psychology in Great Britain.”
An exceptional opportunity at the Hull meeting
will be afforded for discussing thoroughly the work of
the Corresponding Societies of the Association. This
subject has had the serious consideration of the council
of the British Association for some time, and at the
Hull meeting it is proposed to depart from the practice
which has grown up in recent years of looking upon the
Conference of Delegates almost in the light of still
another section of the Association, and to revert to the
former system of discussing the various ways in which
the corresponding and other local societies may accom-
plish useful work. Conditions which obtained since
the war are likely to interfere with the work of natural
history, geological, archeological, botanical, and allied
societies ; already the publication of the results of
their work has been seriously impeded by the present
charges for printing, and in many other ways it seems
desirable that this Conference of Delegates shall be
more of a conference than of a Section X, to which
papers, not quite desired by other sections, shall be
sent! Certainly in recent years the connexion between
the Conference of Delegates and some of the papers
presented at its meetings has been somewhat remote.
At Hull, therefore, there will be no set presidential
address to the conference.
Advantage will be taken of the fact that the meeting
is held in the county in which probably the leading
provincial society in the British Isles (that is, the
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union) exists, and the way in
which this society, by means of its sections, committees,
publications, etc., carries out and records its researches
will be explained in Hull, as probably upon such lines
it will be necessary that other societies should work in
the future.
The list of the distinguished members from the near
continental countries, from the United States, Canada,
and other parts of the world, is constantly growing, and
the Hull meeting bids fair to be memorable from the
part these gentlemen will take in its proceedings.
Under the editorship of one of the local secretaries a
handbook to Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire is
in preparation, and will be presented to each member,
In this booklet an effort will be made to direct atten-
tion to the various attractions in the Riding, as well
as to give descriptions of the city and district under
the heads of geology, zoology, botany, archeology,
meteorology, commerce, etc.
Elaborate arrangements are being made by a special
excursions committee for general and popular excur-
sions to Scarborough, Flamborough, Bridlington, York,
Beverley, and other places of scientific interest within
easy access of the city, as well as for special excursions
of smaller parties of members particularly interested
in geology, engineering, chemistry, and other subjects.
In addition to the handbook, a local programme is in
preparation, which will contain particulars of the various
directions in which the members may be occupied
during their stay in Hull. The Constitutional Club,
the East Riding Club, and others are electing members
of the British Association honorary members of the
clubs during the meeting, the Freemasons are giving a
reception to their brethren, and special exhibitions of
various kinds are being prepared to interest the
different sections of the Association. One of these,
organised by the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, will be
held in the Board Room of the Education Offices oppo-
site the Museum in Albion Street, and will illustrate
the work of the various sections and committees of that
society.
The public lectures to citizens so far arranged are as
follows :—Dr. A. Smith Woodward on “ The Ancestry
“of Man”; Dr. E. H. Griffiths on ‘“ The Conservation
and Dissipation of Energy”; Sir Westcott Abell on
“The Story of the Ship”; Prof. A. P. Coleman on
“Labrador”; and the Rev. A. L. Cortie, S.J., on
“ The Earth’s Magnetism.”
Evening discourses will be given by Dr. F. W. Aston
on “The Atoms of Matter, their Size, Number, and
Construction,’ and by Prof. Walter Garstang on
“ Fishing : Old Ways and New.”
For the first time, special lectures are being arranged
for the children in the upper classes in the secondary
and other schools in the city, and these will be given by
Prof. H. H. Turner on “ The Telescope and what it
tells us”? ; Prof. J. Arthur Thomson on “ Creatures of
the Sea”; and Mr. F. Debenham on “The Ant-
arctic.” Each lecture will be given to two thousand
pupils. Ds:
Current Topics and Events.
AN imposing gathering of savants recently
assembled in the great hall of the Sorbonne to cele-
brate the double centenary of the foundation of the
Asiatic Society and the discovery by Jean Francois
Champollion of the secret of the Egyptian hiero-
glyphs, the most important of which is the famous
Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. The meeting,
presided over by M. Millerand, was addressed by M.
Sénart, who pointed out that the Asiatic Society
was founded at the period when Champollion, in his
famous letter to Dacier, revealed the secret which
restored to humanity five thousand years of history.
Since then the Society had always been in the van of
Orientalism, and Phoenician and Palestinian epi-
graphy and archeology owed it a lasting debt.
NO. 2751, VOL. 110]
Str ARTHUR Evans, in the Times of July 14,
announces two dramatic discoveries at Knossos. It
had long been observed that the position of the walls
at the South-east Palace angle indicated a sudden
collapse of the building by what could only have
been a great earthquake shock. The discovery of
two large skulls of the urus ox, and in front of them,
remains of portable terracotta altars, showed that
‘previous to the filling in there had been a solemn
expiatory sacrifice to the Powers below—recalling
the words of the Iliad, ‘in bulls doth the Earth-
shaker delight.’ There can be little doubt that the
great deposits throughout a large part of the Palace
area, all illustrating an identical cultural phase
and indicative of a widespread contemporary ruin
126
NALORE
(Muy :22, ATerlél Blood with OXYGED
Gn 20 ONS mIGONS aeO
—> Partial Pressure of ygen tn the Ling veo).
Fic. 1.
it is apparent that at high altitudes the partial press-
ure required to secure a percentage saturation suffi-
cient for life decreases considerably.
The establishment of the fact that life can be sup-
ported with some degree of efficiency with the blood
in this condition is of great importance, because in
recent years there has been a tendency to assume that
a small degree of unsaturation of the arterial blood
must of necessity produce very grave results. Fig. 1
shows that there is some adjustment of the blood to
the new conditions. At Cerro the unsaturation of
the blood was written on the faces of the inhabitants.
Any one who had any colour in his face was appreci-
ably cyanosed.
2. Increased pulmonary ventilation has been shown
by all recent observers to be of great importance as
a factor in adaptation to high altitudes. In our case,
had our respiration been the same in rate and depth
at Cerro as it was at Lima we would have had about
40 pressure mm. of carbonic acid and 35 mm. pressure
of oxygen in the air of our lungs. In fact, owing to
increased respiratory effort, we reduced the carbonic
acid to about 25 mm. and raised the oxygen to about
52 mm. The importance of these facts is enhanced
by the certainty that it is the partial pressure of
NO. 2752, VOL. 110]
100 mmof Hg. Cerro de Pasco. That on the right is my own,
and is fairly typical of our party ; that on
the left is a typical Cholo chest. There
is a marked difference in the angle at which
the ribs are carried ; my own slope down from the
vertebral column at a quite considerable angle,
while those of the native are much more horizontal.
It seems highly probable that this horizontal carriage
of the ribs indicates a compensatory effort designed
to increase the facility with which the blood obtains
oxygen, for it is acquired at sea level by persons
suffering from emphysema and other complaints in
which there is shortness of breath. Several of the
mining engineers, of whose chests we took radiograms,
showed a similar tendency. At this point another
peculiar physical conformation may be mentioned,
namely, clubbing of the fingers, which, when found
at sea level, is frequently associated with some trouble
which prevents sufficient oxygen from reaching the
extremities. Though they are not the rule, clubbed
fingers are by no means unusual at Cerro de Pasco
in persons without any circulatory or respiratory lesion.
4. An increase in the number of red blood corpuscles
in each cubic mm. of blood has long been known to
occur at high altitudes. Systematic researches carried
out principally under the direction of Dr. Haldane
have shown that the increase in the number of red
blood corpuscles is associated with an increase in the
quantity of hemoglobin present. These two observa-
JuLy 29, 1922]
~tions we have verified, and to them have added a third,
namely, that the chemical conditions under which the
hemoglobin is held in the red blood corpuscle confer
on it the peculiarly useful property of acquiring more
oxygen when exposed to rare atmospheres than is
the case with normal blood.
5. We sought in vain for any such form of acclimaii-
sation as might be afforded by the driving of an in-
creased volume of blood round the body in unit time.
A rather natural supposition would be that, if the
hemoglobin of each cubic centimetre of blood were
deficient in oxygen, the tissues might be fed with
sufficient oxygen “by the simple process of giving them
more blood; but this is not so. It is true the heart
quickened with exercise, but the quickening seems to
have been rather a signal of distress than a com-
pensatory mechanism.
Three principal forms of compe
tion have been described: they are
increased total ventilation, increased
expansion of the chest, increased
hemoglobin, and increased affinity of
the blood for oxygen ; their relative
importance is a matter for future
research. Jointly or severally they
may mitigate the effects of oxygen
want, but they cannot entirely abolish
them; at some altitude the human
frame must always succumb. We
were naturally somewhat interested
in the question of whether we could
foretell which of our own party
would succumb most quickly, and
various members of the party worked
out systems of prophecy which differed
not only in character but in the pro-
phetic order in which the various
individuals would prove susceptible
to altitude. One of these proved
quite successful. It was based on
the determination of Bohr’s diffusion
constant (the ratio of the quantity of
oxygen absorbed per minute to the
average difference of pressure between
the oxygen in the alveolar spaces
and alveolar capillaries) for the lung, and was
suggested by Prof. Krogh. The members of the
expedition could be divided into two distinct groups
—those who had a constant for oxygen of more
than 4o and those who had a constant less than that
figure. One group with the higher diffusion constant
suffered from obvious symptoms of mountain sickness,
while the other did not. It is true that of the four
who suffered the salient feature was different in each
€ase: in one it was faintness, in another vomiting, in
a third high temperature and intense headache, and
in the fourth deafness and indistinct vision. Only
further research can show whether the coincidence
was fortuitous, or whether any causal relation exists
between the diffusion constant and the tendency to
“seroche.”” The hint, however, seemed to be worth
taking, and in consequence an arrangement has been
come to by which persons intending to go to the
mining districts in the Andes are being tested in the
Rockefeller Institute in New York.
NO. 2752, VOL. 110]
NATURE
155
I must also make some allusion to the goodwill
which was extended to us by every one with whom
we came in contact in Peru, from the President
down to the humblest employee of the Cerro de Pasco
Copper Corporation. Of the manager and the officials
of this company we can only say that their kindness
in placing themselves and their resources at our
disposal was one of the most potent factors in enabling
us to achieve such scientific results as we obtained.
No less can be said of the officials of the Pacific
Steam Navigation Company.
The problem of Everest from the point of view of
physiology, upon which our work in the Andes throws
some light, may be stated thus :
Every cubic centimetre of arterial blood which leaves
the lung must contain a certain quantity of oxygen,
Bic. 2.
expressed as a percentage of the maximum which the
blood can hold, if life is to be maintained-at a level
consistent with any degree of efficiency. It is not
known what this quantity of oxygen may be. The
following considerations, however, give some clue to it :
(a) Let the maximum quantity of oxygen (shown
on the ordinate of the graph in Fig. 1) which the blood
can hold be called roo.
(b) There is a certain relation in the blood for normal
persons between the amount of oxygen it can hold and
the pressure of oxygen to which it is exposed; that
relation is shown in the graph labelled “ normal.”
(The partial pressure of oxygen forms the abscissa.)
At the sea level the oxygen pressure in the lung is about
roo mm. and the quantity of oxygen in the blood
96 per cent. of the possible load. (See the point A on
the graph.)
(c) Until recently it was supposed that the curve
did not alter, and therefore the graph labelled “‘ normal ”
stood for all altitudes.
156
NATURE
[JULY 29, 1922
(d) Also the most competent authorities regarded
an oxygen load of about go per cent. of the possible
maximum as being required for the conduct of life—
apart from short exposures.
(e) The probable partial pressure of oxygen in the
lungs at 25,000-30,000 feet is calculated by a process of
exterpolation to “be about 30 mm. Combining ¢, d, and
e above, the quantity of oxygen in the arterial blood on
Everest would be 58 per cent. of the maximum—far
below that necessary.
(f) The recent expedition to Cerro de Pasco has
brought out two new points :
(r) That natives lead a reasonably normal existence
with blood charged only up to 82 per cent. of the
possible, and Europeans with 85 per cent. of the possible,
load of oxygen.
(2) That the graph changes in position, and ior
natives and Anglo-Saxons approximates to that labelled
Cerro (14,000).
(g) On this graph a partial pressure of 70 mm. of
oxygen in the lung might saturate the blood up to
67 per cent. (¢).
(h) It is scarcely likely that the curve moves further
than that marked “‘ Probable limit (30,000 ft.).” On
that curve, however, the blood would be charged
up to 76 per cent.—a figure within a reasonable
distance of what has actually been observed in the
Andes.
Obituary.
H.S.H. Prince ALBERT OF MONACO.
INCE infrequently in the past have princes and
nobles been munificent patrons of science and
played a useful part in promoting the advancement of
knowledge—would that we had more such at the present
day but it must be rare indeed for a reigning prince
to attain recognition and distinction as a practical,
working, man of science. The late Prince of Monaco,
whose death took place recently, was both. He has
given to France and the world of science at least three
research institutions of first-rate importance, and
throughout many years of his life, during the last
half-century (since, in January 1873, on one of his
early expeditions he met the Challenger at Lisbon),
he has himself planned and carried out many notable
investigations in both physical and biological oceano-
graphy.
His Serene Highness Prince Albert Honoré Charles,
a descendant of the ancient House of Grimaldi, was
born in 1848, and succeeded his father, Prince Charles
III., as ruler of the principality of Monaco in 1889.
In his early youth Prince Albert served as lieutenant
in the Spanish Navy, and since then has shown a
life-long devotion to the sea and a rare enthusiasm
for its scientific exploration. Probably the most
characteristic representation of the Prince is the
statue in the entrance hall of the Museum of Oceano-
graphy at Monaco showing him in plain sailor’s
uniform standing at the rail on the bridge of his yacht.
He must have spent a large portion of his life, and
much of the ample funds at his disposal, in the many
expeditions which he conducted in the successively
larger and more perfectly equipped yachts Hzrondelle
(a 200-ton schooner) and the first and second Princesse
Alice—the last a magnificent ocean-going steamer of
1420 tons, built by Lairds’ on the Mersey in 1898,
and fitted with all necessary machinery and apparatus
for every form of modern oceanographic research,
and for the capture of whales. By means of these
vessels the “Gulf Stream” in its various parts, and
its effect on the coast of France, the Azores, the seas
around Spitsbergen, the Mediterranean, and much of
the Atlantic from the equator to within the Arctic’
Circle, were systematically investigated in both their
physical and their biological characters. Among his
companions and assistants on these expeditions have
NO. 2752, VOL. 110]
been Baron Jules de Guerne, Dr. Jules Richard, and
occasionally our own countrymen Mr. J. Y. Buchanan
and Dr. W. S. Bruce ; and the results of more than
thirty annual cruises have been made known to science
| first by the Prince’s preliminary reports in the Comptes
rendus, and later, in full detail, in those beautifully
illustrated, sumptuous memoirs in the series entitled
“Résultats des Campagnes Scientifiques accomplies
sur son Yacht par Albert I* Prince Souverain de
Monaco,” dating from 1889, and the later series of
the Bulletins and the “ Annales de l'Institut Océano-
graphique.”
It is chiefly in connexion with the devising of
apparatus for deep-sea research, and with the intro-
duction of new methods of investigation, that the
Prince’s personal influence was felt on his expeditions.
Among other new appliances which have yielded
notable results may
traps (the ‘‘ Nasse”’), his various types of trawls and
nets for use in different zones of water, and his use of
submarine electric lights to attract free-swimming
animals with power of vision, such as fishes and
Crustacea. There can be no doubt that his practical
knowledge as an experienced sailor and as a mechanical
engineer has added greatly to the efficiency and
success of all his work on the yachts. His chief
assistant, Dr. Jules Richard, who has charge of the
museum and laboratories at Monaco, gave full de-
scriptions and useful illustrations of many of these
appliances for oceanographical investigation in a
about 1900.
All the Prince’s successive voyages have been very
fruitful of scientific results, and biology owes its
special memoirs issued from the Monaco Press ;
none of these have been more remarkable, novel, and
almost sensational, than the results of the Prince’s
whale-fishing expeditions, when he obtained the more
or less perfect remains of various new, and in some
cases gigantic, cuttlefishes (such as Lepidoteuthis and
Cucioteuthis) from the stomachs of captured sperm
whales. Some account of these discoveries and exploits,
and of Homeric combats when, for example, three
huge killer-whales attacked one of the boats and tried —
to crush it between their bodies, and again when a
large Cachalot died under the keel of the yacht which
be mentioned his huge baited —
special volume of the Bulletin series that was published —
knowledge of many deep-sea Atlantic animals to the
but
ws hike
A AEN Gaede at Nag A giles aia tiling a pening ie wie:
JULY 29, 1922}
INA T ORL.
57
it had charged as an enemy, are given in one of the
recently published volumes of ‘* Accounts Rendered ”
by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, who was a companion of the
Prince on several of his expeditions.
There is another oceanographic investigation which
will always be connected with the Prince of Monaco’s
name, and that is his distribution, commenced so far
back as 1885, of floating or drift bottles over wide
areas of the Atlantic, starting from the Azores as a
centre, in order to determine the set of the currents.
The knowledge acquired from such experiments extend-
ing over many years enabled the Prince to write what
is probably the latest of his own personal contributions
to science, a paper and map communicated to the
French Academy, in 1919, on the future of the floating
mines which, having gone adrift as the result of opera-
tions in the recent war, may be a danger to navigation
in certain parts of the Atlantic for some years to come.
He showed how mines from the European coasts will
gradually be drawn into the various currents associated
with the “Gulf Stream,’ and how some will, in all
probability, continue to circulate in the great whirlpool
of the Sargasso Sea, while others will eventually find
their way to the Norwegian fjords and the Arctic
Ocean and be destroyed ultimately in their encounter
with the ice.
The inauguration of the Musée Océanographique,
towards the end of March 1910, brought together at
Monaco such an international gathering of men of
science interested in the exploration of the sea as
had never been seen before. Official representatives
of many countries, delegates from the great Academies
of the world, and others invited personally by the
Prince, were united in celebrating the progress of
oceanography and in launching an institution unique
in character and of first-rate importance for science.
This great museum with its laboratories and other
workrooms rises sheer from the Mediterranean on the
southern side of the rock of Monaco, the lower three
stories facing towards the sea being below the level
of the old town and palace, and the main entrance to
the museum, from the streets, being half-way up the
building. From the seaward side the appearance is
especially striking, the masonry appearing to be almost
a part of the rock and to grow up in a series of arches
from the ledges of the cliff itself. This, the first
Museum of Oceanography, demonstrates the methods
of investigation and the results obtained. It contains
the extensive collections made on the Prince’s ex-
peditions, and also shows the various types of dredges,
trawls, tow-nets, deep-sea thermometers and water-
bottles, current-meters, and other apparatus used by
the different nations in their explorations of the
ocean,
The museum at Monaco is, however, only one part
of the foundation which the Prince has provided for
the study of the sea. With the object of arousing
interest in scientific marine studies in France, he
instituted a series of lectures at the Sorbonne in 1903,
and in 1906 he gave permanence to these by means
of an endowment, and presented to the French nation
a building specially devoted to university instruction
in oceanography. In connexion with this ‘ Institut
Océanographique ” at Paris three professorships have
been established—one of physical oceanography, one
NO. 2752, VOI. TIO]
of biological oceanography, and the third of the
physiology of marine life. As was said of him at one
of the inaugurations, ‘‘ By his researches the Prince
of Monaco has won for himself a distinguished place
in the ranks of men of science, and by enshrining the
results in the monumental buildings at Monaco and
Paris he has invested his labours with permanent
value for all time.”
The third great scientific benefaction of the Prince
is the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine at Paris,
where again, as at Monaco, there is a museum and
a laboratory with professors devoted entirely to the
investigation and demonstration of one special subject
—the early history of man. The Prince’s personal
interest in prehistoric archeology has been shown for
many years by the explorations he has conducted or
promoted at the Grimaldi caves near Monaco and
at other caverns and important sites in France and
Spain, with Prof. Boule, the Abbé Breuil, and others—
and the results, as in the case of the oceanographic
investigations, have been published at his expense
in princely style. It has been reported in the daily
press, since his death, that he has bequeathed a million
francs, as further endowment, to each of these three
research institutions. He has certainly put to a noble
purpose for the advancement of science the ample
funds which have come to him under the conditions
of the concession granted many years ago to the
proprietors of the Casino at Monte Carlo. It is well
known that the Prince has expressed publicly his
strong disapproval of the pigeon-shooting competitions
at Monte Carlo; but considers that as he is not an
autocrat, under the terms of the concession, he has
no power to interfere with vested interests at the
Casino except by the support his name and influence
can give to public opinion.
None of those who were present at Monaco as the
Prince’s guests, during the four days of conferences
and celebrations at the inauguration of the Musée
Océanographique, will be likely to forget his gracious
hospitality, his gravely courteous manner, his evident
interest in all the scientific questions raised, and his
keen desire to secure co-operation between the different
nations in the further exploration of the oceans. In
recent years, since the war, he has played a prominent
and most helpful part in such international co-opera-
tion. He was appointed president of the ““ Commission
internationale pour l’Exploration scientifique de la Mer
Méditerranée ” at the meeting in Madrid in 1919, and
at the recent international conference in Rome he was
chosen as president of both the physical and biological
sections of oceanography. In all such meetings and
in the subsequent work he was no mere figurehead,
but took a prominent part in the proceedings. His
death, in Paris, on June 26, will leave a great gap in
many important organisations, and be felt as a real
loss by all interested in the promotion of the science
of the sea. He was a natural centre in organisation
and a leader in work. In his independent position
he stood apart from all international rivalries and
showed only a single-minded devotion to the pursuit
of truth. As he once said of himself, modestly and
truthfully, in an address on his work at sea, in July
1891, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, “* I undertook
the mission that lay before me because I was at once
158
NATURE
[JuLy 29, 1922
a sailor and devoted to science.”
express his attitude throughout all his work.
W. A. HERDMAN.
Tue death is announced in the Chemiker Zeitung
of June 24 of Prof. W. Hallwachs, of the Technische
Hochschule, Dresden, on June 20. Prof. Hallwachs,
who was sixty-three years of age, was known for his
researches on electricity, particularly on the photo-
And that seems to | electric effect.
The same journal also records the
death of Prof. Otto Lehmann, on June 20, at the age
of sixty-seven. Prof. Lehmann, who has occupied
the chair of physics at the Technische Hochschule at
Karlsruhe since 1889, was best known for his work
on liquid crystals. His first paper on this subject was
published in 1890, and his further researches were
embodied in two monographs published later. In
addition, he carried out work of importance in con-
nexion with discharge and cathode-ray phenomena.
Current Topics and Events.
Cot. E. M. Jack has been appointed Director-
General of the Ordnance Survey in succession to Sir
Charles Close, who is retiring in August.
THE Chemiker Zeitung announces that Prof. H.
Kamerlingh Onnes, director of the Physical Institute
of the University of Leyden ; Dr. P. Zeeman, professor
of physics at the University of Amsterdam; and
Dr. N. Bohr, professor of theoretical physics at the
University of Copenhagen, have been elected cor-
responding members in the Physical-Mathematical
Class of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin.
THE Charles P. Daly medal of the American
Geographical Society has been presented on behalf
of the society by the American Ambassador to Sir
Francis Younghusband. The medal, which was
instituted under the will of the late Charles P. Daly,
sometime president of the American Geographical
Society, is awarded for valuable or distinguished
geographical services or labours, and that presented
to Sir Francis Younghusband bears the inscription,
“ For explorations in Northern India and Tibet and
for geographical publications on Asiatic and African
borders of the Empire.”’
SOME appointments have recently been made -on
the scientific staff of the Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago. Mr. R. Linton has been attached
to the department of anthropology as assistant
curator of North American ethnology. Mr. Linton
has carried out extensive investigations, principally
archeological, in the eastern, central, and_south-
western United States, as well as in Central America
and Polynesia. Recently he has returned from an
expedition to the Marquesas Islands for ethnological
and archeological researches, undertaken under
the auspices of the Bishop Museum of Honolulu,
Hawaii. A new division of taxonomy has been
created in the department of botany, and Mr. J.
F. Macbride, now in Peru at the head of a botanical
expedition for the Field Museum, has been designated
as assistant curator. In the department of zoology,
Dr. C. E. Hellmayr, well known for his extensive
work on Neotropical birds, has been appointed
associate curator of birds. Dr. Hellmayr was
formerly connected with the Rothschild Museum at
Tring, and more recently has been with the Museum
of the University of Munich. Mr. Heller, a former
associate of Theodore Roosevelt, and Mr. J. T.
Zimmer have been appointed assistant curator of
mammals and assistant curator of birds respectively;
NO. 2752, VO. 110]
they are at present engaged in field work in Central
Peru.. Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, formerly with the
American Museum of Natural History, New York,
has been appointed as assistant curator of reptiles
and batrachians.
Juntor Beit Memorial Fellowships for medical
research of the annual value of 350/., and tenable
for three years, have been awarded by the trustees
to the following, the subject and place of research
being given after each: Mr. E. B. Verney: The
physiology and pathology of urinary secretion, at
the Institute of Physiology, University College,
London; Prof. F. Cook:
:
Official Publications Received.
Records of the Indian Museum. Vol. 24, Part 2, June: Notes on
Crustacea Decapoda in the Indian Museum. By Stanley Kemp.
XV.: Pontoniinae. Pp. 113-288+plates 3-9. (Calcutta: Zoological
Survey of India.) 2 rupees.
The Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering Abstracts prepared
from the Current Periodical Literature of Engineering and Applie:
Science, published outside the United Kingdom. Edited by W. F.
Spear. New series, No. 12, July. Pp. 228. (London: The In-
stitution of Civil Engineers.)
Bureau of Education, India.
in England. By H. Banister.
ment Printing Office.) 7 annas.
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries: Intelligence Department,
Report on the Work of the Intelligence Department of the Ministry
for the Two Years 1919-1921. Pp. 198. (London: H.M. Stationery
Office.) 5s. net.
Ministry of Public Works, Egypt. Report on Investigations in’
the Improvement of River Discharge Measurements. By HE. B. H.
Wade. Part 2. (Physical Department Paper No. 6.) Pp. 124+14
plates. (Cairo: Government Publications Office.) P.T. 5.
Ministry of Public Works, Egypt: Physical Department.
logical Report for the Year 1917. Pp. x+118.
Publications Office.) P.T. 30.
The Mauritius Almanac and Commercial Handbook for 1922 (with |
which is included an Appendix on Seychelles). Compiled by A. Walker, —
Pp. iii-+3+xviii + viii + 466 + B57 +C67+ D64+ E40+F89+15, (Port
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Loughborough College, Leicestershire. Calendar, Session 1922-23,
Pamphlet No. 12: Science Teaching
Pp. v+28+ii. (Calcutta: Govern-
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Pp. xx+216. (Loughborough.)
Forestry Commission. Second Annual Report of the Forestry
Commissioners: Year ending September 30th, 1921. Pp.44. (London:
H.M. Stationery Office.) 9d. net. F
Report for 1921 on the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory at the
University of Liverpool and the Sea-Fish Hatchery at Piel. Edited
by Prof. J. Johnstone. No, 30. Pp. 237+13. (Liverpool.)
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
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] NATURE
[AvuGusT 12, 1922
UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS.
Chancellor—Field Marshal The Right Honourable THE EARL
Haic oF BEMERSYDE, K.T., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.,
ORI BID | AUIL GIDE
Rector—Sir JAMES MATTHEW BarRIE, Bart., O.M., M.A.,
iLJE ADE
Principal and Vice-Chancellor—JAMES COLQUHOUN IRVINE,
C:B-E.5 PhD: D-Se:;, LEDs, Rs.
OPENING OF SESSION 1922-1923—WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1922.
Preliminary Examinations begin Friday, September 15.. Schedules and
other information may be had from the SEckeTary, University, St.
Andrews.
Before beginning a course of study for Graduation every student must
obtain a certificate showing that he has satisfied the Scottish Universities
Entrance Board of his fitness to enter upon the curriculum.
Courses of instruction open to men and women students are provided
towards Graduation in Arts, Science, Medicine, and Divinity.
The University grants a Diploma in Public Health, a Diploma in Dental
Surgery, a Diploma (for Graduates) and a Certificate (for other qualified
students) in Social Study and Training.
ARTS, SCIENCE, AND MEDICINE, UNITED COLLEGE,
ST. ANDREWS.
The Classes include Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Hebrew,
Logic, Moral Philosophy, Political Economy, Education, Mathematics,
Applied Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany,
Geology, Modern History, Medieval History, Economic History, Anatomy,
Physiology.
ENTRANCE BURSARIES, open to competition annually in June :
For Men—Twelve to fourteen Bursaries, 450 to £10 per annum, tenable
for three or four years.
For Women—Six Medical Bursaries, £40 to £30, tenable for two years.
For Men or Women—Six or eight Bursaries from £50 to £10, for three,
four or five years. (Other Bursaries are open to competition at intervals of
three or four years; and eight or ten Presentation or Preference Bursaries,
in the gift of patrons, ranging from about £40 to £2:10s. are annually
presented.)
SECOND YEAR BURSARIES.—Two or three Bursaries of £50 to
£40 for two years (men or women), and one or two Bursaries of £30 to £16
for two or three years, for men students, awarded annually by competition.
FOURTH AND FIFTH YEAR BURSARIES AND GRANTS.—
Eight or nine Bursaries and Grants from £40 to £15, tenable for one year,
are annually awarded to students of the fourth or fifth year studying for
Honours Degrees.
SCHOLARSHIPS, etc.—Seventeen or eighteen Scholarships, Bursaries,
and Grants for Advanced or Research Students, £80 to 20, tenable for one
year, awarde3 annually.
Particulars in a free pamphlet may be had from the SecreTary, Univer-
sity, St. Andrews.
ARTS, SCIENCE, AND MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, DUNDEE.
The Classes include Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics,
Chemistry, Engineering and Drawing, Zoology, Botany, Anatomy,
Physiology, Electrical Engineering, Geology, Latin, English, French,
German, Logic, Education, Modern History and Scots Law.
ENTRANCE BURSARIES, open to competition annually in June.—
Nine Bursaries, £15 each, tenable for one year, open to men or women
students in any Faculty, and one of £15 for Engineering students.
SECOND AND THIRD YEAR BURSARIES.—Ten
415 to £20 each, tenable for one year.
SCHOLARSHIPS, etc.—Eight Bursaries of £15 to £20 for Advanced
Students and several Scholarships for Graduates undertaking Research
work.
Particulars on application to SecrETaRY, University College, Dundee.
CONJOINT MEDICAL SCHOOL, DUNDEE.
The Classes include Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Pathology, Surgery,
Medicine, Midwifery, Forensic Medicine, Public Health, Ophthalmology,
Mental Diseases, Clinical Surgery, Medicine and Midwifery, Diseases of
the Ear, Nose and Throat, Diseases of Children, Diseases of the Skin,
Fevers, Anesthetics, Bacteriology, Courses for Diplomas in Public Health
and Dentistry. (The first two years of Medical study are provided for
either in the United College, St. Andrews, or University College, Dundee.)
Bursaries,
The following free pamphlets, ‘‘Graduation in Arts,” ‘Graduation in
Science,” ‘‘ Graduation in Medicine,” ‘*‘ Handbook of Advanced Study and
Research and Higher Degrees,” ‘‘ Diploma in Dental Surgery," may be
had from the SECRETARY, University, St. Andrews, or the SECRETARY,
University College, Dundee.
DIVINITY, ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, ST. ANDREWS.
The College will open on Wednesday, October 11. The Examination
for Bursaries begins on Friday, October 13. Intimation of candidature is
not necessary.
A Scholarship of £160 tenable for one year may be awarded biennially to
a graduate in Divinity, for advanced study or research.
‘A free pamphlet will be supplied by the Secretary of the University.
RESIDENCE HALLS.
Residence Halls for Men and for Women Students at St. Andrews.
Particulars may be had from the SecrETARY, The University, St. Andrews.
Residence Hall for Women Students at Dundee. Particulars may be
had from the SECRETARY, University College, Dundee.
ANDREW BENNETT,
Secretary and Registrar.
The University, St. Andrews,
August 1922.
EAST LONDON COLLEGE
(UNIVERSITY OF LONDON),
MILE END ROAD, E.1.
PASS AND HONOURS COURSES IN THE
FAGULTIES OF ARTS,
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.
FIRST YEAR MEDICAL COURSE.
POST GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK.
Fees—Twenty Guineas a year.
EVENING COURSES, M.A. FRENCH, M.A. & M.Sc.
MATHEMATICS.
RESEARCH WORK IN EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS.
Fees from Two Guineas a session.
SESSION COMMENCES OCTOBER 2.
‘TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRADFORD.
Day Courses.
Full-time (Day) Courses, extending over three or four years, and leading
to the Diploma of the College, are arranged in the following departments :—
TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,
CHEMISTRY. CIVIL ENGINEERING.
DYEING. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.
BIOLOGY.
Special facilities are available for Advanced Study and Research.
Evening Courses.
Part-time (Evening) Courses are also arranged, on the successful com-
pletion of which students are awarded Senior and Advanced Course Certifi-
cates.
Further particulars and prospectuses may be obtained on application to
Tue PrinciPaL, TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRADFORD.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF
SWANSEA.
(A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF WALES.)
Principal—T. FRANKLIN SIBLY, D.Sc., F.G.S.
The Third Session will open on October 2, 1922.
Courses of study are provided for :
(a) Degrees of the University of Wales in Arts, in Pure Science, and in
Applied Science (Metallurgy and Engineering) ;
(6) Diplomas of the College in Metallurgy and in Engineering ;
(c) The training of Teachers for Elementary and Secondary Schools ;
(d) The first Medical Examination of the University of Wales and of
other Examining Bodies.
Persons who are not desirous of studying for degrees or diplomas may
attend selected College Classes, provided they satisfy the Authorities of the
College that they are qualified to benefit by such classes.
Entrance Scholarships will be offered for competition in September 1922.
Particulars concerning admission to the College, and of the Entrance
Scholarships, may be obtained from the undersigned.
EDWIN DREW, Registrar.
University College,
Singleton Park, Swansea.
NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC
INSTITUTE.
280 ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C.1.
The Governing Body invites applications for the post of full-time
LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in the TECHNICAL
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT, in which the subjects of instruction
include Electro Metallurgy, Engineering Chemistry and Metallurgy.
Salary on the Burnham scale. Full particulars and forms of application
may be obtained from R. MuLtingux WavMsLey, D.Se., Principal.
VAT ORE
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1922.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Bill . 201
Paracelsus. By Sir T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S. 202
The History of British stint By Sir E. J.
Russell, F.R.S. ‘ Z : . 204
Ore Deposits. By Prof. H. Louis 205
The Living Soil . 206
The Presentation of Thermodynamics 207
Dialectic. By Prof. H. Wildon Carr : ; - 208
The Methods of Eeclogical invesueoton. by Dr.
E. J. Salisbury 5 . 208
Avian Minstrelsy . 209
Our Bookshelf 5 210
Letters to the Editor :—
The Cause of Rickets. —Sir W. M. Bayliss, F.R.S. ;
The Writer of the Article 212
The Phenomena and Conditions of Sex- change i in the
Oyster (O. edulis) and Crepidula. —Dr. J. H. Orton 212
Wegener's Displacement Theory. —E. R. Roe-
Thompson . 5 Big
The Elliptic Logarithmic Spiral —H. S. Rowell 214
Pairing and Parthenogenesis in Saw-flies.—A. D.
Peacock 215
Some Significant Relations in ‘the Quantum Theory
of Spectra.—Satyendra Ray . 215
Extraction of Radiolaria from Oozes. —H., 1
Thomas; Arthur Earland 216
An Attempt to Influence the Rate of Radioactive
Disintegration by Use of Penetrating Radiation.—
Dr. G. “Hevesy : 216
Black Coral. By Prof. Sydney ik Hickson, F.R.S. 217
The Determination of Stellar Distances. (With
diagram.) By Dr. William J. S. Lockyer . 219
Short-wave Directional Wireless Peceraph: By
C. S. Franklin . é : 220
Obituary :—
Prof. W. Wislicenus. By J. F. T. 223
Dr. A G. Mayor . . : 224
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. By A. R. 225
Current Topics and Events . : - 226
Research Items . : A * 2 . 228
The ‘‘ Immured Standards” in the Houseof Commons 230
The International Research Council . 230
The Philosophical Congress at Manchester 231
The Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute . 232
Pharmaceutical Education and Research . 233
University and Educational Intelligence . 233
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . 234
Societies and Academies 3 i ; : 235
Official Publications Received . 5 é 9 2) 2360
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address:
Telephone Number :
PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
201
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Bill.
HEN some three years ago the Universities of
\ Oxford and Cambridge applied to Parliament
for an annual grant to meet recurring expenses it was
obvious that such aid could be given only after due
inquiry. Accordingly a Royal Commission was ap-
pointed on November 14, 1919, “‘ to enquire into the
financial resources of the Universities and of the
Colleges and Halls therein, into the administration and
application of those resources, into the government of
the Universities, and into the relations of the Colleges
and Halls to the Universities and to each other.” On
March 24 of the present year the report of this com-
mission was published, and as a direct result we have
the Bill which was introduced by Mr. Fisher, president
of the Board of Education, into the House of Commons
on July 24.
The Bill is short, consisting of ten sections, with a
schedule embodying certain provisions of the Uni-
versities of Oxford and Cambridge Act, 1877, adapted
for present purposes. Two bodies of commissioners are
to be set up, styled respectively “The University of
Oxford Commissioners” and ‘“‘ The University of Cam-
bridge Commissioners.’’ The commissioners are named
and comprise men representative of the varied aspects
and interests of university life. Their tenure of office
is temporary and will normally expire at the end of the
year 1924, but may on the application of the commis-
sioners themselves be continued by His Majesty in
Council for other two years. From and after January 1,
1924, these commissioners will “make statutes and
regulations for the University, its colleges and halls,
and any emoluments, endowments, trusts, foundations,
gifts, offices, or institutions in or connected with the
University in general accordance with the recommenda-
tions contained in the Report of the Royal Commission,
but with such modifications as may, after the considera-
tion of any representations made to them, appear to
them expedient.”
After the termination of the powers of the com-
missioners the universities and colleges will again assume
their own government, but notice of any proposed
statute for a college must be given to the university
before it is submitted to His Majesty in Council, and
any college statute which affects the university may
not be altered without the consent of the university.
Again, except with the consent of the trustees or
governing body, no trust may be altered “ unless fifty
years have elapsed since the date on which the instru-
ment creating the trust came into operation.” This,
however, will not operate against increasing the endow-
ment of any emolument. Further, the contributions of
the colleges to university purposes must be assessed in
202
the first place with regard to the needs of the colleges
themselves.
The schedule deals with such questions as the interim
powers of the universities and colleges ; the provision
that the commissioners in framing statutes “ shall have
regard to the interests of education, religion, learning,
and research ; the election of college representatives
as commissioners ; and procedure generally and other
matters of detail.
Obviously the Bill must be read in the light of the
Report. The institution of two bodies of commissioners
is the result of a recommendation in it “that a
Statutory Commission should be set up to carry out the
changes recommended,” and the powers of these two
bodies are defined, except in special circumstances, by
it. As we have remarked in a previous article in
these columns the Report is distinctly conservative.
Similarly, the Bull, for example in its provision for
dealing with trusts and endowments, shows clearly that
there is no intention of making sweeping changes. The
new commissioners hold office for a season; the
suspension of the autonomy of the universities is
merely temporary.
The new bodies have no easy task before them. The
problems will demand knowledge, skill, and tact. The
question of the reform of the government of the uni-
versity requires delicate handling. The colleges must
be brought into closer relationship with the university.
The teaching will have to be reorganised and co-
ordinated, and proper provision made for research
and advanced work. Fellowships, scholarships, extra-
mural education, cost of living in colleges, non-collegiate
students, and entrance examinations are some of the
questions to be dealt with. In addition, there are the
twin problems of salaries and pensions. Here it may
be expected there will be difficulties. Notwithstanding
all that has been done in recent years in the modern
universities these are problems still unsolved there.
The question is not an easy one. For the Cambridge
Commission there is the further question of the position
of women in the university.
The projected reforms can be effected only by a large
The
Report recommends an annual Parliamentary grant of
100,000/. to each university.
increase in the income of the two universities.
Such a sum is none too
great for carrying into effect its financial proposals.
At present the grant is 30,000/. to each, and doubtless
a further instalment in the immediate future is con-
templated. This raises the important question as to
whether or not Oxford and Cambridge should have
separate and individual consideration in the matter of
State aid apart from the modern universities. In some
respects it is right and proper that separate and indi-
vidual consideration should be given to these ancient
NO. 2754, VOL, II0]
NATURE
[AuGuUST 12, 1922
institutions, particularly if due respect is to be paid to
the conservation of the best of their traditions. But
the case is not on all fours where finance is concerned.
Until recently the modern universities had been treated
somewhat scurvily by the State, and even now they
receive only 1,200,000/. of an annual Parliamentary
grant for allocation among something like sixty institu-
tions. The largest individual grant for the year 1921-2
—that received by the Imperial College of Science and
Technology—amounts to 67,500/., a sum in our opinion
quite inadequate for the expansion and development
of an institution of this standing. Moreover, when the
amounts allotted to the other institutions of university
rank are considered in detail, it is clear that a sum of
200,0001. for Oxford and Cambridge is quite out of
proportion. ‘The modern universities are not receiving
the financial help from the State to which they are
entitled, and, in particular, at the very time when
Oxford and Cambridge are receiving for the first time
an annual grant of 60,000l., they are being deprived of
an annual grant of 300,000/. This withdrawal cannot
be justified. In point of fact the financial difficulties
of the modern universities are equally as great as, if
not greater than, those of the two older universities.
The question of Parliamentary grants to our universi-
ties should be considered as a whole and not piecemeal.
In the light of seemingly contradictory statements made
in public regarding State aid given to the modern
universities it would appear that the whole question
should be discussed in Parliament. It is not true,
except as a mere technicality, to say that the annual
grant to the modern universities will remain at its
present level. Any one who takes this statement at
its face value will have a rude awakening in the coming
financial year. In our opinion, in such circumstances,
it would be a mistake to consider the financial needs of
Oxford and Cambridge apart from those of the modern
universities. The position of the whole of the universi-
ties in the United Kingdom should be considered
together, and not simply the position of two of them
however ancient and honourable their traditions.
Paracelsus.
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Para-
celsus : His Personality and Influence as Physician,
Chemist, and Reformer. By Prof. J. M. Stillman.
Pp. viiit184. (Chicago and London: The Open
Court Publishing Co., 1920.) Ios. net.
S is well known, it is the customary lot of revolu-
tionaries, whether in politics, religion, literature,
or science, or indeed in any department of intellectual
activity, to be both vilified and extolled, and the
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE
203
praise and the blame are usually administered in very
unequal measure, and with no due regard to the
intrinsic merits of the recipient. The common instinct
of mankind is to oppose change, and he who sets him-
self athwart the general tendency to consider whatever
is is right is certain to reap abuse for his pains, and to
have his motives, however well meant, misrepresented
and traduced. History shows that most reformers are
in advance of their age. It is rarely that they hit
what is mistakenly called the psychological moment—
that is, when the world is ripe for the change they
advocate, and willing and even eager to see it effected.
In this exceptional case the reformer is extolled, his
service universally acclaimed, and his immediate
fame assured. The pioneer who has to face the wis
inertiae of his age may, and usually does, go down to his
grave “unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.” It is only
when the fermenting leaven he has laboured to intro-
duce has, it may be after many years, produced its
effect, that his effort is recognised and its results
appreciated.
Such was the fate of him who is the subject of the
work under notice. No man of his epoch was so
systematically and so consistently disparaged, abused,
and reviled as Theophrastus von Hohenheim, commonly
called Paracelsus. His true vocation was that of a
medical practitioner, and the head and front of his
offending was that he should have striven to enlarge the
scope of the medical system of his time—not simply by
opposing the time-honoured doctrine of Hippocrates
and Galen, as authorised by all the medical faculties
of the period in every University of Europe—but by
seeking to graft on to it newer conceptions and a wider
and more rational scheme of therapeutics.
Paracelsus is frequently regarded as a chemist, and
he certainly has his place in the history of chemistry.
But he made no cardinal discovery in that science, and
his name is not associated with any process or apparatus
in operative chemistry. He wrote no treatise ex-
clusively concerned with chemistry. He led a restless
wandering existence, travelling, according to his own
account, over nearly the whole known world, picking
up and mentally storing the medical arcana of the
various countries he traversed.
During the forty-eight troubled years of his chequered
life Paracelsus certainly acquired a considerable
knowledge of the chemical arts of his time ; he writes
familiarly of certain chemical processes, and shows
acquaintance with the properties and uses of a fairly
wide range of manufactured products. His great
service to chemistry was that he was among the
earliest to point out that the work of the professed
chemists of his epoch was on wholly wrong lines. The
ostensible objects of alchemy were illusory. In con-
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
ceiving the possibility of transmutation the alchemists
were imagining a vain thing. The true and proper
function of the chemist was to serve humanity by
preparing and studying the properties of substances
of natural and factitious origin with a view of applying
them in the treatment and cure of disease.
By thus creating the school of iatro-chemistry
Paracelsus enlarged greatly the field of chemistry and
extended enormously the scope of its operations. But,
strictly speaking, Paracelsus only reverted thereby
to the practice of the Arabian followers of Galen—
Avicenna, Averrhoés, and their immediate followers—
who taught that chemistry was the true hand-maiden
of medicine. Their precepts had been misinterpreted
and corrupted by a succession of commentators—
mostly scholastics—who had imported into their teach-
ing a leaven of mysticism and occultism altogether
foreign to the spirit of Galen. Erasmus said of the
medical system of his time that the whole art as they
practised it was but an incorporated compound of
craft and imposture.
The reform of medicine was part of the general
movement of the Renaissance, and Paracelsus was as
much a product of the period as Leonardo da Vinci,
Copernicus, Thomas More, Luther, Vesalius, and the
other progenitors of that great awakening. He created
not only a new departure in chemistry, but he infused
a new spirit into medical teaching and practice, and
his reward was to suffer the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune in obloquy, poverty, and occasional
starvation. He was fighting against the Zumnfigeist of
his age, against powerful corporations and strongly
entrenched vested interests. Although he fell in the
unequal struggle he was not beaten, for the spirit he
invoked lived after him and eventually triumphed.
Paracelsus was a highly complex character—a
strange compound of genius and folly, of ill-regulated
life and unstable habits. It is this complexity of
nature which is doubtless at the basis of the very
divergent estimates which his various biographers have
formed of him. He had all the defects of his qualities,
and to a great extent he brought his misfortunes upon
himself. He was of a rash, unbalanced disposition,
impetuous, impatient of contradiction, a hard-hitter,
and prone to intemperate language. Of course, he
was stigmatised as a quack and a charlatan, and it must
be admitted there were incidents in his career which
afforded ground for the imputation. He seems to have
treated the reproach with a contemptuous indifference
which afforded no sufficient answer to his adversaries
and no real satisfaction to his few followers and friends.
In spite of much that has been written concerning
him Paracelsus remains an enigma, and his memory
still suffers from the obloquy which was heaped upon
204
him during his life. Of late years there has been a
tendency to seek to do him fuller justice and to put a
more liberal and more kindly interpretation upon his
conduct and actions, and to place him in what is to
be regarded as his true relation to his epoch. Prof.
Stillman’s book is the latest attempt at his rehabilita-
tion. It is a scholarly contribution to a subject which
has still its perplexities and difficulties. The story
of his life is here told without bias, dispassion-
ately, and in the light of all available information,
and the result is an eminently readable monograph
written in the true spirit of history.
T. E. THORPE.
The History of British Agriculture.
By the
Pp. xvi+ 504.
t2s. 6d.
(1) English Farming: Past and Present.
Rt. Hon. Lord Ernle. Third edition.
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.)
net.
(2) A Short History of British Agriculture. By John
Orr. Pp. 96. (London: Oxford University Press,
1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
(1) HE story of British agriculture is for the greater
part of its course the story of the life of the
ordinary Briton, for until the industrial and commercial
era began a century ago the country was in the main
agricultural. Several histories have appeared, but
none is more attractive than the volume written by
Lord Ernle, which has now reached its third edition.
There are few records of actual farming prior to the
Norman invasion, and the account here given begins
practically in the thirteenth century, though there
is no reason to suppose that any great change had been
brought about in agricultural methods for a long while
previously. From that time onwards, however, the
story is continuous, though it has had to be pieced
together from manorial records, old country sayings,
illuminated MSS., and many other sources. Lord
Ernle has done his work remarkably well, and he traces
with great clearness the changes from the old open field
system, through the enclosures of the sixteenth, seven-
teenth, and eighteenth centuries, to the great changes
introduced in the nineteenth century, and finally to
our own times.
The edition before us differs from the previous one
in that it contains a chapter on war farming in 1914—
918. This was an essay in State control, and the
measure of its unpopularity in the countryside was
seen in the almost savage joy with which the wholesale
retrenchment of the numerous inspecting officials after
the war was hailed, and in the irresistible demand for
the removal of all restrictions on freedom of cropping
and of farm management. Whatever the urban
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
NA TORE
[ AuGusT 12, 1922
voter may elect to bear in the way of State control
of industry, it is perfectly certain that the countryman
will have none of it: he is an incorrigible individualist.
Space does not allow of an adequate quotation from
the account of the history of those eventful days.
Lord Ernle has the double advantage of inside know-
ledge and of freedom from any restriction in relating
the course of events, and he tells the story vividly.
The real agricultural difficulty began in 1917, after the
harvest of 1916. The Board of Agriculture had fore-
seen this and had prepared a scheme, but the Cabinet
had not put it into operation. The winter 1916-17
was very unfavourable to the agriculturist ; the supply
of men, of feeding-stuffs and of fertilisers was short,
and was diminishing, and farmers generally were losing
heart. State control became imperative. The method
adopted was probably as good as could be devised,
and very full powers were given to the large body of
experts brought in for the purpose. In spite of all its
disadvantages and the increasing difficulties in regard
to labour and materials, the system was successful in
producing certain items of human food, as the following
table proves :
| % Percentage of
Increase. creas
Crops. 1918. | 1916. |1904-13. —
| | Over | Over | Over | Over
| | IQ16. |1904-13.| 1916. |1904-13.|
(In Thousands |
| of Quarters.) | vA A
| Wheat 10,534 | 6,835 | 6,653 | 3,699 | 3,88r 54 58
| Barley 6,085 | 5,181 | 6,212 904 | —127 17 -2
|Oats ._. . | 14,336 | r0,4rz | 10,572 | 3,925 | 3,764 38 36
Mixed Corn . *620 | *.. a5 620 620 a0 AS
| Beans and
Peas 1,328 | 1,122] 1,529 206 | —20r 18 -13
Total. . 32,903 | 23,549 | 24,966 | 9,354 | 7,937 49 32
(In Thousands
of Tons.) {
Potatoes. | 4,209 | 2,505] 2,643 | 1,704 | 1,566 68 59
| |
The present writer can testify, however, that the
machine was kept going only by constantly reminding
the rural community of the men in the trenches, and
had it not been for the poignant sorrow and bitter
tragedy of the war no power on earth would have kept
the farmers to the programme. It is not that they are
less patriotic than others, quite the contrary. But
the system is not suited to the conditions of the country-
side and so it lacks permanency. Post-war agriculture
is adjusting itself to post-war economic conditions.
The volume is full of interest and will certainly —
appeal to a large body of readers.
(2) Teachers of agriculture generally will welcome
the appearance of a little book on the history of the
subject which they can place in the hands of their
students, in the first instance to stimulate their interest,
and afterwards as an introduction to larger works.
* Mixed corn is shown separately in 1918. In previous years it is shown
under wheat, barley, or oats.
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE
20
on
Mr. Orr’s book can confidently be recommended for this
purpose.
The book is simply written and can be read without any
extensive knowledge of English history : it is unbiassed
and, for its size, it gives as good an account as we have
yet seen of the course of events in British farming from
the earliest times to the present day. The illustrations
are excellent and well chosen from a wide range of
sources: they show, side by side, the older and the
newer types of implements or of animals, and afford
admirable demonstrations of the great changes that
have taken place since agriculture began to develop.
In discussing the post-war period Mr. Orr ends on a
note of subdued optimism which we hope and believe
is justified: “The market for farm produce is weak.
Agriculture must share the bad fortune as well as the
good fortune of the country and even of the world.
In view of the magnitude of the war its evil effects will
probably be very great and very prolonged. But
however difficult times may be, there is promise for the
future in the better feeling that exists between landlords
and tenants, employers and employed, as compared
with that which prevailed a century ago. There has
been no poor-law payment of wages, and the difference
between the treatment of the labourer then and now is
an indication of the progress that has been made.”
E. J. RUSSELL.
Ore Deposits.
Abriss der Lehre von den Ervzlagerstatten: In Anlehnung
an die dritte Auflage des Lehrbuches und unter
Beniitzung hinterlassener Aufzeichnungen. Von Prof.
Richard Beck. Bearbeitet durch Georg Berg. Pp.
xi + 408. (Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger, 1922.)
16s. 8d.
S is stated by Dr. Berg in his introduction, this
K work, an abstract of the study of ore deposits,
is an abbreviation of the large work in two volumes by
Richard Beck. The original work was well known,
and three editions. have been published since it was
originally issued in 1rgoo. The general principle of
classification remains nearly the same as that in the
original work, and it must be admitted that, generally
speaking, the changes that have been made have not
made for a clearer understanding of this exceedingly
complex subject.
As in the original, a clear cut is made between
epigenetic and syngenetic deposits ; the author defines
these phrases as follows: in the former he includes
deposits into which ore has been introduced only after
the formation of the immediately adjoining country
rock, while the latter term is restricted to magmatic
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
' segregation in which the ore is formed simultaneously
with the country rock. These basal definitions,
however, are by no means satisfactory. The author’s
definition excludes from the syngenetic group sedi-
mentary deposits, such as beds of ironstone deposited
originally as bog ironstone, etc., and in fact Dr. Berg
has treated such deposits quite separately from his
syngenetic deposits and has placed them in his classifica-
tion after the epigenetic deposits. Dr. Beck, on the
other hand, looked upon such ores as syngenetic, and
there is no doubt that his view is the sounder and leads
to a clearer understanding of the entire subject.
Again, Dr. Berg devotes a separate section to the
Gozzans or alteration products of existing ore deposits,
formed above permanent water level, which may
include both secondary enrichment and impoverish-
ment of the deposits in respect of their metallic con-
tents. He classifies these deposits as epigenetic on
| the grounds that certain deposits are in themselves
not worth working except in the zone of secondary
enrichment ; perhaps, strictly speaking, there is
something to be said for this argument, but it certainly
does not make for a clear understanding of the subject.
If distinctions are to be drawn between the deposit
itself and its more or less altered outcrop, confusion
is bound to result. In fact, one of the great faults
| of the work lies in the author’s failure to appreciate
that in dealing with such phenomena as ore deposits,
where a natural system of classification is practically
impossible, broad lines must be followed; even so,
| there will be numerous border cases which every
student of the subject will treat on somewhat different
lines. One of the most striking points in the book,
which well illustrates what has just been said, is the
minute subdivision of mineral veins based upon
differences, and sometimes small differences, in their
mineral contents. In this Dr. Berg has followed
Dr. Beck, the need for simplification apparently not
having occurred to him. The whole of the treatment
of mineral veins may be described as somewhat
antiquated, seeing that over one-third of the work is
devoted to fissure veins. This diffuse treatment is
reminiscent of the days when the overwhelming
proportion of all metallic minerals (with the exception
of iron ores) was derived from fissure veins, as was
the case a century ago. To-day, on the other hand,
the output from veins is relatively unimportant,
and the author does not seem to have realised how
great the change has been in this respect.
The author divides his subject into the following
main groups :
I. Magmatic segregations.
II. Contact deposits.
III. Mineral veins.
206
NALTORE
[AucusT 12, 1922
IV.
Vie
Epigenetic ore bodies.
Sulphuretted ore deposits mainly of epigenetic
origin.
Ores formed by sedimentation.
Gozzans.
Secondary (clastic) deposits.
Wile
VII.
VIII.
Many of these groups are by no means satisfactory,
inasmuch as the deposits included in them do not
properly correspond to the titles given. Thus the
author quotes as examples of magmatic segregation
the magnetites in gneiss of the Lofoten Islands and the
“Siruna ore, although he admits that the latter ore
deposit is definitely younger than the adjoining eruptive
rocks and accordingly not syngenetic with these.
Similarly he includes among contact deposits, by which
he understands those formed under the influence of
contact metamorphism at or near the boundaries of
the eruptive and the stratified rock masses, a number
of deposits as to which he is bound to admit that he
cannot ascribe their origin to any particular eruptive
rock. He describes those as krypto-contact deposits,
but obviously such a description is far from satisfactory.
Among his epigenetic ore bodies he includes such
deposits as those of Bingham and Bisbee, where the
protore is undoubtedly syngenetic, gash veins and
similar deposits in pre-existing cavities, true meta-
somatic deposits like the red heematites of Cumberland,
and certain residual deposits, while his group of
sulphuretted ore bodies is admittedly not a natural
entity and contains examples of syngenetic, epigenetic,
and indeterminate modes of origin. This method of
dealing with the subject creates confusion rather than
clearness ; it is conglomeration, not classification.
There are various mistakes in geography, which
should have been avoided ; for example, the Sierra de
Ronda is said to be on the Portuguese coast, and
Leadville in England! Moreover, the work aims at
describing every deposit of importance, but there are
several notable omissions.
No doubt there is room for a good, small text-book
on mineral deposits, but it will have to be on different
lines from those of the present one ; more care will
have to be devoted to classification and to the discussion
of the modes of formation of the deposits, and fewer
examples, and those only typical ones, must be quoted,
references to descriptions of others being generally
sufficient. It is probably only in this way that the
student can get a clear view of this complex subject.
The work at present before us does not {fulfil these
conditions ; it may be of use for reference to the
experienced mining geologist who is not likely to be
led astray by it, but it is scarcely a safe book to place in
the hands of a beginner.
H. Louis.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
The Living Soil.
Untersuchungen zur Okologie der
bodenbewohnenden Mikroorganismen. Von R. H.
Francé. Zweite Auflage. Pp. 99. (Stuttgart:
Franckh’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1921.)
a | eee * qs the name which, from their
analogy to the plankton, Dr. Francé has
coined to cover all the forms of life occurring in the
soil. In spite of the very considerable amount of
work that has been done in recent years on these
organisms, very little of it is at present available to
the general biological reader. There are text-books
of agricultural bacteriology and a considerable number
of scattered papers dealing with single organisms or
groups of organisms from the soil, but most of these
reach only the specialist. Dr. Francé has therefore
performed a real service in writing a brief general
account of the soil fauna and flora, its conditions of
life, and the influences of the different groups of
organisms on one another and on the soil.
As a general handbook to the subject, however, it
suffers from one considerable defect, for during the
past few years great advances have been made both
in this country and in America, of which apparently
Dr. Francé has as yet heard nothing, since he gives
no references to any non-German work of a later date
than 1912. Even a casual glance through recent
numbers of the English and American journals would
not only have given him many useful facts, but would
also have suggested methods of technique which would
have made his own investigations much more fruitful.
His accounts in particular of the insects and flagellates
give very little idea of the number and variety of
these creatures occurring in the soil.
The observations on the ecology of the organisms
would also have been more satisfactory if a little more
statistical information had been given. It is not
very useful to be told that in May a cubic millimetre
of soil contained 15 organisms (omitting bacteria),
whereas in August the number had fallen to 3, unless
we are also told how much variation there is between
duplicate samples taken at the same time or at brief
intervals. Since Dr. Francé frequently reminds us
of the close analogy between the edaphon and the
Das Edaphon.
plankton, one naturally recalls the wide divergences —
found in duplicate catches of the latter. Probably he
is right in believing that the figures given are significant,
but the reader who wishes to understand what are
the effects of temperature, moisture, season, and the
physical and chemical properties of the soil on the
organisms living in it, is at a great disadvantage if he
is not told just what is the degree of significance.
In spite of these defects, however, the present
AuGusT 12, 1922 |
NPAT ORE,
207
volume contains a great many useful observations
and a very lucid and stimulating review of the subject.
One may question whether the biological influences
have quite the dominating importance in the soil
that is here claimed for them, and in particular whether
the organisms found in it can as yet be satisfactorily
used as a criterion of the agricultural properties of a
soil ; but the subject is still young and its possibilities
are undoubtedly great.
The Presentation of Thermodynamics.
Vorlesungen tiber Thermodynamik. Von Prof. Dr. Max
Planck. Sechste Auflage. Pp. x + 292. (Berlin:
W. De Gruyter und Co., 1921.)
NE of the most universal generalisations that can
be made about the study of mathematical
| physics is that everybody finds thermodynamics a very
difficult subject. In consequence of this there have
arisen several different ways of presenting it, which
vary far more from one another than do the presenta-
| tions in such subjects as dynamics or electricity.
There is first the thermodynamics of the engineer, in
_ which entropy is something steam has, which can be
found from tables. Then there is the thermodynamics
| of the chemist, whose laboratory is stocked with semi-
| permeable membranes. He is a great designer of
| engines, but all his enjoyment of his wonderful instru-
| ments is spoiled by his perpetual suspicion that Nature
| is trying to score off him. Next, there is the thermo-
tdynamics of the ‘mathematician; this scraps the
_chemist’s machinery and does the whole business by
| means of Pfaffian forms, a peculiar branch of mathe-
matics, and almost the only one in which it looks as if
| more comes out at the end than is put in at the begin-
ning. Lastly, there is the super-man, who can see and
count the atoms, who regards all the others as gamblers,
_ though he is bound to admit that they know how to lay
| the odds. He occupies a position rather apart, being,
| so to speak, engaged in a study of the jurisprudence of
_ thermodynamics.
_ Now (excepting the last), all these presentations
/claim to derive their results from the two laws of
thermodynamics, but there is no agreed statement of
| those two laws. In most books the chapter on the
Second Law is not opened by a formal statement of
| that law—as Newton’s laws of motion would head the
| corresponding chapter in a book on dynamics—but
|
it is necessary to have several pages of tendencious
) discussion first, to create the atmosphere in which the
| law shall be acceptable. This can only mean that the
law as stated contains a good many implied assump-
tions. Some years ago Carathéodory, the pure
mathematician, formulated the principles in a really
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
logical manner, and it is to be hoped—if we can believe
that the human mind is by taste rational—that this
formulation will be more successful in making the
subject easy than has the exceptional variety in
presentation which has hitherto prevailed. Cara-
théodory’s work was transcribed a year or two ago
in the Physikalische Zeitschrift by Born. He insists
that there is no way of shirking the Pfaffian problem
in some form or other, but gives a simple geometrical
description of it; in the consequent deduction of
absolute temperature and entropy there is some rather
heavy work which could probably be simplified. But
the most important modification is the new place taken
by temperature in the presentation. In the ordinary
way it occurs muddled up with the Second Law, but
here it is taken out and introduced as the primitive
idea—of course, measured on an arbitrary scale. The
consequence is that the First Law no longer deals with
quantities which are undefined, and the Second Law
becomes a clear-cut statement instead of a jumble of
two statements.
The new presentation is too recent to have been
adopted in text-books, and it will be most interesting
to see whether it is destined to drive out the older
types. The book under review is of a class about mid-
way between those of the chemist and those of the
mathematician. That it has gone through six editions
shows that it is a first-rate introduction to the subject ;
but it certainly can be criticised from the logical point
of view, for it brings in absolute temperature by means
of the perfect gas, and only later justifies it in the
general case. It is a philosophical question whether
it is legitimate to introduce ideas connected with reality
by means of a hypothetical substance—perhaps it
may be defended, like the introduction of rigid bodies
in dynamics. But the point really is that this method
is apt to leave the student with the idea that absolute
temperature is in some way connected with perfect
gases, an idea rather encouraged by many of the
examples that are usually cited. It is surely a pity
to start by dealing with a special case, when the whole
argument is that Carnot’s cycle works exactly as well
whatever the substance in the cylinder. Apart from
this criticism, however, the whole work is an admirably
detailed development of the theory, with numerous
illustrative examples from physical chemistry. The
chief changes in the new edition are in connexion with
the theory of solutions ; in particular, an account is
given of the theory of J. C. Ghosh of Calcutta, of the
freezing-points of strong solutions, which would seem
to have attracted more attention in Germany than in
this country. There is also more said about the
equation of state of solids and their expansion co-
efficients.
208
NATURE
[AucusT 12, 1922
We have dwelt perhaps with undue weight on the
question of fundamentals, because this seems to us a
matter which should be put right. But the present
work, supplemented by a proper treatment of those
fundamentals, certainly constitutes an excellent course
in the general theory of thermodynamics.
Dialectic.
Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic.
E. McTaggart. Second Pp. , Xvi + 255.
(Cambridge : At the University Press, 1922.) 15s. net.
By Dr. John McT.
edition.
T is curious that a book which professed only to
be a study of Hegel, and deals with criticisms
of the Hegelian method and principle current more
than thirty years ago, should be reprinted to-day
and present the same freshness and vigour to the
reader now as it did then. This is the feeling with
which one who read Dr. McTaggart’s book on its first
appearance now lays it down, having read it again
from beginning to end. It contains the best exposition
of the dialectic, and the best defence of the dialectic,
and the best criticism of it by any living writer. The
conclusion Dr. McTaggart reaches would be accepted
probably even by the most convinced Hegelians,
namely, the conclusion that the logic is of permanent
value and the dialectic sound, but that the metaphysic
is unsatisfactory and cannot be final. His own view
would seem to be that the ultimate reality is a unity
of personalities, but that this unity is not itself a
personality. Most of this book was originally presented
in papers read and discussed at the Aristotelian Society
in the early “nineties and published in Mind, for at that
time the Society did not publish Proceedings. It is a
living work to-day because, more than at any previous
time, the problem of the methodology of science is in
the forefront. Mathematical discoveries, which have
caused a revolution in our mode of conceiving the
physical universe, and the discoveries of the new
psychology, which have profoundly changed our mode
of conceiving the mind, have necessitated a reconsidera-
tion of what is implied in the experimental method.
We have found a need for dialectic, for the logic of
philosophy. The stone which was set at nought by
the scientific builders of the nineteenth century is
become the head of the corner.
In the thirty years which have elapsed since Dr.
McTaggart’s book was written there have been some
notable attempts in philosophy to reform and advance
the Hegelian dialectic. It would be interesting to
know Dr. McTaggart’s attitude towards them. In
section 120 he seems almost to anticipate Croce’s
criticism of Hegel as failing to differentiate between
“opposites ” and “‘ distincts.” Also one would like
NO. 2754, VOL. I10]
to know how far he considers that Gentile, in the
theory he has worked out of the identity of philosophy
with its history, has met his objection to the place
assigned by Hegel to philosophy in the supreme triad
of absolute mind. Dr. McTaggart’s own recent work,
“The Nature of Existence,” gives the impression that
he has himself moved away from the position of these
early studies and has fallen under the spell of the
opposite method to that of the dialectic, the method
which is known as logistic and has its home in his
college. It may be, however, that he is illustrating
in his own mental development the dialectical advane
through negation. In any case we can say that this
republication of his early work is of the greatest valu
to those who are endeavouring to follow the constructive
work in which he is now engaged.
H. Witpon Carr.
The Methods of Ecological Investigation.
Geobotanische Untersuchungsmethoden. Von Prof. Dr.
Eduard Rubel. Pp. xii+290. (Berlin: Gebriider —
Borntraeger, 1922.) 16s. 8d.
T is now seventeen years since the first appearance
of Prof. Clement’s work on “ Research Methods —
in Ecology,” written at a time when this branch of
knowledge was still in its infancy and its methods for
the most part yet to be devised. Since 1905, however, —
considerable advances have been made, particularly
in the two directions of intensive study of the habita
factors and the extensive study of the plant community
The growth of the subject is indicated by the
establishment, both in this country and in America,
of specialised journals devoted to this field alone, ani
this growth has naturally been accompanied by the
development of a definite technique for the study o
plant societies. We therefore welcome the work befor:
us, in which Prof. Rubel has aimed at giving us a surve
of the present position of ecological methodology on
the botanical side.
Broadly the subject matter falls into two sections
corresponding to the two main lines of progress already
mentioned. Of these the consideration of the factors ;
of the habitat, climatic, edaphic, biotic and orographic,
with the methods of their measurement, occupies nearly —
half the text. 7
The climatic section contains a useful account of
several American types of atmometer, methods of
measuring light intensity under water, etc. Th
section treating of edaphic factors is regrettably sho
especially having regard to the extensive development
in this direction. For example, details might usefully
have been furnished of the freezing-point depression .
methods of estimating the concentration of soil solutions —
|
;
4
9
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE
209
and the more fundamental methods of chemical analysis.
No description is given of a modern type of calcimeter
such as that of Collin’s, but only of the two Passon’s
caleimeters in which the sources of error still remain.
Again, ecologists might reasonably hope to find in
these pages an account of either the electrical or colori-
metric methods for determiming the hydrogen-ion
concentration of soil solutions, or of the colorimetric
determination of nitrates.
It is particularly in respect to physical and chemical
; methods, of which the details are often widely scattered
in non-botanical literature, that the biological investiga-
tor needs most guidance. The elucidation of ecological
problems is becoming every day more a question of the
investigation of the chemical and physical properties
of the environment as they affect the different species
directly, and their relationships to one another.
The second part of the volume is devoted to a
] . . . .
consideration of the plant community, and is a helpful
_ summary of the recent work on the extensive side of
the subject. Here are dealt with such aspects as
| frequency and the methods of its determination, the
?
occurrence of “‘ constants ’’ and characteristic species,
the life forms of plants as classified by Raunkaier, the
chief plant formations and the important subject of
cartography.
Prof. Riibel’s considerable experience in the Swiss
Survey lends especial value to his pertinent discussions
of the various statistical methods. The results so
obtained are often by no means free from the personal
_ equation, and hence often have a spurious appearance
of accuracy to which attention is rightly drawn.
The
classification of plant formations is, in essentials, that
put forward by Brockman and Ribel in rg12, based
largely on the physiognomy of the dominant species.
The chief change is the creation of a new class termed
Saxideserta for stony deserts in which cryptogamic
vegetation predominates.
Ecology, from the very complexity of the problems
with which it deals, must cull its methods from all
branches of science, and if we have criticised omissions
it is not without a due appreciation of the magnitude
of the author’s task and of the encyclopedic knowledge
_ requisite to its ideal performance.
E. J. SALISBURY.
’
Avian Minstrelsy.
Songs of the Birds. By Prof. Walter Garstang. Pp.
tor. (London: John Lane, The Bodley Head,
Ltd., 1922). 6s. net.
ye his “Songs of the Birds” Prof. Garstang has
given us an unusual but agreeable mixture of
science and verse. His introductory essay on avian
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
song is a contribution to the science of the subject
which deserves serious consideration. His attempts
to set down on paper representations of the songs of
different species are also interesting, although opinions
will probably differ as to whether he has greatly suc-
ceeded where others have failed. Finally, there are
the author’s own verses about the songsters, often
incorporating his representations of their own music ;
but these, together with the little sketches from Mr.
J. A. Shepherd’s humorous pencil, scarcely fall within
the scope of a notice in these pages.
Prof. Garstang starts from the assumption that
“birds are not automatic musical boxes, but sound-
lovers, who cultivate the pursuit of sound combinations
as an art, as truly as we have cultivated our arts of a
similarly esthetic character. This art becomes to
many of them a real object of life, no less real than the
pursuit of food or the maintenance of a family.’’ He
also, following Warde Fowler, places bird song on the
esthetic level of the rude music of primitive man.
The songs of birds, he tells us, “ are in each generation
an expression of the whole joy of life at its climax of
achievement and well being,’ and he holds that it is
wrong to regard them as essentially love lyrics.
views are a welcome reaction from the too mechanical
conceptions that are common, but there is at the same
time some danger of their leading towards too anthropo-
morphic ways of thinking.
Much ingenuity has been expended at various times,
and with indifferent success, on the attempt to trans-
late birds’ songs into human speech or musical notation.
Prof. Garstang obviously approaches this vexed ques-
tion with a knowledge of music and a sense of poetry,
and his endeavours to place the matter on a firmer
footing are, at the least, interesting and instructive.
As “the bird is a minstrel, not a musician,’ and as
“timbre and resonance, rather than musical pitch,
constitute the dominating features of a bird’s sounds,”
the author has adopted a syllabic notation. His view
is that ‘‘ the secret of representation lies not in punctili-
ous imitation of every sound (which is unattainable),
but in accuracy of phrasing combined with a fair
approximation to the succession of dominant vowels
and consonants.” As we have said, however, opinions
are likely to differ as to whether the question is really
solved, for the personal factor enters so largely into
both the hearing of the songs themselves and the reading
ofthe written symbols. The reader who has an ear may
thus best judge for himself whether a useful advance
in the means of studying and describing bird music has
been achieved by such examples as the following
representation of the song of the willow-warbler :
Sip, sip, sip, see! Tee, tew, wee, tew !
Witty, witty, wee-wee, weetew !
These
NATURE
[AucusT 12, 1922
Our Bookshelf.
Columns: A Treatise on the Strength and Design of
Compression Members. By Dr. E. H. Salmon.
(Oxford Technical Publications.) Pp. xvi+279.
(London : Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton,
1921.) 31s. 6d. net.
THE question of the strength of columns is one of con-
siderable difficulty, on both the theoretical and the
experimental side, and the author is to be congratu-
lated on the value of his contribution to this subject.
Dr. Salmon’s book consists of three parts: Part x
is a bibhography arranged chronologically and gives
the author’s name and the title of the work. Part 2
is an analytical discussion covering various methods
of fixing the ends ; in each case ideal conditions are
first assumed, and then departures from these con-
ditions are considered until the ordinary column is
reached. Part 3, synthetical, contains accounts of
various formule used in practice and the experimental
evidence on which they are based. The last two parts
are taken substantially from a thesis submitted for the
D.Sc. (Engineering) degree of the University of London.
Part 1 in the thesis was historical, consisting of short |
summaries of each important memoir, including experi-
mental work; it is unfortunate that, owing to the
present impossibility of publishing the complete work,
this section has been compressed into a bibliography
of sixteen pages. The treatment in Part 2 is mathe-
matical without unnecessary refinements.
Apart from the advantage of the presentation in one
volume of much valuable work, hitherto scattered in
many books and journals, the author’s systematic
treatment has led him to elucidate various new points,
and will undoubtedly stimulate the reader in the same
direction. For the same reason the suggestions given
for future research must carry weight. Dr. Salmon
considers that the most pressing point for future
research on columns is the question of the degree of
imperfection common in practical direction-fixed ends.
This matter is of great importance in other structural
members as well as in columns, e.g. arch ribs and
encastré beams. We can thoroughly recommend the
volume to all who are interested in the subject of the
strength of materials.
A Text-Book of Mineralogy : With an extended Treatise
on Crystallography and Physical Mineralogy. By
Prof. Edward S. Dana. Third edition, revised and
enlarged by Prof. William E. Ford. Pp. ix+720.
(New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London:
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 255. net.
Tus well-known book was first published in the year
1877, and a second edition appeared in 1898. The
present third edition leaves the form essentially un-
changed, the close relation between the author’s
“* System of Mineralogy ’’ and this book having rendered
it inadvisable to revise the chemical classification of the
minerals until a new edition of that larger work can be
undertaken. The distinguished author is now professor
emeritus at Yale; he still retains the post of curator
of Mineralogy, however, but being well advanced in
years the revision of the book has been undertaken by
Prof. Ford.
NO. 2754, VOL. I10]
The principal changes appear to be the introduction
of a section on stereographic and gnomonic projections,
and improvements in the description and explanation
of the optical properties of crystals. The reference
to the very important recent work on the elucidation
of crystal structure by means of X-rays, however,
occupies only slightly more than one page, without
a single illustration. On the other hand, however,
there is a much longer and really valuable section on
the determination of the refractive indices of micro-—
scopic crystals by the more recent improved microscopie
methods of F. Becke and F. E. Wright.
We are glad to see that the references to classes of
lower than full systematic symmetry as “ hemihedral ”
and “‘ tetartohedral”’ (possessing a half or a quarter
of the full number of faces) is now only a passing one,
as to an antiquated, misconceived, more or less dis-
carded and inadequate method of description. The
crystal classes are now referred to as possessing eac
their own definite elements of symmetry, the only
truly scientific method of distinguishing them.
ACE. Hed
General Economic Geology : A Text-book. By Prof. W.
Harvey Emmons. Pp. xui+516. (New York an
London : McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1922.) 205.
STUDENTS and others interested in economic geology
will appreciate Prof. Emmons’s volume. The scope o
the work is extremely wide and all of the following ar
dealt with : coal, petroleum, natural gas, metalliferous
and non-metalliferous minerals of economic importance,
and building stones.
The text as a whole shows a great resemblance
to that of two of the author’s previous works, e.g
“ Geology of Petroleum ” and “ Principles of Economie
Geology,” but the section on coal is entirely new.
The chapter on oil appears to be a précis from the
former of the two books mentioned, and some parts
dealing with mineral deposits have largely the same
text and diagrams of the corresponding earlier work.
The chapters on the non-metallic minerals, however.
have been greatly enlarged, and contain much additiona
information. ;
It is evident that the author has written his ‘‘ Genera
Economic Geology ” primarily for an American public
since all his examples, where possible, are from America’
localities, with little or no mention of occurrences 0
equal or greater importance in other parts of the world
An outstanding example of this is the 70 pages which
he devotes to the coalfields of North America to th
exclusion of fields elsewhere.
The value of the book is greatly enhanced by th
addition of an excellent bibliography, which will allo
of a more specialised study of particular areas whe
required. Moreover, the text throughout is plentifully
supplemented with maps, diagrams, and _half-ton
blocks.
Imperial Institute Handbooks. The Agricultural and
Forest Products of British West Africa. By Gerald
C. Dudgeon. Second edition. Pp. xii + 176 +
plates. (London: J. Murray, 1922.) 7s. 6d. net.
Stvce the first edition of this handbook appeared in”
tg1r many changes have taken place. The develop-
ment of British West Africa has experienced a Serious
}
~
>?
AUGUST 12, 1922]
set-back through the occurrence of the war, but
useful lessons have been learned and many subjects
have come forward or called for increased attention.
The cultivation of cotton has been shown to be success-
ful and profitable in Nigeria, in the northern provinces
great progress has been made in perfecting a cotton
originally grown from ‘‘ American Upland” seed,
while the southern provinces have produced increasing
quantities of an improved native cotton of the type
of “‘Middling American.” The products of the oil
palm and especially the kernel of the nut have been
in increased demand for edible purposes, but improved
methods of extraction are still awaited, and the success-
ful cultivation of the oil palm in the Dutch East Indies
and British Malaya threatens to rival the industry
in West Africa. Successful plantations of Para rubber
have been established in Nigeria and in the Gold Coast,
and the latter has become the chief cocoa producer of
the world. The extension and improvement of the
Agricultural Departments will be a factor in developing
the possibilities of the various territories in West Africa
for which Great Brita is now responsible. The
handbook will serve as a guide to all who seek informa-
tion on the agricultural and forest products of British
West Africa.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Special Reports on
the Mineral Resources of Great Britain. Vol. 2:
Barytes and Witherite. By G. V. Wilson, T.
Eastwood, R. W. Pocock, D. A. Wray, and T.
Robertson. With contributions by H. G. Dines.
Third edition. Pp. iv +119 + 6 plates. (South-
ampton: Ordnance Survey Office; London: E.
Stanford, Ltd., 1922.) 35. net.
THE issue of a third edition of this memoir shows
public appreciation of the economic work of the
Geological Survey ; the revision has involved further
visits to all the principal mines, and the records of
output include those of very recent years. A brief
sketch of the characters of the two minerals concerned
and of their uses precedes the detailed account of the
mines. Photographs of crystals, and some account
of the relation of barytes to metallic sulphides in the
field, might have added interest to this section ; but
the cost of the memoir to the public has no doubt been
carefully considered. The graphic tables showing the
total output go back only to 1890. It would be of
interest to trace the quick response of the Derbyshire
miners to the demand that arose in 1856. The earliest
date mentioned on p. 64 is 1892; but in 1857, two
years after the industrial development of barytes lodes
was started in the county of Cork, Derbyshire produced
as much as gooo tons. The thoroughness of the memoir
as a record of present-day mining is shown by the
descriptions of methods of treatment of the ore at
various places, and of means of transport.
Gwe MC
The Edge of the Jungle. By William Beebe. Pp. 237.
(London: H. F. and G. Witherby, 1922.) 12s. 6d.
net.
Mr. Berse has a graphic pen. His account of the life
of bird, beast, and insect as seen from a small clearing
on the edge of the British Guiana forest gives a vivid
and kaleidoscopic impression of teeming life. His
capacity for close and careful observation and his
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
NATURE
211
artistic power of selecting just the nght details, com-
bine to convey to the reader a feast of tropical colour,
sound, and scent. It is impossible not to follow his
account of, say, the happenings in the “army ants’
home town” with an interest as tense as though he
described the fortunes of human individuals. The trans-
formation of “ Guinevere ”’ from a tadpole into a tree-
frog holds the reader entranced. Mr. Beebe does not
confine his attention entirely to his clearing ; while ona
visit to the gardens at Georgetown he was fortunate
enough to see a group of manatees of which he records
his impressions for the benefit of his readers. Incident-
ally he raises an interesting question as to the origin
of flower growing for non-utilitarian purposes, which
may suggest to the anthropologist a new field in which
to view the influence of magic.
Land Drainage. By W.L. Powers and T. A. H. Teeter.
Pp.ix+290. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ;
London: Chapmanand Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 13s. 6d.net.
Lanp drainage occupies a large and important place
in American agriculture, and the volume under notice
is evidence of its prominence. It deals mainly with
conditions in the Corn Belt and Western States, and
is intended as a practical handbook from which may be
obtained the most important details of procedure in
the construction of drainage works. As these opera-
tions vary according to the nature of the land—
reclaiming a marsh presents different problems from the
draining of irrigated land which has begun to show
signs of alkali—the authors have supplemented their
general discussion by detailed descriptions of actual
installations. These accounts include the balance-
sheets of the operation, which show that in most of
the schemes the increased crops have paid for the
outlay m a short time. Particular interest attaches
to the section dealing with drainage laws, and the
manner in which the cost and the benefits of a proposed
scheme for a district are divided among the farmers.
The concluding chapter is devoted to the care and use
of surveying implements, and a useful appendix of
laboratory exercises is provided, in which the main
principles of drainage are illustrated. 1B} Jay 1G
Homework and Hobby Horses. Edited by H. Caldwell
Cook. (Perse Playbooks, No. VI.) Pp. xi+58.
(London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., n.d.) 3s. 6d. net.
Tue Perse Playbooks are by now sufficiently well
known to educationists. This little volume—the sixth
of the series—embodies a selection of poems, ballads,
and carols which have been produced, with one excep-
tion, by boys of the Perse School as a part of the system
of the play-method of teaching English composition.
The authors are all under fourteen, and the facility of
the verse and, generally, its smoothness suggest that
the statement that English verse composition has no
terrors for, at any rate, some of the boys, is well
founded. Some of the compositions are avowedly
parodies, others are obviously derivative, but many
show a poetic feeling which is surprising, as well as a
considerable command of an appropriate vocabulary.
The incongruous, the mark of the unpractised versifier,
is commendably absent. It is interesting to note that
of the various classes of poems, the carols are by far the
most successful.
NATORE
[AucusT 12, 1922
2
: ance, and even this vitamin may be reduced to a very
Letters to the Editor. small quantity in presence of adequate sunlight.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for Should not “ vitamin-B ™ in the seventh line trom
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice 7s
taken of anonymous communications. |
The Cause of Rickets.
Tue scientific interest of the work that has been
done and is reviewed in the leading article in NATURE
of July 29, p. 137, is that it shows that ultra-violet
light, acting on the skin, produces by a _ photo-
chemical reaction a definite substance which circulates
in the blood. This substance is able to replace
vitamin-A in the food; whether wholly or only
partially is not yet certain, although it should not be
difficult to decide the question. If the former, it
appears that light actually causes the formation of
the vitamin, as suggested by Prof. Harden, or at all
events some compound closely similar to it. Dr.
Rollier finds in his sunlight treatment of tuberculosis
that cod-liver oil is quite unnecessary ; but, of course,
his patients get vitamin-A in butter and so on. In
rickets, vitamin-A can apparently be reduced to a
very small amount if there is plenty of sunlight, but
it is uncertain whether the vitamin can completely
replace sunlight.
Looking at the evidence as a whole, it seems to me
that the six or seven causes enumerated in Dr.
Findlay’s article may really be reduced to two and
perhaps ultimately to one. These two are deficiency
of sunlight and of vitamin-A. Taking the remaining
suggested causes in the order mentioned, it is obvious
that bone cannot be made without its constituents
calcium and phosphate, and, as the article points out,
this is not a matter of great practical importance,
especially if a proper quantity of milk is included in
the diet. As to the avoiding of cereals in favour of
meat, it seems that the question here is really one of
the rate of growth. There is no doubt that the more
rapid the growth, the more vitamin-A is needed,
probably because it is stored to some extent in the
new tissues, especially if these consist of much fat.
Prof. Mellanby’s experiments showed clearly that the
addition of carbohydrate to the diet of his puppies
necessitated more vitamin because the growth was so
much more rapid than on meat diet alone. It is of
interest that Dr. Rollier’s experience with tuberculous
cases is at variance with Dr. Findlay’s with rickets.
Rollier finds that much meat is injurious, and that
oatmeal is one of the best foods. At the same time,
he deprecates over-feeding.
The next cause, rapid growth, has been dealt with
above.
I am inclined to think that the factors included in
bodily confinement and lack of exercise actually mean
lack of sunlight. I understand that at Johns Hopkins
Hospital it was found that the two factors mentioned
were immaterial if exposure to ultra-violet light was
given. It is very doubtful whether massage and
electrical treatment have much effect. It is remark-
able that the effects ascribed to these are obtained by
Rollier in cases which of necessity have to lie quiet,
such as tuberculous vertebra, by the action of sun-
light alone. The firmness and “ tone,’’ even growth,
of the muscles is very obvious.
I doubt whether much advance is likely to be made
by obscure references to increase of general meta-
bolism as an explanation of the action of ultra-violet
light. The dogmatic statement that animal protein
is of especial value rests on no goodtevidence. Apart
from vitamin-A, diet does not seem of great import-
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
the bottom of the first column on p. 138 read
“vitamin-A ’”’ ? And also in the sixth line from the
top of the second column ?
I would conclude that we can reduce the effective
factors in the prevention of rickets to vitamin-A and
sunlight. It may be found to sunlight alone.
W. M. Bay iss.
University College, London.
I am much obliged to Sir William Bayliss for point-
ing out my inexcusable mistake of writing “‘ B”’ for
‘A’ vitamin. One of the advantages of solving the
rickets question may be that we shall be able to use
a more definitive and memorable nomenclature.
“ Anti-rachitic ’’’ factor is at present plainly in-
admissible ; it would be pleasant to call it ““ Hopkins’
stuff,’’ were it not obvious that the identity of the
substances which promote growth and have a preven-
tive influence on rickets is still an open question.
On the general question it seems to me that Sir
William Bayliss is too ready to accept as a demon-
strated fact that ultra-violet light, acting on the skin,
produces by a photo-chemical reaction a substance
which is equivalent to or identical with the factor in
cod-liver oi] which influences growth and rickets. It
is a very tempting hypothesis because it brings into
line a number of apparently discrepant observations.
But it neglects a great mass of clinical experience
which relates the occurrence of obvious rickets to the
total intake of food and to ‘the influence of exercise
and massage. This experience may not be capable of
the precise formulation one would like, it may not be
of any very high order of observational or experi-
mental accuracy, but it has, I think, none the less to
be taken into account. It is known too, though here
again the data are not beyond criticism, that light
increases the rate of general metabolism in experi-
mental animals.
The alternative hypothesis suggested in the article
seems to have the advantage of bringing all the more
or less certain and uncertain data which are available
into line. What is, of course, needed is a whole series
of clinical experiments made with the control and
precision of the observations carried out by Dr.
Harriette Chick and her colleagues in Vienna. Ex-
periments of this kind are laborious and difficult.
Meanwhile the practical sanitarian can get to work
with Sunlight and cod-liver oil and abolish the disease
before any one has found out what part of the
spectrum is effective.
THE WRITER OF THE ARTICLE,
The Phenomena and Conditions of Sex-change
in the Oyster (OQ. edulis) and Crepidula.
In Nature of December 15, 1921 (vol. 108, p. 500),
I described an experiment from which a sexually
mature male oyster was obtained of a maximum
age of 23 weeks, from the River Blackwater. In
this experiment a fair number of oysters born in
1921 were obtained on specially prepared shells
kept isolated iv the sea with the view of determining
the conditions of sex at a known age at later intervals.
With the aid of a Government grant from the Royal
Society it has been possible to follow up the experi-
ment this year with the following highly interesting
results. The young oysters this year were found
mostly to be sexually mature or had recently spawned.
In one sample of 32 examined from shells on the
south shore, River Blackwater, most of the individuals
were males, but one large individual (28 x 31 mm.)
oN
ee ee
ide
AUGUST: 12, 1922]
NATURE
97T2
213
was found on July 3 to be carrying thousands of
young oyster embryos. This same individual was
taken to Plymouth and kept alive; on July 18 it
was again examined and found to be practically
ready to spawn as a male.
It is, therefore, clear that even in England, in such
suitable circumstances as occurred in 1921, oysters may
become mature as females in the first year of growth,
and further that a one-year-old oyster which had
spawned as a female in the summer following that in
which it was born changed immediately after spawning
into a male. An examination of about 300 young
oysters from the oyster-beds, estimated as one-year-
old oysters from comparison with the known one-
year-olds, gave the same result as that obtained
from the examination of the spat known definitely
to have settled in 1921, namely, that all the smaller
ones were males but that some of the larger ones
were either females or had already spawned as
females and were changing or had changed into
males. From these results the conclusion is drawn
that all oysters are born as males, but may or may
not change into females at an age of one year. The
proofs for this statement are not yet sufficient to
establish it as a fact, and indeed actual proof could
only be obtained in the most fortuitous circum-
stances. The kind of result required to amount
to proof would be one which gave rooo individuals
all males out of rooo individuals examined, but as
oyster larve settle at different intervals over a
period of several months, a heterogeneous population
with regard to age—apart from other causes—results
unless very special precautions are taken. Since,
however, sex-change may occur very rapidly, a
difference in age of a few months in young oysters
is sufficient to give time for sex-change in a collection
of rapidly growing oysters whose greatest age is not
more than one year, hence the difficulty. In spite
of the difficulties, however, the knowledge of the
conditions of sex-change mentioned above will help
towards designing an experiment to lead to a definite
result.
An extremely interesting result follows the observa-
tion that an oyster may function as a female at an
age of one year, namely, that Gerbe’s work in 1876
(Revue et Magasin de Zoologie pur et applique, 3
serie, iv.) can be regarded as confirmed. Gerbe
examined 435 one-year-old oysters and found 35
with spawn in the gill, 127 with eggs in the gonad,
189 with sperm in the gonad, and presumably 84
with the gonad undifferentiated. An additional
observation supporting these was also obtained from
the Blackwater experiment mentioned above. A
few Portuguese oysters (O. angulata) settled on the
shells at the same time as the nattve oysters. By
good fortune one ripe male and one ripe female were
obtained. An artificial fertilisation made from these
two individuals gave a very good proportion of
swimming oyster larvee and quite as good as a control
gave on adult Portuguese oysters.
Thus Gerbe’s results—although nearly 50 years
old—may be accepted and taken into account
definitely in discussions on sex in the European
oyster. There is nothing in his results at variance
with the observations described above. The view
one naturally took of Gerbe’s results—prior to the
writer's observations given above—was that European
oysters at birth developed in approximately equal
numbers into males and females, and in view of sex-
change afterwards taking place from female! to male
and almost certainly also from male to female, the
sex-phenomena in this species appeared to be unique.
The rapidity of sex-change in oysters must now,
+ More than roo cases of authenticated change from female to male have
now been accumulated.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110
however, be taken into consideration, and the writer’s
view of the sex-changes in the young oyster found
to be carrying embryos this year may be recapitulated.
That oyster settled some time in 1921 after June 9,
it is predicated that this oyster became sexually
mature as a male and spawned as a male in the
summer of 1921 (see NatuRE, December 15, 1921).
On July 3 this year this same individual had spawned
as a female and was carrying thousands of young,
and on July 18 this same individual was again
sexually mature and practically ready to spawn as
a male. Thus this oyster has already had two and
probably three experiences of sex alternating from
male (?) to female and from female back to male
within about one year. It is hoped to follow further
sex-changes in this particular oyster, which is still
alive, for its last condition of sex, namely as a male,
was determined by tapping the gonad through a
boring in the shell. It has been found that if the
boring and tapping operations be carefully performed
an oyster can easily and quickly recover and cement
over the boring on the internal face of the shell.
The definite information obtained from this one
oyster is corroborated by sex-conditions in other
young oysters taken from the grounds whose age
could be determined as one-year-old oysters with
practical but not with absolute certainty. As
indicated above, however, the conditions in 1921,
namely the unusually long warm summer, were
highly abnormal, and it is not to be expected that
one-year-old female oysters will often occur in
British waters.
The rapidity of the sex-change in oysters is
paralleled by a similar observation on sex-change in
the American slipper-limpet (Cvepidula foynicata) in
the same series of experiments in 1921-22. Crepidula,
moreover, has undoubtedly a similar span of life
to that of the European oyster. Sex-change from male
to female occurred in isolated slipper-limpets (up to
26-5 mm. long) in the same period as that observed
in the oyster, but unfortunately none of the sex-
changed limpets were actually in spawn at the time
of examination although the gonad in several cases
was full of either ripe or fairly large ova, and the
penis had been reduced to a mere discoloured trace.
Individuals of a similar age settled on other slipper-
limpets had the normal beautifully-shaped and
well-developed healthy black penis of the young
male. (See Orton, Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 81, B,
1909, p. 469.)
The conditions under which sex-change occurs in
the oyster and the slipper-limpet are of much general
interest. In the oyster development of both the
male and female sex-elements can occur in the winter
and spring period. We also know that male-elements
can begin and attain full development in the summer
and autumn, but as yet we have no definite informa-
tion about the development of the female sex-
elements in the summer and autumn. Experiments
have been started to obtain information on the
latter problem, but until that information is obtained
one is not ina position to discuss the possible causes of
sex-change in the oyster. It would appear, however,
that the factor for sex-causation is within the control
of the organism and not in external conditions, but
it will be more profitable to await further information
on sex- phenomena before discussing the question
fully. In Crepidula there is no doubt that sex-change
occurs in young forms when the young males cannot
function as males; on the other hand, if young males
settle down on females, they undoubtedly remain
males and function as such for a variable time, which
may be as long as five or six years or as short as one
year, but again the underlying factor appears to be
that of opportunity to function as a male. The
G
to
214
NATURE
development of the male sexual elements in Crepidula
is certainly independent of season, and so also
apparently is that of the female sexual elements,
since Crepidula breeds almost continuously from
about March to December.
The males of Crepidula can certainly recognise
females by some particular sense as yet unknown,
as will be seen from the following facts. In examin-
ing a large number of chains of Crepidula (see Orton,
1909, Joc. cit.), small to medium Crepidula were often
found isolated and settled on the left-hand side of
the females. Now this is the wrong side to permit
of copulation, but in spite of the fact that copulation
could not be effected these individuals were found
to have an unusually fat and extensible penis capable
of stretching probably twice as far as usual. In the
experimental observations described above it was
found that isolated Crepidula—certainly not older
than those settled in the wrong place—had their
penis absorbed. The conclusion is obviously reached
that the males on the females knew that the latter
were there and tried their best to reach them, whilst
the totally isolated ones have resigned themselves
unreservedly to a complete sex-change. It is only
since proof has been obtained of rapid sex-change
following complete isolation that a_ satisfactory
explanation could be given for the phenomena of
the misplaced males, but the explanation given
above has for a long ‘time been suspected of being
the correct one. J. H. Orton.
Marine Biological Laboratory, The Hoe,
Plymouth, July 25.
Wegener’s Displacement Theory.
I quire agree with Mr. Lake’s remarks (July 15,
p- 77) as to the unsuitability of the tracing-paper
method of investigating the merits of Wegener’s
hypothesis. All who wish to pursue the subject will
do well to adopt his suggestions as to the practical
method.
For some time I have been engaged on the subject,
and, though I must plead guilty to the use of the
tracing-paper method in the first instance—and
there is this to be said in its defence, that we are
attacking the master with his own weapon—results
certainly warrant Mr. Lake’s mild censure that for
the truth of Wegener’s theory to be accepted we
must also believe in a great degree of plasticity for
the earth’s crust.
If the American coast be superimposed on that of
Africa, the parts that coincide (according to Wegener,
with a divergence of never more than 100 kilometres)
are confined to that represented on the African coast
by the distance from Kamerun to a point slightly
north of the mouth of the Orange River. There is a
divergence along the coast of Cape Colony, and an
angle of approximately 15° between the superimposed
coast of South America (N.E. coast of Brazil, etc.)
and the African coast along the Gold Coast, Ivory
Coast, Liberia, etc. These divergences may be
easily accounted for by comparatively recent denuda-
tion, or fracture.
Assuming the truth of fracture—after Wegener—
along the line Kamerun to Orange River, the Zwarte
Bergen of Cape Colony certainly do fall into place
exactly with the Permian cordillera of the Pampas.
But this added coincidence merely leads us into
greater difficulty. For to make the superimposed
American coast coincide with the African coast in
this manner, we have to swing the American continent
through an angle of 45° from its present position;
This leaves us with Newfoundland in the position
approximately 45 W., 32 N.—in the Atlantic Ocean.
NO. 2754, VOL. ITO]
[AUGUST 12, 1922
The Hercynian Appalachians—another of Wegener’s
“test’’ ranges—appear in a_ position
Atlantic north of Cayenne, stretching in a general
N.N.E. direction (along the line 52 W., 8 N.—47 W.,
20 N.). They are in the right direction for joining
up with the British Hercynian range, but are separated
therefrom by a distance of ocean above 2000 miles.
To lessen this distance, and bring it within a
reasonable distance of the British Hercynian range
for joining-up purposes, we cannot allow any bending
of the American continent. Any alteration in the
relative positions of North and South America
throws the direction of the Appalachians out
absolutely and entirely. The only way the joining-up
can be done for both the Zwarte Bergen-Buenos
in the
Ayres range and the Hercynian range on both sides ©
of the Atlantic is either (1) a great movement of
the Eurasian continent south-west, or (2) amovement —
of the African continent south to a distance of about
500 miles from its present position, and at the same
time
neighbourhood of Suez (for example) of not less
than 50°.
In other words, since the fracture,
Eurasian continent has been rotated in a general
S.E. direction (clockwise) or the African and Indian
masses in a N.E. direction (counter-clockwise), or both
either the —
a rotation about an axis somewhere in the ©
nee
these motions have taken place, from a centre
somewhere in the Suez-Madeira Islands line.
Are the Himalayas, the Carpathians, the Alpine
system, the Atlas Mountains, the result of the
clashing together of the African-Indian, European-
Asiatic continents by these movements ? As Prof.
Sollas has reminded me, the first word on Wegener’s
theory lies with the astronomers and _ physicists.
To them I leave the task of finding a force which
has acted in two parallel directions west on the
North and South American continents, making their
advance west without rotation relative to each other
and overcoming the resistance at the expense of the
Andes Cordillera and its continuation in North
America, and has at the same time driven the Eurasian ~
and Asiatic continents south-east and the African-
Indian continent north-east (relative to the Americas)
with such determination that the great folding of
the Himalayas-Alps line resulted—and waited until
Tertiary times to do most of it.
E. R. Ror-THompson.
St. Edward’s, Oxford.
The Elliptic Logarithmic Spiral.
I am much obliged to Mr. Wright for his correction
(NatuRE, July 8, p. 40). I had made a search in
English and Continental books on curves and con-
cluded that this spiral had been overlooked as a
curve. But it appears to have been recognised in
connexion with the spherical pendulum. Prof. Lamb
in his ‘‘ Dynamics,’’ p. 288, as I now find, refers to
the curve as ‘‘a kind of elliptic spiral,’ and Dr.
Besant describes it as “‘ an ellipse gradually shrinking
IMySIZes,
I take, however, a little unction in having given
the curve a name, especially as it seems to be of
importance in damped elastic systems with one
degree of freedom, and in fact it may be called a
characteristic. Thus in the elastic system without
friction, the force displacement diagram is a straight
line; with fluid friction varying as the velocity, we
have the elliptic logarithmic spiral; and with solid
friction, a series of parallelograms. The dissipation
per cycle, its rate during the cycle, as well as what
may be termed the timbre of the motion, are in this
view brought out very clearly. H. S. RowELL.
15 Bolton Road, W.4.
AUGUST ‘12, 1922 |
NALURE
215
Pairing and Parthenogenesis in Saw-flies.
As the result of recent experimental studies in the
biology of saw-flies of the family Tenthredinide, with
particular reference to their parthenogenesis, I have
been struck by the dearth of information as to their
mating habits. My observations have revealed a
novel point which I wish to record; and, in order to
discuss its significance, I present first a brief summary
of certain points relative to saw-fly breeding.
rt. Females of Athalia lineolata Lep., on collecting,
were found to be greatly outnumbered by the males;
they paired frequently and probably were polyan-
drous. (The writer has a paper on this in the press.)
2. In certain species, e.g. Pristiphora pallipes Lep.,
the male is excessively rare.
3. In certain species, e.g. Allantus (Emphytus)
pallipes Spin., no male has been taken or bred.
4. Some 30 species produce males only by partheno-
genesis ; some 13, females only by parthenogenesis ;
about 6 produce both sexes similarly. (See lists of
Cameron and Enslin.) ,
5. A large number of species other than the above
are facultatively parthenogenetic, and future work
will greatly extend the list. (See work of Miss
Chawner and the writer.)
6. Certain species, in captivity at any rate, refuse
to pair. (See work of Fletcher, Miss Chawner, and
the writer.)
7. Females of Platycampus luvidiventris Fall., after
persistently ignoring the males, may lay eggs
parthenogenetically while kept with their food plant
under a glass vessel and in the presence of the males.
(Writer’s observation.)
8. Virgin females of Phymatocera aterrima K1.,
after laying eggs (which gave healthy larvee) paired
with males presented to them. Unfortunately the
females were about spent before pairing and did not
lay again.
g. A virgin female of Nematinus luteus Panz., after
laying eggs which gave healthy larve, paired with a
male and then, subsequently, laid other eggs. Un-
fortunately, through the wilting of the alder twigs,
which I was compelled to use instead of young trees,
Ihave been unable to rear the presumably fertilised
eggs which were laid after the asexual batch. I
cannot state, therefore, whether this female’s par-
thenogenetic offspring are different in regard to sex
ratio or in germinal constitution from the offspring
of the batch produced after fertilisation. This I am
hoping tg elucidate later in this season by the use of
other species.
Points 1-4 are fairly well known, but Nos. 5 and 6
are probably known only to the few workers who have
studied the group, while Nos. 7, 8, and 9 result from
my studies, and being new, so far as I am aware,
they form the vaison d'etre of this note.
These facts warrant the suggestion that in saw-flies
the total sexual or partial sexual indifference of the
sexes is a method for regulating (a) the numerical
balance of the sexes and, ipso facto, (b) the amount of
amphimixis necessary for the preservation of the
species.
Again, the female saw-fly, by refusing or accepting
fertilisation, or by first refusing the male, then laying
asexually, next accepting fertilisation and, lastly,
laying presumably fertilised eggs, achieves the same
ends as the queen bee, which after fertilisation, pro-
duces females and workers from fertilised eggs, and
males (drones) from unfertilised eggs. (This assump-
tion, of course, rests upon the fact that the chromo-
some complement of the females and workers is twice
that of the drones.)
The survival value of the parthenogenetic pro-
duction of females and of both sexes in certain
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
species is not difficult to apprehend, but the pro-
duction of males only has presented a seemingly freak-
ish and puzzling problem. The solution has been
obscured by its being a laboratory observation,
isolated, and uncorrelated with a knowledge of what
occurs in nature or with such a fact as I have just
presented. Doubtless males only may be produced
in nature by certain females, but my observation
suggests two further possibilities—that (1), in nature,
certain females of a species may lay male-producing
eggs and, subsequently, after fertilisation, eggs
producing both sexes ; (2) a certain number of females
are set apart as virgins for producing males only,
while others pair and produce both sexes. (There
is too, of course, the remote possibility that fertilised
eggs may yield only females sometimes.)
With such a range of possibilities for the production
of the sexes the process of gametogenesis in saw-flies
is likely to prove more complicated than has
hitherto been supposed and may account for recent
anomalous results.
Assistance in prosecuting the work has been
rendered through a grant from the British Association.
A. D. PEACOCK.
Zoological Dept., Armstrong College
(University of Durham), Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Some Significant Relations in the Quantum
Theory of Spectra.
THE non-radiating orbits of Bohr’s atom are given
by the relation
GE
On ame oy ae a iC!)
The frequency of the wave emitted in jumping from
one orbit to another is given by the energy relation
Wnim—>n SN rey : : C (2)
a ( I I )
a]:
or Ynt+m—>n —~ h3 2
nrm
TTT;
The convergence frequencies, given by the values
of m equal to infinity in (3), are given by
2m?me?E?
ia iy pce We : . + (4)
n
Vv
and correspond to radiation emitted by an electron
falling into the orbit a, from rest at infinite distance.
The frequency », involves 7, for only one orbit,
and may be regarded as associated with that orbit.
Between (1) and (4) we have immediately
E
Qy’n =", = constant. : F sie (U5)
Or, the frequency associated with an orbit is inversely
proportional to the radius of the orbit for the same
kind of atom.
The average kinetic energy of a particle describing
a S.H.M. of amplitude a, and frequency », (instead
of the orbital frequency n= 47?me?E*/7*h*) is
mre? EK
h
for the convergence frequencies of the same atom. —
In his theory of chemical reaction and reactivity
(Transactions of the Faraday Society, vol. xvi.
Part 3, May 1922) Baly assumes (1) that an atom can
gain or lose energy in terms of the elementary quantum
of energy; (2) that the physical change, attending
such gain or loss of energy, occupies a definite period
of time which is the same for all atoms; (3) that the
elementary quanta of all atoms are integral multiples
of a fundamental unit which very probably is the
elementary quantum of the hydrogen atom.
IOUS ta It jarani)
216
NATURE
[AuGUST"12, 1922
Equation (2) means physically that the energy
difference hy is transferred from the atom to the
ether, where it resides as the energy of vibration of a
shell of ether, the radius of the shell expanding
with the velocity of light. Baly’s second assumption
gives us the thickness of this shell. If the time
occupied in releasing the energy v=A,;,—A, be
k seconds, the number of wave-lengths generated is
kv, The thickness of the shell is therefore
RUN Gre é 5 - :
which is constant and independent of frequency.
Again, as the energy radiated is /v, and the number
of pulses equal to kv, the energy radiated per period
of vibration, or the energy in a shell of ether of the
thickness of one wave-length, is equal to
M1 — constant. PS)
It is interesting to note that Baly’s third assum-
tion, viz.
(7)
Wel, fem a ee)
makes the constants of equations (5) and (6) identical
for all atoms. For similar identity of the constant
of equation (8) it is necessary that, like h,
Rocke: (Io)
SATYENDRA Ray.
University College, London, W.C.1,
July 12.
Extraction of Radiolaria from Oozes.
I HAVE recently obtained some deep-sea radiolarian
ooze from which I am endeavouring to extract the
shells with as little damage to them as possible. I
have tried the method advocated by Mr. Martin J.
Cole, in which disintegration is brought about by
prolonged boiling with a strong solution of sodium
carbonate, and also another method in which the
deposit is boiled with a saturated solution of sodium
acetate, cooled till crystallisation has taken place,
and then warmed till the mass has melted and
boiled again, repeating this process several times.
Although the smaller shells are successfully extracted
by this means, I come across many large fragments
of beautiful silicious formation, evidently the result
of the breaking up of larger and more delicate ones.
I wonder if any readers of NATuRE could tell me
of a better method of extraction, whereby I may
obtain these larger ones entire? If so, I shall be
extremely grateful. Evidently the above methods
of extraction are too drastic for these more delicate
forms. H. L. THomas.
Dyffryn Vicarage, Neath, S. Wales,
July 10, 1922.
Mr. Tuomas does not state whether his radiolarian
oozes are recent or fossil. The two methods which
he has employed are primarily intended for the dis-
integration of fossil earths such as the Barbados
material, and as they depend for their efficiency on the
disruptive action of crystallisation and the solvent
action of alkalis on silica, they are necessarily more
drastic in their action than is necessary for the
cleaning of recent deposits.
Recent radiolarian deposits differ greatly in their
nature, according to the rate of deposition and the
depth. In some cases where the ooze has been
rapidly formed it requires no further treatment than
washing under a gentle stream of water on sieves
of various grades. This method has the additional
advantage of preserving the calcareous organisms,
which are retained on the coarser sieves with the
NOs 27/54, VOL. 1 10)
larger Radiolaria. The smaller forms pass through
all sieves with the diatoms, etc., and may be separated
from the muddy water by elutriation and decanting.
If it is not desired to retain the calcareous forms the
material may be treated with nitric acid. The
general treatment may be found in Cross and Cole’s
“Modern Microscopy,’ pp. 257-261 (Bailliére, Tindall
and Cox, 1922).
Some recent radiolarian oozes have come under my
notice in which the rate of deposition has been so
slow that the material is already in a_ subfossil
condition, laminated in structure, and with the —
organisms more or less infiltrated with manganese. —
Such oozes are refractory ; they contain scarcely any —
calcareous matter and so are resistant to acid treat- _
ment. They can be broken down only by repeated —
treatment with hot soda solution alternated with —
drying, and such methods are necessarily destructive ©
to delicate organic structures like the larger forms of :
Radiolaria. ARTHUR EARLAND.
An Attempt to Influence the Rate of Radioactive ;
{Disintegration by Use of Penetrating Radiation. }
INVESTIGATIONS carried out by Ellis (Proc.; Roy.
Soc. 101, I, 1922) at the Cavendish laboratory ledd —
to the conclusion that quantum dynamics probably
apply to.the nucleus of the atom and lend support —
to the assumption that the emission of y-rays from —
the nucleus precedes the disintegration process. This —
highly interesting hypothesis suggested an investiga- —
tion whether the rate of radioactive disintegration —
can be influenced by exposing the substance to the
action of penetrating radiation. Could the nucleus
be induced to take up a y-ray impulse supplied by
an exterior source, 1t would mean a change in its
stability and so most probably in the rate of its dis- |
integration. As y-ray source about 800 mg. radium ~
element were used, and experiments carried out with —
uranium in radioactive equilibrium with UX and —
with radium D in equilibrium with radium E, ,
(a) Experiments with Uranium.—The thin-walled ©
glass tube containing the radium preparation was —
placed for six-weeks on a 2 mm. thick layer of uranium ~
oxide of 1 cm.* surface; by this arrangement practi-—
cally all kinds of y-rays emitted by the radium and —
all B-rays except the very soft ones reached the@
uranium preparation. By measuring the 8-radiation
of the uranium X in equilibrium with uranium before |
* mon
and after the experiment no change amounting to
more than o-r per cent. in the activity cofild be de-
tected.
Now, from the uranium quantity used, about —
15,000 atoms break down in one second, so we can ~
conclude from this negative result that the natural
disintegration of our uranium preparation was cer-
tainly not followed by an artificial disintegration of —
more than 15 atoms per second. The radium pre- |
paration employed emits about 1o™ y-ray quanta in ;
the time unit, about o-r of which was absorbed by
the uranium atoms, so it follows that the absorption —
of 15/10'° of the emitted y-impulses by the nuclei of —
the uranium atoms would have already been sufficient
to produce a detectable change in the rate of the —
disintegration of the uranium. ‘
(b) Experiments with Radium D.—1-2 g. radiolead
chloride from Joachimsthal of 1 cm.* surface was —
treated in the same way as the uranium oxide for
51 days. The S-activity due to RaE in equilibrium
with RaD measured before and after the experiment
showed no difference amounting to more than 0-2
per cent. Preliminary experiments with X-rays have
similarly given a negative result. G. HEVEsy.
University, Copenhagen, July 11, 1922.
AUGUST.12, 1922]
NATURE
i)
“I
Black Coral.
By Prof. SypNey J. Hickson, F.R.S., The University, Manchester.
a a short article by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner
published in Nature of December 15, ro2t (vol.
108, p. 505), attention was directed to the use of black
coral by the natives of Java for making bracelets
which are believed to act as a cure for rheumatism
and to the widespread belief, “‘ from Suez to the most
distant parts of the Pacific,” in the efficacy of certain
magical powers of this substance. The use of black
coral for this purpose is not only very widespread at
the present day but has been prevalent also among
both barbaric and civilised races from time immemorial.
The avrirabes of the ancient Greeks was in all proba-
bility a kind of black coral, and was used as an antidote
to the stings of scorpions and for other medical and
magical purposes. According to some of the older
writers the herb given by Mercury to Ulysses as a
charm to protect him from Circe was a piece of Anti-
pathes. Rumphius quotes Salmasius as having written
in his notes on Solinus that Antipathes was used as a
protection against sorcery. Pliny refers to it in his
alphabetical list of stones. He says, Book XXXVIL.,
Chapter 54, “ Antipathes is black and not transparent :
the mode of testing for it is by boiling it in milk, to
which, if genuine, it imparts an odour (?) like that
of myrrh.” Dioscorides regarded Antipathes as a
kind of black coral which was possessed of certain
medical properties. .
These and other references to the substance by
ancient Greek and Roman authors do not, it is true,
give us any certain clue as to the identity of their
Antipathes, and it is only by indirect circumstantial
evidence that the conclusion is arrived at that it was
the axis of one of two or three kinds of 1 marine
flexible coral.
The definition of the word “ corallium” as used in
the time of Pliny may be derived from the comment
he makes upon Gorgonia. “ Gorgonia nihil aliud est
quam curalium: nominis causa, quod in duritiam
lapidis mutatur emollitum in mari; hance fascina-
tionibus resistere adfirmant.”
There is no truth in the belief that corals are soft
in the sea and become hard when exposed to the air,
and we cannot, in modern times, accept the statement
that they have the power of resisting fascinations ;
but it is reasonable to interpret this definition by
Pliny to mean that to the Romans of his time coral
Was a marine substance with a soft cortex when fresh
and that it was commonly believed to possess certain
magical properties.
Pliny’s milk test for Antipathes is interesting but
unfortunately very obscure. The phrase he uses is
“experimentum eius, ut coquatur in lacte: facit enim
id murrae simile.” But similar to myrrh in what
respect ? In odour, in colour, or in form? Solinus
considers it to have been similar to myrrh in odour
(Collect. vy. 26), but other authors have interpreted
Pliny to mean similar to myrrh in colour. I have
recently applied this test to a piece of Antipathes in
my possession and have found after prolonged boiling
in milk there is a faint odour resembling that of heated
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
>
myrrh, but the colour of neither the milk nor the
coral seems to be in any way affected. For this reason
I am inclined to believe, until my experiments on
this subject are extended, that Pliny meant to say
“similar in odour to myrrh.”
Let us turn now to another fragmentary indication of
the ancient use of black coral. The word “coral.” is
to be found in two texts of the English version of the
Bible (Job xxvii. 18 and Ezekiel xxvii. 16). Prof.
Peake has kindly informed me that Gesenius and other
commentators consider that the Hebrew word “ Ra-
moth” which is translated “coral” in the E.V.
means “black coral,” and that the word ‘“‘ Peninim ”
which is translated “rubies” in the E.V. really
means “red coral.”” Thus Job xxvii. verse 18 should
read: ‘“‘No mention should be made of black coral
or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above red
coral.” JI am not competent to form any definite
opinion on the views of these commentators ; but if
they are right and black coral was known to the
ancient Jews there may also be some explanation of
a remarkable passage in the writings of Josephus.
In his book on the Antiquities of the Jews (i. 3. 6)
Josephus relates that according to Berosus, “the
Chaldean, there is still some part of Noah’s Ark in
Armenia, and the natives carry off pieces of the
bitumen (pitch ?) from it to make into amulets for
averting mischief. We have in this passage reference
to a substance like bitumen (7.e. black and flexible
when heated) which was made into bracelets and
believed to possess magical properties. Of course,
it may not have been black coral at all, but if black
coral accompanied by the beliefs in its efficacy against
evils of many kinds was transported to distant parts
of the world, as we know red coral was transported at
that period, it would not be remarkable if it became
associated with the Noah’s Ark myth. It would be a
matter of great interest if scholars learned in Jewish
antiquities “could throw some further hght on the use
of either black or red coral by the children of Israel
in early times.
The making of amulets from the pitch of Noah’s
Ark, and their use for averting mischief, brings us
back to the statement in the article in NATURE
mentioned above that the natives of Java make
bracelets of black coral for curing rheumatism. The
most complete account of this superstition in the
Malay Archipelago is to be found in Rumphius’s
“ Amboinsch Kruidboek”’ (xii. p. 195), published in
1750, in the article on Coralliwm nigrum or Accarbaar
itam. Rumphius says that the natives make bracelets
of it by soaking it in cocoa-nut oil and bending it
into the form required over a slow fire while smearing
it all the time with oil. It is then polished with a
rough leaf. Sometimes it is inlaid with gold or silver
ornaments. It is supposed to confer on the wearer
all kinds of blessings (zegentngen) and to protect him
from sorcery. It is sometimes made into sceptres for
the chiefs and is also made into a powder by grinding
with a stone, mixed with water and drunk as a medicine.
218
It would take too much space to give in detail the
various diseases for which black coral was used as a
remedy ; but there is one point of difference between
the account given by Rumphius of the use of the
bracelets in his time and the account given by Mr.
Pownall in his letter quoted in Nature. Mr. Pownall
says “ the natives maintain that it must be used quite
plain; and ornamentation of gold or silver renders
them quite useless.” Rumphius says that they
ornament the inside of the bracelets with gold figures
because they say, and “‘ not without reason,” that the
coral must scratch the skin if it is to do any good.
We may wonder if Rumphius smiled to himself when
he wrote the words “niet zonder reden”’ in this
sentence.
There were other kinds of Accarbaar or bastard
corals which were known to the Malays in the time
of Rumphius and used by them for medicinal purposes,
but the Accarbaar itam or Corallium nigrum was
regarded as the most important and was held in the
highest esteem. Among these was the Accarbaar puti,
which from the figure given by Rumphius was an
Alcyonarian belonging to the family Isidze and probably
to the type genus Isis. This is of some special interest
as the Mediterranean species of Isis was held in high
esteem by the Mediterranean races in classical times,
and was currently believed to represent the petrified
hair of Isis. But that is another story, and one about
which only the most fragmentary indications remain.
The task of identifying the various kinds of black
coral mentioned by the ancient and later writers up
to the end of the eighteenth century is extremely
difficult, as detailed descriptions of the characters
upon which the modern classification is based are
almost entirely lacking. The substance was evidently
black or brown in colour, it was capable of being bent
or twisted when subjected to heat, and it was hard
enough to be given a polished surface. Moreover,
it may be presumed from various references that it
was a product of the sea. It might have been, there-
fore, the Keratin axis of one of the Plexauride, of one
of the Gorgonide or of one of the Antipatharia, or,
finally, of Gerardia savalia.
The Accarbaar ttam of Rumphius was probably a
Plexaurid. The figure of the stript coral that
Rumphius gives is not conclusive but quite consistent
with this identification. In the description of the
coenenchym which covers the axis, when it is fresh, he
uses the Dutch work Schorse, 7.e. bark, whereas in
the description of another Accarbaar which is almost
certainly a Gorgonid he uses the word Korste, 7.e.
crust. In the description of a third Accarbaar which
is obviously an Antipatharian he uses the word Slijm,
z.e. Sime. With such an accurate observer as Rum-
phius was, we may assume that the use of these
different words for the ccenenchym signified a real
difference in character between them. In the Plex-
auride the ccenenchym is relatively thick, in the
Gorgonid it is almost invariably much _ thinner,
whereas in the Antipatharia it is usually little more
than a soft and delicate film covering the axis.
This identification of the Accarbaar itam of Rumphius
as a Plexaurid is consistent with Prof. Gardiner’s
identification of the bracelets obtained by Mr. Pownall
in Java as the axis of Plexaura.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[AuGuST 12, 1922
Rumphius states that the Accarbaar itam is not
identical with Pliny’s Antipathes because it does not
give the smell or colour of myrrh on boiling in milk. For
other reasons than this, however, we may feel certain
that the Antipathes of Pliny and the earlier writers was
not a Plexaurid. The evidence seems to point to the
conclusion that the black coral commonly used by
the ancients was the form mentioned by Imperato
(1599) as Savaglia and now known to science as
Gerardia savalia. (Until quite recently Gerardia was
considered to be an Antipatharian, but it has now
been definitely placed in the order Zoanthidea.) The
reason for believing that it was Gerardia is that this
coral grows in the Mediterranean Sea, whilst the
Plexauride do not, that it attains to great dimensions
(a great specimen in the British Museum being two
metres in height and spreading fan-wise to a width
of over two metres) and the surface of the branches is
smooth and devoid of spines. It is possible that in
addition to the Gerardia the main stem of some of
the species of Antipatharia that are found in the
Mediterranean Sea may also have been used. Gansius
in his ‘ Historia Coralliorum”’ (1666) describes a
species, Antipathes hirsutum, found in the Sardinian
seas which is in length greater than the human stature.
The axis of such a specimen if polished would be
difficult to distinguish from that of Gerardia.
The difficulty of determining the black coral of the
ancients, however, is due to the possibility that they
may have imported it from the South, in which case
Plexaurid or Gorgonid coral may also have come into
use. Thus Pliny says in writing on coral, Nat. Hist.
xxxii. tz, “Gignitur et in Rubro quidem mari sed
nigrius item in Persico—vocatur Jace—laudatissimum
(i.e. red coral) in gallico sinu circa Stoechades insulas,”
etc. This passage indicates that the most valuable
kind of coral known to the Romans came from the
Iles D’Hyéres and other places in the Mediterranean
Sea, but a black kind was also imported from the
Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, in which seas the
Corallium rubrum is not found.
Black coral was also known to the Moors in early
times, and was very probably obtained by the fisher-
men engaged in the famous red-coral fishery off
Marsa-al-Kharaz, the modern Bona or Bone on the
coast of Algeria. The Arabic name for black coral
was “‘ yasz” or “‘ yusz,”’ a word which seems to have
some resemblance to Pliny’s “ jace.”
These few notes on the use of black coral in early
times may seem to be very fragmentary and in-
conclusive, but they may be, perhaps, sufficient to
create some interest in and to stimulate further in-
vestigation in a chapter of zoological mythology which
has not yet been written. It is probable that classical
and oriental research will reveal a great many more
references to this substance than are recorded in
these notes, and it may be expected that the excavations
of the antiquaries will bring to our collections some
specimens of black coral that were used in ancient
times; but I think there is sufficient evidence to
prove that the belief in the magical properties of
black coral is not only widespread at the present
day but also carries with it the sanction of a tradition
which has been transmitted from the early days of
our Western civilisation.
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATORE
219
The Determination of Stellar Distances.
By Dr. Wititam J. S. Lockyer.
has an appreciable effect on its spectrum. Thus, if
ie his presidential address delivered before the Royal
Astronomical Society, in connexion with the cele-
bration of that society’s centenary (see NaTURE, June
24, p. 815), Prof. Eddington referred to six great land-
marks of astronomical progress during that century.
He pointed out that this was a record of advance which
was continuous, and not in great waves followed by
periods of exhaustion. As he further remarked, the
centre of most rapid progress has shifted from time to
time and the various branches of astronomy have had
their ups and downs. In this second category may
perhaps be placed the determinations of the parallaxes
or distances of the stars, because quite recently a very
great impetus has been given to this branch of astro-
nomy by the introduction of a rapid and effective new
method.
So long ago as 1837 the first successful attempt to
determine the parallax of a star was accomplished by
Bessel, who made his result known in the last month of
1838, showing that 61 Cygni had a parallax of about
one-third of a second of arc. Since that date this
research has been carried on continuously and we have
now catalogues of the parallaxes of a large number of
stars. Among the observatories measuring trigono-
metrical parallaxes to-day, may be mentioned Alleg-
heny, Dearborn, Greenwich, McCormick, Mount Wilson,
Oxford (Radcliffe), Swarthmore, and Yerkes, and these
institutions secure material which provides about three
or four hundred parallaxes a year.
It is interesting to note that in the early days it was
thought that the brightest stars were the nearest to us,
and therefore attempts were first made to determine
their distances. It was soon found, however, that
estimates of distance based upon apparent magnitude
were wholly futile, for the greater number of the larger
parallaxes determined were of stars of the fifth, sixth,
and fainter magnitudes.
The work of measuring the parallax of a star may be
considered one of the most delicate operations in the
whole field of practical astronomy. There are three
methods available. The absolute method consists in
making meridian observations at different times of the
year and then studying the resulting places after all
known corrections have been made. The differential
method may be classed under two sub-heads. The
first consists in measuring the position of the star to be
studied in relation to neighbouring stars at different
times of the year. If the neighbouring stars in the
field of view of the telescope be close to the star under
examination, a wire micrometer is used, but if distant,
the heliometer is the more efficient instrument. The
second differential method utilises the sensitive plate
and consists in photographing a star region at different
times and eventually measuring the positions of the
star in question in relation to the neighbouring stars.
It was not until the year rgr4 that the spectroscope
was applied to the determination of stellar distances,
and the method now in use is that originated and
developed by Prof. W. S. Adams and other astronomers
at the Mount Wilson Observ. atory in California. It is
based on the fact that the intrinsic brightness of a star
NO. 2754, VOL. IIO]
two stars have the same type of spectrum but differ
greatly in luminosity they will probably differ greatly
in size, density, and in depth of their surrounding
gaseous atmospheres. If this be so, then their spectra
should exhibit variations in the intensity and character
of such lines as are peculiarly sensitive to the physical
conditions of the gases in which they find their origin,
in spite of the general correspondence between the two
spectra. If, as Prof. Adams states, ‘‘ such variations
exist and a relationship can be derived between the
intensities of these lines and the intrinsic brightness of
the stars in which they occur, we have available a means
of determining the absolute magnitudes ! of stars, and
hence their distances.”
It has been found that certain lines in stellar spectra
do give indications of variation with absolute magnitude,
SPECTRA TYPES Fé F7.
UNES 4078 SR’ 4072 Fe.
WW
1S)
2
[ot]
ec
WwW
a
w
a
>
12)
Zz
ud
=
=
BEG 4 3 2 I 0
ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE
Fic, 1,
One of the fundamental curves formed from known parallaxes (black dots
of stars of spectrum types F6 and F7.
When the intensity-difference in any star of these types has been deter-
mined, the absolute magnitude can be read off the curve and the parallax
calculated.
and the detection of them we owe to Hertzsprung and
Adams and Kohlschiitter.
To determine the absolute magnitudes of stars any of
three different sources of data can be utilised, namely,
the trigonometrical parallaxes, parallactic motions, or
proper motions. The most serviceable of these is the
first, and reference to this alone will be made here.
The first step in the process is to have available a
classification of star spectra based on detailed measure-
ments of line intensities instead of on the more general
eye estimations, estimations which have been extremely
valuable up to the present time for the general classifica-
tion of stars but are now superseded. Such a detailed
classification for many of the brighter stars has been
made and is being rapidly extended.
It is next necessary to construct a series of reduction
curves for each type or class of spectrum or for small
groups of types (see Fig. r). These curves are based
1 The absolute magnitude of a star is its apparent magnitude when
reduced to unit distance. (Unit distance= Parallax of 0%+r1.)
220
NATURE
[AUGUST. 12, 1922
on the calculation of absolute magnitudes of stars as
determined from the apparent magnitudes (which are
known) and from the trigonometrical parallaxes (also
known) obtained from one or other of the methods
previously described. The equation for this computa-
tion is as follows :
Absolute Mag.= Apparent Mag.+5+ 5 log (Parallax).
Stars of the same type of spectrum but of different
absolute magnitudes are then compared with one
another and the relative intensities of selected pairs
of lines carefully measured. Curves are then drawn
showing as ordinates the observed differences of inten-
sities for each selected pair of lines, and as abscissz the
absolute magnitudes.
With these data it is a simple matter to determine the
parallax of any star. Thus, it is only necessary to (2)
determine first its type of spectrum, (2) measure the
differences of intensities of certain lines in it and refer
these values to the curves for that type ; the next step
is to (3) note from the curve the corresponding absolute
magnitude, and lastly (4) determine the parallax from
this absolute magnitude by means of the same formula
as given above but arranged in a different order, thus :
5 log (parallax) = Absolute Mag. — Apparent Mag. — 5,
in which all the members on the right-hand side of the
equation are now known quantities.
Thus a single photograph of the spectrum of a star is
sufficient for the determination of the star’s distance.
Naturally greater accuracy is obtained when more than
one photograph is examined and several pairs of lines
in them are used, but this involves very little extra
labour.
The rapidity with which the determinations of
parallax can be secured, when once the fundamental
curves are formed, is far in excess of that of the older
methods. The large, powerful instruments of the
present day are capable of photographing the spectra
of very faint stars, so that a rapid survey of the whole
heavens, at any rate to stars of about magnitude 6:5,
will be accomplished in the near future.
At the recent meeting of the International Astro-
nomical Union in Rome, great attention was paid to
organising this work on an international basis. The
Parallax Commission pointed out that there is a large
amount of latent information regarding stellar distances
“in the long series of spectrograms obtained for other
+ field of work for the amateur astronomer.
purposes at many observatories, and it is to be hoped
that these data would be utilised.
A year ago the spectroscopic determinations of
parallax were confined entirely to the United States at
the Observatories of Mount Wilson and Harvard
College. The Astrophysical Observatory at Victoria,
B.C., now proposes to examine their slit spectrograms
for this purpose.
In this country the only observatory occupied at
present with this work is the Norman Lockyer Observa-
tory at Sidmouth. For more than a year the large
collection of spectrograms has been undergoing measure-
ments in this connexion, and a large number of new
photographs has been taken. An interesting point in
this observatory’s work is that the measurements of
the intensity differences between pairs of lines are being
determined by a method originated by the writer,
which is different from either of those used at the
American observatories. Thus an independent check
on the American results is rendered possible.
It is necessary to point out, however, that this
research on so large a scale could not have been under-
taken had it not been for the opportune assistance
rendered by the Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research. This Department appointed Mr. W. B.
Rimmer, D.I.C., in July 1921 as a research assistant,
and his appointment was due to terminate towards
the latter end of this year. It is with very great
satisfaction that it may now be stated that it has
been extended to September of next year. The
work is so far advanced that. now most of the
fundamental curves are completed. It is hoped,
therefore, to publish shortly the spectroscopic paral-
laxes of about 500 stars, followed after a short interval
by another 500.
It is satisfactory, therefore, to record that in-this
new impetus given to the investigation of the distances
of the stars, this country is taking a part, and it is hoped
that other observatories here which have useful material
will join in and discuss it from this point of view.
This line of research should also provide an interesting
The instru-
mental equipment required need be only on a moderate
scale, for a five-inch telescope, fitted with a suitable
prism, would meet the case, if a larger one were not
available. It is a definite and straightforward piece
of research which would be a valuable contribution to
astronomy.
Short-wave Directional Wireless Telegraph.'
By C. S. FRANKLIN.
IRECTIONAL wireless telegraphy is by no
means a new development, for Hertz made
use of reflectors at the transmitting as well as the
receiving ends in order to augment the effects, and
to prove that the electric waves which he had dis-
covered obeyed, to a considerable degree, the ordinary
optical laws of reflection. Senatore Marconi, in his
earliest endeavours to develop a telegraph system
using electric waves, also employed reflectors to in-
crease the range and get directional working.
eS From a paper read before the Institution of Electrical Engineers on
ay 3.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
The discovery by Marconi of the great increase of —
range obtained by the use of longer waves, and the ©
earthed vertical aerial, practically stopped develop-
ment on directional lines for the time being. The
demand of the time was for increased ranges ; and as
the first practical application of wireless telegraphy,
| namely, working to and between ships, required “all
round” working, there was very little call for directional
systems. :
To-day the range has arrived at the maximum
possible on the earth, and the wave-length has in-
creased to such an extent that the frequencies pro-
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE
221
posed are within or near to the limits of audibility.
The possible gamut of wave-lengths is becoming very
fully occupied, and although the development, during
the last four years, of nearly pure continuous-wave
transmitters, and of receivers with vastly improved
selective powers has eased the problem, the time will
soon arrive when the only way of increasing the number
of possible services will be by employing systems
having good directional characteristics.
There are, broadly, two general classes of directional
aerial systems: (a) Those having the general character-
istic that their directional power or polar curves are
nearly independent of their dimensions. The directional
result is obtained by opposing the effects of a number
of aerials, or parts of an aerial with suitable phasing
adjustments, the degree of opposition being a function
of the direction.
small compared with the wave-length employed ; for
the purposes of position finding, and as receiving
systems enabling interference to be eliminated from
several directions, they have already been developed
to a considerable degree. The simplest example of
this class is the well-known frame aerial. (b) Those
haying the general characteristic that their directional
power or polar curves depend on their dimensions
relative to the wave-length employed. In this class
the directional result is obtained by adding the effect
of a number of aerials, or parts of an aerial, when
working in the required direction. The underlying
principle is that the effects, for the required direction,
are integrated over a wide front in proportion to the
wave-length. Such systems can, therefore, have small
dimensions only when using short waves, and this
fact makes their development difficult.
As examples of such systems may be mentioned—
(x) Reflector systems in general.
(2) Systems composed of lines of aerials, at right
angles to the working direction, correctly ad-
justed as regards phase.
(3) The Beverage long, horizontal receiving aerials.
The reflector system was the first tried for wireless
telegraphy. The use of reflectors of reasonable
dimensions, however, implies very short waves of the
order of a few metres, and the very high attenuation
‘of such waves over land or sea, and the difficulty of
getting much power into them, tended to make early
attempts very discouraging.
The imvestigation was commenced by Senatore
Marconi in Italy in 1916, with the idea of developing
the use of very short waves, combined with reflectors,
for certain war purposes.
The waves used were 2 metres and 3 metres. The
only interference experienced with such waves is from
motor boats and motor cars, for these machines ap-
parently emit waves from near o up to about 4o metres
in length. A coupled-circuit spark transmitter was
developed, the primary having an air condenser and
spark in compressed air. By this means a moderate
amount of energy was obtained, and the small spark-
gap in compressed air proved to have very low resistance.
The decrement of the waves emitted was judged to
be of the order of 0-03. The receiver used was a
carefully picked crystal, while the reflectors employed
were made of a number of strips or wires tuned to the
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
Systems of this class may be made j
wave, arranged on a cylindrical parabola with the aerial
at the focus. The transmitting system was arranged
so that it could be revolved and the effects studied
at the receiver.
Reflectors having apertures up to 3} wave-lengths
were tested, and the measured polar curves agreed
very well indeed with the theoretical curves. The use
of two reflectors with apertures of 3} wave-lengths,
one at the transmitter and one at the receiver, increased
the working range about 3 times.
These Italian experiments showed that good direc-
tional working could be obtained with reflectors
properly proportioned with respect to the wave-length.
The attenuation over sea for the wave-length used was
found to be very high, and with the apparatus available
the maximum range obtained was 6 miles.
The experiments were continued at Carnarvon in
1gt7. With an improved compressed-air spark trans-
mitter, a 3-metre wave and a reflector having an
aperture of 2 wave-lengths, and a height of 1-5 wave-
lengths, a range of over 20 miles was obtained to a
receiver without a receiving reflector. The experiments
at Carnarvon brought into prominence a property of
wave propagation which is not generally known, and
the extent of which is not realised, namely, the very
rapid increase in the strength of the electric field with
height above the ground. The rate of increase appears
to be a function of the height divided by wave-length,
and while not very noticeable with waves of several
hundred metres, is very marked with waves of a few
metres’ length.
It was found that the limiting range at sea level
and over sea was 4 miles. When both transmitter
and receiver are at a low level the range is very de-
pendent on the nature of the intervening country, and
is very restricted even over sea ; when, however, both
stations are many wave-lengths above the intervening
country its nature is of far less importance, and the
range is increased many times. These experiments
showed that very considerable ranges were possible
with very short waves.
In 1919 experiments were commenced at Carnarvon
with valve transmitters, with the idea of producing
a directional telephone system. A wave of 15 metres
was selected, which while well within the capacity of
the power valves available, allowed a simple reflector
to be used without too large a structure. After some
trials a single valve transmitter was arrived at taking
about 200 watts with a 15-metre wave, and giving 1
ampere in the centre of a half-wave aerial. A hetero-
dyne receiver with supersonic beat-note was employed.
Finally, very strong speech was obtained at Holyhead,
20 miles away. The strength was such that shadows
produced by small hills and buildings were scarcely
noticeable unless the stations were close behind
them.
The next point was to test the maximum range, and
particularly to find whether such waves would carry
over the horizon, and whether there would then be a
rapid falling off of strength. Tests were carried out
with the Dublin Steam Packet Company’s boats running
from Kingston to Dublin in June 1920, and speech
was received in Kingstown Harbour, 70 nautical miles
from Carnarvon, and the point was proved that there
2212
IVA TORE
[AuGusT 12, 1922
was no rapid diminution of strength after passing the
horizon line from Carnarvon.
The range of the system was also tested wholly over
land. A site was chosen at Hendon, and a reflector and
transmitter for 15-metre waves erected with the reflector
pointing towards Birmingham. Tests were commenced
in February 1921 from Hendon to a portable receiver
on a motor car. Very good speech was received up
to 66 miles, and fair speech in the neighbourhood of
Birmingham. A reflector station was then erected at
Frankley near Birmingham, 97 miles from Hendon,
and tests were started there in August 1921.
Measurements with and without the reflectors
indicate that the energy received when both reflectors
are up is about 200 times the energy received when
not using the reflectors. Local measurements of the
polar curves taken round the station show that the
electric field in front of the station is increased ap-
proximately 4 times by the use of the reflector, and
that the same order of increase is obtained during
reception ; the increase of energy received ate & the
use of the two reflectors should therefore be 42 x 42= 256
times.
During the continuous-wave tests at Carnarvon it
was found that reception was quite possible on the
transmitting aerial while the transmitter was operat-
ing. The heterodyne may be either the transmitter,
or an independent small heterodyne in the receiver.
Both the transmission and the reception utilise the
same aerial and reflector, and the transmitter is left
going and can be operated while receiving.
There is no reduction in strength while the trans-
mitter is on, but a practical trouble has appeared.
Owing to the comparatively large power, strong currents
are induced in all conducting structures and circuits
close to the reflector and transmitter, such as the sup-
porting towers and buildings, and every variable con-
tact produces a noise. The elimination of all variable
contacts in the neighbourhood of the transmitter has
proved a work of some magnitude.
Reflectors besides giving directional working, and
economising power, are showing another unexpected
advantage, which is probably common to all sharply
directional systems. It has been noted that practi-
cally no distortion of speech occurs, such as is some-
times found with non-directional transmitters and
receivers.
Although the results between Hendon and Birming-
ham constitute a record for telephony for ratio of
range to wave-length—for such results were believed
to be impossible two years ago—they are only a first
attempt and do not represent the best that can now
be done after the experience gained. But it has been
demonstrated that wave -lengths of the order of 20
metres are capable of providing point-to-point direc-
tional commercial service over very considerable
ranges. Such services will be comparatively secret
as compared with the usual non-directional type of
transmission.
The directional effect obtained with reflectors which
are large compared with the wave-length is so good
that it was suggested that it would prove very useful
for position finding for ships near dangerous points.
The general idea is that a transmitter and reflector
revolving will act as a kind of wireless lighthouse. It
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
is not intended at present for long ranges, but rather
that revolving reflectors should be erected in position,
similar to those at present occupied by fog signals,
and be capable of similar ranges, so as to give the
position to ships during fog when within about ro
miles of the danger point.
An experimental revolving reflector was erected on
Inchkeith, and tests were made to s.s. Pharos, the
lighthouse tender of the Northern Lights Commis-
sioners during the autumn of 1920. With a 4-metre
wave, spark transmitter, a reflector of 8 metres’
aperture, and a single valve receiver on the ship, a
working range of 7 nautical miles was obtained. The
reflector made a complete revolution once every 2
minutes, and a distinctive signal was sent every half-
point of the compass. The bearing of the transmitter
could then be determined within } point of the compass,
or within 2°8 degrees.
The best method of giving the direction to a ship
by means of such a revolving beam requires considera-
tion. When listening in a receiver to a moderately
sharp revolving beam the signals are heard only for
a very short time. The exact time of maximum signals
is not easy to determine by ear, but the times of start-
ing and vanishing are easy to determine, as the rate
of rise and fall of the signals is extremely rapid. The
time half-way between these two times gives with
great exactness the moment when the beam is pointing
to the ship.
It would be quite possible to arrange to send a
general broadcast signal when the beam passes through
true north ; then by arranging for the beam to revolve
at a perfectly uniform rate, the bearing on the ship
could easily be determined by means of a stop-watch.
This method is probably the most accurate, but has
some disadvantages. It entails accurate timing
mechanism at the transmitter, the use of two waves,
and three, or perhaps four receivers on the ship, as
well as the use of a stop-watch.
For the short wave two receivers are required, one
at each end of the bridge, or one fore and one aft.
This is necessary to avoid screening by the ship itself.
If the broadcast wave for giving the time when the
beam passes true north is another short wave, then
two more receivers would be required.
The method provisionally adopted avoids accurate
timing mechanism at the transmitter and the use of a
broadcast wave. On the base of the revolving reflector
contact-segments are arranged so that a definite signal
is transmitted every half- or quarter-point of the com-
pass.
The apparatus proposed is of a very sturdy nature.
The spark transmitters are robust, and last for years
without attention.
rectifiers with fixed adjustments except for a ‘‘ backing
off’ potentiometer for dealing with powerful signals
at close range. The attenuation of these waves over
sea Is so strong that a little experience enables distance
to be judged by strength of signals, and this can be
measured by means of the potentiometer.
qualification necessary for a person determining the
bearing is the ability to read a few Morse signs.
The success of the present experiments indicates a
The receivers are simple valve
The only
wet
wide sphere of usefulness for the new short-wave —
directional wireless system.
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE 222
Obituary.
Pror. W. WISLICENUS.
Y the death, on May 8, of Wilhelm Wislicenus,
professor of chemistry at the University of
Tiibingen, organic chemistry lost one of its most
fruitful research workers, who contributed in no small
measure towards placing the science on the basis
which it now occupies. He was born at Ziirich on
January 23, 1861, and was the eldest son of Johannes
Wislicenus, that great organic chemist whose name
stands on the roll of fame co-equal with those of
Hofmann and Frankland. At the time of Wilhelm’s
birth his father, who had, in the previous year, moved
from Halle to Ziirich, where he had married Katherine
Sattler, the granddaughter of Wilhelm Sattler, joint
discoverer of “ Schweinfurt green,” held the chair of
chemistry and mineralogy under the council of the
Canton at the School of Industries. Wilhelm may be
said, therefore, to have inherited his chemical genius
both on his father’s and mother’s sides.
W. Wislicenus received his early scientific training
at the University of Wurzburg, to which his father had
moved, in succession to Adolf Strecker, in 1872, and
it was from here that he published his first paper,
“On a New Reaction between Potassium Cyanide and
Phthalide,”’ a reaction which he was able to prove to
be of general application, and which he applied to
a number of other lactones with fruitful results.
In 1885 his father succeeded Kolbe at Leipzig,
but Wilhelm continued to work at Wurzburg,
and thereafter, until 1903, he published a series of
important communications from these laboratories.
In this year he removed to Tubingen, where he con-
tinued to work until shortly before his death.
The earlier work of Wilhelm Wislicenus is intimately
associated with the behaviour of metallic sodium
towards organic esters, a problem towards which the
attention of many chemists of his time was directed,
and im connexion with which his father had already
published his epoch-making paper, dealing with ethyl
acetoacetate and its application as a synthetic agent,
in the “ Annalen” of 1877. Indeed, we are told by
W. H. Perkin in his Johannes Wislicenus memorial
lecture that the laboratory at Wurzburg was, during
the early ‘eighties of the last century, busily engaged
in carrying out syntheses by the aid of ethyl aceto-
acetate and ethyl malonate. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the young Wislicenus should have
followed the general trend, and that one of his earliest
papers, published from Wurzburg in 1886, should have
dealt with the interaction of metallic sodium on a
mixture of ethyl acetate and ethyl oxalate, as an out-
come of which he was able to discover ethyl oxalyl-
acetic ester. Wislicenus at once realised the import-
ance of this discovery, and he was able later, both by
himself and in association with his co- -workers, to
apply the new reaction to the preparation of a large
number of a-ketonic esters, and, indeed, our know-
ledge of these important substances is mainly due to
him.
About this time, also, the general question of the
movement of a hydrogen atom “from carbon to oxygen,
as illustrated by the ‘behaviour of ethyl acetoacetate,
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
and the co-ordination of this phenomenon with others,
notably that exhibited by hydrocyanic acid, was
receiving considerable attention. and, i in 1885, ‘es Laar
published his famous hypothesis in which he coined
the word “tautomerism.” Laar imagined oscillatory
conditions within the molecule which caused the
hydrogen atom to take up one or other position alter-
nately. He therefore presupposed the simultaneous
existence of both modifications, or, in other words, he
considered that the phenomenon was intra-molecular
and not inter-molecular. Even at the present time
this problem is by no means solved, and it cannot yet
be said that Laar was not right in regarding the basis
of change as intra-molecular. Still, there i is no doubt
that, in one of its aspects, the Laar ‘hy pothesis did not
provide for the existence of the tautomeric individuals,
and it was, initially, due to W. Wislicenus that, in this
restricted sense, the ‘hy pothesis was shown to be wrong.
The discovery of the existence of two forms of ethyl
formylphenylacetate was made by W. Wislicenus in
1887, during his experiments on the action of sodium
on mixtures of organic esters. Earlier in the year
Piutti had shown that when a mixture of ethyl acetate
and ethyl formate was used in this reaction the ex-
pected ethyl formylacetate was not produced, or if
produced, at once underwent inter-molecular con-
densation yielding the aromatic compound trimesic
ester. In order to avoid this, Wislicenus replaced the
ethyl acetate by ethyl phenyl acetate and obtained the
open chain formyl esters. He showed that the two
esters he isolated were distinct substances, one a liquid
giving pronounced enol reactions, the other a solid
which possessed the characteristic properties of the keto
modification. Since that time many examples of the
same kind have been recorded, several of which have
been discovered by W islicenus and _ his pupils. The
whole question is summarised in a lecture given by
him at Leipzig in 1897, embodied later (1898) in one
of the Ahrens’ Sammlungen, in which he clearly
enunciates his view that tautomeric phenomena are
reversible isomeric changes. Prior to this, in a paper
published in the Berichte for 1895, the following
passage occurred: “ Uber die Natur der Isomerie ist
eine Entscheidung wohl erst nach ausfiihrlicheren
Untersuchungen zu treffen, wenn es mir auch am
wahrscheinlichsten zu sein scheint, dass hier die bei
den Aldehyden, Ketonen, und (£-Ketonsaurenestern
vermisste tautomeren Formen vorliegen”; a view
which was to receive full verification in the later work
of Kurt Meyer and Knorr.
Wislicenus continued to work on the general question
of tautomeric change for many years after this, and in
1g12 he published a further paper in the Annalen
dealing with the chemistry of ethyl formylphenyl-
acetate. By that time four isomeric modifications
had entered the field, but, in the paper quoted, he
strongly expresses his view that only two of these,
namely, the liquid «-form (enol) and the solid y-form
(M.P. 100°, enol-aldo), are chemical individuals. The
/-form (M.P. 70°) and Michael’s modification (M.P. 50°)
he regards as mixtures of the a-and y-forms. In 1916,
in a paper also published in the Annalen, he de-
scribes the two forms of the methyl ester of phenyl-
224
NATURE
[AUGUST 12, 1922
formylacetic acid, both of which are solid, and discusses
the curious property of the 6-form of combining with
methyl alcohol.
It was not, however, in this field only that the experi-
mental skill and keen insight of Wislicenus found scope.
His activities in other branches of the science, too
numerous to mention in a short monograph such as
this, find expression in upwards of one hundred com-
munications, published chiefly in the Amnnalen and
in the Berichte. Nevertheless, some of these cannot
be passed over without comment. For example, in
1892 he discovered a new and simple method for the
preparation of hydrazoic acid by causing ammonia
and nitrous oxide to react in the presence of sodium.
Later, in 1905, in conjunction with Otto Dimroth, he
utilised the sodium azide thus formed for the prepara-
tion of the simplest organic azide, methylazide (CH3N;),
by causing it to react with methyl sulphate.
One of the most frequently occurring phenomena
met with during the course of organic chemical reac-
tions is that which involves the movement of groups,
such as the hydrocarbon radicals, from one element
to another, a change which appears to be closely related
to that which is associated with the movement of a
hydrogen atom within a tautomeric system. Numerous
well-known reactions, such as, for example, the Hofmann
synthesis of primary amines, the Beckmann rearrange-
ment, and so forth, involve a transference of this kind,
and it is, therefore, of interest to note that Wislicenus
was able to discover certain typical examples of the
migration of an alkyl group from oxygen to nitrogen,
and to study the conditions under which the change
occurred. Thus, in 1900, he showed, in conjunction
with M. Goldschmidt, that phenylformiminoethyl
ether, OEt.CH=NPh, is converted, to the extent of
about 40 per cent., into the isomeric methylformanilide,
when it is heated at 230-240°. Later he was able to
prove that the C-methyl ether of caffemne is readily
converted into the N-methyl derivative.
Wilhelm Wislicenus was the distinguished son of a
distinguished father. His name will always occupy
a foremost place in the front rank of the organic
chemists of his time. Noel 10s
Tue death of Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, at the
comparatively early age of fifty-four, deprives the
scientific world of a worker whose experience in tropical
marine biology was unrivalled. Mayor stood in the
direct historical succession of American participa-
tion in this field, for as the mantle of Louis Agassiz
fell on his son Alexander, so did Alexander’s mantle
fall on the shoulders of Alfred Mayor, who accompanied
him ‘as assistant on many of his wanderings in the
Pacific. When, in 1904, Mayor was appointed director
of the Marine Biological Department of the newly
founded Carnegie Institution of Washington, he really
entered into his inheritance, and though so many of
the projects of his fruitful brain will never mature,
the work which has been accomplished at his laboratory
in the Tortugas, Florida, and during many expeditions,
forms his imperishable monument.
This laboratory, where Mayor died on June 24, is
situated at the southernmost point of the United
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
Mayor.
States, 70 miles west of Key West, on a tiny island
(Loggerhead Key) which is surrounded by the purest
ocean water. It was selected for this especial reason,
for Mayor felt that nowhere else in Florida could the
proper conditions for the experimental investigation of
marine animals be secured. The position is not with-
out disadvantage, and it is generally considered advis-
able to close down for the autumn hurricane season
and for the winter, during which Mayor carried out his
expeditions to other seas and islands. The Tortugas
Laboratory was generally only available between early
May and the end of July. This, however, is the most
suitable time for the university research workers of
the United States, from whom Mayor drew his in-
vestigators by personal invitation. These invitations, to
work free of all expense and with payment of travelling
expenses, were freely issued to all those whom he felt
had some problem which could be favourably attacked
at the Tortugas, and until that problem was, as nearly
as possible, solved, no pressure embarrassed the research,
but season after season it was his custom to reinvite
those who had studied with him before and put in
their way opportunities which he felt they might have
missed before.
The success of his policy is to be seen in the splendid
list of researches which stands to the credit of the
Tortugas Laboratory. His own publications range
widely over systematic zoology (“ The Medusz of the
World,” published in ror1), comparative physiology
(especially the series of studies on the jelly-fish Cas-
siopea), the physicochemical properties of oceanic
water, and biological problems like the growth rate
of corals, and reflect his many-sided personality and
his abounding energy. The work of his colleagues in
whatever subject shows his direct interest and influence
and the pains which he took to provide the most com-
plete and satisfactory equipment. Whatever novel
line of investigation was likely to throw light on
marine work was certain of his most enthusiastic
co-operation, and in this connexion may be mentioned
the encouragement given to workers on the bacterio-
logy of sea-water, like Harold Drew and Lipman, and
the development of scientific under-water photography
by W. H. Longley.
The expeditions which Mayor organised and carried
out are too numerous to mention, but those to Murray
Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, in 1913, and to
Tutuila, in American Samoa, in 1915-20, really
broke fresh ground in the investigation of tropical —
marine faunas. At both places he made an intensive
study of the coral reefs and was able to demonstrate
certain very interesting relations between the physio-
logical characteristics of the different reef corals and
their position and development on the reef. These —
and many other problems of importance were attacked
by Mayor and his co-workers, but all the results are
not yet published.
May or was as faithful in friendship as he was fascinat-
ing as a companion. The energy and vitality of his
body and mind, his dramatic sense, the tenacity of
his memories of men and countries, the range and
grasp of his knowledge, all never failed to rouse the
admiration of his friends. Something has been said
of the zeal with which he furthered the efforts of those —
who worked with him. It could even be stated that —
| Heights, Ontario.
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE
225
he endangered the success of his own researches by
the readiness of the aid he rendered to others.
Mayor cherished a great ambition to remove the
equipment of the Tortugas Laboratory to some locality
in the West Indies and make it a truly international
meeting-place for biologists. Just before the war his
opportunity seemed to have come, and he was about
to enter into negotiations for a site in Jamaica when
the storm broke. It was a bitter disappointment to
Mayor that he was not able to proceed with his project
after the war, not least because he hoped that, in his
yearly assemblies, English biologists would be repre-
sented more fully than in the past, and that in this
way the cause of Anglo-American unity, which he
held very dear, would be furthered. evAreP!
Dr. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.
On August 1 Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, one of the
world’s greatest inventors, died at the age of seventy-
five years. The effects of early upbringing and en-
vironment always leave their mark on a man’s life, and
in Graham Bell’s case they are specially apparent.
His father spent the first half of his life as a lecturer on
elocution at Edinburgh, and was also a prolific author
of books on the same subject. Among his son’s earliest
experiments were the recording of speech waves on
smoked cylinders. Graham Bell was a student at
Edinburgh University, and later he assisted his father
when the latter was a lecturer at University College,
London. In 1870, for reasons connected with Graham’s
health, the family migrated to Brantford, near Tutela
In 1873 Graham was appointed
professor of physiology at Boston University. In 1874
he invented a system of harmonic multiple telegraphy,
and in that year he began a series of experiments which
led him at last to realise in practice his conception of
an articulating telephone.
Considering the marvellous results achieved the
mechanism of the telephone is wonderfully simple.
Previous to its invention, elaborate devices had been
proposed containing large numbers of tuned reeds so
as to cover the whole gamut of the human voice. The
final form of the instrument is fully described in
Graham Bell’s patents of 1876 and 1877. Although
he made several other notable inventions, the telephone
will always be outstanding as his supreme achievement.
It first attracted world-wide attention at the Centennial
Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. After Graham
Bell had laid down all the essential principles of tele-
phony, Edison developed his carbon transmitter.
Tn 1878 the first telephone exchange was established.
There are now about twenty-one million telephones
connected with the various exchanges throughout the
world. In the early days Graham Bell regarded
twenty miles as the limit to which articulate speech
could be sent. It has now been sent over five thousand
miles,
In 1917 the Bell Memorial Committee presented to
Brantford, Ontario, a public park, the house in which
Graham Bell lived when he made his epoch-making
discovery, and a noble monument, to commemorate the
invention of the telephone. Graham Bell in his later
| years took the keenest interest In aeronautics and
geophysics. When Father Cortie recorded the mag-
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
netic storm of August 11, 1919, in NATURE (vol. 103,
p. 483), Graham Bell wrote to say that he had noticed
a display of the Aurora Borealis at Cape Breton Island
on that date, “ Pulsations of light swept upward to the
zenith resembling clouds driven before a heavy wind ”
(vol. 104, p. 74). He was made a doctor of science at
Oxford in 1906, and in 1913 the Royal Society awarded
him the Hughes medal and the Institution of Electrical
Engineers made him an Honorary Member. On his
visit to this country in 1920 the freedom of his native
city of Edinburgh was conferred on him. He was held
in universal esteem. As the founder of a great and
flourishing industry which ameliorates the conditions
of lite he was a great benefactor to humanity.
AG eRe
Workers in many branches of science and education
will deeply sympathise with Prof. W. A. Bone, pro-
fessor of chemical technology in the Imperial College
of Science and Technology, on the death of his wife
on July 26. Before her marriage to Prof. Bone in
1916, Mrs. Bone, who was then Miss Liddiard, was
headmistress of the St. Albans High School for Girls,
and had previously been a member of the teaching
staff of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. She was a
graduate in arts of the University of London, and
possessed exceptional capacity for teaching as well as
for organisation. While she was head of the St.
Albans High School, the domestic economy school was
inaugurated there. Mrs. Bone took an active interest
in science progress in general, and her husband’s
researches in particular, and her death will be regretted
by a large circle of pupils and friends who came under
her strong and delightful influence.
ORIENTAL learning has suffered a serious loss by the
death, at the age of eighty-five years, of Mr. Charles
Henry Tawney, C.1.E. Educated at Rugby and
Cambridge, where he gained the highest classical
honours, and a fellowship at Trinity College, Mr.
Tawney joined the Indian Educational Service, and
became professor at the Presidency College, Calcutta,
where he won the esteem of his pupils by his kindness
and learning. He became Director of Public Instruc-
tion in Bengal, and retired from the Educational Service
in 1892. On reaching England he became librarian
at the India Office. Much of his time was occupied
in assisting writers on Indian subjects, by whom he
was regarded with the greatest esteem. He was an
admirable Sanskrit scholar, and published several
works, the best known of which are translations of two
great collections of Indian folk-tales, the Katha
Sarit Sagara and the Katha Kosa, enriched with
valuable notes, which displayed a wide knowledge of
the literature of folk-tales. One of his sons, Mr. R. H.
Tawney, Fellow of Balliol, is a distinguished writer and
lecturer on economic problems.
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, on
July 25, of Dr. Arthur Ransome, F.R.S., lately pro-
fessor of public health in Owens College and examiner
in sanitary science in the Universities of Cambridge and
Manchester.
ie)
ie)
OV
NATURE
[AuGust 12, 1922
Current Topics and Events.
THERE appears to be solid ground for accepting
as an accomplished fact the arrangement which was
first rumoured in this country about a year ago. In
its annual report, the Compagnie Nationale des
Matiéres Colorantes, the French equivalent of the
British Dyestuffs Corporation, declares that “‘ all who
understand: the complexity of the manufacture of
organic colouring matters will realise why we have
been compelled to acquire the patents, the processes,
and the technical aid of our principal foreign com-
petitors for exclusive use in France.” This passage
has been taken by the French press as the official
description of an agreement between the Compagnie
Nationale and the Interessen Gemeinschaft, by which
detailed technical assistance and full information
regarding processes of manufacture shall be supplied
to the French factories by their German rivals, such
technical assistance taking the form of German
chemists to supervise operation of processes in the
French dye-works. In return for these advantages,
the consumption of French dyes would be limited to
France and her colonies, whilst the profits arising
therefrom would be shared by the Interessen Gemein-
schaft. Although a superficial view of this plan may
not be flattering to national amour propre, the arrange-
ment is an eminently practical one. The plain
English of it is that a fifty years’ start cannot be
overtaken in fifty months. The Allies are agreed
in declining to trust Germany with a virtual mono-
poly in dyestuffs manufacture such as she enjoyed
before the war, in the first place owing to its military
potentialities, and secondly, though not less force-
fully, because a flourishing dyestuffs industry offers
the most powerful stimulus to encouragement of
national talent in the field of organic chemistry—a
branch of science which civilised countries cannot
afford to neglect. Consequently, it has appeared to
the French better to enlist the assistance of Germans
in building up a domestic industry than to incur the
terrible risks of not having any dyestuffs factories at
all. The course which they have chosen may perhaps,
in a somewhat modified form, suggest an avenue of
escape from British embarrassments in the same
industrial domain.
A pEPUTATION from the People’s League ot Health,
which recently waited on the Parliamentary Secretary
to the Minister of Labour, in order to direct attention
to the effect of unemployment and the unemployment
insurance benefit on the health and habits of the
nation, referred inter alia to the subject of nutrition.
Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter said that the amounts paid
by way of unemployment benefit were insufficient
to keep the worker fit, that the latter was frequently
unversed in food values, and would be better able
to render good service when trade revived were he
able to obtain a standard balanced diet by means
of food tickets in part substitution for unemployment
benefit. This point is of considerable importance,
and although, as urged by the Parliamentary Secre-
tary, there are serious administrative difficulties in
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
the way of any such rationing scheme, we are of
opinion that it ought to be considered seriously.
The quantitative aspects of the problem of national
nutrition need much more attention; we still have
very little exact knowledge of the requirements of
different classes of manual workers, and the founda-—
tions laid during the crisis of the war have not been»
built upon. We are glad to know that a strong —
committee, under the chairmanship of Prof. E. P._
Cathcart, has been appointed by the Medical Research —
Council to examine the whole subject, and if possible
undertake special research work. The food require-
ments of soldiers have been ascertained by exact
experiment ; the work of Cathcart and Orr in this
field has been of the greatest value. The olaeay
of the experimental method to workers not under
military discipline is difficult, while inferences from —
family budgets are frequently dangerous. However, ©
a combination of the experimental method, applied
to a relatively small number of selected individuals, -
and the statistical method of reducing budgets, will
almost certainly lead to a solution of the problem.
Similar remarks, of course, apply to the case of
institutional dietaries—a subject under the considera-_
tion of a committee appointed by the Board of Control.
It is doubtful whether the diets approved by various —
hospital and school committees are really based on
any uniform scientific principles. i
From the Royal Institute of British Architects we
have received a notice gf the preparations beings
made to celebrate the bi-centenary of the death of
Sir Christopher Wren, who died on February 25, £723,
at the age of ninety-one years. The Royal Academy, —
the Royal Society, the British Museum, the London —
County Council, and other important public bodies —
are represented on the grand committee which has_
been formed, and the proposal is to have a com-—
memoration week, beginning on Monday, February 26,
1923. The programme includes a memorial service,
an exhibition, a pageant, and visits to Wren’s build-
ings. Besides St. Paul’s—the choir screen of which
bears the oft-quoted inscription, Si monumentum
vequivis civcumspice—Wren built about fifty City
churches, and to him are also due the library of
Trinity College, Cambridge, the Ashmolean Museum
Oxford, and Greenwich Observatory. Had Wren’s
career not been diverted to architecture, it ist
probable he would have been among the cen
FJ
scientific men of his age, such as Newton, Huygens,
and Leibnitz. As a youth at Oxford he displayed
remarkable ability, and gained the friendship of
Wilkins, Boyle, Seth Ward, and others. In 1657, at
the age of twenty-five, he succeeded Rooke as pro-
fessor of astronomy in Gresham College, London, and
three years later returned to Oxford as Savilian
professor of astronomy. He was one of the founders
of the Royal Society, and was president in 1680-81,
Soon after being chosen Savilian professor he was
given the sinecure post of assistant surveyor-general
under Sir John Denham. The study of architecture,
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATORE
227
however, soon engrossed him ; in 1665 he spent much
time in Paris, where Bernini was building the Louvre,
and the great fire of London gave him an oppor-
tunity such as has fallen to few men. Estimating
the damage done by the fire at over ten million
sterling, Wren drew up an elaborate plan for re-
buiiding the city with wide thoroughfares and open
spaces, and was appointed “‘surveyor-general and
principal architect for rebuilding the whole city.”
Dr. J. S. Frerr, Director of H.M. Geological
Survey, will act as one of the delegates of the Geo-
logical Society of London at the International
Geological Congress at Brussels on August 21 to
September 3, in place of Prof. W. W. Watts, who is
unfortunately unable to proceed to Brussels for the }
congress. The other delegates nominated by this
society are Prof. E. J. Garwood, Vice-President, and
Dr. J. W. Evans, F.R.S.
Tue National Research Council of Japan has issued
the first number of a new periodical, The Japanese
Journal of Geology and Geography (Tokyo, 1922),
which illustrates once more the wide outlook of science
in Japan. In this number all the papers are in
English ; they include one by Prof. Hayasaka re-
cording for the first time the discovery of marine
Lower Carboniferous strata in Japan, and one by
Dr. Niiya, with admirable photographic illustrations,
on the mud volcanoes of Mimbu, Burma. The ab-
stracts of papers published in Japan form an especially
valuable feature, since they are given in English or
German, almost all in English, and serve to make
known a wide range of researches published originally
in the national language. ;
Dr. MicHaEL GRABHAM has gone to Porto Santo,
the northern island of the Madeira group, to study
the conditions under which the local race of Portu-
guese inhabitants are said to enjoy complete immunity
from dental caries. These people possess huge, ugly,
yellow, but sound teeth, and Dr. Grabham proposes to
bring specimens to London. The recent discovery that
Porto Santo, which is almost bare of vegetation, has
a desirable climate of its own and, moreover, a valu-
able spring of mineral water, is leading to the incursion
of Madeira migrants, and it will be instructive to
observe how contact with these new-comers will affect
the tooth immunity which Dr. Grabham is investi-
gating. Valuable knowledge may be thus obtained of
a malady which in this country has become a national
problem.
A PROVISIONAL programme has been issued for
the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute,
to be held on September 5-8 at York, under the
presidency of Mr. F. Samuelson. A number of papers
have been promised on subjects which, although
within the range of the Institute’s activities, are of
varied character and give promise of an interesting
meeting. Among the topics which will be dealt with
are the changes in properties of steels during heat
treatment, modern blast-furnace practice, moulding
sands, high-speed steel as well as testing and works
machinery. Arrangements have been made for mem-
bers of the Institute to visit the works of the Staveley
Coal and Iron Co. Ltd., near Chesterfield, and of the
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
Parkgate Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., and there will also
be excursions to places of interest in the neighbour-
hood of York. The secretary of the Institute would
be glad to hear before August 15 from all who propose
to attend the meeting.
Ir is announced that proposals for closer co-
operation amongst the leading engineering institu-
tions, which have recently been under consideration,
have now received the approval of the institutions,
the representatives of which met in conference,
namely, The Institution of Civil Engineers, The
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, The Institution
of Naval Architects, and The Institution of Electrical
Engineers, and that an engineering joint council
composed of representatives of these bodies has been
formed. Among the objects of the joint council will
be, to improve the status of engineers, to secure the
better utilisation of their services in the country’s
interests and the appointment of properly qualified
individuals to responsible engineering positions, and
to prevent the unnecessary duplication of activities.
It is anticipated that, at a later stage, the number of
bodies represented on the joint council may be
increased, but this at present remains a matter for
future consideration for the joint council and the
institutions concerned.
WE have received from the American Bureau of
Standards, Washington, Scientific Paper No. 437,
on the solubility of dextrose in water. It is shown
from cryoscopic measurements that at temperatures
below 90° C. three solid phases can exist—ice, a-
dextrose monohydrate, and a-dextrose. The hydrate
is stable between - 5:3° C. and 50° C., and has a very
high temperature coefficient of solubility. Copies
of this paper may be obtained on request to the
Bureau of Standards. From the same source we have
also received Scientific Paper No. 435, on metallo-
graphic etching reagents for copper alloys, nickel,
and the a-alloys of nickel, copies of which may also
be obtained on application.
THE latest catalogue (No. 434) of Mr. F. Edwards,
83 High Street, Marylebone, W.1, is devoted to works
on voyages, travels, exploration, and adventure in all
parts of the world. The catalogue contains nearly
1300 titles. Many rare volumes are listed, including
“The Antarctic Voyage of the Evebus and Terror,”
under the command of Capt. Sir C. J. Ross, 1839-43—
The Botany and Zoology of the Voyage, by Sir J. D.
Hooker, Sir J. Richardson, J. E. Gray, R. B. Sharpe,
A. Giinther, and others; and Gabriel Thomas’s “‘ An
Historical and Geographical Account of the Province
and Country of Pensilvania and of West-New-Jersey
in America,’ 1st edition. There is also a set of the
“ Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society of London ”’ from 1830 to Igt9.
A ist of the new books and new editions added
to Lewis’s Medical and Scientific Circulating Library
during April, May, and June has just been issued.
It is carefully classified and should be very useful]
for reference. Copies can be obtained free of charge
from the publishers, H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 136
Gower Street, W.C.1.
228
NATURE
[AuGcusT 12, 1922
Research Items.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SWASTIKA SYMBOL.—The
subject of the origin of the Swastika symbol has
given rise to protracted controversy. The latest con-
tribution to the question is that of Harit Krishna Deb
in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1921, No.
3. Hesuggests that it is a modification of the mode of
expressing the ancient Hindu syllable Om, which is
used in religious rites. This, a pothook with square
ends, was duplicated, one across the other, to form
the Swastika, meaning “‘ bringer of blessings,’ which
goes back in India to the seventh century, when it
was used as a cattle-mark. Another reference is well
before 528 B.c. It is found on gold leaf on a vase
with relics of Buddha, and it appears on the Edicts of
Asoka (273-232 B.c.). The earliest example known
is on a spindle whorl from the third city of Troy,
about 1800 B.c., and it is frequent in Greek vases
about 600 B.c.
INDIAN PAINTING AND MOHAMMEDAN CULTURE.—
The subject of Indian painting has recently attracted
increasing attention, and its relation to Culture was
discussed by Sir T. W. Arnold in the Sir George
Birdwood Memorial Lecture recently delivered before
the Royal Society of Arts. He illustrated its relation
to Hinduism and Islam in the drawings of Musalman
saints and Hindu ascetics; the etiquette of the
Mughal Court and of social life, mainly derived from
Persia; in the pictures of singers and dancers; of
drinking bouts and feasts, and in the short-lived
renaissance of Indian painting at the time when
the Empire was breaking up. The importance of
study of the subject, which would need a series of
monographs, was emphasised by Lord Peel, the
Secretary of State for India, and by Lord Ronald-
shay, late Governor of Bengal.
SPAIN AND IRELAND.—In a lecture recently de-
livered before the Celtic section of the Société Inter-
nationale de Philologie, Sciences, et Beaux-Arts,
London, Dr. W. Edmington Scott discussed the pre-
historic relations between Spain and Ireland. He
pointed out that the history of Iberian names for
iron, lead, copper, tin, silver, mercury, gold, and
several technical mining and metallurgical terms
supplied evidence of long-standing trade communica-
tions between Spain and the Minoan and A®gean
nations. Their presence in Old Irish pointed to
Spanish intercourse with that island.. The Phcenician
exploitation of the Spanish mines lasted for nearly
a thousand years, and it is possible that through
these traders and colonists the Andalusian Basque
names of the ores were introduced into Assyrian,
Aramaic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages.
Tin ore was a necessity for the manufacture of bronze,
and this undoubtedly came from the Cassiterides.
The analysis of prehistoric Mycenzean, Cretan, and
Trojan bronzes proved that they contained a high
percentage of tin, whereas Homeric bronze was much
weaker. This was due to the scarcity of tin, resulting
from the cutting by the Phoenicians of the ancient
trade route between Greece and Spain, and the con-
sequent diversion of the mineral resources of the
Peninsula to Western Asia.
HEALTH AND WEIGHT TABLES.—Two charts have
been prepared by the director of the Galton Labora-
tory, Prof. Karl Pearson, which should prove of great
value to those in charge of infant welfare centres and
clinics (“‘ Health and Weight Probabilities,’’ Cambridge
University Press, 7s. 6d.). The purpose of the charts
is to compare the weight of an individual baby with
the average at its age and to give a rough estimate of
its chance of surviving the first year of life. Thus,
suppose a female baby weighs tro lbs. at the end of
NO. 2754. VOL. 110]
36 weeks; according to the chart, 97 per cent. of
females aged 36 weeks weigh more than ro lbs. (the
chart has been constructed from numerous data of
working-class infants), and at the end of the year 74
per cent. of all babies will be healthier than this
one. Of course, as Prof. Pearson has pointed out,
predictions based upon a single character such as
weight are not of a high order of accuracy, but
these charts will be very useful. It will be easy to
see whether an infant is maintaining or improving
its grade of weight and health.
TURBINOID BONES OF NovorHertuM MITCHELLI.—
H. H. Scott and C. Lord have succeeded in recovering
about one-half of the maxillo turbinals of Nototherium
mitchelli (Studies in Tasmanian Mammals, No. vii.,
Papers Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 1922). Their general
structure is akin to that of the turbinal of a wombat,
but their coarseness of texture is about twice that
which obtains in the living kangaroos. In being
straighter, and more cuneiform in shape, the maxillo
turbinals of the Nototherium approach those of the
kangaroos and depart from those of the wombats.
By reason of their more extensive vertical plates,
they approach those of the wombats and depart
from those of the kangaroos. By being preceded by
a bony platform, the Nototherium turbinals manifest
characters of their own, although such states are
dimly suggested in the skulls of native bears. The
authors conclude that there was a similarity in the
lip muscles of Nototherium to those of Rhinoceros.
FLAGELLATES.—Mr. E. Penard gives (Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Philad., 1921) the results of studies on several
flagellates. He describes in Pteridomonas the “ fla-
gellopodia,”’ which may at one moment be flagella
and at another form pseudopodia used in the capture
of food—a rare condition in flagellates. Dimorpha
tetvamastix is, in the resting condition, a Heliozoon
with fine radiate pseudopodia supported by axial
filaments, and feeds on a minute ciliate which it
captures with its pseudopodia. Arising from an
anterior median depressed area are four very fine
flagella, and by sudden retraction of the pseudopodia
Dimorpha becomes a flagellate within the body of
which traces of the axial threads of the former
pseudopodia are visible. The organism swims by
means of the flagella, but only for a short time, and
on coming to rest reverts to the heliozoan form.
Another new species of Dimorpha with only one
flagellum is described, and this may also assume
either the heliozoan or the flagellate form. The
author has observed a flagellate stage of Chrysamozeba
and of Chrysopyxis; in each case the pseudopodia
are retracted and a single flagellum is formed.
BIRDS AND SOME INVERTEBRATES OF CEYLON.—The
outstanding contribution to the latest part of Spolia
Zeylanica (vol. 12, part 45) is Mr. W. E. Wait’s
account of the passerine birds of Ceylon—a_pre-
liminary draft of a section for a proposed handhook
on the birds of the island. In Ceylon the proportion
of passerines in the avifauna is unusually small, for
only about 120 species, about one-third of the total
bird population, belong to this section, whereas in
India fully half the species are passerines. The
species are characterised in concise descriptions,
followed by short accounts of distribution and habits,
and keys are given to the distinctive characters of
families and species. Two papers included in the
part describe Ceylon Coleoptera—a new species of
Luciola, and a collection of Lamellicornia ; another
continues a description of. new species of Ceylon
Diptera. Dr. Annandale has contributed a short
ee ee
ae ae a ea il lly i Mag
en ee ee a
a
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE 2
29
account of a polyzoon, Plumatella longigemmis, which
occurred in the artificial lake whence Colombo obtains
its water, and formed a continuous coating on the
walls of the wash-water tank at the filtration works.
Shorter notes deal with a new species of Lyczenid
butterfly (Avhopala ovmistoni), with Lepidoptera of
economic interest in Ceylon, and with the stridulation
of a leaf-insect.
SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN THE NORTH SEA AND
IN GERMAN LAKES.—The International Council for
Marine Investigations has just issued a Bulletin
Hydrographique (June 1922) containing a summary of
all the observations of surface temperature in the
North Sea during the years 1905-1914. There are
more than 200,000 measurements made from com-
mercial vessels and they are tabulated as means
during each ten-day period for the mean year, and
for areas of one degree of latitude and longitude, or
for one-half degree, in each case. The results are
represented graphically by a series of charts, one for
each ten-day period. These show in a striking
manner the “flow’”’ of the isothermal boundaries
throughout the year. A very interesting study of
the temperature of the water at the surface of various
lakes in Germany has been made by A. Merz (Ver-
Offentlich. Instituts fiir Meereskunde, Berlin, N.F. A.,
Heft 5, 1920). A specially constructed thermometer
was used. The bulb was a vessel of I sq. mm.
cross-section and 12 cms. long; the capillary stem
was 15 cms. in length and was bent at right angles
to the elongated bulb. Thus it was possible to explore
the water at depths varying by 1 mm. down to about
tro mm. The results are quite remarkable: on
very calm days, when there is no vertical disturbance
of the water, the temperature may vary from about
21° C. at the surface, to about 8° C. at a depth of
about 100 mm. Probably these results will have
much significance.
METEOROLOGY AT Honc-Konc.—The report for
the year 1921 of the Director, Mr. T. F. Claxton,
of the Royal Observatory, Hong-Kong, has just been
issued. A heavy rainfall occurred from April 27
to July 6, a period of 71 days, rain falling on 59
days and yielding 59 inches, or 61 per cent. of
the total fall for the year. From September 9
to the end of the year, a period of 113 days, the rain-
fall amounted only to one inch. The total rainfall
for the year was 97-34 in. and the average for the
past 38 years is 84-62 in. The greatest rainfall in a
day was 6-06 in. and the greatest in one hour was
3:25 in. The highest shade temperature was 92°
on August 22; the highest in the past 38 years is 97°.
The lowest temperature was 44° on February 4, and
the lowest for the 38 years is 32°. The maximum
wind velocity for one hour was 51 miles; the
maximum for one hour in the past 38 years is 108
miles. The maximum squall velocity in 192I was
at_the rate of 69 miles an hour. There were 21
typhoons during the year and the tracks of these
are given in the Monthly Meteorological Bulletin for
December 1921. In addition to meteorological
observations kept at about 4o stations in China,
_ meteorological logs were received from 168 ships
operating in the Far East, the latter being used for
verifying typhoon tracks.
INTERFEROMETERS.—Because of the high degree of
accuracy obtainable, interferometric methods of
measurement are of extreme value in physical re-
search. The application of such methods has been
tendered easily practicable by the various Hilger
interferometers, which are specialised developments
of the Michelson interferometer. The manufacturers,
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
Messrs. Adam Hilger, Ltd., 77a Camden Road, N.W.1,
now include a list of these instruments in their
catalogue and have issued separate booklets de-
scribing them. The prism interferometer, the lens
interferometer No. 1, and the camera lens interfero-
meter (described in Nature, July 14, 1921) are fairly
well known and are used in connexion with various
physical problems. A simple and compact form of
instrument known as the “‘ interferoscope ”’ is now also
available, by means of which the degree of parallelism
of surfaces of transparent plates can be determined
with more ease and rapidity and with greater accuracy
than by micrometer measurement. Minute differ-
ences in the thicknesses of opaque parts, e.g. steel
thickness gauges, plug gauges, balls for bearings, etc.,
can also be conveniently measured by placing three
of the parts between two glass surface plates and
measuring the lack of parallelism in the separation
of the plates. As the accuracy obtainable with this
instrument is about one-millionth of an inch it should
form a valuable test-room tool as well as a physical
laboratory instrument. ;
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE EaRTH’s CRusT.—
Prof. W. Vernadsky of the Radium Institute, Petro-
grad, writing from the Paris Muséum d’histoire
naturelle, says it has been shown by Oddo and
Harkins that the outer shell of the earth’s crust, down
to a depth of about to miles, consists predominantly
of elements with even atomic numbers, but he believes
that it is now possible to go further than this, and
that 1t can be shown that the elements of different
atomic numbers can be grouped according to the part
they play in the economy of the earth’s crust as
follows: 1. Cyclic (biogenic) elements.—These consti-
tute 99:6 per cent. of the mass of the earth’s crust,
and 86-4 per cent. of them are elements with even
atomic numbers. These elements enter into the com-
position of organisms, and the chemical changes they
undergo are cyclic. They include the following 28
elementsi> Alp? Al) As) ‘Bh iBa, © CaCl Cu, Ke; FB;
Eek eo Ma, NS Na, iN OloP, (Pb) S, Si, 90) on,
Ti, V, and Zn; and probably also the following 10
elements : Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Mo, Sb, Se, Te, and W.
2. Inert gases —These have all even atomic numbers.
They are chemically inert. They include A, He, Ne,
Kr, and Xe. 3. Elements of the rave earths —These
include Ce, Dy, Er, Eu, Gd, La, Lu, Nd, Pr, Sa,
Tb, Tm, Yb. It is characteristic of these elements
that they take no part in the formation of vadose
minerals. 4. Radioactive elements ——These include
Ac, Nt, Po, Ra, Th, and U. They are genetically
related to uranium and thorium and are subject to
disintegration. 5. Inert metals ——These include Au,
Ir, Os, Pd, Pt, Rh, and Ru. They do not give vadose
minerals. 6. Diffused elements —These include Br,
Gs: Ga, In; I, Li, Rb, Sc, and Tl. It is a marked
characteristic of these elements that they show very
little tendency to form minerals, although their atoms
are widely diffused through the rocks of the earth’s
crust. All the elements of this group have odd
atomic numbers. Prof. Vernadsky points out that
the chemical processes going on in the earth’s crust
are closely dependent upon the atomic constitution
of the matter of the crust. A portion of this is always
in an active state, and is, under present conditions,
to be regarded as a store of free energy ; e.g. those
cyclic elements that undergo changes through the
influence of radiant solar energy, and those radio-
active elements which give a continual display of
atomic energy. So long as these sources of energy
are maintained, chemical changes will proceed in the
earth’s crust as at present; but the equilibrium is
slowly changing, partly through dissipation and partly
through the disintegration of the radioactive elements.
The “Immured Standards
Av interesting ceremony recently .took place in
4 the House of Commons, when the copies of the
Imperial Yard and Pound which normally rest within
the wall of the staircase leading up to the committee
rooms, were replaced in their recess, and re-immured
by cementing in place the stone slab covering the
opening. These “‘immured_ standards,’’ officially
described as “‘ Parliamentary Copies No. 4,’’ constitute
one of the four original sets of copies of the present
primary standards of the yard and pound, and were
constructed simultaneously with them in 1844-45,
with the view of providing a ready means of replace-
ment, should the originals at any time be lost or
destroyed. Such a catastrophe occurred in 1834,
when the Houses of Parliament were burnt down,
the then existing standards being destroyed in the
fire. The other sets of Parliamentary Copies were
placed, and still remain, in the custody of the Royal
Mint, the Royal Society, and the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich. ‘At a later date, a fifth set was provided
for the Board of Trade, to obviate the necessity for
using the primaries in important comparisons, as had
been the practice hitherto.
Under statute, these copies must be compared with }
each other every ten years, and with the primary
standards every twenty years, but the immured
copies are expressly exempted from this requirement.
Hence they have seldom been examined, and were
only cursorily re-verified for the first time in 1892,
when Mr. H. J. Chaney, the then Superintendent of
the Standards, compared them with the Board of
Trade copies, by means of apparatus which was taken
to the House for the purpose. Since then they have
not been disturbed until this year. Upon the present
occasion, since this year marks the end of the twenty-
year period, it was thought desirable to include the
immured copies also in a complete set of inter-com-
parisons with the other copies and with the Imperial
Standards themselves. With the kind consent of the
Speaker, and in his presence, the recess was opened,
and the standards taken out and inspected, before
being removed to the Standards Department for
verification. Upon the box there was found the
certificate, in original, of their deposit in the present
position, after the original site had been demolished
during structural alterations. This certificate was
dated March 7, 1872, and bore, among others, the
signatures of Sir George B. Airy, Astronomer Royal,
and Prof. W. H. Miller, both of whom had been closely
concerned in the original construction of these
standards.
IVA TIGL
[AuGuUST 12, 1922
| and some adjustment will therefore be necessary.
” in the House of Commons.
were involved having been completed, they were
returned upon August 3. Mr. J. E. Sears, Deputy-
Warden of the Standards, produced them for identi-
fication by means of their inscriptions, and after Mr.
Percy Ashley, Assistant Secretary to the Board of
Trade, had explained the general purpose of the
ceremony, the Deputy-Warden announced the result
obtained by comparing them against the Imperial
Standards. They were then formally replaced in
their boxes, which were then hermetically sealed up
within a lead sheathing, within an outer oak box, and
replaced in the recess, in which they were again
immured by cementing the front stone in place.
Upon the box there had been placed a record of the
proceedings, signed by the principal witnesses,
together with the original certificate above referred
to, which had been found when the recess was opened.
The results of the comparison of the immured
standards with the primaries were given by Mr.
Sears as follows :
Yard P.C. No. 4=Imperial Standard Yard - 0-oooror
inch.
Pound P.C. No.
0:00286 grain.
4 = Imperial Standard Pound +
These figures are, however, provisional, since due
weight will ultimately have to be given to the results
of the other comparisons which are not yet completed,
It
is interesting to compare these figures with, those
arrived at in 1844-45, when the standards were first
constructed, namely :
Yard P.C. No. 4=Imperial Standard Yard +0-000007
inch.
Pound SEC aNor
0:0031T4 grain.
The apparent variation in the yard is of the order
of the differences which have been observed from time
to time in the past among the other standard bars,
but the apparent change in the pound is more con-
siderable. It may perhaps be explained by the fact
that the weight is by no means a good piece of metal,
and of all the copies, it constitutes probably the one
least fitted to form a trustworthy standard. Some
evidence is, however, available, though it cannot be
regarded as conclusive, that prior to 1878 the primary
standard was rendered a little lighter by wear, arising
from its relatively frequent use for important com-
parisons. The present series of comparisons may
render it possible to form some conclusion as to
4 = Imperial Standard Pound —
All the comparisons in which the immured copies i whether this is the case.
The International Research Council.
A MEETING of the International Research
# Council was held at Brussels on July 25 and
the four succeeding days, under the presidency of M.
E. Picard, secretary of the Académie des Sciences,
Paris ; simultaneously the recently formed Union of
Scientific Radio-Telegraphy held its first general
assembly.
Twenty countries have now joined the International
Research Council, the following seventeen being
represented at the meeting : Belgium, Canada, Den-
mark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Italy,
Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, United States of,.America, and Czecho-
Slovakia. The representatives of Great Britain for
the general proceedings of the Council were Prof.
NO. 2754, VOL. TIO]
J. R. Ashworth, Sir William Bragg, Sir Charles Close,
Sir Richard Glazebrook; Mr. A. R. Hinks, Col. H. G.
Lyons, Sir Arthur Schuster, and Dr. E. H. Starling ;
while in addition Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, Dr.
Erskine Murray, and Mr. Shaughnessy represented,
together with Sir Richard Glazebrook, the National
Council for Radio-Telegraphy.
The greater part of the business of the meeting
was concerned with the organisation of international
scientific unions additional to the five for Astronomy,
Geodesy and Geophysics, Chemistry, Mathematics,
and Scientific Radio-Telegraphy, which are already
in activity. As a result of the meeting the forma-
tion of Unions for Pure and Applied Physics and for
Geography seems assured. The proposed Union in
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATORE
231
Geology awaits the consideration of the Geological
Congress which meets this week at Brussels, and some
' advance has been made in connexion with the bio-
logical sciences.
At a previous meeting of the International Re-
search Council it had been provisionally agreed to
unite medical and biological sciences; this decision
did not find favour, and the intention now is to
separate medicine from Physiology, Zoology, and
Botany. Proposals will be submitted to the countries
belonging to the Research Council, and the ultimate
formation of this Union will depend on the number
of countries willing to join.
Among other matters dealt with, a proposal sub-
mitted by the National Research Council of the
United States of America and accepted by the meeting
may prove to be an important addition to the respon-
sibilities of the Research Council, which hitherto
contented itself with the formation of Unions which
became practically autonomous as soon as their
statutes were approved. As problems in which several
Unions were concerned ran a danger of being neglected,
the proposal was now made by the United States
that the Research Council itself should take such
problems under its own special protection. » Three
inquiries were mentioned as likely to fall within
this category. One of them had already been con-
sidered by the International Astronomical Union,
which requested the Research Council to make
arrangements for a collaboration of several of the
Unions in the study of the correlations between solar
and terrestrial phenomena. The second referred to
the energy supply of the world (fuel, solar energy,
etc.), while a third suggestion dealt with the difficult
and complicated question of international patents.
The risk of overlapping efforts and the possible fear
of interference with the special work of the Unions is
avoided by the provision—now coming into force—
that the Executive Committee of the Research Council,
which hitherto consisted of five members, should be
enlarged, each Union nominating an additional
member.
At the concluding meeting the five members of
the Executive Committee appointed by the general
assembly were elected as follows: M. E. Picard
(President), Mr. G. Lecointe and Prof. Vito Volterra
(Vice-Presidents), Dr. G. E. Hale, and Sir Arthur
Schuster (General Secretary).
The Philosophical Congress at Manchester.
‘Es special subjects of discussion at the Philo-
sophical Congress recently held at Manchester
| were (1) the nature of history and its differentiation
_ from science, (2) the concept of unconscious mental
| process and the justification of the term unconscious
in psychology, and (3) the philosophical aspects of
the principle of relativity, particularly in regard to
the problem of sense perception.
The vice-chancellor of the University of Man-
chester, Sir Henry Miers, presided at the opening
meeting, when the Bishop of Manchester, Dr. William
Temple, gave an inaugural address on “‘ Symbolism
as a Basis for Metaphysics.’’ The particular function
of philosophy is the interpretation of value. Reality
presents itself in grades which rise in a hierarchical
order from simple matter to life and mind and spirit.
Each higher order is the imposition of a value on
the lower on which it is dependent and which then
becomes for it a symbol. Thus a flag as a parti-
coloured strip of calico is mere matter and yet apart
from the value which this matter symbolises it has
not even the existence which supports the value.
_ That is to say, though existence is prior to value, in
the higher grade the distinction between existence
and value disappears. This led to the further position
that the universe can only be explained in terms of
will. The intellect may be satisfied by a concept
of the universe in terms of physical causation, but
religious, esthetic and ethical, and also scientific
experience can only be satisfied by proof that it is
purposively reasonable and not merely causally
intelligible.
(1) “Are History and Science different kinds of
Knowledge ?”” was discussed in a symposium by
Mr. R. G. Collingwood, Prof. A. E. Taylor, and Dr.
F.C. S. Schiller. The problem is an old one but has
_ acquired new significance in modern thought. History
is particular and individual, its events are unique,
it is impossible to classify them and induce general
laws. Is it then more than a simple chronicle ?
On the other hand, science deals with repetitions,
its method is experimental, it formulates general
laws\which enable us to predict and so to control
_ the future.
_ (2)4The subject of the unconscious aroused the
liveliest interest on account of its practical importance
NO, 2754, VOL. 110]
and the question of the methods of psycho-therapy
which it involved. Prof. T. H. Pear presided over
the discussion and referred to the great loss which
psychology had sustained in the death of Dr. W. H. R.
Rivers, who had taken part inarranging the programme
and had expected to participate in the Congress.
The meeting rose in silent tribute. The first sym-
posium, “‘ Is the Unconscious a Conception of Value
in Psychology ?”’ was by Mr. G. C. Field, Dr. F.
Aveling, and Prof. J. Laird. In the discussion the
medical point of view was represented by Dr. Mitchell
and Dr. William Brown. ‘The latter gave detailed
instances of assumed mental processes which, judged
by analogy, are indistinguishable from those of
conscious life, the only difference being that the
subjects in whom they occur are completely unaware
of them. Mr. Leonard Russell on the philosophic
side defended the use of the apparently self-contra-
dictory term ‘“‘ unconscious consciousness’’ in a
subtle argument directed to show that the paradox
is not confined to a particular class of mental pheno-
mena but extends to all, for even in what we call
conscious process we are never conscious of the
consciousness.
A second symposium on the terms used in the new
psychology, “The Relations between Sentiments
and Complexes,’ had six contributors. The first
paper was by the late Dr. Rivers, the others were by
Dr. Bernard Hart, Mr. A. G. Tansley, Prof. T. H.
Pear, Mr. A. F. Shand and Dr. C. S. Myers. The
practical issue in this discussion was as to a possible
danger in psycho-analysis. Complexes were ac-
knowledged to be harmful and psycho-analysis was
directed towards dissolving them, but in doing so
might there not be risk of dissolving sentiments
which were wholly healthy ?
(3) A discussion between Prof. G. F. Stout and
Prof. Alexander on the nature of sense perception
was preliminary to a more general discussion on a
paper by Prof. A. N. Whitehead, “ The Philosophical
Aspects of the Principle of Relativity.” The
tendency of the new concept was, Dr. Whitehead
said, distinctly to support the line of argument of
those who followed Berkeley, and yet it was wrong
to suppose that Einstein’s principle implied or was
even ultimately consistent with the full idealist
2B2
NATURE
[AUGUST 12, 1922 7am
doctrine. The new law of gravitation quite as fully
as Newton’s law referred to a nature common to
and independent of all individual minds. This was
a necessity if there was to be physical science at all
in any intelligible meaning of the term. The chair-
man, Prof. Wildon Carr, said that the idealistic
interpretation of Finstein’s theory did not imply
that Einstein was an idealist or that any philo-
sophical purpose was involved in his principle.
The value of the new principle in philosophy depended
on the fact that it was purely scientific and brought
forward in the interest of mathematical physics.
What it had done for philosophy was to show con-
clusively that the realist assumption of independent
objective existence was not only unnecessary as a
condition of the possibility of science but was a
positive methodological hindrance.
Concurrently with the philosophical discussions the
psychologists held a meeting in the psychological
laboratory for the reading of papers and demonstra-
tions.
On Saturday the British Psychological Society
held separate meetings in the Medical School of the
University. In the morning, with Prof. T. H. Pear
in the chair, Dr. C. S. Mvers described a number
of experiments upon the various factors involved in
the appreciation of music. He showed how closely
the processes of listening to music may follow those
involved in the response to pure tones, and con-
sidered especially the parts played in the esthetic
enjoyment of music by association, by a process of
“ distancing,”’ and by “ mystical feeling.” Mr. F. C.
Bartlett gave an account of some experiments
leading up to a psychological study of the processes
of conventionalisation; and Mr. R. H. Thouless
discussed the phenomena of contrast in a smoothly
graded disc. It was suggested that McDougall’s
drainage theory could scarcely be accepted as an —
adequate explanation of the contrast effects, a view —
that obtained support in the ensuing discussion. —
In the afternoon the Industrial Section of the Society |
held a meeting. Dr. Leslie Mackenzie presided.
Mr. E. Farmer presented a new method of dealing
with curves of output in factory work, and discussed
the psychological significance of certain curves
representing work in chocolate-packing and glass-
blowing. Prof. A. V. Hill demonstrated his ergo-
meter, and spoke to a large audience on characteristics
of muscular work in the
Jackson read a paper prepared by Mr. S. Wyatt
and himself on the effect of rest pauses upon output
curves.
The Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute.
HE thirty-third Annual Congress of the Royal
Sanitary Institute at Bournemouth, which was
held during the last week in July, displayed the
multifarious character of the work embraced in sani-
tary science or public health. Special sections were
devoted to sanitary science and preventive medicine,
to engineering and architecture, to maternity and
child welfare including school hygiene, to personal
and domestic hygiene; and there were conferences
of veterinary inspectors, health visitors, sanitary in-
spectors, representatives of sanitary authorities, and
medical officers of health.
Major-General J. E. B. Seely’s presidential address
was an able summary of urgent public needs, an
appeal for clean milk and for judicious expenditure
on public health needs including housing, and a
reiteration of the fundamental importance of education
in advancing public health progress.
Sir Arthur Newsholme’s presidential address to
section I dealt with the relative roles of compulsion
and education in public health work. He laid down
the following general principles as justifying com-
pulsion in public health or social work: (1) that the
end aimed at by compulsion must be very important
for the public welfare ; (2) that it cannot be achieved
to an equal extent or within a reasonable time by
educational measures, not including the education
provided by education ; (3) that the compulsion can
be enforced ; and (4) that it is continuously endorsed
by a majority of the community. He gave examples
of the fact that the social history of the 19th century
consists largely in a steady extension of the enforce-
ment of compulsory duties and restrictions in various
aspects of communal life, each of which had been
introduced to secure the larger liberty of the oppressed
and handicapped’ members of the community; and
then proceeded to apply these general principles to
the case of two chronic communicable diseases like
tuberculosis and syphilis, and to alcoholic indulgence.
His general conclusion was that compulsion in these
directions would be effective inversely to the extent
to which it was needed; and that in the ultimate
issue the two ideals of compulsion and of education
of character are not irreconcilable in public health
work. ;
NO. 2754, VOL, 110]
In his address in the maternity and child welfare —
section, Sir George Newman stressed the continuing
but avoidabie loss of maternal and infant life, oc-
curring through ignorance and still more through ~
lack of care, and the still larger suffering and disable-
ment of mothers and infants which might have been
avoided. The fact that 35 per cent. of the children
first admitted to the elementary day schools in-
England are so physically impaired as to need medical
treatment, emphasises the importance of hygienic and
medical care of the mother and of the infant before
school age is reached.
8d. per head is being spent on official services of
maternity and child welfare, while the financial value
of the lives saved by these services exceeds this sum
many times over.
There was a useful discussion on
“e
Fuel in relation
to health ’’ introduced by Prof. J. W. Cobb of Leeds.
University. In his paper Prof. Cobb traced the
history of the stages through which the manufacture
of gas for domestic purposes had passed. The New
Gas Regulation Act had accepted the fact that the
test of intrinsic luminosity was absolute, had per-
mitted the distribution of gas of a lower calorific
value than formerly, and had not laid down any
limitation of the amount of carbon monoxide in gas.
Evidently Prof. Cobb did not regard increase of carbon
monoxide as necessarily increasing danger to the con-
sumer, and he pointed out that although recently
more cases of poisoning by this gas had been recorded,
they could not be due to increase of its proportion,
inasmuch as action in this direction so far had not
been great.
In a paper on smokeless methods in Glasgow housing
schemes Councillor W. B. Smith emphasised the too
little recognised fact that soot from domestic fires is
worse than that from boilers of manufacturing plants,
on account of the excess of tar products, and advo-
cated central provision of hot-water supplies in towns.
Lieut.-Colonel Clemesha described methods of col-
lection and disposal of excreta suitable for small
tropical villages, where, as a rule, there is a total
absence of all sanitary arrangements. This leads
not only to excessive cholera and enteric fever, but
to the widespread dissemination of anchylostomiasis,
te
re
intact organism. Mr, —
—
ee ee
At the present time about — |
AUGUST 12, 1922]
NATURE 233
a parasitic disease, perhaps more destructive of health
and efficiency than either cholera or malaria. It was
necessary that the provision made for such villages
should be primitive in character, and the “ pit latrine”’
was the most satisfactory in most circumstances.
Such latrines obviate the need for any conservancy
staff and they greatly diminish surface contamination
of the ground, and thereby reduce the possibility of
spreading hookworm disease. Many of these simple
arrangements have been in existence for hundreds
of years in countries like Persia, Arabia, and Meso-
potamia, and have given rise to no nuisance, but are
in all respects satisfactory.
A few only of the subjects discussed at this Congress
have been mentioned. The educational value of
such meetings stands high. The Congresses of the
Royal Sanitary Institute are unique in that they
focus the views and wisdom of every profession and
calling bearing on public health whether legal or
medical, engineering or architectural, women workers
voluntary or officials, medical officers of health
or sanitary inspectors, veterinary and medical in-
spectors, representatives of sanitary authorities, and
the workers in voluntary organisations. Out of ex-
change of outlooks from these various angles public
health progress is secured.
Pharmaceutical Education and Research.
T the British Pharmaceutical Conference, held
at Nottingham on July 24-27, the President,
Prof. H. G. Greenish, delivered an address on ‘‘ Phar-
macognosy and the Pharmaceutical Curriculum.”
Pharmacognosy, he said, was a field of knowledge
that the pharmacist was peculiarly fitted to cultivate,
but he would not be able to do so satisfactorily unless
he had received a sound preliminary education and
had been subsequently trained in chemistry, botany,
physics, and elementary zoology. The entrance ex-
amination to pharmacy should, he thought, be raised
to the level of matriculation, and the training in the
sciences upon which pharmacognosy is based should
follow and not precede the practical training in the
pharmacy which is necessary before the student can
present himself for the Qualifying Examination.
Dealing with the course of instruction in botany,
this, he thought, should be adapted to the object
the student had in view, special attention being paid
to anatomy, morphology, physiology, and systematic
botany.
The training in pharmacognosy should be of a
more general and more practical nature than was
at present often the case, and should include the
determination of diagnostic characters by means of
the lens or the microscope or by qualitative chemical
tests as might be requisite. In this respect a detailed
syllabus was a disadvantage, as it restricted the
freedom of thought and the development of a spirit
of inquiry which was essential to true progress. In
the advanced course of instruction and in the major
examination more stress should be laid upon the
identification of powdered drugs, the analysis of
mixed powders, and the assay of drugs by chemical
methods. Opportunity for post-graduate work was
very necessary and every possible inducement should !
be offered to the student to undertake it. The
Universities of Manchester and Glasgow had made
arrangements for pharmaceutical subjects to form
part of the examination for the degree of Bachelor
of Science, and if the University of London could
be induced to make a similar arrangement a consider-
able step forward would be made.
The student who had attended advanced courses
of instruction in the selected subjects would then be
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
in a position to take the degree of B.Sc. From this
he could proceed without difficulty to the degree of
doctor of philosophy, the requirement of the Uni-
versity of London being broadly two further academic
years of study, including the presentation of a thesis
on an approved subject. The work for the thesis
could be carried out in an institution such as the
research laboratories of the Pharmaceutical Society
under teachers recognised by the University. The
field of pharmacognosy is so wide, and the problems
that await solution are so diversified in their nature,
that no difficulty would be encountered in selecting
subjects suited to the varied abilities of the students.
Great assistance would be rendered in this work by
the establishment of an experimental station similar
to the Pharmaceutical Experimental Station of the
University of Wisconsin at which the material ne-
cessary for investigation could be grown and experi-
ments carried out. Possibly such a station could be
established in connexion with one of the agricultural
colleges.
The determination of the Pharmaceutical Society
to foster its scientific work more in the future than
it has done in the immediate past was one of the
most hopeful signs for the future of pharmacy, and
the society, by developing the work which pharmacists
were specially trained to do, would go far to estab-
lishing its position as a learned society. The president
concluded by saying that there might be obstacles to
be surmounted, misunderstandings to dispel, and
prejudices to be overcome, but the spirit of the pioneers
of scientific pharmacy existed to-day and, though
latent, was strong. The society should set its educa-
tional policy in the direction indicated by the wisdom
of its founders and foster the love of the calling
which distinguished its early years. So alone would
pharmacy ensure for itself the appreciation of a nation.
University and Educational Intelligence.
Lonpon.—Dr. George Senter, principal and head
of the department of chemistry, Birkbeck College,
has been selected by the University of London
Graduates’ Association as candidate for the vacancy
in the representation of science graduates on the
Senate of the University, caused by the election of
Dr. Walmsley to the chairmanship of convocation.
Dr. Senter was formerly a member of the Senate,
and has for many years taken an active part in
University affairs.
Dr. WALTER RITCHIE, assistant lecturer in biology
in the University College, Aberystwyth, has been
appointed assistant lecturer in biology at the Tech-
nical College, Bradford, in succession to Mr. L.
P. W. Renouf, who resigned his appointment on his
election to the professorship of zoology in the Uni-
versity of Cork.
In accordance with the terms of the will of the
late Sir Archibald Dawnay, the Royal Institute of
British Architects has awarded, for the first time,
two scholarships, each of 50/. per annum for two
years, to Mr. E. U. Channon, Architectural Associa-
tion, and Mr. D. J. A. Ross, Robert Gordon’s Tech-
nical College, Aberdeen ; and one scholarship of 25/.
per annum, for two years, to Mr. C. S. White, Archi-
tectural Association. The scholarships are intended
to foster the advanced study of construction and the
improvement generally of constructional methods and
materials and their influence on design.
234
NATURE
[AucusT 12, 1922
THE British Research Association for the Woollen |
and Worsted Industries announce the following
awards of research fellowships and advanced scholar-
ships for the year 1922-23: Mr. G. W. Chester,
Liverpool, 200/. to conduct research on wool fats at
the University of Manchester; Mr. John L. Raynes,
Nottingham, rool. to conduct research on the bleach-
ing of wool at the University College of Nottingham ;
Mr. George Barker, Baildon, rool. to conduct research
on the action of water on wool as regards strength,
elasticity, lustre, dyeing properties, etc., at the
University of Leeds. Scholarships have been granted
to Mr. Arthur Banks, Sutton Mill, Keighley, tenable
at Bradford Technical College ; and Mr. William B.
Elliot, Wellington Road, Hawick, tenable at the
South of Scotland Central Technical College, Gala-
shiels.
THE Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries an-
nounces that scholarships in higher agricultural educa-
tion are offered to the sons and daughters of small-
holders and agricultural and other rural workers.
The scholarships are of three types: Class I. enabling
the holder to attend the degree courses in agriculture
at certain University departments (including the
Schoo] of Rural Economy, Oxford, and the School of
Agriculture, Cambridge) ; Class II., tenable for two
years at certain University departments of agriculture
and agricultural colleges; and Class III., tenable for
one year or less, at a farm institute or similar institu-
tion. Candidates for Class I. and Class II. scholar-
ships must be at least 17 years of age, and must show
that they have sufficient ability to pass the entrance
examination of the Institution at which the scholar-
ship will be tenable ; for Class III. awards, candidates
must be more than 16 years of age and have spent
at least a year on a farm or in a_ horticultural
establishment. Applications should reach the Secre-
tary, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, to White-
hall Place, London, S.W.1, not later than August 31.
Tue United States National Research Council has
made an attempt to ascertain by statistics the relative
support given to the arts and the sciences through
fellowships and scholarships in the graduate schools
of American universities. The result (Reprint and
Circular series No. 29, 1922) points to the conclusion
that the arts are in this respect more favoured than
the sciences. Of 3377 fellowships and scholarships
awarded during five years in the graduate schools
of arts and sciences of twelve leading universities,
1892 were in arts subjects, 1289 in pure science, and
196 in applied science. The arts subjects were
chiefly : English and modern languages (615), history
(328), ancient languages (250), philosophy (198),
economics (171), political science (153); the pure
sciences—biology (400), chemistry (365), physics (152),
mathematics (145), geology (104) ; applied sciences—
engineering (105), agriculture (58). The figures do
not, however, in any way indicate the extent to
which applied sciences are encouraged in the univer-
sities, because they do not include the fellowships
awarded in the professional schools. A comparison
of the number of fellowships awarded with the number
of doctorates conferred year by year in the natural
sciences discloses in some cases a close parallelism
between the two sets of figures; thus in California the
numbers of fellowships and doctorates respectively
in the five years 1916-17 to 1920-21 were: 23, 23;
16, 16; 15,16; 21, 14; 25,22; and in Stanford in
LOLSSLO) LO OZO—2I 2 Die Anne ES The total
number of such fellowships in the natural sciences in
the twelve universities during five years was 290, and
the number of doctorates 248.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
August 13, 1867. James Shanks died.—Trained
at Glasgow University, Shanks abandoned medicine
for practical chemistry and in 1836 wds employed
by Gossage in the erection of his condensing towers.
He then became connected with the firm of Joseph
Crosfield and Sons, Ltd., at St. Helens; among the
notable improvements he made being the introduction
of the “ Shanks’ Vats’’ used for the lixiviation of
black-ash in the production of alkali.
August 14, 1909. William Ford Stanley died.—A
native of Buntingford, Hertfordshire, where he was
born in 1829, Stanley was trained in mechanics by
his father, and in 1854 founded the well-known firm
of scientific instrument makers. Besides effecting
improvements in the design and manufacture of
drawing and surveying instruments, he published
standard works on their use and was a versatile writer
on various scientific subjects. He was also an
enthusiastic promoter of trade schools.
August 15, 1913. James Robson died.—Known
for his pioneering work on the gas engine, Robson,
who was born in South Shields in 1833, began life
as an ironmonger and plumber. Turning his attention
in 1855 to the internal combustion engine he built
several successful gas engines, and in 1877 took out
a patent for a two-stroke engine in which all the
pumping and motor actions are performed by one
piston in a single cylinder. Robson’s first engine on
the two-cycle plan was built at North Shields in
1879, and shortly afterwards their manufacture was
taken up by Tangye’s of Birmingham.
August 16, 1818. Jacques Constantin Périer died.—
An able mechanician, Périer founded an engineering
works, introduced steam-pumps and hydraulic presses
into France, and became a builder of steam-engines.
He also invented a centrifugal pump, and drew up
a plan for the distribution of the water of the Seine
throughout Paris. He published various scientific
memoirs, and from 1784 was a member of the Paris
Academy of Sciences.
August 17, 1809. Matthew Boulton died.—The
founder in 1762 of the Soho Manufactory at Bir-
mingham, Boulton was a successful toy and trinket
maker. His friendship with Watt led in 1775 to the
famous partnership which made the Soho works
known throughout the industrial world. It was there
that the modern steam-engine may be said to have
had its birth, and much of the success achieved
was due to Boulton’s energy and business acumen.
Boulton himself made many improvements in the
art of coining.
August 18, 1874. Sir William Fairbairn died—A
great mechanical engineer, Fairbairn as a journeyman-
mechanic gained experience in various parts of the
country, and in 1817 set up in business in Manchester.
He introduced many improvements in millwork, was
a pioneer in iron shipbuilding, with Robert Stephenson
built the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits,
and made original investigations into the strength of
materials, the properties of steam, and other subjects.
August 19, 1808. Frederic Henry Chapman died.—
Recognised as the foremost naval constructor of his
day, Chapman was born at Géteburg in 1721. As
a young man he worked in London, and after visiting
France became a constructor in the Swedish Service,
and towards the end of his career invented the para-
bolic system of construction. His principal writings
were his ‘‘ Architectura Navalis Mercatoria ’’ pub-
lished in 1768 and a work on Ships of War published
in 1775. E.C. 3S:
AUGUST 12, 1922]
Societies and Academies.
EDINBURGH.
Royal Meteorological Society, July 24.—Dr. C.
Chree, president, in the chair—C. K. M. Douglas:
Observations of upper cloud drift as an aid to
research and to weather forecasting. The condition
of the wind near the top of the troposphere in different
stages of a cyclone is discussed. The pressure
distributions aloft, disclosed by the upper winds,
are considered in relation to temperature, as the
pressure at considerable heights is largely determined
by the temperature of the column of air underneath.
There is complete lack of symmetry in the tempera-
ture distribution over a cyclone in its earlier stage,
with a great contrast in the temperature of the whole
troposphere between the “ polar’ and “ equatorial ”’
currents. When the cyclone becomes stationary
and fills up, the distribution of temperature and wind
in the upper air approaches to symmetry round the
centre, and the easterly current on the north side
often extends throughout the troposphere. No
simple rules for weather forecasting can be drawn
up, as the changes in the wind at considerable
heights follow rather than precede those near the
surface, but observations of high cloud motion are
valuable, for they indicate the temperature dis-
tribution in the troposphere.—J. S. Dines: Note on
the effect of a coast line on precipitation. A con-
vergence effect occurs over a coast line when the
wind blows along the coast, the low pressure being
over the sea and the high pressure over the land ;
this may cause precipitation. Under favourable
conditions an upward. current of 15 feet per minute
may be produced over a strip of the earth’s surface
extending 5 miles on each side of the coast line. A
similar effect occurs wherever the pressure gradient
varies along a line perpendicular to the isobars,
and the following rule is deduced :
where the pressure gradient increases towards the
‘High’ there will be rising air.”—A. E. M. Geddes
and C. A. Clarke: Note on turbulence, as exhibited
by anemometer records, smoke and cloud formation.
The effect of eddy motion is shown near the surface
by the records from a pressure tube anemometer.
The turbulence and consequent eddy motion depend
largely on the nature of the surface over which the
air current is travelling. Eddies higher up are
shown by smoke from tall chimneys. Higher up,
cloud of the stratus order is formed. Smoke eddies
and clouds occur when there is little or no convection
due to heated air, and therefore their appearance
and formation is evidently in accordance with
Taylor’s theory of eddy motion. Eddies occur at
the junction of two currents of different temperature,
(and fragments of cloud form below the base of the
line squall or similar cloud. Cloud intermediate
between the normal cirrus and cirro-cumulus types
undergoes changes which are at present unexplained.
The change of the cirro-cumulus type, regarded as a
water-droplet cloud, into the ice-crystal structure
of true cirrus is only to be expected at high
altitudes and consequently generally very low
_temperatures, but the reverse process occurs fre-
quently.
ParRIs.
Academy of Sciences, July 10.—M. Emile Bertin in
the chair.—Paul Janet: The standard reproduction
of the internationalohm. An account of the prepara-
)tion of eight standard mercury ohms by the late M.
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
“Tn any area.
NATURE 35
René Benoit. The differences between the values
measured by electrical methods and the values
deduced from the geometrical dimensions did not
amount to more than a few hundred-thousandths.
The mean of the absolute values of the deviations was
I:-9xX 10---_E, Cartan: A fundamental theorem of
H. Weyl in the theory of metric space.—A. Chatelet :
Finite Abelian groups.—J. Guillaume: Observations
of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during
the first quarter of 1922. Observations were possible
on 74 days during the quarter; the results are sum-
marised in three tables showing number and area of
spots, their distribution in latitude and the distribu-
tion of the facule in latitude——G. Sagnac: The
oscillations of the spectral lines of double stars
explained by the new law of projection of energy of
light—E. M. Lémeray: General relativity and the
Milky Way.—R. Jouast : Comparisons of the standard
reproductions of the international ohms. The stand-
ards constructed by the late M. René Benoit were
compared by Kelvin’s double-bridge method. Of the
ten originally constructed one was rejected owing to
an accident in mounting, and another had also to be
rejected on account of an apparent discontinuity in
the tube. Details of the measurements are given.
The values range between 0:99984 ohm and 1:00015
ohm.—vVasilesco Karper: A particular class of
batteries. A voltaic cell is formed by a mixture of
amyl alcohol and water containing zinc sulphate in
solution. This separates into two phases, the upper
being amyl alcohol, the lower an aqueous solution of
zinc sulphate. With zinc electrodes this cell gives an
E.M.F. of 0-7 volt. The results obtained with this
and similar cells are not in accord with Nernst’s
osmotic theory of cells, and appear to contradict the
second law of thermo-dynamics.—P. Janet: Remarks
on the preceding communication. It is necessary to
prove rigorously that the cycle formed by the sub-
stances present constitutes a closed cycle.—Albert
Granger: Observations on the baking of ceramic
products in electrically heated furnaces. With
platinum-wound furnaces the highest temperature
attainable with safety is about 1300° C. For higher
temperatures a granulated carbon resistance is neces-
sary. A grey tint on the porcelain made in this
furnace was proved to be due to the action of carbon
monoxide passing through the wall of the tube
(corundum mixed with a refractory clay).—R.
Locquin and Sung Wouseng: Aldehydes obtained
starting with tertiary alcohols.—F. Boiry : Vulcanis-
ing rubber in solution. A study of the interaction of
indiarubber in colloidal solution and sulphur with
different solvents at high temperatures (over 120° C.).
With phenetol as solvent the compound produced
contained 31:5 per cent. of sulphur, approximately
corresponding to C,H,.S, (32 per cent. sulphur),
which may be considered as the ultimate product of
vulcanisation.—Hervé de Pommereau : The reduction
of ethyl a-naphthylacetate and of the a-naphthyl-
ethanols by sodium and_ absolute alcohol.— Emile
André: Contribution to the study of grape seed oil.
Study of the solid fatty acids. Method of separating
stearic and palmitic acids——A. Duffour: A new
example of hemihedral forms not conforming to the
sign of optical activity——Gabriel Bertrand and
Mokragnatz: The presence of cobalt and nickel in
arable soil. The method of extracting these metals
from the soil and identifying them is given in detail.
A specimen of garden soil (Pasteur Institute) has
given 0:0037 grm. cobalt and 00174 grm. nickel per
kilogram of soil.—I. Athanasiu: Nervous motive
energy. Electroneurograms.—A. Desgrez, H. Bierry,
and F. Rathery: The state of acidosis. Method
of proof and treatment.
236
NATURE
CAPE Town.
Royal Society of South Africa, June 21.—Dr. C. F.
Juritz in the chair—S. H. Haughton: On some
upper Beaufort Therapsida. A new genus of
Cynodont reptile, Cynidiognathus, for the species
C. longiceps based on a skull from the Burghersdorp
Beds is described. Its dental formula is i4cImto.
There are well-marked palatine processes of the
premaxille, no prevomers, and the epipterygoid is
retracted from the quadrate. A skull thought to
be Cynognathus berryi is assigned to the new genus
under the name of C. broomi. The palate and basi-
cranium of A®lurosuchus is discussed; the genus
belongs to the Bauriamorpha.—T. J. Mackie:
Observations on the protective action of normal
serum in experimental infection with Bacillus
diphthevri@. In guinea-pigs experimentally infected
with B. diphtherie, normal serum from various
animals, injected subcutaneously at the same time
as the inoculation, exerts a definite protective action.
No protection occurs if the serum injection is delayed
for 2 hours after the inoculation—the effect is pro-
phylactic, not curative. The activity of the serum
persists at 57° C., but is lost at 70° C. and higher.
Serum from one guinea-pig injected subcutaneously
into another is fully protective or exerts a delaying
effect ; it is noteworthy that serum of an individual
of species highly susceptible to experimental B.
diphtherie infection should be capable of affording
some protection when injected parenterally into
another animal of the same species infected with the
particular organism. Normal horse serum is also
protective in guinea-pigs injected with diphtheria
toxin.—W. A. Jolly: Note on the electrogram of
the frog’s gastrocnemius reflexly excited. Records
of the electrical change in the gastrocnemius when
contraction is elicited reflexly by mechanical stimula-
tion of the heteronymous foot, show that the response
of the muscle is of the nature of a tetanus.—J. S.
van der Lingen: Note on a cystoscopic irradiator
and an ultra-violet light illuminator. The illuminator
consists of a lens-system, of two quartz lenses and
an iris diaphragm, whereby a field may be illuminated
with any desired group of ultra-violet waves. One
irradiator takes the form of a quartz-rod or tube
shaped like a cystoscope, and the illuminator, by
which rays are passed into the organs to be illuminated.
The rays pass out only at the spherical tip. The
other form consists of an exhausted tube bent into
the form of a cystoscope, with a bulb at the external
end containing a small quantity of mercury. Carbon-
monoxide is introduced into the tube by heating,
and this causes the mercury to radiate at a low
temperature, when a high-frequency field oscillates
in a helix placed over the external end of the tube.
SYDNEY.
Linnean Society of New South Wales, May 31.—
Mr. G. A. Waterhouse, president, in the chair.—G.
D. Osborne: The geology and petrography of the
Clarencetown-Paterson district. Pt.1. The descrip-
tions are based upon an exhaustive survey of about
200 sq. miles containing rocks of the Burindi Series,
Kuttung Series and the Cainozoic System. It is
suggested that the Kuttung Series be divided into a
basal stage, a volcanic stage, and a glacial stage in con-
sequence of modifications found in the general sequence,
the most important of whichis the discovery of glacially-
produced rocks on a much lower stratigraphic level
than hitherto recognised. Five detailed sections of
the volcanic stage are described. The work confirms
NO. 2754, VOL. 110]
[AUGUST 12, 1922
the broad stratigraphical succession as given by C. A.
Sussmilch.—G, F. Hill: Descriptions and biology of
some North Australian termites. Four new species
and two hitherto undescribed castes of the genera
Eutermes and Hamitermes are described.—J. B.
Cleland: A second bird census.—A census of the
numbers of species and individuals observed on a
series of journeys in various districts. The districts
covered are southern coastal Queensland, Blue Mts.,
N.S.W., South Western Plains, N.S.W., Adelaide
and Renmark Districts, S.A., and the Centtal Northe '
District, S.A.
Royal Society of New South Wales, June 7.—Mr
C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chair.—A. R
Penfold: The isolation and identification of the aci
bodies produced by the oxidation of piperitone b
means of potassium permanganate. The keton
used was from Eucalyptus dives, and three acids wer
identifiled—M. Henry: The incidence of anthra
in stock in Australia. Introduced originally abow
eighty years ago, anthrax attained serious proportio’
in certain districts, but during the last thirty years
there has been a decline in the area infected. Th
disease has always been definitely localised. It wi
introduced near Sydney and carried inland and int
Victoria but then disappeared from its original areas
At present most of the coastal districts, the table
lands and the Western Division of New South Wales
are anthrax free. The real anthrax country consists |
of a belt in the western slopes ; in Victoria there i
a similar belt. Queensland is free, and possibly w
never affected, and in the rest of Australia th
disease is negligible. The season of greatest dange
from anthrax is the summer and early autum
The mortality from it is not heavy. There is a
inhibitive factor which has prevented anthrax
becoming more widespread. Among human agencie:
the controlling factors have been vaccination
quarantine, destruction of carcases by fire, breakin
up of large estates, and substitution of agricultural
for pastoral activities. Contaminated coil is generally
the source of infection ; infected feeding-stuffs, the
common source of infection in England, do not
operate.—E. Cheel: (1) Notes on the species of
Darwinia Homoranthus, and Rylstonea in the stat
of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia an
Queensland. The plants are known as “ Fring
Myrtles ’’ or ‘“‘ Scent Myrtles,’’ and are said to be o
importance on account of the essential oil containe
in the leaves. The plants known as Darwini
taxifolia are very variable and great care is necessa
in the selection of material if pure grades of oil are
required. Plants originally collected at Rylston
and given the name Rylstonea are probably for
of Verticordia daywinioides. (2) Notes on Melaleucet
linariifolia and Melaleuca trichostachya. These specie!
are commonly known as “ Tea Tree ’’ and “‘ Tee-doo
respectively, and are also said to be of importance
on account of the essential oil contained in th
leaves
Official Publications Received.
Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. Report on
the Agricultural Department, St. Kitts-Nevis, 1920-1921. Pp. iv+33.
(Barbados.) 6d.
:
Department of Agriculture, Trinidad and Tobago. Administration
Report of the Director of Agriculture for the year 1921. Pp. 12.
(Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.) 6d.
On the State of the Public Health: Annual Report of the Chief
Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health'for the year 1921. Pp. 116. .
(London: H.M. Stationery Office.) 1s. 6d. net.
iin ae ams
ns.
\\
ay
eV ice vec Sika» = }OURNAI © SCIR NCE
** To the solid ground
Ch N ature trusts the mind which builds Sor ee aw ORDSWORTH.
No. 2755, “VOL. 110] _ SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, “1922 [PRICE ONE SHILLING
; ~ Registered as a Newspaper at the General Pc ost Offic e.] = ne =a = de All Rig ghts RecenTed ne
BALANCES & WEIGHTS | REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltp.
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Ivili NATURE
[AucusT 19, 1922
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
Academical Year, 1922-1923.
FACULTIES OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE.
Winter Session commences on Wednesday, Oc SLED II, 1922, and closes
on Friday, March 16, 192
Summer Session commences on Monday, April: 23; 1923, and closes on
Friday, June 29, 1923.
The Preliminary Examinations will commence on
Friday, September 15, 1922, and Friday, March 9, 1923.
FACULTY OF SCIENCE.
The Faculty of Science embraces 8 chairs besides Lecturers by whom
instruction is given in all the main departments of the Science School.
PROFESSORS.
iral Philosophy
siclogy
Anatomy
Natural History
Mathematics
Agricuiture
Chemistry
Botany
Geology
John Alex. MacWilliam, M.D., F.R.S.
Robert William Reid, M.D., F.R.C.S.
John Arthur Thomson, M.A. >
Hector Munro Macdonald, O.B.
James Hendrick, B.Sc.
Alexander Findlay, M.A., D.Sc.
William Grant Craib, M.A,
Alfred Wm. Gibb, M.A., D.
LECTURERS.
William Brown, M.R.C.V.S.,
Thos. A. W. Fulton, M.D.
Vacant.
Veterinary Hygiene F.R.P.S.
Fisheries
Engineering
Forestry Peter Leslie, M.A., B.Sc., B.Sc. (Agr.).
Agriculture Win, J. Profeit, M.A., B.Sc. (Agr.).
Parasitology John Rennie, D.Sc.
Porest Botany and
Forest Zoology Alex. S. W:
rees conferred by the Univ
Bachelor of Science in Pure Science (E ays
Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.Sc. Agr.).
Bachelor of Science in Forestry (B.Sc. For.).
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.).
Diplomas in Agriculture and Forestry are also granted,
The Inclusive Fee for instruction for the B.Sc. in Pure Science is 90
Guineas, payable in three annual instalments of 30 Guineas.
The Degree Fee is 9 Guineas, payable 4 Guineas for the first examination
and 5 Guineas for the second examination.
Practical work in agriculture is carried out in conjunction with the North
of Scotland College of Agriculture, which has a demonstration estate a few
miles out of Aberdeen.
A number,of Bursaries and Scholarships are awarded in Pure Science and
in Agriculture.
Field Work
M.A., B.Sc. (Agr.).
\FACULTY OF MEDICINE.
The Faculty of Medicine embraces 12 Chairs.
Instruction in special departments of Medical practice is given by Lec-
turers appointed by the University Court.
Clinical instruction is obtained in various Hospitals and Institutions in
Aberdeen.
The Degrees in Medicine granted by the University are :—
Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (M.B. & Ch.B.).
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
Master of Surgery (Ch.M. ).
A Diploma in Public Health is conferred after examination on graduates
in Medicine of any University in the United Kingdom.
The total cost of the whole curriculum for the Degree of M.B., Ch.B.,
including Hospital Fees, Matriculation Fees and Degree Fees, is approxi-
mately about £248,
The University also grants Degrees in Arts, Law, Divinity, Education
and Commerce.
Further particulars may be had on application to the SECRETARY of the
University, Marischal College, Aberdeen.
H. J. BUTCHART, Secretary.
TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRADFORD.
DAY COURSES.
Full-time (Day) Courses, extending over three or four years, and leading
to the Diploma of the College, are arranged in the following departments :—
TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,
CHEMISTRY. CIVIL ENGINEERING.
DYEING. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.
BIOLOGY.
Special facilities are available for Advanced Study and Research.
EVENING COURSES.
Part-time (Evening) Courses are also arranged, on the successful com-
pletion of which students are awarded Senior and Advanced Course Certifi-
cates.
Further particulars and prospectuses may be obtained on application to
THE Principat, TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRADFORD.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
FACULTIES.
Science: Subjects—Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany,
Geology, Engineering (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical), Metallurgy,
Mining (Coal, Metal, Petroleum), Bio- Chemistry of Fermentation,
Arts: Subjects—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish,
Russian, Philosophy, History, Music.
Medicine: All subjects leading to Degrees and Diplomas in Medicine and
Dentistry.
Commerce: Subjects leading to Degrees in Commerce.
Department of Training for Teachers.
Department of Social Study.
Department of Malting and Brewing.
THE SESSION 1922-23 COMMENCES ON
OCTOBER 2, 1922.
ALL COURSES AND DEGREES ARE OPEN TO BOTH
MEN AND WOMEN STUDENTS.
In the Medical School Courses of Instruction are arranged to meet the
requirements of other Universities and Licensing Bodies.
Graduates, or persons who have passed Degree Examinations of other
Universities, may, after one year’s study or research, take a Master's
Degree.
Separate Syllabuses with full information as to Lecture and Laboratory
Courses, Fees, Regulations for Degrees, Diplomas, &c., Exhibitions, and
Scholarships, are published as follows :
1. Faculty of Science.
Faculty of Arts.
Faculty of Medicine.
Faculty of Commerce.
Department of Social Study.
6. Department of Biology and Chemistry of Fermentation.
7. Exhibitions, Scholarships, &c.,
and will be sent on, application to the REGISTRAR.
awn
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
KING’S COLLEGE.
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING.
Complete COURSES of STUDY, extending over either three or four
years, are arranged in
CIVIL, MECHANICAL, AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
for the Engineering Degrees of the University of London, and for the
Diploma and Certificate of the College.
The four years’ Course provides, in addition to the academic training,
opportunity for practical training in “‘ Works.”
HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS.
Professor G. COOK, D.Se., A.M.Inst.C.E., A.M.I.Mech.E., Mechanical
Engineering.
Professor A. H. JAMESON, M.Sc., M.Inst.C.E., Civil Engineering.
Professor E. WILSON, 'M.Inst.C.E., M.I.E.E. (Dean), Electrical
Engineering. UN
Professor S. A. F WHITE,
Professor G. B. JEFFERY, M.A, D.Sc. | Manette ‘
Bee CAMUEL SMILES, O.B. Ey DScy F E.R.S. nies
Professor A. J. ALLMAND, M.C., F.1.C. | Chemistry.
Professor O. W. RIC HARDSON, °D, 8 «.R Se Physics.
Professor W. an, GORDON, D.Sce., F.R. 5. E., Geology.
Considerable extensions have been made in the Engineering Department,
These include a large additional Drawing-Office, Lecture-Room, and Labora-
tory for Hydraulics and Strength of Materials in the Civil and Mechanical
Departments ; and Research Rooms, including Wireless Telegraphy, in the
Electrical Engineering Department. Large additions have been made to
the equipment of the Laboratories in the three Departments for purposes of
Tea aching, and Research.
There is a College Hostel and a large Athletic ground.
For full information apply to THe Secretary, King’s College, Strand
W.C.2.
CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE,
WHITE STREET, AND ROPEMAKER STREET,
MOORFIELDS, E.C.2.
Department of Commercial Products.—Mr. S. J. DULY, M.A.
EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY and products, including
cereals, iron and steel, oil seeds, textiles and timber, suitable for those
engaged i in houses dealing i in these products. Particulars on application to
DavibD SavaGE, Secretary.
INMATE RF 237
SATURDAY, AUGUST 109, 1922
CONTENTS.
Radio Broadcasting in Great Britain :
University Education in London. By T. LI. H.
Antarctic Foraminifera. By G. H. C. :
Water Underground. By Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole,
F.R.S 5
Statics, Benennice, =a Hydrodynamics.
Sh Brodetsky : é :
Our Bookshelf
Letters to the Editor :—
The Acoustics of Enclosed Spaces. — Sir Arthur
Schuster, F.R.S. :
Some Spectrum Lines of Neutral ‘Helium derived
theoretically. —Dr. Ludwik Silberstein
The Primitive Crust of the Earth.—Prof. Grenville
A. J. Cole, F.R.S. :
Peculiarities of the Electric Discharge in “Oxy gen. —
Rev. Dr. P. J. Kirkby. :
Defoliation of Oaks.—E. W. Swanton . ;
Scorpionsand their Venom. —Major C. E. F. Mouat-
y Dr,
Biggs : ;
Bloomsbury.—Dr. A. Morley Davies ; sth s8
Humberstone
Absorption of Potassium V: apour in the. Associated
Series. —Prof. A. L. Narayana and D. Gunnaiya
A Recording and Integrating Gas Calorimeter.
((Mustrated.) By Dr. J. S. G. Thomas
The Earth’s ‘Crust’ and its Composition.
Thomas Crook. fi
Centenary of the Death of William Eecchel
Obituary :—
Dr. Arthur Ransome, F.R.S.
Prof. Gisbert Kapp. By A. R.
Mrs. J. A. Owen Visger_ .
Prof. H. Battermann. By A. C ‘'D. G
Current Topics and Events .
Our Astronomical Column
Research Items :
The Hull Meeting of the British esacetion= g Bibs
grammes of the Sections
The Imperial Cancer Research Bund:
European Fish in New Zealand Waters
University and Educational Intelligence .
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies
Official Publications Received .
By
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Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address:
Telephone Number :
PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
Radio Broadcasting in Great Britain.
HE delay which has arisen in connexion with the
inauguration of the proposed provision of a
comprehensive radio broadcasting scheme in the British
Isles has caused questions affecting the policy the
| Government should pursue in relation to broadcasting
to be widely ventilated, at the same time,
directed atiention to the great variety of interests that
are involved in this matter.
and has,
In view of the immense
importance of radio-telezraphy to-day in connexion
with measures affecting national defence, and of the fact
that this means of communication is easily susceptible
of from
those of wilful design,
interference accidental as well as
it is the duty of the Govern-
ment to ensure that the
care shall be
Causes
radio interests in its own
properly the
situation which has come into existence in the wireless
field.
Hitherto the authority and powers under which the
Government has exercised control in relation to radio-
safeguarded in new
| telegraphy are those which it has derived under the
Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1904 (4 Ed. 7, c. 24)—herein-
after referred to as the principal Act—a temporary Act
which was placed on our Statute Roll a very few years
after the practical utility of radio-telegraphy was first
demonstrated, and has since been re-enacted in its
With the
progress of time the need for governmental control in
this field has in no way abated.
about the same time that broadcasting first prominently
original form from time to time as required.
Early in this year,
attracted public attention, the Government took steps
to strengthen its position by introducing the Wireless
Telegraphy and Signalling Bill (12 & 13 Geo. 5—No.
148) in the House of Commons: therein provision is
included for placing the principal Act permanently on
the Statute Roll and, at the same time, for
enlarging the powers hitherto enjoyed by the Postmaster
General.
will undoubtedly possess extremely
probably not larger than are required to enable it
greatly
Under these new provisions the Government
large powers, but
effectively to cope, in the general interest of the public,
with the wireless sit Tt is un-
tuation in this country.
fortunate, then, that a suspicion should have arisen in
some quarters that the new powers may possibly be
misused by the Government in their application to
broadcasting : particularly is this so as many conflicting
interests are involved in connexion with the putting
into operation of broadcasting services, and there-
fore, in pursuing its policy, the Government needs
to secure the fullest confidence of the several groups
affected.
Indications have
already been given as to the policy
238
NATURE
[AuGUST 19, 1922
which the Government intends to follow with regard to
certain aspects of broadcasting. The decision of the
Government to leave this branch of wireless activity in
the hands of private enterprise to develop, has been
widely welcomed : however, fears have been expressed
lest, in giving effect to its policy under a licensing
system, the Government may allow industrial
monopoly to grow up. It has to be borne in mind that
the situation under discussion is altogether an ex-
ceptional one, and that although a complete monopoly
cannot be tolerated, on the other hand, as is the case
with ordinary telegraphy and telephony, and, indeed,
with many other public utility services, so in the case
of radio broadcasting, the field is not one which lends
itself to unlimited competition ; for, on purely tech-
nical grounds, a limitation has to be placed on the liberty
of free competition in those cases where the radiation
through space of electro-magnetic waves for signalling
purposes is involved.
This latter point requires to be emphasised, as a pro-
posal has been seriously put forward that, in spite of
the grave risks of mutual interference incurred thereby,
full liberty of action should be permitted to those whose
an
wish it is to develop and trade in radio broadcasting,
rather than that a complicated system of licences and
supervision should be introduced. But full liberty of
action is not feasible here : radio broadcasting cannot,
on the transmission side, be conducted untrammelled
by bureaucratic restrictions. The removal of such
restrictions would not only defeat the aims of those who
are seeking to establish useful, efficient and continuous
broadcasting services in the British Isles, but would also,
at the same time, put in serious jeopardy the radio
communication services established in connexion with
our national defence arrangements, as also the com-
mercial services already in existence. For practical
reasons, it is found necessary to lay down a definite
upper limit to the number of radio transmitting stations
which may be erected within a particular region. In
the British Isles, the number of radio services of the
several kinds connected with the fighting services
and required for commercial purposes are already
so great, that a central governmental authority
has had to be created in order effectively to regulate
the situation: it determines and allocates the radio
wave-lengths that shall be utilised for particular
purposes.
It is on the advice of this authority that the Govern-
ment will, so far as the technical aspects of the situation
are concerned, be obliged to act. In the matter of
competition there are, of course, apart from the
technical considerations referred to, financial aspects
also which have to be brought under review. Normally
it certainly is not the function of the Government to
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
attempt to control the financial side of a private enter-
prise. However, so far as broadcasting is concerned,
the Government is committed, nolens volens, to a certain
measure of control of the organisations about to be
licensed for this purpose ; therefore, so long as every-
thing is done to allow of the fullest amount of competi-
tion permissible in this field at the present time, and to
admit of an increase of this competition in the future
should technical and other considerations permit this
safely to be done, it would not be unreasonable, at the
present juncture, for the Government to exercise such
further control as may be required to prevent anything
being done the inevitable result of which would be the
almost immediate destruction of a part of the capital
of the investing public. On the other hand, by playing
a part, as is proposed to be done by the Postmaster
General, in the framing of the articles of association of
the companies which it is intended to license for pro-
viding broadcasting services, the Government is likely,
at some future date, to be deprived, wholly or partially,
of its liberty to modify its policy in relation to com- —
petition should this be feasible, and desirable in the
public interest, and it may thus lay itself open later to
the charge of having allowed a monopoly to come into
existence. It is at this stage that care should be taken
by the Government to guard against entanglements
which may afterwards prove embarrassing.
In the case of receiving apparatus the technical
situation is relatively a simple one, and there is every
reason for permitting the fullest competition in dealings
connected therewith. It is desirable, therefore, that
individuals wishing to possess such apparatus should
have the greatest latitude allowed them in procuring
what they want. Announcements have appeared that
the types of apparatus to be used in connexion with —
broadcasting must conform to certain technical standards
approved by the Post Office : if this merely means that
the Post Office will issue a general specification, no
objection can be taken. However, if it is intended that
manufacturers must submit to the Post Office for its
approval the designs of the apparatus they propose to
put on the market for broadcasting, a serious mistake is
being made alike from the manufacturers’ point of view
as of that of the Post Office, which will thus be saddling
itself with a responsibility that it should seek to avoid.
In the interests of all parties, it would seem best that
the sale and purchase of wireless receiving apparatus
should be carried on in these islands on the customary
commercial lines free from restrictions of all kinds. It
follows, therefore, that whoever may so desire should
be permitted to make use in his or her broadcasting
receiving installation of any home-made apparatus,
provided that the same complies with the general
technical requirements laid down officially.
Aucust 19, 1922]
NWNALORE
239
Tt has been announced that the Postmaster-General
is in favour of subsidising the organisations which are to
be licensed for broadcasting purposes out of fees to be
collected on the licences issued in connexion with wire-
less receiving stations. The situation is one which
requires to be carefully handled, if mischief is not to be
done. The authority given to the Postmaster-General
to grant and renew licences in connexion with radio
receiving apparatus exists primarily, not for revenue-
raising purposes, but for that of effecting the registra-
tion of wireless installations of every kind ; a step which
is necessary as a measure of police precaution and also
for facilitating control over all individuals using radio
receiving sets. Since the law requires every person
with a wireless installation to take out a licence, the
charge for the same should be kept as low as possible.
At the same time, it is reasonable that those who desire
habitually to avail themselves, for one reason or another,
of broadcasting services should be expected to con-
tribute towards the cost of the same: strictly, this
contribution should depend upon the extent of the user.
The situation is one that lends itself to treatment by
the grouping of the licences, on some practical basis,
into two easily distinguishable categories, and by a
differentiation in the charges to be levied on the licences
in these two categories.
Now, broadcasting is essentially a luxury demand,
and it has to be borne in mind that there are to-day, and
will always be, many owners of licensed wireless instal-
lations who are not desirous, as a practice, of making
use of broadcasting services. For this reason, anything
in the nature of a general levy on all wireless receiving
stations must be avoided. On its merits, broadcasting
is deserving of the fullest encouragement and the greatest
assistance which the Government can give it, alike in
the interests of those who seek amusement therefrom,
of the research workers in this field, and of the electrical
industry. It seems improbable that any sum likely to
be raised at the present time by fees on the grant and
renewal of licences will go anywhere near providing the
contemplated annual outlay on the broadcasting
scheme which has been projected. It has been esti-
mated that an outlay of 180,000/. per annum? will be
involved in connexion with the proposed broadcasting
stations. Now, there are at the present time in this
country some 10,000 holders of licences for wireless
receiving installations. In view of the relatively high
cost of providing complete receiving installations, an j
increase in the number of licences may, in these days of
trade depression, be a slow matter ; but assuming that
an immediate increase may multiply their number
tenfold, even so, approximately 2/. per annum would,
on a flat-rate basis, have to be levied on every licence,
® See Nature for August 5, p. 197.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
in addition to the registration fee, if the whole annual
cost of the broadcasting stations is to be met in this
way. There is, however, a serious risk that an annual
contribution on this scale may have the effect of
retarding materially the rate of the growth in the
number of private wireless installations.
In these circumstances, it would seem that the
licensed organisations will be well advised to endeavour
to raise the annual revenue they require largely from
audiences attracted to public entertainments promoted
and run under their auspices : evidence exists tending
to show that large audiences can be attracted to broad-
casting entertainments of a high class. The licensed
organisations can, of course, at the same time, raise
additional revenue by hiring out wireless receiving
installations for entertainment purposes, by sales .of
apparatus outmght, and by other means. It is in
relation to the carrying out of this wider policy, which
caters for the needs of all classes interested in radio-
telegraphy, that the Government can best help in
popularising broadcasting and aid in promoting the
commercial success of licensed organisations rather than
in the attempt to subsidise them out of moneys raised
by means of fees charged on licences, the amount of
which may, more than likely, prove extremely dis-
appointing. For example, the Government can, on the
technical side, help the licensed organisations materially
by allotting to them the necessary number of suitable
radio wave-lengths to enable them to carry out their
programmes, and in many other incidental ways: it
can also to some extent afford them assistance on the
commercial side by causing all applications for enter-
tainment licences to be collected by them for trans-
mission to the Postmaster General, a course the adop-
tion of which would provide the licensed organisations
with opportunities for selling broadcasting services,
whilst at the same time promoting genuine competition
in this field.
In connexion with broadcasting, other rights are
threatened, such, for example, as copyright and patent
right. In all the circumstances of the present situation,
it behoves the Government then to keep itself as free
as possible from responsibility in connexion with the
details of the radio broadcasting services. This it will
do so long as it confines its rdle to that of a licensing
authority exercising general control and supervision
over the purely wireless situation, and by allowing, in
collateral matters, the old doctrine to prevail, that
where the likelihood of the invasion of the legal rights
of others is involved, every subject in the realm acts at
his own peril and must be held personally answerable
for his own deeds to him who establishes in due course
of law that he has suffered an injury from an actionable
wrong at the hands of another.
240
NATURE
[AuGUsT 19, 1922
University Education in London.
The University of London (History, Present Resources
and Future Possibilities). By Sir Gregory Foster.
Pp. 48. (London: University of London Press,
Ltd., 1922.) 1s. 6d. net.
HE Provost of University College has been well
advised to publish in the form of a pamphlet,
attractively printed and illustrated, the two lectures
delivered at the College in February last, together with
the speech of the president of the Board of Education
(Mr. Fisher) at the conclusion of the second lecture.
A less ambitious title might perhaps have been chosen,
for in effect the lectures are a closely reasoned apology
for the Bloomsbury site and for the University policy
represents. At the outset, the popular
illusion that University education in London is to be
concentrated entirely in one quarter is examined and
dismissed. The sites alone of the thirty-six Colleges
which it
of the University occupy no less than 212 acres and
their students number 21,600. Their halls of residence
account for 74 acres and their playing fields for another
215 acres, making a grand total of 4343 acres. To
bring together these vast educational resources would
be a prodigious undertaking—extravagant (a “‘ wanton
waste” as the Provost says), impracticable by reason of
the necessary contiguity of the medical schools to their
hospitals, and undesirable in an educational sense.
Other less fortunate Universities discovered
that it is impossible to educate in crowds. The
Provost’s arguments against carrying the “ concentra-
have
tion” idea too far are complete and unanswerable.
One asks at once why if a large dose of the medicine
is fatal, a homoeopathic dose should be beneficial—in
other words, why the Government should urge so
strongly the removal of King’s College to the Blooms-
bury site.
reason that King’s College on its present site, delightful
as it Is from many points of view, cannot grow and
extend according to its needs.” This argument is
hardly relevant, for there are other parts of London
than Bloomsbury where King’s College could grow
if that is what it wishes to do. The question of the
optimum size for a college is involved ; and there are
other ways of growing, it may be suggested, than in
size and numbers—in efficiency, for example, or by
planting out part of its work as King’s has done already
in the case of its Household Science Department at
Campden Hill. The impression left on the mind of
the reader of these discourses must be that the King’s
College question is not discussed with force or
conviction.
There is a peculiar habit in University circles in
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
“It is,” says the Provost, ‘‘ for the obvious
London of continuing the argument after a con-
clusion has been reached. From this point of view
the Provost’s carefully compiled statistics in favour
of the Bloomsbury site will fortify the loyal forces in
the guerilla warfare which is now being waged with
vigour and persistence. Of the total of 21,634 students
in the Colleges of the University, no less than 16,764
are in Colleges within two miles of the Bloomsbury site,
whereas the corresponding figure for the rival Holland
Park site is only 1520. The number outside the two-
mile radius of either site is 3306. Whether the two-
mile radius was chosen because of the distance covered
by the rd. bus fare of a happier generation, we cannot
determine ; but we may fairly ask why the University
quarter should be within this reasonable distance of
the students, seeing that except for compulsory attend-
ance at examinations they have in recent years found
no pleasure in visiting the University headquarters.
On the only occasion on which the present writer
remembers to have seen a thousand London students
in one room, their object in coming together was to
denounce the existing constitution of the University !
On this question the Provost maintains a strange
silence. He fails to stress the need which exists in
London for the active encouragement of all those
social, athletic, and extra-academic influences which
make for the development of students’ personality
as distinct from intellect. The Bloomsbury site
should provide these facilities as far as practicable
in the form of dining-halls, clubs, hostels, accommoda-
tion for debates and meetings of extra-academic
societies, theatres, concert-rooms, art galleries, museums,
gymnasia, fives courts, swimming baths, churches, and
mosques! Unless something can be done on these
lines, the whole discussion is meaningless from the
point of view of the students regarded as human
beings and not merely as statistical units.
For administrative purposes and for ceremonial and
public meetings of all kinds, the need for a central
position is paramount and incontestable, Busy public
men, administrators, and teachers who do voluntary
work as members of University Committees may reason-
ably demand that their sacrifice of time and money
in travelling shall be reduced to a minimum. A few
weeks ago some five hundred graduates attended a
meeting of Convocation at South Kensington for the
purpose of electing a new chairman. At the lowest
computation to/. extra was spent in travelling to South
Kensington as compared with, say, Bloomsbury ;
more important and serious, the meeting must have
been less representative because of the inability of
graduates living or working on the remote side of
London to attend. How any person of common sense
or knowledge of London can argue that South Kensing-
AUGUST 19, 1922]
ton or Holland Park is conveniently situated for a
University quarter passes comprehension.
It would be unfair to expect in the course of two
lectures a full exposition of University policy; but
there appears to be some lack of consistency, possibly
more apparent than real, between the criticism of
pre-1g0o higher education in London when “ each
college made its own plans and did its own work in
the best way it could” and the current demand that,
a teaching University having at last been established,
certain Colleges shall be given the status of “‘ Dominions”’
enjoying Home Rule within the University. If
University and King’s Colleges were set up cheek by
jowl on the Bloomsbury site, the need for co-ordina-
tion by some independent and impartial authority
would cry out to heaven. The Provost is on surer
ground in pleading for ‘“‘as much concentration in
the University Quarter as is practicable,’ especially
in respect of “all the new post-graduate institutes,”
and our only criticism of this proposal is that a more
comprehensive term than “ post-graduate institutes ”’
should be used. In addition to post-graduate institutes,
there is need for a number of schools or institutes of a
specialised character, e.g. for law, music, drama, journal-
_ ism, and military science, to specify only a few sub-
_ jects for which at present provision is not made or is
| imadequately made within the University. As an
instance of a post-graduate institute, the new scheme
for an Institute of Public Health is cited, and it is
| gratifying to find that the demand for Collegiate Home
Rule is not in this case interpreted by the Provost in
the sense of “ what we have we hold.” ‘“‘ We have a
department [of Hygiene] in this College, the oldest in
the country, but it is inadequate to meet the needs
_ of London ; and we should be prepared to see that
department, and all the still smaller departments in
the other Colleges, merged into one great institute.
That is the kind of development which will be helped
by the concentration in Bloomsbury.”
Towards the conclusion of the lectures, the Provost
pleads for ‘“‘the necessary spirit to pull and work
together’ in order to substantiate the vision of a
great University of London which he has somewhat
faintly adumbrated. These wise words should not
be received in a derisive spirit. No one will suppose
that University College has attained its present great
prestige without a struggle, or that on certain occasions
| its rivalry with other Colleges may not have taken a
| combative form. The important thing to ensure, as
the Provost suggests, is that this rivalry, unavoidable
and even desirable within limits, shall be as free as
possible from selfishness—“ particularism ” is the polite
academic word—with the greater glory of the Univer-
sity always in view, magnanimous, void of envy, malice,
mO27°55,-VOL. 110
NATURE
241
and intrigue, and of that perverted form of academic
freemasonry which suspends private judgment and
exalts College loyalty. The alternative is constant sus-
picion and bitter, often unreasonable, opposition to
progress.
A brief reference must be made in conclusion to Mr.
Fisher’s speech delivered at the end of the second
lecture. He found himself in “ full agreement with the
admirable doctrine contained in the address.” The
University of London was a species by itself.
“The Government, four years ago, made an offer
of the Bloomsbury Site to the University of London.
That offer has been accepted by the University. The
Government do not propose to make another offer,
and if the University does not like the site, well, it
can return it to the source from which it came. I
have no doubt the Chancellor of the Exchequer will
appreciate its generosity.”
The limit to the number of students who could be
educated at Oxford and Cambridge had been reached,
and London must be prepared to receive a great influx
of students, particularly
“from the Dominions, from India, from the Crown
Colonies, from the United States of America, and from
the allied Powers of the Continent.” You must con-
centrate in one part of London “ not all the teaching
power, but an impressive proportion of the teaching
power,’ and that was “ the principal object which the
Government had in view in suggesting an arrangement
under which King’s College could be brought into
close proximity with University College.” And as
last words he said: “ Let those who are anxious for
the future of London University, from whatever angle
they may have hitherto viewed London University
problems, let them concentrate on the endeavour to
create upon the site a noble series of buildings, worthy
of the reputation of the University, worthy of its past,
and adequate to the great destinies which await it.”
Ate Mite Isl,
Antarctic Foraminifera.
British Antarctic
Natural His-
Protozoa,
British Museum (Natural History).
(“ Terra Nova”) Expedition, 1910.
tory Report. Zoology, Vol. 6, No. 2.
Part 2: Foraminifera. By Edward Heron-Allen
and Arthur Earland. Pp. 25-268+ 8 plates.
(London: British Museum (Natural History),
1922.) 30S.
TUDENTS of natural history in its wider aspects
will welcome the appearance of this memoir on the
Antarctic Foraminifera of the second Scott Expedition
—a notable contribution to the series of reports which
have resulted from the Terra Nova Expedition. The
authors state that the material collected during the
expedition was placed in their hands seven years ago,
and that the delay in publication has been due, not
We
242
NATURE
[AuGUST 19, 1922
only to the difficulties of biological research in war-
time, but also to the method of preservation adopted
for most of the dredgings containing foraminiferal
specimens. The collectors appear to have put un-
warranted confidence in formalin, “ than which no more
unsatisfactory medium for .
imagined.” Messrs.
. . Foraminifera can be
Heron-Allen and Earland have
been compelled, therefore, to expend much time and
trouble in cleaning the material entrusted to them
so as to render it at all suitable for study, and they
“can only review the results as a tantalising sketch of
the possibilities which would have attended upon an
ample supply of properly collected Antarctic material.”
Nevertheless, the authors are able to record 650 species
and varieties of these fascinating Protozoa, of which
46 are new to science.
In looking through the systematic list, which
occupies by far the greater part of the memoir, the
student of distribution cannot but be impressed by the
wide range of many of the types. Species recorded
here from the far south are identical with those, already
enumerated in lists by the same authors, of Foraminifera
from the North Sea, and from the Atlantic waters around
the shores of Conacht. Several types are common
to Arctic and Antarctic regions, but these are almost
all pelagic forms, and capable of the most extensive
migrations. The only exception, Globigerina pachy-
derma, Ehrenberg, with its ‘ curiously thick-walled”
shell, is “‘the typical Globigerina of Arctic deposits,”
reaching its southern limit about the Faeroe Channel.
Nevertheless, the authors do not consider that its
presence in the Antarctic Ocean affords any support
to the once-popular “ bipolarity ”
origins. Apparently G. pachyderma is “a local
variation ” of G. dutertret, d’Orbigny, a transition from
the one form to the other being clearly demonstrable
as dredgings from more southerly stations are examined.
This transition is supposed to be “induced by con-
ditions of temperature,’ and the authors believe that
“the same gradual transition [from G. dutertrei to
G. pachyderma] which we have described in the Antarctic
could be traced in the Arctic and temperate seas.”
Systematic students of the Foraminifera will be
especially interested in the number of hyaline species
of which arenaceous isomorphs are described—for
example, Bifarina porrecta (Brady), Bolivina punctata,
d’Orbigny, and Rotalia soldanii, d’Orbigny. The
authors express their agreement with Biitschli, Fauré-
Fremiet, and other recent workers at the order, in
considering that the existence of such isomorphs—
the formation of an arenaceous instead of a calcareous
test due to some obscure physiological reaction—may
necessitateu Itimately a revision in the classification of
the Foraminifera, ‘‘ We do not think the time has
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
theory of specific
yet arrived to abandon the generally accepted, if
artificial, system of Brady, which, with some modi-
fications, is followed in this Report. But we have
endeavoured to clear the way towards a proper zoological
allocation of the Lituolide by refraining wherever
possible from the creation of new arenaceous species,
and retaining our new arenaceous forms in the genera
to which they naturally belong.”
Among the newly described forms the genus Den-
dronina, referred to the Astrorhizide, comprising two
New Zealand and two Antarctic species, is noteworthy.
The test is built of fine mud, sand-grains, and sponge-
spicules, and the sessile D. arborescens assumes a
complex branching habit, attaining a height of 5 to 6
millimetres. The authors believe that the genus may
be represented also in tropical seas (Indian Ocean).
Polytrema miniaceum (Pallas) was found in great abun-
dance in the New Zealand area, at one station “ practi-
cally every solid organism ” being “ more or less covered
with it.’ It is a sessile foraminifer of very wide range,
and the authors have made a special journey to Corsica _
so as to study the species in life in Mediterranean
waters. The organism in its early free stage settles
on some object, wherewith it gains connexion by
thrusting out protoplasm from its under surface and
forming “a thin layer of incrusting chambers.” The
protoplasm subsequently streams out from these,
surrounds the young spherical test, and constructs a
wall of small chambers which overgrow and envelop
the latter. Finally the characteristic branching,
arm-like processes grow out. The occurrence of
siliceous sponge-spicules inside the chambers of the
Polytrema has given rise to much discussion; the
authors have observed sponge and foraminifer “ close
together and approximately the same size,’ and do not
altogether reject the possibility of a true symbiosis.
In order to reduce the cost of publication, the
authors have restricted to a minimum their synonymic
references. The eight plates illustrating the memoir
have been admirably drawn by Mr. M. H. Brooks and
are excellently reproduced. All the workers concerned
may be heartily congratulated on the results made
known in this most recent outcome of Antarctic explora-
tion and research, (én Jeb, (C.
Water Underground.
Nouveau Traité des eaux souterraines. Par E.-A.
Martel. Pp. 838. (Paris: G. Doin, 1921.) 50
francs.
N M. Martel’s treatise, stress is naturally laid on
what he has styled “ speleology.” For him,
subterranean water moves in a fascinating world of
caves. The conception of a general water-table in
|
{
gaping fissures in the crust.
AucusT 19, 1922]
NA TORE
243
| permeable rocks does not appeal. His conclusions as
| a follower of water by sheer hard climbing and ex-
ploration underground are supported by the very
| varied results of borings made near one another in
beds regarded as porous by the engineer. M. Martel
believes, with much justice, that subterranean rivers
do not etch out their own way ; they are determined
by pre-existing crevices, the diaclases of Daubrée.
In the case of limestone, solution obviously widens
the original fissure ; but it must have been generally
recognised that the long-continued dominance of the
joint-system is again and again revealed in the plans
of sinuous caves.
M. Martel, however, does not give geologists much
credit for observing a relation between the direction
of surface-streams and the fissured structure of a
country ; but we cannot help remembering the account
of the Drava and Gail system in the first volume of
Suess’s “ Antlitz der Erde,’ and the exposition by
Molyneux and Lamplugh of the Batoka Gorge of
the Zambezi. In the case of Mosi-oa-tunya, however,
M. Martel seems satisfied with the somewhat cata-
strophic views of Livingstone. We must admit that
an examination of our ordinary text-books. reveals
-an unfortunate silence on this question of fissures
and stream-erosion ; but surely M. Martel is inclined
_to exaggerate (p. 42) the differences between his views
and those of colleagues like Lugeon, Kilian, and de
Martonne. He is accustomed to move adventurously
in narrow rift-like ways, along the floors of ravines
and their counterparts underground ; but he cannot
wish us to return to the antique view of valleys as
On a tilted peneplain
the courses of streams are at first uncertain; they
|
are controlled merely by the general slope. When they
have worked down into the surface of solid rock, they
at once begin to be guided by the joints, the lines of
weakness. The walls of the ultimate valleys are due
to erosion; the general ground-plan is often deter-
mined by that of the joints, the walls of which are
practically in contact until the streams begin to work.
The surface-waters then cut downwards. By
seepage they become subterranean, and the diaclases
prove still more effective in the underworld. The
details of caves and of disappearing and reappearing
streams are never monotonous to M. Martel; but the
frequent photographic representation of them may
pall a little on the geological or engineering reader.
We must admit that the pictures here given, to the
number of three hundred, are fascinating and often
very impressive. In some cases, as in those of the
canon of Olhadibie in the Basses-Pyrénées, they result
from very recent exploration.
The discussion of the origin of water in the Chalk
NO. 2755, VOL. IIO]
(p. 366) raises important engineering considerations.
Mr. R. L. Cole has recently dealt with this matter as
regards the south of England (“The Power User,”
June 1922, p. 97), and he treats the body of the Chalk
as providing little opportunity for flow. M. Martel,
in his déscriptions of “lapiaz” or “ lapiés”’ (p. 531),
shows well how water penetrates a limestone surface
and how it proceeds to ramify below. His remarks
on the use of the divining-rod (p. 749) are philosophic
and reserved ; he looks for a very extended series of
trials made on a consistent plan. The power of divina-
tion, if it exists, resides in the operator and not in the
instrument used. He shows, among other interesting
matters, how the sinking of artesian wells was known
to dwellers on the edge of the Sahara centuries before
Moorish engineers were invited to find water in Artois.
The ease with which subterranean water may be
contaminated is attested by grim instances (p. 767)
of the slow decomposition of corpses interred on the
battlefields of r914-18, and by the infection during a
whole year of the spring of Gerbéviller in Lorraine.
GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
Statics, Dynamics, and Hydrodynamics.
(1) Elementary Statics of Two and Three Dimensions.
By R. J. A. Barnard. Pp. viit+254. (London:
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 7s. 6d.
(2) Theoretical Mechanics: An Introductory Treatise
on the Principles of Dynamics, with Applications and
Numerous Examples. By Prof: A. E. H. Love.
Third Edition. Pp. xv+ 310. (Cambridge: At the
University Press, 1921.) gos. net.
(3) and (4) Idromeccanica Piana. By Prof. Umberto
Cisotti. Parte Prima. Pp.xii+152. Parte Seconda.
Pp. vili+155-373- (Milano: Libreria Editrice Poli-
tecnica, 1921.) Lire 24 and 32 respectively.
(1) ROF. BARNARD’S new book makes an ex-
cellent text-book for the higher years in
pass degree courses and for the first part of honours
courses in applied mathematics. The scope is that
generally expected, a chapter on forces in three dimen-
sions being included. In treatment the book is
orthodox and safe, so orthodox in fact that centres of
gravity are left to quite a late chapter, as if the finding
of centres of gravity were an aim in itself. The proof
of the vector property of couples is very effective.
A chapter is added on vectors in space, use being
made of the vector notation, and the student is referred
to the author’s “Dynamics” for a fuller treatment.
The modern student of mechanics and physics cannot
afford to be quite ignorant of vector methods and
notation, and Prof. Barnard is performing a useful
244
NATURE
[AuGuST 19, 1922
service by including them in his books, even if only in
the form of an afterthought.
(2) Prof. Love’s “‘ Theoretical Mechanics ” is a book
that serious students of dynamics cannot be without :
the discussions of the principles are illuminating, and
the collections of examples are useful to both teacher
and pupil. Only a few changes have been made in the
recently issued third edition. Perhaps it is permissible
to suggest that the book would be immensely more
useful if it partook of the nature of a text-book, and
included a much larger number of worked examples.
The student’s main difficulty in dynamics is not in
learning the comparatively restricted number of ideas
and methods given in the usual honours courses, but
rather in obtaining the necessary experience for using
these ideas and methods successfully in the problems
presented by nature. By far the most effective help
that can be given him is that contained in a judiciously
selected and carefully graduated series of worked
problems, wheue the efficiency value of each process is
made evident.
As the author emphasises the importance of the
fundamental principles, the volume would be the
right place for a brief account of relativity in dynamics.
To leave this latest phase of modern scientific reform
to the physicist and the philosopher is a mistake that
applied mathematicians should endeavour to counteract.
Publishers no doubt know their business and do not
need the advice of academic men. A protest must
nevertheless be raised against excessive prices. The
price of this new edition will prevent its sale among
just those young students whose mechanical ideas the
author wishes to influence. ;
(3) and (4) The study of two-dimensional problems is
of great interest in several branches of applied mathe-
matics, as, for instance, in potential theory, electricity,
and hydrodynamics. It often happens that when a
three-dimensional problem of importance cannot be
solved, the two-dimensional case is amenable to modern
mathematical methods and its solution sheds much
light on the general problem. This has been the case
particularly in hydrodynamics.
The present volumes are the first two parts of a
treatise on two-dimensional hydrodynamics. Part I.
gives the theory of the complex variable and conformal
representation, which is followed by a statement of
the equations of motion of a fluid in two dimensions.
Problems with boundaries consisting of free stream
lines only, and with boundaries consisting of fixed
barriers only, are then discussed. Part II. deals with
jets and other problems, involving both fixed and free
boundaries, while Part IIT. will deal with wave-motion.
Of the different types of problems discussed by
Prof. Cisotti, perhaps the most interesting is that of
NO. 2755, VOL. I10]
discontinuous motion of fluid past a fixed barrier—a
problem that has some bearing on the modern subject
of aerodynamics. When the barrier is plane, and the |
motion is assumed to be irrotational, with free stream
lines, the problem has been solved by the use of what
constitutes one of the most elegant processes of mathe-
matical reasoning. Curved barriers, however, have —
so far defied solution, except in the sense that when a
solution is suggested one can obtain equations which |
define the barrier appropriate to the solution. The
problem of the curved barrier may almost be described
as one of the classical problems of hydrodynamics, —
Several interesting cases have been discussed, in par-
ticular by Prof. Cisotti himself, Villat, and others.
The ordinary text-book process of solving two-dimen-
sional problems in hydrodynamics is to seek a relation
between the complex variable that represents the ©
geometry of the actual motion and the complex variable
involving the velocity potential and the stream-line
function. An intermediary variable, which is essen-
tially representative of the velocity vector, is often
useful. In dealing with discontinuous motion past
barriers consisting of plane surfaces, a further inter-
mediary variable is needed, based on the Schwartz-
Christoffel transformation: the problem is then
reduced to quadratures.
For curved barriers, however, this is insufficient,
and a new type of transformation has been found
The essential idea of this transformation
is to make the barrier correspond to a semicircle in a
new Argand diagram. The general solution of the
problem is then defined in terms of a Taylor expansion,
and the choice of the coefficients in this expansion
determines any particular curved barrier. Elegant
formule exist for finding the pressure components on
the barrier, and the line of action of the resultant
pressure, but an explicit statement for the latter has
not yet been published.
This process, due to Levi-Civita and others, can be
made to yield numerical results of considerable interest.
Brillouin has given the working for a set of barriers
defined by a certain choice of the coefficients in the
above-mentioned series. Further, by a process of
approximation, circular and elliptic barriers admit of
necessary.
numerical solution.
Prof. Cisotti’s résumé of the progress in this problem
during the last fifteen years is masterly, and of great
use to researchers in the subject. It seems, however,
that the footnote on p. 179 is based on a misapprehen-
sion. Brillouin has given the conditions that must be
satisfied if the free stream lines are to have finite
curvature where they leave the barrier. The author
urges that these conditions are not necessary. He is
right, but Brillouin does not mean that these conditions
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATORE
245
jare to be satisfied always. As a matter of fact, the
| problems in which Brillouin’s conditions are satisfied are
those which have the greatest bearing on aerodynamical
|research. Further, Brillouin’s conditions can be used
| to elucidate the rather puzzling question of the difference
between barriers which are defined by the same mathe-
matical curves, but of different extents, as e.g. circular
barriers of different angular extents.
These two volumes can be highly recommended to
all who are interested in recent developments in the
mathematics of two-dimensional hydrodynamics.
S. BRODETSKY.
Our Bookshelf.
| Register zum Zoologischen Anzeiger. Begrindet von
_ J. Victor Carus. Herausgegeben von Prof. Eugen
Korschelt. Band xxxvi.-xl., und Bzbliographia
| Zoologica, vol. xviii.-xxii. Pp. iv+695. (Leipzig :
Wilhelm Engelmann, 1922.) 280 marks.
| Aut who have had occasion to use the bibliography
which is issued with the “Zoologischer Anzeiger ”
know that much trouble and loss of time are involved
‘in consulting the volumes not yet indexed in one of the
five-yearly “ Registers.” They will welcome, there-
fore, this belated volume, which indexes, mainly, the
papers published from.1909 to 1911, including also a
few from 1912 and a good many of earlier date which
had previously escaped notice. It is compiled accord-
ing to the same plan as its predecessors. Each paper
_is indexed under its author’s name, with an abbreviated
title and a citation of the volume and page of the
bibliography where the full reference will be found.
There are also cross-references under systematic
names where these are mentioned in the title, or in
the brief notice appended to the entries in the biblio-
graphy, and all new generic names are separately
entered.
It was the opinion of Herr Heinrich in Mr. H. G.
Wells’s story of “ Mr. Britling”’ that “the English
do not understand indexing.” It may be only because
of this national defect that we find the plan of the
“ Bibliographia Zoologica’? cumbersome and incon-
venient as compared with that of our own “ Zoological
Record.”? The volume before us is only an index to
anindex. It requires us to take down at least one other
-yolume from the shelf before we can find the reference
we want. It includes neither a subject index nor a
geographical index, and the systematic references are
far from adequate for the needs of the systematist.
All bibliographies, however, are useful, if only because
none of them is perfect, and certainly no zoologist can
afford to neglect the “‘ Bibliographia Zoologica.” At
the present time, when the obstacles to the international
diffusion of knowledge are only slowly being removed,
the need for such works and the difficulties in the way
| of compiling and publishing them are alike great. It
is to be hoped, therefore, that this volume will soon be
| followed by others cataloguing the literature of more
recent date.
Wisin Ge
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1973-78 -
Vol. xii.: The Life of the Copper Eskimos. By D.
Jenness. (Southern Party, 1913-16.) Pp. 277.
(Ottawa: Department of the Naval Service, 1922.
50 cents.
THE report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, rg13-18,
is planned to include at Teast sixteen volumes. This,
the ethnographical volume, is the work of Mr. D.
Jenness, a graduate of the University of New Zealand,
who received his anthropological training at Oxford,
and is already known as the author of an important
book entitled ‘‘The Northern D’Entrecasteaux.”
Mr. Jenness lived for some years in the tents and snow-
houses of the Eskimo, and though he says little of his
personal difficulties, the companionship of his Eskimo
hosts and their strange food must have been a trying
experience. With the help of a devoted missionary,
the Rey. H. Girling, who unfortunately died of pneu-
monia at Ottawa in 1920, he has been able to prepare
a singularly valuable account of life in all its phases
among the Copper Eskimos, whose headquarters are
on the Coppermine River. Fortunately for them,
this land lies in the track of the Great Caribou migra-
tion when the herds move northwardein the spring.
They are then able to collect stores of meat and skins,
and from this and the seals and fish, which are abundant,
their wants are supplied. Formerly their hunting
was done with bows and arrows, but these are now
replaced by rifles, and it would be well for the Canadian
Government to consider whether the use of improved
weapons should not be controlled in the interests of
game preservation.
The book is full of curious facts and is illustrated by
photographs and maps. “ With the influx of traders
and missionaries into the country the conditions of life
are fast changing. Famine looms less in the fore-
ground, but in its place European diseases are threaten-
ing the health of the communities, and bid fair to rival
all other causes in their effect on the death-rate.”
The suggestion that a period of quarantine and medical
examination should be enforced on all strangers entering
the Eskimo territory certainly deserves serious con-
sideration.
The Scope of School Geography. By Dr. R. N. Rudmose
Brown, O. J. R. Howarth, and J. Macfarlane. Pp.
158. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.) 5s. 6d. net.
Tue authors have briefly reviewed the scope of school
geography, maintaining two dominant themes through-
out, one the essential unity of the subject, the other
the scientific character of its data and its methods.
“Geography, properly speaking, has a definite view-
point of its own and is not a mosaic of loans from other
subjects.” ‘‘ The teaching of geography is no less the
work of a specialist than the teaching of chemistry or
history.”
The authors have adhered, and for school purposes
perhaps correctly, to the statement that geography
may be regarded as the interaction between man and
his environment; but even for the purpose of this
book it might have been desirable rather to have
stated the broader and deeper truth that geography
has as its field the distribution of the interrelations
of many phenomena of which human activities form
but one.
246
In the chapters dealing with meteorology, biology,
oceanography, and economics the relations of these
subjects to geography and the material which geo-
graphy can and must derive from them for its own
study is fully discussed. On the subject of maps and
map-reading the book contains excellent advice.
“The practical study of maps must entail the art of
map-reading.”’ “ The map must be interpreted.”
Many will disagree with the authors’ application of
the term historical geography. Some historical events
depend for their complete interpretation on a know-
ledge of geography, but this is not historical geography ;
it is merely history fully understood. It is possible,
however, in theory at least, to reconstruct for each
region the geography of past epochs and to see for
that area not merely the evolution of its history, but
what is much more comprehensive, the evolution of its
geography. This is historical geography.
The book should do much to remove the many
anomalies which exist in the school study of the subject.
Within the Atom: A Popular View of Electrons and
Quanta. By John Mills. Pp. xitit+215. (London:
G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) 6s. net.
WHat can a scientific reviewer say about books like
this on “ popular science”? Mr. Mills, who has quite
a competent knowledge of his subject, sets out to
initiate those who have no knowledge of physics and
chemistry (and apparently no intention of acquiring it)
into the mysteries of modern atomic theory. Of course
the task is utterly impossible. Scientific theories serve
mainly to explain facts, and those who have no know-
ledge of those facts can grasp little of their real mean-
ing. Such satisfaction as they can obtain must be
wholly different from that of the earnest student, who,
even if he admits the morality of an attempt to delude
the laity into the belief that they can appreciate
scientific work without serious study, can never be in
a position to judge whether an author has been success-
ful in tickling the palates of his readers in the manner
they desire.
However, from the sale of similar works we imagine
that there are some who will appreciate the mixed fare
set before them. Very mixed it is, ranging from a
conversation (in the spirit, but not the style, of the
celestial dialogues of Faust) between the author, an
electron, energy and the reader to a more or less sober
discussion of the difficulties of interpreting X-ray
spectra. Indeed we find a certain inconsistency in our
author’s attitude ; if he is prepared to make such a
concession to sensationalism as to assert that the
nucleus is smaller than the electrons which it contains,
he need not have boggled over many quite minor
difficulties which seem to us to occupy a dispropor-
tionate space. But then, as we said, we are clearly
not in a position to judge.
Siid-Bayern. Von R. H. Francé. (Junk’s Natur-
Fithrer.) Pp. v+423. (Berlin: W. Junk, 1922.)
M. 32 and 150 per cent “ Valutazuschlag.”
Ir is pleasant to think that the State of Bavaria was not
dismembered by the great European peace, and we
regret that Dr. Francé’s scientific guide-book could not
extend a little northward, so as to include the palzon-
tological treasures of Eichstatt and the cauldron-
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[AUGUST I9, 1922
subsidence of the Ries. But the finest landscapes of
the country await the traveller across the southern
glacial plain. There is much, indeed, to detain him on
the “ Niederterrassenschotter ” itself. Dr. Francé calls
attention, for example, to the forest of Ebersberg,
within easy reach for any botanist who visits Munich,
Here the climatic change in modern Germany may be
traced in the decay of the giant oaks in the eighteenth
century, in the subsequent dwindling of the beeches,
and in the present predominance of conifers, under
which wild tulips grow. The site of Munich raises
the puzzle of its apparent extinction in Roman times,
though Roman roads run through it, based on pre-
decessors built by Celtic engineers. The rapid rivers
are themselves worth watching, as they stream from
the Alps across the glacial deltas of the plainland.
With this book as a companion, the naturalist will
finally cross the old lake-floor to Partenkirchen, and
will stand under the crags of the Wetterstein well
content. GAL jac
In the Heart of Bantuland. By Dugald Campbell.
Pp. 313. (London: Seeley, Service and Co., Ltd.,
1922.) 21s. net.
Mr. CAMPBELL provides his readers with an abundance
of good stories of big-game hunting, slave traders, and
natives and Europeans whom he has met in his twenty-
nine years of experience as a missionary. His travels
range from the Katanga and Angola to the shores of
Lake Nyassa. His use of the word “ Bantuland,” not
merely in his title but in the text, may be misleading
to the uninitiated, as he does not deal with all Bantu
peoples, but only with those within the limits men-
tioned. Even thus he is not always sufficiently explicit
in mentioning the tribe to which a particular custom
or belief appertains. Many of the peoples with whom
he deals are but little known, and his careful description
of their culture is a useful addition to our knowledge.
His account of secret societies of various types is
worthy of note. Mr. Campbell gives to native character
a tribute of admiration which is well deserved, as is
shown by instances of self-sacrifice and bravery, while
he has much to say of the political sagacity and instinct
for government displayed by some of the tribes and
their chiefs.
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis. By Dr. David
Forsyth. Pp. vii+133. (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 5s. net.
In his book on the technique of psycho-analysis Dr.
Forsyth deals, from the practical viewpoint, with a
subject which is full of difficulties for the beginner in
analytical work. The first chapter is devoted to a
consideration of the analyst himself ; the second deals
with the conditions under which the treatment should
proceed ; the remaining four chapters discuss the
actual analysis. Dream analysis is excluded as being
too big a subject for discussion in such a book, and the
reader is referred to Freud’s “ Interpretation of
Dreams” for the study of this side of analytical
treatment.
Dr. Forsyth gives much practical advice which is
frequently omitted from literature on the theory and
practice of psycho-analysis.
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATURE
247
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Wo notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
The Acoustics of Enclosed Spaces.
THE acoustics of enclosed spaces intended to hold
large audiences is now receiving attention, and it is
recognised that good conditions for distinct hearing
can be obtained only by eliminating the reverberation
due to reflection from the walls. Owing to the high
velocity of the transmission of sound in nearly all
solid bodies, the angle at which total reflection begins
is small; for oak wood it is about 6°, and for glass as
low as 3°. Unless the wave-front is therefore very
nearly parallel to a wall it cannot penetrate and is
sent back into the room. The simple and partially
effective method of deadening the reverberation by
covering the walls with a highly porous material, or
woven stuffs, is difficult to apply in large spaces, and
a more hopeful solution of the problem seems to me
to lie in the discovery of a substance that can be used
for the exterior lining of walls and has a velocity of
transmission not far different from that in air.
Unfortunately our knowledge of the velocity of
sound in different materials is very scanty. I am not
aware that the acoustical properties of the substances
most commonly used in buildings, such as stones,
brick, and mortar or plaster of Paris, have ever been
examined. My suggestion is to look for a suitable
material which is transparent to sound and can be
backed by highly porous matter which will absorb
the transmitted vibration. If necessary, a series of
alternate layers may be introduced. In referring to
the tables of Landoldt-Bérnstein I find that the
substance which has a velocity of transmission for
sound nearest to that of air is cork. This might be
taken as a starting point for further investigation,
but there are great gaps and inconsistencies in the
tables.
It is to be remarked that at nearly normal incidence,
so long as no total reflection takes place, the posterior
surface of the wall diminishes very considerably the
intensity of the reflected sound. This is illustrated
by the analogous problem in the theory of light.
Applying the relevant equations (A. Schuster,
“Optics,’”’ p. 71) to normal incidence we find for the
reciprocal of the intensity of a wave transmitted
through a wall: 1+7*(1 —u*)%e*/M*, where e is the
thickness of the wall, \ the wave-length in air, and «
the refractive index. It is here assumed that the
thickness of the wall is small compared with the wave-
length measured inside the wall, which will nearly
always be the case. For wood the refractive index
is about -1, and for stone it will probably be of the
same order of magnitude. Applying the equations
and assuming the wave-length to be 250 cm. in air,
representing a frequency of 130, we find that a wall
one metre thick would transmit 86 per cent. of the
incident sound at normal incidence, and this would be
increased to 98-5 per cent. if the thickness be reduced
totocm. Apart from absorption, it is to be expected
that stone walls are fairly transparent to sound
falling normally upon them. But, as has been said
at the beginning, sound incident at angles slightly
inclined to the normal is totally reflected.
Some interest attaches to the cognate problem of
avoiding the transmission of sound from one room to
another. I am not referring to the construction of
sound-proof spaces of comparatively small dimen-
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
sions, such as telephone boxes, where the use of
absorbing materials is permissible. But we are all
familiar with rooms, more especially in hotels, where
everything that is said in one room can be overheard
next door. This is generally ascribed to the thinness
of the walls. Apart from absorption, which is not
likely to be very appreciable in a homogeneous
material, no large diminution of the intensity of the
transmitted sound should be expected from a moderate
increase in the thickness of the walls. The above
example shows what may be expected from theory.
When we deal with bricks and mortar, or lath and
plaster, the want of homogeneity may cause a con-
siderable amount of scattering, and this would help
in making the increased thickness more effective.
Unless my information as to our present know-
ledge is insufficient, it would appear that experimental
investigation of the acoustical properties of materials,
with regard to absorption, scattering, and the rate
of transmission, are much needed at the present time.
Such investigations may also have a_ theoretical
interest, as they would include experiments on sheets,
the thickness of which bears a much smaller ratio to
the wave-length than we are accustomed to deal with
in optics. ARTHUR SCHUSTER.
Some Spectrum Lines of Neutral Helium
derived theoretically.
Ir is well known that, owing to the prohibitive
nature of the general problem of three (or more)
bodies, Bohr’s quantum theory has proved so far to
be unable to account for any spectrum lines but those
forming a series of the simple Balmerian type, 7.e.
where N is the familiar Rydberg constant given by
2m*me'/ch®, and « the number of unit charges con-
tained in the nucleus, or the atomic number. Apart
from X-ray spectra of the higher atoms, for which x
is replaced empirically by a smaller and not necessarily
a whole number (Moseley, Sommerfeld), and where
the requirements of precision are not high, this simple
type of formula covers, as a matter of fact, only the
spectra of atomic hydrogen (« = 1) and of ionised
helium («=2), which, having been deprived of one
of its electrons, presents again the same problem of
two bodies as the hydrogen atom. Accordingly,
the known spectrum series of Het, the ultraviolet
Lyman series, the principal or Fowler’s series, and
the Pickering series, are all of the simple Balmer
type, with n=2, 3, 4 respectively.
The neutral helium atom, however, with its two
electrons, emits an entirely different spectrum con-
sisting in all of more than a hundred lines (Prof.
Fowler’s latest report contains, pp. 93-94, a list of
105 lines), some apparently “‘stray’’ lines, others
arrayed empirically into series strongly deviating
from the Balmer type, but all alike baffling modern
theoretical spectroscopists. In fact, not a single one
of these one hundred or so observed lines has, to my
knowledge, been accounted for theoretically, the mere
desire of attempting this being paralysed by the in-
superable difficulty of the three-bodies problem. This
is particularly so in the case of lithium («= 3) and the
higher atoms.
Now, it has occurred to me that, in the absence
of a general solution (in finite form, of course), it
may be worth while to try some special solution of
that classical problem.
At first a sub-case of Lagrange’s famous solution
of 1772 suggested itself, namely, the collinear type
of motions, in which the three bodies, in our case
248
NATO LE
[AuGUST 19, 1922
the nucleus and the two electrons, are always col-
linear with each other, the latter describing two equal
andoppositely situated ellipses around theformer. But
the corresponding spectrum formula, which is again
i : ly = Io ee )
of the simple Balmer type, namely, y=“. \ 72-2):
proved to be entirely useless, as (to judge from one’s
numerous trials extended up to »=8) it does not
cover, even within 1°5A, a single observed line of He.
This tends to show that such extremely special
(collinear) states of motion, or at least passages
between them, do not occur within the He-atoms,
or if they do, then only so sporadically as to give
no light of observable intensity.
What next suggested itself was the apparently
trivial class of motions in which the mutual perturbation
of the two electrons is negligible. Though approximate
only, this class of solutions, being much broader
than that of the collinear motions, would seem more
likely to cover some actual spectrum lines. In fact,
the very first trials gave encouraging results, as will
be shown presently.
The energy of the system being for such states of
motion equal to the sum of the energies due to the
nucleus and each of the electrons taken separately,
the corresponding spectrum formula for neutral
helium is, obviously,
I I Te ete \s
r=4N (Sata m? =a)
or, v=v,+¥2, where v, and v, are any two frequencies
belonging to ionised helium, and thus represents a
“combination principle’ of a new kind. The re-
sulting line of He, due to the passage of the two
electrons from stationary orbits determined by ™,,
m, to a pair of orbits determined by 7, ”,, may
M,.My
Ny. Ns :
This simple spectrum formula, the sum of two
Balmerian ones, has yielded so far ten or eleven
remarkably well-fitting lines, of which it will be
enough to quote here a few.
Thus, to start with lines of the type (2 SS) i.e.
derivable from the Pickering series (2) of Het, we
conveniently be denoted by (
have the frequencies (¥y, 4)
. 9875'1,
)
ra) age
the sum of which gives for the frequency of the
theoretical line =
4-4
v= 35007.
This agrees very closely with the nearest observed
line at \ (air) 2851 or v=35065, which is tabulated
among the combination lines of neutral helium
ar 5 20
(Fowler, p. 94). Similarly the members (3 and =)
of the Pickering series of He* give ca with the
frequency
25191°8,
v= 9875°1 + 26333°6 = 36209,
which is in striking coincidence with the observed
He-line at \=2761 or v= 36208.
In these examples both v, and », are frequencies
actually observed in He*. But not less interesting
(ee), i.e. combinations of
Pickering lines with those of a purely theoretical
NO. 2755, VOL, IIo]
are lines of the type
: Tel :
He™ series »=4N (2-5), and yet covering some
observed lines of neutral helium very closely. Thus,
we have (with N= 109723) :—
(22), ¥= 27377, \= 30518,
(2-47) 3 eh e.
eer , ¥= 31276, \= 3196-4,
FOPELO)
(eae) ¥ = 31579, \=3165-7,
the nearest observed lines of neutral helium being
3652-0, 3196-7, and 3166 respectively.
Finally, an example in which both of the combined
frequencies are purely theoretical is
ca v = 22360, \= 447100,
with the nearest observed He-line at \=4471-48,
tabulated (/.c., p. 93) among the diffuse doublets.
Other examples of well-fitting lines and some
further details are being given in a paper on this
subject to appear in the September issue of the
Astyophysical Journal.
Similarly one could try to cover some Li-lines by
: . ei ea
three pairs of terms, i.e. by »=9N\—3+—,+—,
: - ; Ny Ng" Ng
=== >), and some spectrum lines of the
Myr My Ms”
higher atoms by four and more pairs of terms. But
since, with increasing number of independent term-
pairs, even a thorough agreement would appear more
and more likely as the work of chance, it does
not seem worth while to push the procedure much
beyond lithium. For the latter element I have
thus far found (with N=109730) eight well-fitting
lines, of which the most interesting lines are
——— % : (= 7 w é
(23 13.17)" v = 23394°4 and 4.10.18)” vy = 26046:6,
which are remarkably close to the lithium lines ob-
served at v= 23394-7 and 26046-9. But by far more
interesting seem, for the present at least, the coinci-
dences obtained for neutral helium. These would
seem to justify the conclusion that there is a good deal
of independence between its electrons.
LUDWIK SILBERSTEIN.
July 18.
In my letter of July 18 I considered the formula :
pe |
1 he an
constructed as if the two electrons did not influence
each other at all, and I mentioned that this spectrum
formula had yielded ten or eleven well-fitting lines,
of which six ‘were actually quoted, the remaining
lines being given in the full paper appearing in the
Astrophysical Journal.
I now write to say that, to my own surprise, the
same formula has since covered more than thirty
further lines of neutral helium, and that when the
whole ground is swept (by means of an auxiliary
arithmetical table), almost the whole observed
spectrum of helium is likely to be thus represented.
While a complete list will be found in the paper
referred to, some of these further lines may be quoted
here so as to give an idea of the closeness of the
agreement. Using the short symbol (Sum) as
already explained, we have, to five figures :—
NATURE
249
AUGUST I9, 1922]
EGS Yobs. ee Yeale. Yobs. -
(2-4) 14968 14970 (eS 24843°9 24843°96
f) I7014-0 17014-3 (e.) 24939 24935
(7) 19807. = 19805 V5) 25159 25157
(22:5!) 10035 19032 (7222) aser3. 25ers
(53) 22527 22529 (8) 25822 25820
(25) 23077 23980 (75:15) 25846 25849
a) 24261 24260 ee) 26053 26047
The v-region beyond 26047 has thus far not been
swept systematically. When this is done, I have but
little doubt that ninety or more of the one hundred
and five lines of helium will be accounted for. In
these circumstances one would feel justified in assert-
ing that the absence of mutual repulsion between the
electrons is not (as I first thought) an exception but
rather the rule. A simple estimate will show that if
the usual Coulomb repulsion law were valid in any
of the considered stationary states, the mutual energy
of the electrons would contribute several thousand
units tov. Since it is hard to explain away so many
coincidences as due to chance, we are driven to the
belief that the electrons within the atom do not repel
each other even with a small fraction of the force
usually attributed to them. In other words, the
field of force of a bound electron seems to be entirely
engaged by the nucleus, at least in the case of helium
and probably of lithium, but possibly also in that of
the higher atoms. LupwIk SILBERSTEIN.
129 Seneca Parkway, Rochester, New York,
July 26.
The Primitive Crust of the Earth.
In reference to the letter of Dr. Harold Jeffreys
(NatuRE, July 29, 1922), I wish at once to say that
nothing in my letter published on July 8 was intended
to express my adhesion or non-adhesion to those who
support the planetesimal hypothesis. Even if we
think that the earth originated in a rain and con-
centration of solid planetesimals, we may, with Prof.
R. A. Daly, regard its complete fusion at a later
stage as a very probable event. At some time or
other, the earth may well have possessed a crust
consolidated from ‘‘igneous’”’ fusion. Prof. J. Joly
now suggests to us, with his unfailing brilliance of
outlook, the recurrence of such a crust after successive
meltings of the globe. What I have urged, however,
is that the oldest rocks traceable by geologists must
‘not be regarded as a record of a primitive crust.
They are sediments, invaded again and again by
igneous matter from below. We cannot conclude
from our Archzan schists, which are so often con-
verted into composite gneiss, that there was ever a
erust formed of crystalline rocks about the globe.
The “‘ extent of the crust accessible to geologists ”’
is, of course, much more than the film 2-5 km. thick
stated by Dr. Harold Jeffreys. Owing to the great
movements that bring up antique masses from the
depths, rocks that consolidated finally under several
miles of sediments now form a large part of the
surface. But so far no planetesimal sediment has
come to light, although matter of the mineral com-
position demanded by the hypothesis is associated
with many igneous upwellings.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
In support of the concluding remarks of Dr. Harold
Jeffreys, attention may be directed to “A Critical
Review of Chambertin’s Groundwork for the Study of
Megadiastrophism,” by W. F. Jones, published in
the American Journal of Science for June of the
present year. GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
Carrickmines, Co. Dublin, July 29, 1922.
Peculiarities of the Electric Discharge in Oxygen.
SEVERAL years ago I described (Phil. Mag., April
1908) a discontinuity in the electric discharge in
oxygen at pressures near to 0°83 mm. Namely, when
a current (0-0025 amp.) was passed in a discharge
tube (diam. 2-4 cm.), the electric force in the positive
column suddenly changed on slightly lowering the
pressure from about 11 volts per cm. to about 20,
an effect which could be reversed by raising the
pressure.
Some experiments which I have made recently,
with the assistance of Mr. E. P. Cardew, have shown
that at pressures in the same neighbourhood, with a
fixed circuit (battery and resistance), the discharge
is not uniquely determined, but can be one or the
other of two distinct types, distinguished by a re-
markable difference in the values of the electric force
within the positive column, one of these values being
about twice the other. The magnitude of the current
with the higher electric force in its positive column is
less than the other, since the potential difference of
the electrodes is greater in its case; but the currents
tend to equality when the electrodes are so near
that the positive column tends to disappear. The
two discharges differ only slightly in appearance :
the positive column of the smaller one with the
higher electric force being somewhat shorter and a
trifle paler than the other—both being without strize
in general.
To give an example. With a battery of 990 volts
and external resistance 363,000 ohms, electrodes 21-8
cm. apart in a tube of 27 mm. diameter, and pressure
0-75 mm., the currents observed were 1-19 and 0-883
milliamperes; their positive columns were nearly
15 and 14 cm. long, and the electric force within
them about 9 and 18-5 volts per cm. respectively.
In this and in many other cases, by means of a certain
arrangement, the discharge could be made to change
from one form to the other without stopping the
current or altering the circuit.
The region of pressures within which alternative
currents have been so far observed are from 0-64 to
o-91 mm. The two types of discharge differ in
stability according to the pressure and the magnitude
of the currents, so that the discharge tends to assume
one type rather than the other. But the one having
the high electric force in the positive column is much
more definite and invariable than the other for a
given pressure, being in this respect similar to dis-
charges in other gases, so that that electric force can
be determined with much more precision, and is in
fact nearly the same as in hydrogen.
Since these effects hold good for a large range of
current, it is obviously possible, by adjusting the
external circuit, to make two discharges of the same
arbitrary magnitude (of the necessary order) pass
through oxygen, between electrodes at a given
distance apart, at any given pressure within the
range in question, one of which will have the high
electric force in its positive column and the other
the low. P. J. KirKsy.
Saham Toney Rectory, Watton, Norfolk,
July 26.
q
is)
250
NATURE
[AUGUST 19, 1922
Defoliation of Oaks.
A REFERENCE to the defoliation of oaks, particularly
on the borders of Surrey and Hampshire, by the larve
of Tortyix viridana, was made in NATURE on June Io.
It concludes with the remark that the effect of the
defoliation is to check “‘ the growth of the trees to
some extent for the time being, but is rarely more
serious.”
At Haslemere, in the south-west corner of Surrey,
infestation by the Tortrix larve was sufficiently
marked fifteen years ago to be the subject of com-
ment, and it has continued ever since. In some years
the attacks were very severe. For a long time in-
fested trees did not appear to suffer any serious harm.
In recent years, however, the American White Mildew,
Oidium alphitoides—which in the early years of its
appearance in this country infested the leaves of
pollard and sapling oaks only—has invaded the new
leaves which the trees put forth after defoliation by
the caterpillars. The effect of the combined attack
is already becoming very serious. In the tract of
country lying between the towns of Haslemere,
Petersfield, Midhurst, Petworth, Horsham, and
Godalming, many oaks have been killed outright,
and large numbers are slowly dying. It seems very
desirable that these dead and dying trees be removed
and destroyed, or they may become centres for the
spread of beetles destructive to timber.
E. W. Swanton.
Educational Museum, Haslemere,
August I.
.
Scorpions and their Venom.
ce
Puysaria in ‘“‘ Animaux Venimeux,” p. 252, says
that in all venomous animals their immunity to their
own venom is limited, and announces that in an ex-
periment a scorpion, Bulteus australis, was killed by
an injection of the same venom as its own. I should
like to add further observations from personal ex-
perience, bearing on this very interesting subject.
Until very recently, by many, and even now by
some, the accepted opinion of men of science was that
each venomous animal carried its own antidote, 7.e.
was immune to the effects of its own venom.
So long ago as 1900, when for some weeks during
the Boer War I was stationed with my company in
the Blue River mountains opposite the Metrosberg
Peak in Cape Colony, I witnessed numerous fights
between the different species of scorpions. In more
than a hundred fights between two scorpions, each
of the same species, whether black, red or yellow, the
result was always the same, the one that was stung
by its opponent dying almost immediately, 10 seconds
being the longest interval between receiving the sting
and death.
The result when different species were pitted against
each other was the same, but that was to be expected.
C. E. F. Mouat-Biaes.
Hampden Club, Hampden Street, N.W.1,
July 7, 1922.
Bloomsbury.
Ir is to be regretted that in his interesting article
on Bloomsbury and the University of London, Mr.
Humberstone repeats the erroneous statement that
Bloomsbury was originally Lomesbury. That state-
ment was made by John Stow, London’s first his-
torian, but one can only suppose that he was misled
by the mistake of some early copyist. The earliest
form of the name known to me is Blemidesberie. I
am writing away from references, but that form is at
NO. 2755, VOL. II0]
least as old as the fourteenth century. Like other
place-names ending in -sbury it must be derived
from the personal name of its owner, possibly
Blemund.
The further statement that the Royal Mews, at
Bloomsbury, were burnt down in 1537, is also not
quite accurate. The royal stables were burnt then,
but the Mews (i.e. falconry) were situate at Charing
Cross, on the site of the present Trafalgar Square, at
least as early as 1443 (the earliest reference verifiable
at the moment). It was the transference of the royal
stables to Charing Cross that led to the change in the
meaning of the word “‘ mews’ to that which it still
bears. A. Morirey Davies.
Amersham, July 29.
I REGRET that my article should have contained the
errors to which Dr. Morley Davies draws attention.
Stow wrote: ‘‘ But in the yeare of Christ 1534. the
26. of H. the 8. the king hauing faire stabling at Loms-
bery (a Manor in the farthest west part of Oldborne)
the same was fiered and burnt, with many great
horses, and great store of Hay. After which time, the
forenamed house called the Mewse by Charing Cross
was new builded, and prepared for the stabling of the
kings horses. .’ H. B. Wheatley in “ London
Past and Present’’ states that Bloomsbury is a
corruption of Blemundsbury, the manor of the De
Blemontes, Blemunds, or Blemmots. Blemund’s
Dyche, which was afterwards Bloomsbury Great
Ditch, and Southampton Sewer divided the two
manors of St. Giles and Bloomsbury. He adds:
“There is an absurd statement, taken from Stow’s
Survey, that the name of Bloomsbury was originally
Lomsbery.
misprint, in which the B was inadvertently dropped.”
T. LL. HUMBERSTONE.
Absorption of Potassium Vapour in the Associated
Series.
In our investigations on the optical properties of
potassium vapour we found that there were some
traces of absorption in the above series at about
r100° C., the results of which were embodied in a
note to appear shortly in the Phil. Mag. Asa result
of further experiments conducted in the Physical
Laboratory of this college, we now feel fairly sure
that we have detected distinct traces of absorption
in the diffuse series; the bands 5780, 5340, 5300,
and 5100 surely correspond to 5782, 5340, 5323, and
5100 of (2p—m.d).
The well-defined dark line 4640 previously observed
by us at about 900° C. is confirmed to be the com-
bination line (1s—2d) recently observed by Datta in
the vacuum arc spectrum of potassium (Proc. Roy.
Soc., 99, April 1921) and by J. K. Robertson on —
“ Electrodeless Discharge in certain Vapours”’ (Phys- —
ical Review, May 1922),
At these high temperatures the chemical difficulties
are so great, and the conditions in the experimental
tube so unstable, that, in spite of many attempts, we
found it difficult to obtain a good negative, on account
of the tube giving way owing to the chemical action
of potassium vapour on its walls. Further experi-
ments are in progress, and we hope to confirm these
observations by photography, as these experiments
lend weight to Saha’s theory of temperature radia-
tion. A. L. NARAYANA,
D, GUNNAIYA.
Maharajah’s College, Vizianagram, July Io.
This could only have occurred by a
AUGUST 19, 1922] NWALORLE
to
cn
H
A Recording and Integrating Gas Calorimeter.
By Dr. J. S. G. Tuomas, Senior Physicist, South Metropolitan Gas Company.
NDERTAKINGS operating under the provisions | correction for gas volume as affected by temperature,
iG of the Gas Regulation Act 1920, are required | pressure, and humidity are likewise effected by a
to deliver gas of a declared calorific value to consumers, | positive operation.
and charges to individual consumers are to be based Water Measurement and General.—Water flows from
upon the value of the total thermal energy supplied | a tank, seen in the top right-hand corner of Fig. 1,
to each. By calorific value is to be understood the | where the level is maintained constant, through a
number of B.Th.U. produced by the com-
bustion of x cubic foot of gas measured at
60° F. under a pressure of 30 inches of
mercury and saturated with water vapour.
Under the Act, penalties are to be inflicted
upon the gas undertaking, if on any day
for a period of two hours or more the
calorific value of the gas supplied is more
than 6 per cent. below the declared calorific
value, or if in any quarter the average |
calorific value is less than the declared
calorific value. Embodied in Orders under
the Act are clauses governing the price per
therm (too,ooo B.Th.U.) to be charged
by individual gas undertakings, and the
amount of dividend to be paid to pro-
prietors, as regulated by this price. Such,
in brief, are the-main thermal clauses of
the Gas Regulation Act 1920—the Charter
of Liberty of the gas industry in this
country, and the consumers’ guarantee
that gas undertakings must and will ‘‘ de-
liver the goods,”
Accurate gas calorimetry has long been
of importance for scientific purposes ; ex-
tremely accurate gas calorimetry is now of
consequence industrially and socially. The
accuracy of determination desirable will be
realised when it is understood that, in
terms of money, an error of 1 per cent. in
respect of the thermal value of the annual
gas supply of England, Scotland, and
Wales represents about 500,000l.
Prof. C. V. Boys, at the annual meeting
of the Institution of Gas Engineers on
June 22, exhibited and described a record-
ing and integrating calorimeter (Fig. 1)
which he has designed and constructed
primarily to meet the requirements of the
Act in the matter of continuously recording
the calorific value of towns’ gas. The in-
strument is, however, immediately appli-
cable to the determination and recording
of the calorific value and percentage varia-
tion with time of the calorific value Ue:
of any gas. It is of the water-flow
type, the same water being circulated continuously , nozzle into a celluloid bucket pivotted eccentrically
through the apparatus and cooled to atmospheric | and so proportioned that it overbalances and empties
temperature, by the hot-air engine and cooling coil | into the celluloid water-box shown in Fig. 1. After
seen at the bottom left-hand side of the figure. This | emptying and draining, the bucket is released by a
is an important consideration in continuous calori- | clock every half-minute, and the operation is repeated.
metry, as with another form of recording gas calori- | The quantity of water delivered to the bucket can be
meter at present available the cost of water amounts | adjusted by a stop, so that if the gas is of the declared
to about 20/. per annum. The fundamental features | calorific value, the rise of temperature of the water
of the instrument are: water and gas are doled out | flowing in the calorimeter is exactly 10° C. On the
positively at the correct respective rates, and the | record sheet, therefore, corresponding percentage
NO. 2755, VOL. I10]
252
NATURE
[AuGuST 19, 1922
departures from the declared calorific value are strictly
comparable, being represented by equal displacements
of the recording point, whatever the declared calorific
value.
The water doled out passes through a small hole
into a second compartment of the water-box, and thence
to the calorimeter proper. When the bucket is over-
turned, the jet of water misses the bucket and enters
a third compartment of the water-box, whence it
passes to a fourth compartment, to be delivered to a
small celluloid water-wheel, which drives, through an
elastic connection, the escapement of a one-wheel
pendulum clock ticking half-seconds, and through an
intervening mechanism—called by Prof. Boys the
“thinking machine ’—the axle of the gas meter.
The Gas. Meter.—The gas meter is shown in vertical
section in Fig. 2, the smallest arrow indicating the
direction of entry of gas previously saturated with water
vapour. The meter drum is of celluloid, and is provided
with buoyancy chambers A, so that the drum is largely
carried by the water and not by the axle. The gas
measured in any compartment is therefore contained
Fic. 2.
in a chamber of which the sides, ends, roof, and about
two-thirds of the floor are independent of the water-
level, which can be adjusted to >g4g 9th inch by refer-
ence to the upturned points, B. Changes of water-
level, even if they should occur, would clearly have
little effect on the capacity of the meter. The meter
drum rests loosely on the axle, which is screwed, so
that if meter and axle turn at the same rate there is
no endlong movement of the drum. The axle works in
a long sleeve, C, screwed into a brass ring, and vaseline
is forced in to make axle and sleeve water-tight. No
stuffing boxes are employed, and the inlet and outlet
aprons of the usual wet-meter drum are replaced by
discs closing the front and back of the usual four
compartments. The meter is enclosed gas-tight
within a glass bell D above, and a spun copper bowl,
E, below. The pressure in the meter is about § inch
of water in excess of atmospheric, such excess being
due to the inclusion in the gas circuit of a pin-hole
burner to prevent the calorimeter burner being extin-
guished by the sudden slamming to of a door, etc.
The ‘ Thinking Machine.’—This device, already
referred to, is shown in plan in Fig. 3A. It consists
of a small ball-disc-cylinder integrator, a vertical
section of which is shown in Fig. 3B, coupled with
epicyclic double reduction gear, as shown at A in Fig.
3A, Inserted between the clock and the meter axle so
as to control the rate of revolution of the meter drum.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
The epicyclic device gears down the motion of the
disc of the integrator in the ratio 3: 2, the disc itself
being geared down from the water-wheel in the ratio
4:1. The motion of the cylinder of the integrator is
geared down in the ratio 15: 1.
Temperature and pressure corrections to the gas
volume are automatically and positively effected in
the following way. It is clear that if the ball, B
(Fig. 3B), makes contact with the rotating disc, C,
1
exactly at the centre of the disc, no rotary motion
will be communicated by the disc to the ball and
consequently none to the cylinder D. Such a position
of the ball corresponds to normal. conditions of
temperature (60° F.) and pressure (30 ins. of mercury)
of the gas, and may be conveniently referred to as its
N.T.P. position. The radial displacement of the ball
from the centre of the disc is made to depend upon
atmospheric temperature and pressure as follows: E
(Fig. 34) shows in plan a glass bell filled with air floating
in a mercury and water seal, and connected by a lever
system with a fork which displaces the ball to one side
or other of the centre of the disc, according as the bell
rises or falls with change of atmospheric conditions.
The lever system is such that the ball moves 1 inch,
equal to the radius of the cylinder, when the gas
volume correction is to per cent. Such displacement
of the ball is accompanied by its rotation, producing
rotation of the cylinder, D, whereby endlong motion
is communicated to the meter drum, resulting in the
gas inlet to the meter, I, Fig. 2, being further closed
or opened as required, so that the rate of gas delivery
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATURE 253
reduced to standard conditions is maintained constant
to within ;14; per cent. The corrections effected over
a period of a month are automatically recorded on a
drum revolving above the device. The method of
mounting the meter drum loose on a screwed axle
also prevents the occurrence of accidents should the
gas supply be temporarily cut off and resumed later,
or should the water flow cease. The possible inter-
ference of a mouse with the righting of the bucket
after emptying is also ingeniously provided for.
The Calorimeter Proper—This is shown in
vertical section in Fig. 4. A and Bare the hot
and cold water chambers respectively ; C is the
heat interchanger, in which the heat of the
products of combustion derived from gas
burning at the fused-silica burner, D, is
communicated to the stream of water. A
silica dome is disposed above the flame. The
interchanger is made of sheet-lead closely
folded into fifteen zig-zags round the central
combustion space. Narrow up-cast water-ways
are then formed on one side of the sheet, and
down-cast gas-ways on the other side. The
heated water passes to B through the narrow
neck in the double partition, E, a device in-
troduced by Prof. Boys to prevent the
calorimeter indicating more heat than is pro-
duced by the gas. The copper cylinder, F,
fixed to the brass ring, G, is so proportioned,
the clock. On the paper parallel lines are ruled
during the rotation, indicating definite percentage
departures of the actual measured calorific value of
the gas from the declared calorific value. Time
indications are in like manner impressed upon the
record. An integrating device shown on the right of
Fig. 4, operating after the manner of the Amsler
planimeter and controlled by the position of the
recording pen, averages the departures of the calorific
value of the gas from the declared calorific value since
that loss of heat from the upper part of
the. hot-water compartment is compensated
by the equal gain from the cylinder lower
down by the heat interchanger.
The operative thermometers, H and J, are of brass,
and are filled with amyl alcohol. They are closed
with corrugated brass covers. A lever system utilising
the third dimension of space, magnifies the deformation
of the respective covers occurring with change of
temperature, and the net difference of temperature
of the two thermometers, due to heating, controls
the position of an inked pen recording on a roll of
paper, seen on the right of Fig. 1, kept in motion by
The Earth’s
the indicator was last set to zero, 7.e., since the begin-
ning of the quarter, so that, for example, the integrator
indicating +5 would signify a 5-day fr per cent. excess
of calorific value, or a I- -day 5 per cent. excess, etc.
The writer is extremely obliged to Prof. Boys for the
kind manner in which he has afforded information
concerning the instrument, and to Messrs. Griffin and
Sons for providing the illustrations reproduced in this
article.
“Crust” and its Composition.
By Tuomas Crook.
HE term “crust” is frequently used in dealing
; with the constitution of the earth, but is seldom
defined. It is a convenient scientific term to apply
to the earth’s outermost shell, the only portion of
which geologists have much positive knowledge, and
if it is put to scientific! use, it should be defined,
although a definition of it may involve some hypo-
thesis as to the physical condition of the earth’s
interior.
According to Arrhenius, who assumes that the tem-
perature-gradient observed in continental areas is per-
sistent in depth, the temperature of the earth’s interior
greatly exceeds that of the critical temperature of the
materials occurring there. He infers therefore that
the interior is for the most part gaseous though rigid,
and that this gaseous core is separated by a molten
layer from an outer solid shell about 40 miles thick.
NO. 2755, VOL. r10]
Osmond Fisher assumed a molten condition at a depth
of 25 miles. To those who accept this view, the term
“crust” has a very real and simple significance : it is
the thin, solid, outer shell of the earth, underlain by
molten magma.
At the present time, however, this hypothesis appears
not to be widely held among geophysicists, most of
whom follow Lord Kelvin, Sir George Darwi in, and
other eminent authorities who have shown good reasons
for rejecting the hypothesis of a molten interior at
such depths as postulated by Fisher and Arrhenius,
and who claim that the earth is solid throughout. For
those who adopt this view the definition of the earth’s
“ crust ” is a more difficult matter.
The prevalent view at the present day as regards
the constitution of the earth’s interior is that it consists
of an inner core of nickel-iron about 6200 miles in
254
NATURE
[AucusT 19, 1922
diameter, surrounding which is a silicate shell some
goo miles in thickness. The silicate shell is largely
ultra-basic and basic. Lying on the thick shell of
basaltic rock, which girdles the whole earth, is a com-
paratively thin and discontinuous layer of more siliceous
rock-matter (granite and gneiss), on which the sedi-
mentary rocks have been formed in and around the
continental areas. According to the conception of a
solid earth so constituted, we clearly have no satis-
factory basis for defining the earth’s “ crust ”’ in terms
of the kind of rock of which it is made up, and unless
it can be shown that, at some convenient and fairly
uniform depth, the rock-substance of the earth under-
goes a critical change in its physical condition at the
temperature and pressure prevailing there, the only
available alternative is to define the ‘“‘ crust” in a
more arbitrary manner in terms of depth.
One way of doing this is to limit its thickness, as
some authors do, to that outer portion of the earth of
which we may be said to have observational knowledge.
The maximum depth at which rocks observable at the
surface of the earth have been formed is quite an
important geological problem from the economic as
well as from the scientific viewpoint, and one that
appears never to have been treated adequately. It
may, however, perhaps safely be inferred that, by
observation of surface geological features, we have a
knowledge of the earth down to a depth of more than
5 miles, but considerably less than ro miles,
In their most recent estimate of the average com-
position of the earth’s “ crust,” Drs. F. W, Clarke and
H. S. Washington, of the United States Geological
Survey, give its average composition down to depths
of ro and 20 miles. The detailed statement of their
results has not yet been published, but is to be issued
as a Professional Paper by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Pending the publication of the detailed report, how-
ever, they have given a brief account of their results
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
(1922, vol. 8, p. 108).
The method adopted by them for ascertaining the
average composition of the lithosphere is to take the
average of trustworthy analyses of igneous rock speci-
mens collected from various parts of the earth’s surface.
They have included 5159 analyses. Averages are
given separately for the igneous rocks of the United
States ; North America other than the United States,
including Greenland; Central and South America ;
Europe; Africa and Asia; Australasia, Polynesia and
Antarctica. In computing the averages for these
various regions the sum total of each constituent was
divided by the total number of analyses of specimens
from the region dealt with. In calculating the com-
position of the earth’s “crust” as a whole, the pro-
portions of the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere
for a depth of ten miles were taken as follows :—
lithosphere 93 per cent., hydrosphere 7 per cent., and
atmosphere 0-03 per cent. The lithosphere is assumed
to be made up as follows :—igneous rocks, 95 per cent. ;
shale, 4 per cent.; sandstone, 0-75 per cent.; and
limestone, 0-25 per cent. Figures are given for the rarer
as well as for the commoner elements.
The following is the result obtained for the average
chemical composition of the igneous rocks of the
earth :—
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
AVERAGE IGNEOUS Rock.
f Per cent. Per cent.
SiO, 59°12 EF 0-030
Al,O, 15°34 S) 0°052
Fe,O, 3°08 (Ce, Y).O3 0-020
FeO 3:80 Cr,0; 0-055
MgO 3 49 V0, 0-026
CaO 5:08 MnO O-124
Na,O 3°84 NiO 0-025
K,O 3°13 BaO 0-055
H,O+ [15 SrO 0-022
CO, O-I0L Li,O 0-008
TiO, 1:050 Cu 0-O10
ZrO, 0:039 Zn 0-004
POs 0-299 Pb 0-002
Cl 0-048 ——-
100-000
The following table shows the estimated percentages
of the commoner elements in the lithosphere, hydro-
sphere and atmosphere :—
ELEMENTS IN THE LITHOSPHERE, HyDROSPHERE, AND
ATMOSPHERE,
I 2 3 4
Oxygen 49°19 47°80 46-68 40°41
Silicon 25°71 26°65 27:60 27°58
Aluminium . 7-50 7°79 8-05 8-08
Tron 4°68 4°88 5°03 5208
Calcium 3°37 3°49 363 3°61
Sodium 2-61 2°72 2°72 2:83
Potassium 2-38 2°48 2-56 2:58
Magnesium . : I-94 2-01 2-07 2-09
Hydrogen . : 0-872 0-497 0145 0-129
Titanium 0-648 0-684 0-696 0-720
Chlorine 0-228 0-162 0 095 0-096
Phosphorus O-142 0-150 0-152 "0-157
Carbon 0-139 0-095 0-149 0-051
Manganese . 0-108 o-116 o-116 0-124
Sulphur 0-093 0:086 0-100 0-080
Barium 0-075 0-078 0-079 0-081
Chromium 0 062 0-065 0-066 0-068
Zirconium 0-048 0-050 0+052 0+052
Vanadium 0:038 0-040 0-041 0-041
Strontium 0-032 0:034 0-034 0-034
Fluorine 0-030 0-030 0 030 0-030
Nickel . 0-030 0-031 0-031 0-031
Nitrogen. 2 0-030 0-016 = So
Cerium, Yttrium 0-019 0-020 0-020 0-020
Copper. 0-010 0-010 0-010 0-010
Lithium 0-005 0-005 0*005 0-005
Zinc. 0-004 0-004 0-004 0-004
Cobalt . 0-003 0-003 0-003 0-003
Lead 0-002 0-002 0-002 0-002
Boron 0-001 0-001 0-001 0-001
Glucinum 0-00L 0-001 0-001 0-001
I00:000 00-000 100-000 100-000
1. Average composition. Ten-mile crust, hydrosphere,
and atmosphere.
2. Average composition.
atmosphere.
3. Average composition.
sedimentary rocks.
4. Average composition.
A serious defect in the method of procedure on which
the above estimates by Clarke and Washington are
based is that it makes no allowance for the relative
magnitude of the different kinds of rock of which the
lithosphere is composed. They admit this defect, but
claim that any errors involved are likely to be com-
pensating (Journ. Franklin Inst., 1920, vol. 190, p. 77°).
Their claim can scarcely be allowed, however, even for
the outer 10 miles of the “ crust,” and still less can it
be allowed down to a depth of 20 miles.
As to the relative proportions of the rocks composing
Twenty-mile crust, hydrosphere,
Ten-mile crust, igneous and
Ten-mile crust. Igneous rocks.
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATURE 255
the lithosphere at this depth, even at 10 miles, we have
as yet no positive knowledge, but the distribution of
igneous rocks at the surface of the earth, and a com-
parison of oceanic and continental regions, give us
some important facts to guide our reasoning on this
matter. We are probably not far from the truth if
we assume that the granitic portion of the lithosphere
is largely restricted to the continental regions of the
earth, and its thickness may not exceed an average
of about 5 miles. If so, assuming this granite layer in
continental regions to contain on an average 70 per
cent. of silica, and assuming that it is underlain to a
depth of ro miles from the surface by basalt containing
on an average 48 per cent. of silica, this would give us
a silica percentage of about 59 for the average igneous
rock of the lithosphere in continental regions down to
a depth of to miles, which is in agreement with the
average of the igneous rock of the “ crust” as estimated
by Clarke and Washington.
It should be noted that this takes no account of the
* crust ” of the oceanic regions, which is probably in
large part basaltic. We may for the purpose of this
argument assume that the granite shell of continental
regions covers half the earth. This is an extrav agant
assumption, but as it doubtless errs substantially in
exaggerating the acidity of the “crust,” the error is
on the right side so far as the present argument is
concerned. If we further assume the sub-oceanic
“crust ’’ down to a depth of 10 miles to be basaltic,
and to contain on an average 48 per cent. of silica,
this would give us an average igneous rock containing
about 534 per cent. of silica for the outer to miles of
the lithosphere all round the earth.
Extending our considerations to a depth of 20 miles,
there can be little doubt that we should regard the
deeper ro miles as on the whole more basic than the
basaltic material of the outer ro miles, and it is reason-
able to assume that this deeper layer of basalt does
not contain on the average more than 46 per cent. of
silica. If we make this assumption, then the average
rock of the earth’s “‘ crust ” as a whole down to a depth
of 20 miles would contain not more than about 50 per
cent. of silica.
Comparing these with the figures given above by
Clarke and Washington, the inference we draw is that
they have probably much understated the basicity of
the earth’s “crust.” Their average down to a depth
of ro miles is, as we have seen, only acceptable for
continental regions, and cannot be admitted for the
earth as a whole. Still less can their average for the
lithosphere down to a depth of 20 miles be admitted,
for, as we have seen, there is good reason for believing
that the average rock down to this depth probably
corresponds to a gabbro, containing about 50 per cent.
of silica, rather than, as they infer, to a granodiorite
containing 59 per cent. of silica.
This question of the average composition of the
earth’s “‘crust”” has important bearings on many
scientific and economic problems. It is quite commonly
assumed that the average igneous rock is intermediate
in composition, and that granitic and basaltic eruptives
are products of differentiation derived from inter-
mediate magmas. It seems highly probable, however,
that the average igneous rock of the earth’s crust is
basic ; and although differentiation does undoubtedly
play an important part in the formation of igneous
rocks, the claim that granites and basalts are in general
differentiates from magmas of intermediate composition
has no adequate foundation in the facts known to us
concerning the petrology of the earth.
Centenary of the Death of William Herschel.
os August 25, 1822—a hundred years ago—
William Herschel died at Slough, aged eighty-
three years and nine months. His scientific activity
had continued almost to the end of his long life. His
last published paper was read before the Royal Astro-
nomical Society (of which he was the first President)
in June 1821. It is the only one of his seventy memoirs
which was not published in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, of the yearly volumes of which for the years
1780 to 1818 inclusive only those for 1813 and 1816
contain nothing by him, while not a few volumes include
several papers from his hand. Even in the last year
of his life, when his son, under his continual guidance,
made and figured the 18?-inch mirror, which was after-
wards used by Sir John Herschel at Slough and at the
Cape, it is recorded that “‘ the interest he took in this
work and the clearness and precision of his directions
showed a mind unbroken by age and still capable of
turning all the resources of former experience to the
best account.”
When Herschel, on March 1, 1774, began to keep a
record of what he saw in the heavens with telescopes
made by himself, it was natural that he should for some
years show no decided preference for any particular
branch of astronomy. At first he paid some attention
to the planets, and determined the rotation-periods
of Jupiter and Mars. But it did not escape his clear
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
perception very long that what was urgently required
at that time was a systematic study of the vast number
of celestial bodies outside the solar system. If Herschel
had not early grasped this fact, and persevered all the
rest of his life in his devotion to sidereal astronomy,
he would never have become a great astronomer, but
would merely, like his contemporary, Schréter, have
been known as an indefatigable observer who occasion-
ally did some good work. But on his way from the
solar system out into space beyond it Herschel found
a new planet (Uranus), about twice as far from the sun
as what had up to then been considered the outermost
planet. This was not a lucky accident, but a discovery
which was bound to be made sooner or later by an
observer who searched the heavens as systematically
as he did. It was the first time since the prehistoric
ages that a new planet was discovered. Herschel
afterwards found two satellites of Uranus and two of
Saturn, but his principal work was always on subjects
connected with sidereal astronomy.
“A knowledge of the construction of the heavens
has always been the ultimate object of my observa-
tions.” This was the opening sentence of his paper of
1811, and as he had said much the same in the con-
cluding words of his first paper (of 1784) on that
subject, we see how faithful he remained to the plan
of work he had adopted early in his scientific career.
256
INA TOTES
[AuGUST I9, 1922
Speculations on the construction of the universe had
been made before Herschel’s time : by Thomas Wright
in 1750, by an anonymous writer in 1755 (who after-
wards turned out to be Immanuel Kant, and adopted
most of Wright’s conclusions), by Lambert, and by
Michell. None of these writers had made any observa-
tions on which to found their theories. But Herschel
would build on observed facts so far as possible. He
began by attempting to find the distance of the fixed
stars by measuring double stars. This turned out to
be impossible ; but the work done was not wasted, as
hundreds of double stars had been found and measured.
When many of these measures were repeated some
twenty years later, the great discovery was made that
not a few of these pairs of stars were revolving round
their common centre of gravity. The nebule and
clusters of stars were next systematically searched for ;
2500 were found and their places determined. Herschel
started with the idea that all nebule were composed
of stars, and he therefore included clusters, even rather
scattered ones, in his observations, as representing
with dense clusters and nebul the different stages of
the same class of bodies. But the discovery of some
indubitably nebulous stars, or stars with atmospheres,
made him recognise that there must be here and there
in space some kind of “‘ shining fluid ” of which diffused
nebulz and planetary nebule were formed. This idea
found very little favour among astronomers for many
years, particularly after the completion of Lord Rosse’s
6-foot reflector, the maker of which was inclined to
think every nebula “ resolvable.” Yet Herschel was
found to be right when Huggins proved many nebule
to have a gaseous spectrum.
Another discovery of Herschel’s, which was doubted
or denied until confirmed elsewhere, was the proper
motion of the sun through space. Here there was
perhaps some excuse for the doubters, as the material
available for the investigation was rather scanty.
In order to get some idea of the distribution of the
stars Herschel for some years took observations of the
star-density in various parts of the sky by counting
the stars seen in the field of his telescope. Making
two assumptions—that his telescope could reach the
boundaries of the Milky Way, and that the stars of the
system were tolerably uniformly distributed—he was
able to construct a rough diagram of the shape of the
Milky Way system to which our sun belongs. This
is the well-known disc or grindstone theory, according to
which the stars are scattered between two planes,
roughly parallel to the belt of the visible Milky Way,
with a stratum running out to one side to represent
the bifurcation from Cygnus to Scorpio. Near the
centre of this system (also spoken of as ‘ our nebula’’)
Herschel placed our sun. In after years, in two papers
of 1817 and 1818, Herschel, as a result of his observa-
tions, was obliged to abandon the idea of uniform
distribution, and also to recognise that his telescope
could not reach the boundaries of the Milky Way
system. But that the system extended very much
further in the plane of the Milky Way than at right
angles to it, remained his opinion, though the concep-
tion of the system being a nebula—that is, a star cluster
had been given up.
Here again there was, towards the end of the
nineteenth century, a tendency to abandon Herschel’s
results, and the opinion was set forth in more than one
quarter, that the Milky Way is really what it looks hke—
a huge ring-shaped cluster. It has even been suggested
that it Js a gigantic spiral nebula inside which our sun
is situated—at first sight a rather tempting proposal.
But recent researches by Shapley have shown these
hypotheses to be untenable; and his work on the
distribution of globular clusters, showing the enormous
distances of many thousands of light-years which
separate them from us, agrees in a remarkable manner
with the ideas worked out by the old astronomer at
Slough exactly a hundred years earlier, in the last
paper he sent to the Royal Society. J. Labs
Obituary.
Dr. ARTHUR RANsomE, F.R.S.
HE death of Dr. Ransome at Bournemouth in his
eighty-ninth year recalls the memory of a
Manchester physician who was a pioneer in the training
of female health visitors, and in the investigation of
tuberculosis and of the cyclical waves of epidemic
diseases. He died on July 25; and by a striking coin-
cidence, at the first meeting earlier in the same day of
Section I.—that of Preventive Medicine—of the Con-
gress of the Royal Sanitary Institute then being held
in Bournemouth, a message of appreciation of Dr.
Ransome’s past work had been authorised, which never
reached him.
Dr. Ransome was born in Manchester in 1834. He
became an honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge, and for many years was consulting
physician of the Manchester Hospital for Consumption,
as well as Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at
Owen’s College, 1880-95.
Dr. Ransome’s chief writings related to tuberculosis,
on which he published several books, as well as special
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
contributions to the Epidemiological and _ other
Societies. He gave the Milroy lectures to the Royal
College of Physicians on the causes of phthisis, and
received the Parkes Weber prize for special researches
on tuberculosis. From his experiments he concluded
that finely divided tuberculous matter is rapidly
deprived of virulence in daylight and in free currents
of air; that even in the dark, fresh air has some,
though a retarded disinfecting influence, and that in
the absence of currents of air the tubercle bacillus
retains its infectivity for long periods of time. The
general effect of his work was to emphasise the import-
ance of disinfection of rooms occupied by tuberculous
patients. At the same time Dr. Ransome attached
greater importance to sanitary and social improve-
ments in the prevention of tuberculosis than to direct
attack on the bacillus.
In epidemiology Dr. Ransome was one of the first to
investigate the influence of cyclical waves in producing
the intermittent prevalence of epidemic diseases,
apparently independent of the accumulation of un-
protected persons. The Swedish tables of mortality,
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NA TORE
257
of unique historical duration, furnished him, as they
did other investigators, with the data for the con-
struction of charts, which showed, for example in
scarlet fever, not only a short cycle for that country of
four to six years, but also a long undulation of from
fifteen to twenty years or more, which, as he said,
might “ be likened to a vast wave of disease upon which
the lesser epidemics show like ripples upon the surface
of an ocean swell’? (Epidemiological Society’s Trans-
actions, 1881-82).
Dr. Ransome wrote much also on general public
health subjects, always with a keen appreciation of the
value of vital statistics and of the pitfalls to be avoided.
Thus, in any population, except that of a life-table,
in which births equal deaths and migration is absent,
a death-rate of ro per rooo does not mean an average
duration of life of roo years. As he put it: “ under
present conditions such figures . . . can only be looked
for in the millennium, when, as Isaiah says, the child
shall die an hundred years old.”
Dr. Ransome taught at an early date that “ pre-
ventible” mortality extended far beyond epidemic
diseases ; and was singularly accurate in his forecast
that infant mortality, which ‘“‘ had not yet received
full attention from the sanitary administrators of the
country,” would hereafter prove largely controllable.
In a paper contributed to the Lancet, July 11, 1896,
Dr. Ransome drew a striking comparison between
leprosy and tuberculosis, arguing that in view of the
close analogy between the two diseases there is reason
to hope for a diminution of tuberculosis as striking as
that already experienced in leprosy. The subject is
too large to be expanded in this column, but this paper
deserves to be consulted.
The above illustrations of some portions of Dr.
Ransome’s life-work show how wide were his studies
and how prescient his teaching. A special shelf will
always be reserved for his writings by students of
tuberculosis and of general epidemiology. Many years
ago Dr. Ransome retired to Bournemouth, where, until
a few weeks before his death —when the present writer
received a letter from him on an epidemiological point —
he maintained his interest in his life-studies.
Pror. GISBERT Kapp.
By the death on August to of Prof. Gisbert Kapp,
the country loses one of the few remaining pioneers of
electrical engineering. Prof. Kapp was born at Mauer
near Vienna in 1852, his father being German and his
mother Scottish. At the Ziirich Polytechnic he was
a pupil of Zeuner and Kohlrausch. In 1875 he came
to England, but spent several years afterwards in
travelling on the Continent and in North Africa. He
Was appointed engineer to the Chelmsford Works of
Messrs. Crompton and Co. in 1882, and in conjunction
with Mr. (now Colonel) Crompton he invented a system
of compound winding for dynamos. At this period
England was the leading country in the world in
electrical engineering. In 1886—the year in which
John and Edward Hopkinson published their classical
paper on dynamo design—Kapp read a paper on a
similar subject to the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
NO. 2755, VOL. I10]
He pointed out clearly the analogy between the mag-
netic circuit of a dynamo and an ordinary electric
circuit. In this year also he published his book on the
transmission of electrical energy which gave a very
clear introduction to the whole problem. In the
autumn of 1894 he accepted the post of secretary to
the German Association of Electrical Engineers. He
was also a lecturer to the Technical School at Charlotten-
burg and was editor of the Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift.
In 1904 he was appointed the first professor of electrical
engineering to Birmingham University.
As an inventor Kapp was in the front rank. The
Kapp dynamos were very useful in their day. The
Oerlikon Company, of Switzerland, built many large
Kapp machines. But like all the other early types
they are now superseded by machines with revolving
fields and armature windings embedded in slots. Kapp
also invented many types of measuring instruments, a
method of making dynamos self-regulating, several
types of transformer, a high-speed steam-engine, a
system of distributing alternating currents, and a
method of boosting the return feeders on electric rail-
ways. This last method has still considerable vogue
in this country and in Germany.
Kapp was an excellent teacher. Many of the present-
day electricians acquired their first ideas of the working
of electric machinery from his books. His mathe-
matical theorems were original and in several cases
strikingly simple—for example, his formule for the
free period of coupled alternators. He invented many
laboratory methods of testing machines. His test for
the efficiency of dynamos and his method of getting
the moment of inertia of the rotor of a machine are
particularly valuable. He also invented a method of
getting the insulation resistance of a three-wire net-
work without the necessity of shutting down the supply.
He was one of the earliest to recognise the importance
of the phase difference between the alternating current
and the alternating potential difference. Developing
the theory of the power factor he gave a very simple
geometrical explanation of electrical resonance. In
recent years he invented a vibratory type of phase
advancer and pointed out that considerable economies
might be effected by using these machines in everyday
supply.
Kapp was a past president of the Institution of
Electrical Engineers and was president of the Engincer-
ing Section of the British Association in 1913. Person-
ally he was of a very kindly disposition and was always
pleased to give his colleagues the benefit of his great
engineering experience. He was most hospitable, and
was learned in many branches of study outside his
professional work. INS AS
Mrs. J. A. OWEN VISGER.
READERS of natural history works at the end of the
last century were somewhat mystified as to the author-
ship of a number of books published under the pen-
name of ‘‘ A Son of the Marshes,”’ with the editorship
of “ J. A. Owen.” The latter was the name under
which Mrs. Jean A. Owen Visger preferred to be known,
whose death at Ealing on July go, in her eighty-first
258 NATURE
year, we much regret to have to record. Mrs. Visger
was a woman of considerable attainments, with a good
deal of masculinity in her character, both mental and
physical. She had an absorbing interest in anything
appertaining to Nature, and her mind was a store-
house of material acquired during her long life. Her
powers of observation were great, and she used to the
full in her literary work the excellent memory which
Nature had given her, and the many opportunities
which travel afforded her.
The real “ Son of the Marshes ”’ was understood to
have been a working naturalist in Surrey, but it is
probable that J. A. Owen’s editorship went a good deal
further than mere editing. One might say, in effect,
that the books were practically written by her. They
contained much interesting natural history gossip,
following the Richard Jefferies style, but, as a rule, the
information was quite unlocalised, and so lost much
of its scientific value. The books followed rapidly
on one another, and amongst them may be mentioned,
“From Spring to Fall,” ‘“ With the Woodlanders and
by the Tide,” “‘ Annals of a Fishing Village,” “* Within
an Hour of London Town,” “ Forest Tithes,” and
“On Surrey Hills.”
Mrs. Visger was twice married, first in 1863, in which
year she went to live in New Zealand. ‘There she re-
mained for five years, visiting Tahiti and the Sandwich
Islands. She returned to reside in England in 1876,
and married again in 1883, afterwards travelling con-
siderably in Europe and in the Pacific. She finally
returned to England in 1913. Beside a few books of
travel, Mrs. Visger wrote, “‘ Forest, Field, and Fell,”
“ Birds in a Garden,” “ Birds Useful and Birds Harm-
ful,” and in collaboration with the late Prof. G. S.
Boulger, “The Country Month by Month.” Her
books are not now read, perhaps, so much as they
deserve to be.
?
[AUGUST I9, 1922
Pror. H. BATTERMANN.
Hans BATTERMANN, who died in Blankenburg, Harz,
on June 15, at the age of sixty-two, has left a record
of much useful work in astronomy. In his youth he
studied at Berlin University under Forster and Tietjen,
gaining the degree of doctor in 1881 for a dissertation
on aberration. After a short period at Hamburg
Observatory he returned to Berlin as a member of the
Commission which was appointed, under the direction
of Auwers, for the discussion of the results obtained
at the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882. During
this period he observed a long series of occultations of
stars by the moon, utilising them to obtain a value of
the moon’s parallactic inequality, and hence of the
solar parallax ; the value that he found for the latter
was 8-789", which is a good approximation to the
accepted value; a still longer series of occultations,
observed near the first and last quarters of the moon,
should give a very accurate solar parallax. Battermann
also conducted two other useful investigations at this
time, one on the nature of the images in a heliometer,
the other a triangulation of the Pleiades with that
instrument. In 1888 he observed for nine months at
the Géttingen Observatory ; on his return to Berlin
he took the chief part in the star observations with the
transit circle, and in their reduction to a Catalogue,
including the discussion of proper motions.
In 1904 Battermann was appointed professor and
director of the University Observatory at K6nigsberg ;
he continued there his researches on proper motion,
and also observed further occultations with the 13-inch
refractor. He was compelled to resign his professor-
ship in 1919 through a complete breakdown in health,
brought on by overwork ; he retired to Blankenburg,
where he died three years later, after much suffering.
ANC. DAG
Current Topics and Events.
Dr. M. O. Forster, who, since November 1918,
has been director of the Salters’ Institute of Industrial
Chemistry, is relinquishing this post at the end of
next month, having been appointed director of the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He expects
to take up his new duties early in November.
A NEw biological station for the study of limno-
logical problems and for research on the development
of fresh-water fishes has been established at the Lake
of Trasimeno, in Umbria. The University of Perugia
has assumed responsibility, and the director of the
station is the professor of physiology, Dr. Osvaldo
Polimanti. Further details of the equipment are
promised at an early date.
THE excavations at the Meare Lake Village, near
Glastonbury (Shapwick and Ashcott are the nearest
stations), will be resumed by the Somersetshire
Archeological and Natural History Society on August
25, and continued until September 9 (exclusive of
the filling-in). As in previous years, the work will
be under the personal direction of Dr, Arthur Bulleid
and Mr. H. St. George Gray. The antiquities dis-
Somerset County Museum at the society’s head-
quarters, Taunton Castle, while those from the
Glastonbury Lake Village (described in two royal
quarto volumes) are to be seen, for the most part,
in the Museum at Glastonbury. Donations are
needed and will gladly be received by Mr. St. George
Gray, at the Somerset County Museum, Taunton.
One of the oldest organised scientific societies, the
““ Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft,’’ is
holding its to3rd Annual Meeting at Berne on August
24-27. In addition to the usual business of the society,
there will be scientific discussions, and a number of
important papers will be read, including: “ The
Trend of Modern Physics,’’ Dr. C. E. Guye (Geneva) ;
“The Nature of the so-called General Neuroses,’’
Prof. Sahli (Berne) ; ‘‘ The Aar Massif—an Example
of Alpine Granitic Intrusion,’ Dr. E. Hugi (Berne) ;
“The Natural Form of Substances as a Physical
Problem,’’ Dr. V. Kohlschiitter (Berne) ; ‘‘ Experi-
mental Genetics in regard to the Law of Variation ”
(illustrated by lantern slides), Dr. A. Pictet (Geneva) ;
and “‘ Investigations into the Physiology of Alpine
Plants,’ Dr. G. Senn (Bale). Banquets will be held
covered in past years at Meare are exhibited in the | at the end of each session, and there will be concerts
NO: 2755, VOL. 1 10]]
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATURE
259
and other social functions. Those wishing to take
part in the meetings may do so on payment of a fee of
thirty francs, payable to the “‘ Postcheckkonto No.
Til. 1546” of the ‘‘ Naturforschende Gesellschaft,”
Berne.
Amonc the Civil List Pensions granted during the
year ended March 31, 1922, and announced in
Parliamentary Paper, No. 137, just published, we
notice the following :—Lady Fletcher, in recognition
of the services rendered by her late husband (Sir
Lazarus Fletcher) to science, and in consideration of
her circumstances, 60/.; Dr. Francis Warner, in
recognition of the services rendered by him in his
investigations into the mental and physical condition
of defective children, and in consideration of his
circumstances, roo/.; Sir George Greenhill, F.R.S.,
in recognition of his services to science and his
ballistic work, and in consideration of his circum-
stances, 125/.; Mrs. J. M. Miller, in recognition of
the services rendered by her late husband (Dr.
N. H. J. Miller) to agricultural science, and in con-
sideration of her circumstances, 50/.; Mrs. Alice Mabel
Ussher, in recognition of the services rendered by
her late husband (Mr. W. A. E. Ussher) to geological
science, and in consideration of her circumstances,
5o/.; Mrs. Agnes E. Walker, in recognition of the
services rendered by her late husband (Mr. George W.
“Walker, F.R.S.) to science, and in consideration of
her circumstances, 75/.; The Misses Ellen C.,
Gertrude M., Alice B., Katherine E. and Mary L.
Woodward, in recognition of the services rendered by
their late father (Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S.) to
geological science, and in consideration of their
circumstances, 125/.
On August 19, 1822, a hundred years ago, died
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, the illustrious
astronomer and permanent secretary to the Paris
Academy of Sciences. Born in Amiens, September
19, 1749, Delambre became a student in Paris and
first gained a livelihood as a translator and a tutor.
A friendship with Lalande led him to astronomy,
and among his earlier work was the formation of
tables of Herschel’s newly-discovered planet Uranus.
With the revolution came the proposal for a rational
system of weights and measures, and on the formation
of a commission to carry the scheme through,
Delambre and Méchain were instructed to measure
an arc of meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona. Often
interrupted, this great work occupied the years
1792 to 1799, while the results were given fully in
Delambre’s ‘“‘Base du Systéme métrique decimal,”’
published in 1806-10. Various appointments fell
to Delambre; in 1807 he succeeded Lalande at the
Collége de France, and as secretary to the Academy
of Sciences he wrote many éloges and reports. His
later years were largely devoted to the writing of
his great history of astronomy, five volumes of
which appeared during 1817-1821, while the final
volume was published five years after Delambre’s
death. Delambre is buried in the Pére la Chaise
Cemetery.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
Mr. H. G. Smiru, formerly assistant curator and
economic chemist at the Sydney Technological Mu-
seum, has been awarded the David Syme Research
prize of the University of Melbourne. The prize,
which consists of a medal and asum of tool., is awarded
for the best thesis based upon original scientific re-
search connected with the material and industrial
development of Australia. Mr. Smith is the leading
authority upon the chemistry of the essential oils of
the eucalypts. Working largely in collaboration with
his botanical colleague, Mr. R. T. Baker, and as a
result of nearly thirty years’ assiduous research, he
has been able to establish a remarkable correlation
between chemical and botanical characteristics in
this complex genus, and an evolutionary theory
accounting for the formation of the various species of
Eucalyptus has been advanced by him and Mr. Baker.
Since his retirement from the Sydney Technological
Museum, Mr. Smith, although in his seventieth year,
has been actively engaged in further work in the
Organic Chemistry Department of the University of
Sydney, in association with Prof. Read.
In accordance with its policy of promoting scientific
investigation in Australia, the Australian National
Research Council has decided to publish a quarterly
catalogue, comprising a list of titles, authors, and
journals of publication of scientific research papers of
Australian origin, whether appearing in Australian
or other journals. The catalogue, which will also
contain a brief abstract supplied by the author of
each paper concerned, will be entitled Australian
Science Abstracts, and will be under the control of an
editorial committee representing the various branches
of science corresponding with the sectional arrange-
ment. The personnel of the editorial committee is as
follows: Prof. H. G. Chapman, Dr. L. A. Cotton,
Mr. J. J. Fletcher, Mr. A. Gibson, Prof. J. Read,
Prof. O. U. Vonwiller, Mr. G. A. Waterhouse, and
Prof. R. D. Watt, with Dr. A. B. Walkom as editor-
in-chief. The catalogue will be published in Sydney ;
it will be issued free of charge to members and
associates of the Australian National Research Council,
and a number of copies will be used for exchange
purposes. It is hoped to issue the first number this
month.
EXCEPTIONALLY heavy rains fell in many parts of
England during the August Bank-holiday week-end
and the following days, causing not only discomfort
but doing also a large amount of damage in several
districts. The primary cause of the rainfall was the
arrival of a cyclonic disturbance from the Atlantic,
the core or centre of the storm being situated near the
Land’s End at 8 a.m. on Sunday, August 6, reaching
Portland by 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and passing
over the Isle of Wight at 7 o'clock in the evening.
It was a few miles to the north-west of London at
8 a.m. on August 7, and passed over Cambridge at
2 o'clock in the afternoon, reaching Spurn Head by
7 o'clock in the evening. The disturbance had arrived
near Flamborough Head at 2 A.M. on August 8 and
afterwards passed away over the North Sea, but the
arrival of another disturbance occasioned a renewal
260
NATURE
[AuGcusT 19, 1922
of the rains. During the 12 hours ending 6 P.M. on
August 6 the fall of rain at Bournemouth was about
Ij inches. At Harrogate the aggregate rainfall was
nearly 5 inches for the three days ending Wednesday,
August 9. Nottingham registered 3-4 inches of rain
for the 24 hours ending 7 p.m. on August 7. Sheffield
experienced exceptionally heavy rain on this date,
which occasioned floods, and there was a renewal of
the floods in the late evening of the following day.
At Leeds, between the morning of August 7 and mid-
day of August 9 the rainfall measured 3°44 inches,
which is said to be the highest ever recorded in the
city. At Melton Mowbray the rain measured 4°83
inches for the 24 hours ending 9 p.m. on August 7,
and at Doncaster the measurement was 4°08 inches
between midnight on August 6 and 6.30 P.M. on August
7. Violent thunderstorms occurred generally in the
south and east of England, and in London on the
afternoon of August 9 a storm was accompanied
by a heavy fall of hail.
stones remained unmelted on the ground for several
hours.
Swatow, situated on the China coast at the mouth
of the river Han and in the Formosa Strait, was
visited by a typhoon of terrific violence during the
night of August 2-3; the storm lasted about six
hours, starting at 1o P.M. on August 2. The pre-war
population of Swatow is given as 60,000, and an
estimate, made a week after the disaster, of the loss
At Hampstead the hail- |
of life at Swatow and the surrounding district is said
to be probably 50,000. Six other towns besides
Swatow are said to be destroyed. The water rose
quite suddenly, partly submerging houses and
buildings. Trees were uprooted and telegraph poles
blown down. Sampans and native craft were.blown
hundreds of yards inshore, most of the occupants
being drowned, and many large vessels were driven
ashore. More than 2000 vessels annually enter the
port. The occurrence and characteristics of typhoons
in the China Seas have long been studied and are
comparatively well understood. The recent storm
was probably one of the type shown in the “ Baro-
meter Manual for the use of Seamen”’ published by
the Meteorological Office. The period of occurrence
is from June to September. These storms usually
originate in the neighbourhood of the Philippines
and travel northward or north-eastward, striking or
skirting the China coast and afterwards passing near
to Korea and Japan. The typhoons are commonly
warned from Manila or Hong-kong, but the warning
can, at the best, only lessen the amount of damage.
The Hong-kong Government has greatly aided in
relieving the distress occasioned, and the British have
been helped in this by the Japanese. In the Backer-
gunge, Bay of Bengal, cyclone, in October 1876, the
loss of life by drowning was estimated at 100,000,
and the deaths afterwards from disease directly due
to the inundation added another 100,000 to the
number.
Our Astronomical Column.
CONJUNCTION OF VENUS AND JUPITER.—A con-
junction of these brilliant planets will occur on August
26 at 18h. G.M.T., when Venus will be 2° 209’ south of
Jupiter. Venus will set at 8h. 11m., and Jupiter will
set at 8h. 24m. G.M.T. Sunset occurs at 7h. G.M.T.,
so that the two planets will set about 14 hours after
the sun. Twilight will be very strong in the western
sky just before the setting of the two planets, and in
order to observe them it will be necessary to look
from a position which commands a clear open view
of the western sky near the horizon.
On August 25 Venus and Jupiter will be in con-
junction with the moon soon after midnight following
the date mentioned, and on August 30 will be in
conjunction with Mars in the evening. The west-
ern sky during the last week of August will be ex-
tremely interesting, the new moon being there and
Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn also visible in the same
region,
THE ORBITAL DISTANCES OF SATELLITES AND MINOR
PLANETS.—Prof. G. Armellini in 1918 published a
law of planetary distances in the form 1-53”, where
is given successive integral values from for
Mercury to +8 for Neptune. The two integers +2
and +3 are assigned to the asteroids, while +6 is
left unused. It can scarcely be claimed that (except
in the case of Neptune) it shows great superiority
over the law of Bode. However, in a further paper
(Scientia, August 1922) he notes that his colleague
Prof. Burgatti has applied the law to the satellite
a
being 1-80", 1-34", and 1-31" respectively. In the
case of the Jupiter family the indices are —3, —2,
—1I, 0, +1 for V and the four bright satellites; +2,
+3 are unused, +4 is assigned to the two satellites
VI, VII, while +5, +6 are given to VIII, IX re-
spectively. The author erroneously gives a distance
to IX half as great again as that of VIII. The two
in reality form a twin pair like VI, VII. Since the
law gives no explanation of vacant spaces or of pairs
of satellites, its claims to rest on a physical basis are
not convincing. ;
The remainder of the paper deals with the asterodi-
orbits. The gaps at the distances where the periods
are half and one-third of Jupiter’s are not ascribed
to the direct action of that planet, but to some
primitive agency which determined both its distance
and theirs. It is, indeed, likely that the asteroids
will play an important part in future discussions on
the cosmogony of the solar system. 1
Prof. Armellini cites an interesting point about
planet 434 Hungaria. Its distance from the sun,
1-95, is the precise distance at which Leverrier stated
that enormous perturbations in inclination would
develop, causing oscillations of 53°. Charlier, how-
ever, pointed out that Leverrier had included only
first-order perturbations; he estimated that the
inclusion of higher terms would diminish the oscilla-
tion to 17° or less. Finally, Prof. Armellini himself
has effected the complete integration of the expres-
sions, using elliptic functions, and finds that the
oscillation of the inclination is only 34°, a quantity
systems of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, the formule ' of the same order as that of the major planets.
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
AUGUST I9, 1922]
NATURE
Research Items.
CoLour SymBortsm.—In the June issue of Folk-
love (vol. xxxiii. No. 2) Mr. D, A. Mackenzie contributes
a paper on colour symbolism, which contains a mass
of interesting facts. Egyptian colour symbolism
was already old at the dawn of the Dynastic period.
In ancient Europe it was restricted by the conventions
of Cave art, and the range of colours used by the
Cro-Magnon artists was limited and confined to earth
colours only. There is clear evidence, however, that
people in Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian
times attached a symbolic value to certain, if not
to all, colours. Small green stones were placed
between the teeth of some of the Cro-Magnon dead
interred in the Grimaldi caves near Mentone—an
interesting fact in connexion with the ancient
Egyptian belief in the magico-religious value of green
stones. The writer is, however, mistaken in extend-
ing the analogy to China, where, it is said, green jade
was placed in the mouths of the dead; on the
contrary, the use of green jade for this purpose was
exceptional.
Jurassic Brrps.—Dr. Branislav Petronievics, who
has published several papers on fossil vertebrates in
the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, now
states the results of his examination of the original
specimen of Archeopteryx macrura preserved in the
British Museum (Natural History) in a paper (‘‘ Uber
das Becken, den Schultergiirte] und einige andere
Teile der Londoner Archaeopteryx ’’) published separ-
ately by Georg and Co. of Geneva. His most
important conclusion is stated so modestly on p. 10
that it might easily escape recognition. He feels
that the differences between the Berlin and London
specimens referred to Archeopteryx, which caused
Dames to separate the Berlin bird as A. Siemensit,
are sufficiently increased by his recent researches to
allow of the formation of two genera. He proposes
therefore to include in the established order Arche-
ornithes, Archeornis, the Berlin specimen, and
Archeopteryx, the London specimen. The latter
(p. 18) is held to be the more primitive type, and the
shoulder-girdle (p. 24) even suggests that the two
genera should fall into different families. The author
perceives an early carinate type in Archeornis and
an early ratite type in Archeopteryx, and indicates
that a convergence of the two important divisions of
birds should be found farther back in some descend-
ant of the Lacertilia. The dinosaurs lie on a separ-
ate branch, converging with the bird-branch in
some ancestral reptile. We should like to have
Dr. Petronievics’s views on Compsognathus and
Podokesaurus (NATURE, vol. 109, p. 757).
Mosquito ConrroLt.—Apart from certain war-
time measures in the neighbourhood of a few military
camps, scarcely anything has been attempted in this
country in the way of the reduction of mosquitoes,
but an example has recently been set by the Hayling
Mosquito Control, which, under the direction of Mr.
John F. Marshall, is doing very useful work, both
practically and experimentally. The Report just
issued by this body summarises what has been done
since its foundation in the autumn of 1920. It was
found that in Hayling Island the two common
domestic species (Culex pipiens and Theobaldia
annulata) were almost negligible as pests, by far the
greater part of the annoyance being caused by the
salt-marsh species (Ochlevotatus detritus). Sonumerous
was this species that it was roughly calculated that
two million larvee were destroyed by paraffining in a
single afternoon. Although last year’s drought did
not seriously restrict the breeding-places of O. detritus,
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
the control measures adopted proved very effective,
as was shown by comparison with other places along
the south coast. The very successful use of soluble
cresol in small quantities as a larvicide has already
been described in Nature by Mr. Marshall (June to,
1922, p. 746). Important experiments are now being
carried out to ascertain if possible the range of flight
of O. detyitus. Some kinds of salt-marsh mosquitoes,
especially in North America, have been shown to
make large migrations for distances of many miles.
If O. detyitus shares these habits local control work
may be rendered largely unavailing, though the com-
parative immunity already obtained by the control
goes far to show that this is not the case.
PHILIPPINE FORAMINIFERA.—Mr. J. A. Cushman
has published (Bull. too, Smithsonian Institution,
U.S. Nat. Mus.) a monograph on the Foraminifera
of the Philippine and adjacent seas, based on material
from shallow water and from nearly 600 dredgings.
The shallow water examples—from less than 30
fathoms—are characteristically tropical, most of the
genera being those of similar areas in the general
Indo-Pacific region, many of the species being,
however, distinct. In the deeper water, 100-300
fathoms, there is an exceptional development of the
Lagenide, and in the colder deeper parts of the
region a great development of arenaceous forms,
especially Astrorhizide and Lituolide—many of the
characteristic genera and species of cold waters in
high latitudes being represented. This supports the
view that the wide distribution of these arenaceous
forms in cold waters is dependent more on temperature
than on depth. The largest of the living calcareous
Foraminifera, Cycloclypeus carpenteri, of which speci-
mens about 24 inches in diameter were obtained, was
dredged in quantity in parts of the area. The
systematic part of the work records 568 species and
gives notes on their characters and distribution ;
figures of the more important species are given in
100 plates.
THE Microscopic DETERMINATION OF THE NON-
OPAQUE MINERALS.—The method of identifying
minerals by determining their indices of refraction by
immersing or embedding their powders in media of
known refractive index receives immense extension
through Esper S. Larsen’s memoir bearing the above
title (U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 679, 1921). The tables
given contain data for about 950 mineral species,
and the methods of determination are adequately
described.
PRE-DEVONIAN GEOLOGY OF GREAT BritarIn.—The
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol.
Ixxvili. pt. 2, 1922, shows how much work has re-
mained to be done on the stratigraphy of our older
British areas. Mr. E. B. Bailey develops his theory
of nappes in the south-west highlands of Scotland,
arousing thereby a healthy and critical discussion.
Dr. Gertrude L. Elles gives in detail the results of her
zoning of the rock-succession in the Bala district ; and
Dr. J. Wills and Mr. Bernard Smith have greatly
extended our knowledge of the country round
Llangollen.
New RaDIOLITES AND A NEW CRINOID FROM THE
Upper CRETACEOUS OF MExIco.—Examples of those
strange aberrant bivalves the Radiolitide from the
Upper Cretaceous of Tamaulipas, Mexico, where they
appear to be scarce, have been described and figured
by L. W. Stephenson (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Ixi. art.r),
who, however, favours Lamarck’s later name in his
title and refers to them as belonging to the “‘ Rudistid
Group.”” A new genus, Tampsia, with two new
262
NATURE
[AUGUST I9, 1922
species; three species, of which two are new, of
Sauvagesia ; and a new species of Durania complete
the series. Among the associated fossils cited is
Balanocrinus mexicanus, n.sp., which forms the sub-
ject of-a separate paper by F. Springer (tom. cit.,
art. 5). This is the first known occurrence of the
genus in America.
Tur FLOTATION OF CONTINENTS.—M. E. Gagnebin,
of the University of Lausanne, has provided a masterly
review of Wegener’s hypothesis of the movement of
continental masses over the general surface of the
globe. In ten pages of the Revue générale des Sciences
naturelles, vol. Xxili. p. 293, 1922, he states the main
features of the argument, discusses the problems
raised, and furnishes references and footnotes that
make his lucid essay an almost essential introduction
to Wegener’s ‘“‘ Entstehung der Continente”’ (see
Nature, vol. 109, pp. 202 and 757). It is interesting
to notice that the relations of folded zones to those
of subsidence on the earth is one of the subjects
discussed at the International Geological Congress in
Brussels in August 1922.
Tue Matrix or Di1amonp.—The question of
whether diamond separates out from ultrabasic
igneous magmas, or is carried up in these exceptional
magmas because they have traversed deep-seated
metamorphic rocks, is once more raised by the
description of the diamond-bearing gravels of the
Somabula Forest in Southern Rhodesia (A. M.
MacGregor, Geol. Surv. S. Rhodesia, Bull 3, 1921).
These fluriatile beds form part of the Karroo systems,
and the kimberlite pipes of S. Africa are of later date.
The author suggests that the diamonds were washed
from a kimberlite of unusually early age, since he
favours the view of their igneous origin. New interest
is given to the kimberlite pipes of Africa by H. S.
Harger’s discovery (Trans. Geol. Soc., S. Africa, vol.
xxiv. p. I, 1922) that an example in the Riversdale
district of the Cape Province cuts strata of Uitenhage
(Cretaceous) age.
CRITICAL RESEARCH ON FossiL BRACHIOPODA.—
The transference of well-known species to new genera
as investigation becomes more precise often leaves
little to be said for an original genus the name of
which has become known throughout the world.
This is sadly the case with Rhynchonella, to which
Mr. S. S. Buckman (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, Pale-
ontologia Indica, New Ser, vol 3; Mem) 2.5. the
Brachiopoda of the Namyan Beds, Northern Shan
States, Burma’’) now assigns only two species,
R. loxia Fischer of the Portlandian, and R. vaviabilis
Davidson of the Kimmeridgian (p. 57). The author
quotes (p. 91) his previous conclusion that no Meso-
zoic species can be assigned to Terebratula Miiller,
1776. On pp. 8 to 11 he describes his method of
‘burning ’’ specimens of fossil brachiopods ; when
the shell is heated and dropped into water, it commonly
flakes off from the internal cast, and the characteristic
muscular scars are clearly traceable on the mould.
Much, of course, depends on the infilling material,
and oolitic limestone yields poor results. The’method
has been elaborated by Mr. Buckman from an observa-
tion by Mr. T. H. D. La Touche (p. 2), who noticed
that the fossils fell out easily from material that had
passed through Burmese lime-kilns, and who pro-
ceeded to treat his rocks in a big fire “‘ with very
satisfactory results.”’
EvoLutTion OF THE GRAPTOLITES.—The numerous
geologists who wish to keep abreast of progress in the
classification of Older Paleozoic strata will find much
guidance in a paper by Dr. Gertrude Elles on “‘ The
Graptolitic Faunas of the British Isles ’’ (Proc. Geol.
Assoc. vol. 33, part 3, 1922; price 5s.). Since it seems
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
uncertain if hydrozoan, or even ccelenterate, affinities
can be maintained for graptolites and their allies, a
separate class of organisms, the Graptolithina, has
been established, subdivided into two orders, the
rapidly changing Graptoloidea and the almost
stationary Dendroidea. In the same prudent spirit
the term rhabdosome replaces polypary, and theca
hydrotheca. The virgula of older descriptions of
graptolites disappears. Attention is well directed to
the nema, the hollow thread-like prolongation of the
apical portion of the sicula, as being the organ of
attachment essential to the welfare of the rhabdosome.
In the earlier pendent graptolites the nema is un-
protected ; but in forms regarded as scandent, such
as Diplograptus, and also in some uniserial genera, it
is protected, and is sometimes wrapped round the
bases of the thece. Many of the points mentioned
are quoted from work published by the author
and other investigators, and recognised by modern
writers, such as A. M. Davies; but the present
summary, the clear diagrams of types successively
evolved, and the stratigraphical table, render this
paper by Dr. Elles valuable in all colleges as a sup-
plement to established text-books of paleontology.
VERTICAL CIRCULATION IN THE ATLANTIC.—A.
Merz and G. Wiist (Zeitschrift dey Gesellschaft fir
Evdkunde, Berlin, 1922, No. 1-2) discuss the nature
and causes of the vertical circulation of the water
of the Atlantic Ocean, reviewing the various descrip-
tions and explanations so far published. It has
been known, in a general way, that water which is
relatively warm and fresh flows on the surface from
the region of equatorial rains and calms north and
south to the sub-tropical zones, while water which
is relatively cold and dense flows in the opposite
directions as under-currents. This system of drifts
now appears to be of very limited depth. The
superficial warm currents extend to about 50 metres
while the under-currents have their main stratum
at a depth of 75-150 metres from the surface. The
cause is differences of density rather than differences
of temperature.
Dust-Raisinc Wi1npbs.—This subject is dealt with
in the Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological De-
partment, vol. 22, part 7, by Dr. C. W. B.
Normand. Observations were made on dust pheno-
mena in Mesopotamia in 1918, and these, together
with Dr. Hankin’s observations in a preceding memoir,
are correlated with those of other observers in other
countries. The camp in Mesopotamia was situated
at Samarrah, near the edge of the vast low plateau
known as Jezireh, where the dust in places lay knee-
deep. With even light winds in August and Sep-
tember it was no uncommon occurrence to see three
or four dust-devils of great height meandering with
the breeze on the plain. The base of many of these
was only about 5 metres in diameter and the height
was at least 300 metres. For the origin of dust-
devils a highly unstable vertical distribution of
temperature is said to be a necessity. At Samarrah
the author attributes the impetus to be often due to
the incinerators at the various camps for burning
refuse. The “ primary ’’ dust-storm in Mesopotamia
occurs principally between 4 P.M. and midnight in
the months of March, April, May, and September ;
they are always associated with cloud, and were
often followed by rain, thunder, and a marked fall
in air temperature. The dust-storms in spring are
‘almost always associated with thunderstorms and
are said to be undoubtedly due to the descending
currents which are known to occur in front of thunder-
storms. Interesting information is given on the cause
of dust-raising by wind, and on turbulence and the
density of dust at various heights.
AUGUST 19, 1922]
NATURE
to
OV
ios)
The Hull Meeting of the British Association.
PROGRAMMES OF THE SECTIONS.
ape programmes of the various Sections of the
British Association for the forthcoming meet-
ing at Hull have now been provisionally completed,
and it is possible to state what are the chief subjects
to be brought forward. We are indebted to the
Recorders of the Sections for the subjoined outline
of arrangements made for the meeting.
Section A (MATHEMATICS AND Puysics).—The
proceedings of Section A this year promise to be of
more than usual interest. The Section is fortunate
in having secured the attendance of three very dis-
tinguished foreign guests, Prof. P. Langevin, Prof.
P. Weiss, and M. le Duc de Broglie. The two former
will take part in a discussion which has been arranged
on the origin of magnetism, to which Sir J. A.
Ewing and Dr. A. E. Oxley have also promised to
contribute. M. de Broglie will read a paper, which
cannot fail to attract great interest, on X-rays and
Beta rays, and as Prof. R. Whiddington will make
a communication on the same subject, a valuable
discussion on this aspect of physics may be expected.
Prof. G. H. Hardy has chosen as the subject of his
presidential address ‘The Theory of Numbers,’’ and
it may be confidently anticipated that he will make
it of that fascinating interest which is an attribute of
all his lectures. An important and somewhat novel
joint discussion will take place under the auspices
of Sections A and I on physical instruments for
biological purposes. Prof. A. V. Hill will open this
discussion, and several biologists and physicists have
promised to take part. In connexion with this dis-
cussion there will be an extensive exhibition of
appropriate apparatus by Major W. S. Tucker, Mr.
F. E. Smith, Dr. G. Wilkinson, and The Cambridge
and Paul Scientific Instrument Company. In view
of the success attending the experiment at Edinburgh
last year, the Committee of Section A has arranged
several lectures of a semi-popular character. Sir
William Bragg will lecture on “‘ The Significance of
Crystal Analysis’’; Prof. J. Proudman has chosen
a subject especially appropriate to Hull, namely,
“Tides, with Special Reference to the North Sea” ;
and Prof. H. H. Turner will delight the children with
the topic, ‘‘ The Telescope and what it tells us.”
Section B (CHEMISTRY).—The programme of Sec-
tion B will include several discussions. Principal
Irvine has selected research problems in the sugar
group as the subject of his presidential address, and
this will be followed by several papers on carbo-
hydrates from the St. Andrews laboratories. Photo-
synthesis will be discussed jointly with Section Ix
(Botany), the recent work from the Liverpool labora-
tories on the synthesis of the more complex plant
products being well represented. Sir Wiliam Bragg
will describe his researches on the crystalline structure
of organic compounds; and the recent theories of
organic structure will be considered in a discussion
on valency and polarity, to be opened by Prof.
Robinson, and in a paper by Prof. Holleman on
substitution in the benzene nucleus. Other separate
papers include an account of the recent work on
compressibilities under high pressures conducted in
the Geophysical Laboratory at Washington, and a
study of the properties of soap solutions by Prof.
McBain. Two discussions of industrial questions have
been arranged. One of these concerns the local in-
dustry of the hydrogenation of fats, which will be
considered from the scientific and the industrial side,
and the other is the industry of synthetic nitrogen
compounds. Several of the modern processes of
NO. 2755, VOL. 110]
synthesis will be described. The city is an important
centre of chemical manufactures, and visits of the
Section to some of the principal works, including the
fat and oil and the cement industries, have been
arranged.
SEcTIon C (GEoLOGy).—As a part of the series of
discussions on questions connected with the North
Sea to be held in various Sections, the first item in
the programme will be an account by Prof. Kendall
of the geological history of the North Sea Basin from
Permian times to the present day. This will be
followed by an account of the floor deposits of the
North Sea and by a general discussion of these topics.
The geology of the Hull district will be described by
Mr. T. Sheppard, whose lecture will be illustrated by
lantern slides. Other communications on local geo-
logy are the erosion of the Holderness Coast, by Mr.
C. Thompson ; a new section in the Oolites and Glacial
deposits at South Cave, by Mr. J. W. Stather; and
a new section in the Oolites at North Ferriby, by
Mr. W. S. Bisat. Pleistocene and Recent ice condi-
tions in North-eastern Labrador will be described by
Prof. Coleman of Toronto. The subject of the
presidential address by Prof. P. F. Kendall is the
physiography of the coal swamps. The address will
be followed by Prof. Gilligan on sandstone dykes in
the Cumberland coalfield and the subjects raised in
the. two communications will be discussed. A dis-
cussion on Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift,
in which both the geological and astronomical sides
will receive attention, has been arranged, and the
relation of early man to the phases of the ice age
in Britain will form the subject of a joint meeting
between the anthropological, geological, and geo-
graphical sections. Papers dealing with the zoning
of Carboniferous rocks will be read by Mr. W. S. Bisat
and Mr. R. G. Hudson, and Dr. H. L. Hawkins will
describe the relation of the Thames to the, London
Basin. Numerous excursions will be held during the
meeting.
Section D (ZooLoGcy).—The organising committee
of Section D, the president of which is Dr. E. J. Allen,
has shaped its programme for the forthcoming meeting
at Hull with the view of relating it so far as possible
to local interests. Four of the eight sessions will be
devoted to marine biological and fisheries problems ;
the remaining four to matters of a wide variety of
interest. One whole day will be given to discussion with
representatives of the fishing industry, when members
of the industry will propound difficulties and questions
which the biologist will endeavour to answer to the
limits of his knowledge, and which he will, it may be
hoped, take to heart against the planning of further
investigations. Another feature of the meeting will
be the number of distinguished foreign marine bio-
logists who will attend. Dr. Hjort, of Norway, will
give an evening lecture at Grimsby, Dr. C. J. Joh.
Petersen will come from Denmark to open a dis-
cussion on the fauna of the sea bottom, of the quanti-
tative study of which he is the pioneer, Dr. Johs.
Schmidt will give an account of his recent explora-
tions in the Atlantic, and there will be eleven other
distinguished oceanographers, including representa-
tives from Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland,
Norway, and Sweden. It is anticipated that a
representative gathering of research vessels will also
attend, including, in addition to our British vessels,
the Danish Dana, the French Pourquoi Pas, and the
Swedish Skagerak. Of items other than those con-
cerned with marine biology one will be a discussion
264
with Section K (Botany) on the present position of
Darwinism, when the views of Dr. Willis and Mr.
Yule, as put forward by themselves at the meeting,
will come under review and criticism. Among the
individual contributions it 1s difficult to particularise ;
they will deal with problems relative to hormones,
hydrogen ion concentration, forestry, geographical
distribution, hereditary transmission of small varia-
tions, adaptation, periodicity of pond protozoa, and
the effect of lead pollution. The final but not the
least important item on the programme is a dis-
cussion with the Hull naturalists on the possible work
of natural history societies in relation to faunal
surveys.
Section E (GrEoGRAPHY).—The presidential address
by Dr. M. I. Newbigin will be on Human geography :
first principles and some applications. On the same
day Miss E. C. Semple will speak on the influence of
geographical conditions upon ancient Mediterranean
agriculture. Several speakers will deal with current
problems in Europe, including Prof. J. F. Unstead on
the belt of political change in Europe, and Mrs.
H. Ormby on the Danube as a waterway. Prof.
P. M. Roxby will lecture on the place of Peking in
the life of modern China, and Dr. Vaughan Cornish,
in a paper entitled the isothermal frontier of ancient
cities, will develop the interesting thesis that from
the North Sea to the Sea of Japan the separation
between city life and that of forest and prairie people
is marked by the same mean annual isotherm. Local
geography will be treated by Mr. L. Rodwell Jones,
Mr. C. B. Fawcett, and others. There will be a number
of papers on cartography and survey, including survey
in polar regions, by Mr. F. Debenham ; the mapping
of Latin America, by Mr. A. G. Ogilvie; early maps
of Malta, by Dr. T. Ashby; anda discussion on the
use of Mercator’s projection for air-maps, which, it is
hoped, will be opened by Col. E. M. Jack. -@ pera
Fic. 2.—Comparison of the Second Superior Molars of the Right Side of the Upper Jaw in the Primates.
Upper row : crown views of the superior molars.
Middle row: anterior views of the same teeth.
Lower row: posterior views of the same teeth.
(1) Hesperopithecus, the new Nebraska Primate, middle-aged.
(2) Anthropopithecus, a young chimpanzee.
(3) Pithecanthropus, adult Trinil Ape-man.
(4) Hesperopithecus (photographed in a different light).
(5) Homo sapiens mongoloideus, aged North American Indian.
(6) Third superior molar of Anthropopithecus, a young chimpanzee
All photographed to the same scale and natural size.
beds in which Hesperopithecus was discovered ; also
(2) of the true forest-living proboscideans of the genus
Mastodon recently recognised in the Snake Creek beds.
A true elephant (£. hayz), which resembles the Elephas
planifrons of the Upper Siwaliks of India, has been
found in more recent deposits.
From these relatively new and most significant
discoveries we may characterise the Snake Creek region
of western Nebraska, in Middle Pliocene time, as in
the belt of the south Asiatic forest, savanna, and plains
fauna, which extends two-thirds of the way around the
entire globe, from the region of Britain to the central-
west region of the United States, and probably right
across to the Atlantic coast. The plains element in
this fauna is extremely abundant, especially the
Hipparion ; somewhat more rare are the true horses
(Pliohippus), and still more rare are the remains of the
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
three kinds of antelopes and of the two kinds of mas-
todons above mentioned. Finally, of the utmost
rarity are the remains of the Primates, because during
the eight seasons of continuous and expert search we
have only discovered two teeth, namely, the tooth now
regarded as a third superior molar of an old individual
of Hesperopithecus found by Dr. W. D. Matthew in
1908, and the type tooth of Hesperopithecus haroldcookw
found by the geologist Harold J. Cook in 1921. We
are this season renewing the search with great vigour
and expect to run every shovelful of loose river sand
which composes this deposit through a sieve of mesh
fine enough to arrest such small objects as these teeth.
Even by this most laborious and painstaking method
2 the probability of finding more
material is not very great, for the
reason that the anthropoid Primates
have always been very clever and
resourceful animals, climbing into
trees in times of flood, avoiding
the low sandy levels and water-
courses where ungulates are trapped.
Before re-examining the new
figures (Fig. 2) of the Hesperopi-
thecus tooth, may I quote verbally,
with some unessential omissions,
my own original characterisation
of the tooth, for which I alone
am. responsible.
Hesperopithecus M*
a
5
&
s)
S
=
3
3)
‘S
2
<
This second upper molar tooth is
very distant from the gorilla type,
from the gibbon type, from the orang
type; among existing anthropoid apes
it is nearest to m® of the chimpanzee,
but the resemblance is still very
remote. . Thus the proportions
of the molar crown of the Hespero-
pithecus type are about the same as
those in the Homo sapiens mongo-
loideus type. There is also a distant
human resemblance in the molar
pattern of Hesperopithecus . . . to
the low, basin-shaped, channelled
crown in certain examples of Homo
sapiens. But the Hesperopithecus
molar cannot be said to resemble any
known type of human molar very
closely. The author agrees with Mr,
Cook, with Dr. Hellman, and with
Dr. Gregory, that it resembles the
human type more closely than it does
any known anthropoid ape type;
consequently, it would be misleading to speak of this
Hesperopithecus at present as an anthropoid ape; it is
a new and independent type of Primate and we must
seek more material before we can determine its relation-
ships. It is certainly not closely related to Pithecanthropus
erectus in the structure of the crown, for Pithecanthropus
has a single, contracted crown in which the superior
grinding surface has a limited crenulated basin, whereas
Hesperopithecus has a widely open crown with broadly
channelled or furrowed margins, and a postero-internal
crest suggesting the hypocone of a higher Primate
POLIO e ae ile
The type description, as published in the American
Museum Novitates, April 25, 1922, requires little or
no modification as a result of two months of inten-
sive research which has been devoted to this tooth,
detailed results of which will shortly be published
by my colleague, Prof. Gregory. The accompany-
ing new illustrations (Fig. 2), prepared especially
AvucustT 26, 1922]
NATURE 283
for NATURE, are photographs of a most convincing
character, in which the Hesperopithecus molar (Fig. 2,
1-4), in three aspects, is placed directly between
corresponding molars of a chimpanzee (right and left)
which most nearly resemble it. It will be seen at once
(1) that the Hesperopithecus molar, although greatly
water-worn, has entirely different proportions from the
chimpanzee molar: it is much broader transversely ;
it is much narrower in the fore-and-aft dimensions.
This affords positive evidence that Hesperopithecus
had a shorter facial region than the chimpanzee. In
this respect it approaches the mongoloid human type
(Fig. 2, 5) more closely than it does any of the anthro-
poid ape types ; (2) the roots of the Hesperopithecus
molar are much more robust and more human in pro-
portion than those of any of the frugivorous apes ; (3)
the upper molar of Hesperopithecus, while resembling
the upper molars of certain American Indians of
mongoloid type in several absolute measurements,
differs widely in the more asymmetrical form of the
crown, which is broader in front and narrower behind,
whereas in the mongoloid human molars the crown is
more symmetrical; (4) the type upper molar of
Hesperopithecus differs from the corresponding molar
in the Trinil Ape-man (Pithecanthropus) (Fig. 2, 3) in
nearly all its absolute measurements ; but it resembles
the Pithecanthropus molar in the great size of the
internal (lingual) fang, also in the wide separation of
the internal (lingual) and external (anterobuccal) fangs.
It also resembles Pithecanthropus in the evenly concave
depression of the grinding surface, which is quite unlike
the ridged form of the grinding surface observed in a
chimpanzee molar (Fig. 2, 2-6); (5) as for the com-
parison suggested by Dr. Smith Woodward with the
third lower molar of the Phocene bear (Hyznarctos),
the differences are so fundamental that it is difficult to
find any single point of agreement; the molar of
Hesperopithecus very clearly conforms to the flattened
tritubercular to quadritubercular type which character-
ises all the upper molars of anthropoid apes and of man.
Thus, after making due allowance for the characters
resulting from the prolonged natural usage of the
Hesperopithecus molar, also for characters due to long
exposure to erosion and stream action, and to percussion
by the sharp sand of the river bed, there nevertheless
remain five outstanding characters, as well as many
highly significant details of character, which tend to
show that this tooth belongs to one of the higher
Primates, and that this genus ultimately may be
included either within the Simiide (anthropoid apes), or
near certain ancesters of the Hominide (human stock).
I desire to summarise with emphasis my original
statements about this tooth, namely, that among exist-
ing anthropoid apes it is nearest to m? of the chimpanzee,
but the resemblance is still very remote . . . that the
proportions of the molar crown of Hesperopithecus are
about the same as in Homo sapiens mongoloideus
(American Indian) type . . . that there is also a distant
human resemblance in the molar pattern of Hespero-
pithecus to the low, basin-shaped, channelled crown in
certaim examples of Homo sapiens ... that the
Hesperopithecus molar cannot be said to resemble any
known type of human molar very closely. It is certainly
not closely related to Pithecanthropus erectus in the
structure of the molar crown . . . it is therefore a new
and independent type of Primate, and we must seek more
material before we can determine its relationships.
My original characterisation and description have
been fully confirmed by the intensive research of the
past two months. I have not stated that Hespero-
pithecus was either an Ape-man or in the direct line of
human ancestry, because I consider it quite possible
that we may discover anthropoid apes (Simiide) with
teeth closely imitating those of man (Hominide), just
as we have discovered in the true Piltdown man
(Eoanthropus) teeth closely imitating those of the
chimpanzee. There are so many crisscross adaptations
of this kind among the mammals that we can never be
sure about the family relationships of an animal until
we secure not only the teeth but considerable parts of
the skeleton as well. No anatomist in the possession
of Pithecanthropus molars only would have discovered
the human resemblance which is indubitably established
by the roof of the cranium, by the shape of the brain,
and by the shape of the thigh bone. For similar skeletal
parts of Hesperopithecus we are making most deter-
mined and prolonged search in the type locality ; it is
not at all probable that the desired evidence will be
easy to secure. Until we secure more of the dentition,
or parts of the skull or of the skeleton, we cannot be
certain whether Hesperopithecus is a member of the
Simiidé or of the Hominide.
Science in Egypt.
By Col. H. G. Lyons, F.R.S.
ae important part which modern science can play
in the economical development of natural re-
sources is generally recognised to-day, but nowhere
may this be seen more clearly than in Egypt, with its
subtropical climate, its controlled water-supply, and its
immunity from the vagaries of the weather which
affect more northern latitudes. Here a population
which in 1882 was under seven millions has now grown
to more than twelve millions, and inhabits a cultivable
area which does not exceed seven million acres all
intensively cultivated ; for much of the area, which
was formerly flooded annually and then furnished a
single crop after the river had fallen, is now under
perennial cultivation with a supply of Water at all
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
seasons, and consequently up to five crops in two years
are taken from it. Under these conditions the most
economical use of the material resources that science
can devise, and all the improvements that it can
suggest, are of the utmost importance to the country.
During Egypt’s period of financial difficulty the pro-
vision for scientific work was very meagre, but with
the reorganisation of the irrigation and the introduc-
tion of reforms, an improving revenue enabled gradu-
ally increasing grants to be made to state departments,
and many of them have, during the past thirty years,
established services in which scientific work of value
and importance has been carried on.
Some scientific work had been initiated at a much
284
earlier date, for the medical school at Qasr el Aini was
established early in the last century, and about 1860
a 20-centimetre astronomical refracting telescope by
Briinner of Paris, with an equatorial mounting, was
set up at Abbassia; a four-metre base-bar together
with two 4o-centimetre theodolites and a portable
transit instrument by the same firm were purchased
for the survey of Egypt which was then projected,
but which did not become an accomplished fact until
about fifty years later.
To-day there are at least a dozen services occupied
primarily with work of a scientific character.
The Survey of Egypt is the successor of the earlier
surveys of 1823, 1853 and 1878, but none of these were
ever completed nor had they any scientifically organised
control. It now comprises the cadastral survey, the
topographical survey, the desert survey, and the geo-
logical survey.
The cadastral survey is of special importance in
Egypt on account of the high value of agricultural land,
and the exceptional degree of subdivision of the hold-
ings. The network of triangulation on which it is
based now covers the Nile Valley and Delta, and is
controlled by the first-order triangulation now in pro-
gress, which is of the standard demanded in inter-
national geodetic work. The topographical survey
utilises the material provided by the cadastral survey
and adds to it all topographical information besides
extending the maps beyond the limits of the cultivated
land, to meet the needs of different branches of the
public service. There are now published series of map
sheets on scales of 1: 2500, I: 10,000, and I : 50,000,
covering all the inhabited area of the country, while
other maps on scales of 1: 250,000 and 1 : 1,000,000
include the large areas of desert as well.
Survey work as it is extended into the desert assumes
a special character, for on account of the large areas
to be covered, the difficulties of transport, and the
absence of all artificial topographical features, special
methods of surveying have been adopted. This work
is now in the hands of the Desert Survey, which also
undertake the precise location and demarcation of
prospecting and mining areas leased by the Govern-
ment.
On the highly cultivated alluvial plains of the Nile
Valley and the Delta accurate levelling is of special
importance, so a network of levelling of high precision
has been carried over them and extended into the Sudan
along the Nile. Besides this the cultivated area through-
out Egypt has been contoured at 50 centimetre intervals.
At the headquarters of the Survey of Egypt are draw-
ing, photographic, and printing offices in which are
produced the maps of the various surveys and also
those which are required by the geological survey and
by other State departments.
In 1896 a geological reconnaissance of Egyptian
territory was authorised which, at the end of five years,
developed into a geological survey. The staff has
always been small, but a very large amount of valuable
work has been done under the difficulties and limita-
tions imposed by desert travel.
Not only have the mineral resources of the country
been located and described, thereby becoming available
for commercial purposes, such as the phosphate de-
posits in Egypt and manganese deposits in Sinai, but
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
UPAR RE
[AucusT 26, 1922
our knowledge of the structure and stratigraphy of
north-eastern Africa has also been greatly advanced,
and the interesting fauna of Lower Eocene age which
was brought to light in the desert to the west of the
Fayum has greatly extended our knowledge of the past
history of the African continent. Geological work has
been carried out for several years in connexion with
petroleum research in the Red Sea area, and the results
have been published in various reports. The records
of the geological survey and the collections which fill
its museum provide a store of information relating to
the structure and stratigraphy of the Nile Basin and
north-eastern Africa.
The Physical Department, which until a few years
ago was part of the Survey Department, and is now a
part of the Ministry of Public Works, includes the
Helwan Observatory with its time service, the meteoro-
logical service, the service of weights and measures,
and the hydrological investigations in connexion with
the Nile. The observatory, which was formerly at
Abbassia, was removed in 1904 to Helwan, 20 km.
south of Cairo, because the building at Abbassia was
wholly unsuitable and the extension of the electric
tramways to its neighbourhood prevented all magnetic
work. In it the 30-inch reflecting telescope at Helwan
is employed in the photography of southern nebule,
of comets when they appear, and of Jupiter’s eighth
satellite, which has been observed almost exclusively
by Greenwich and Helwan since its discovery.
The time service is also directed from the observatory,
and the observatory clock transmits the noon time
signals which are utilised at Cairo, Alexandria, Port
Said, and at Khartoum. Magnetic observations are
carried out both by means of magnetographs and by
weekly absolute determinations. The meteorological
service of Egypt and the Sudan includes, besides the
central observatory at Helwan, 57 climatological
stations, of which 23 are in Egypt, 27 in the Sudan,
and 7 in Palestine, and about 230 rainfall stations in
Egypt, the Sudan, and Abyssinia. First established
to study the conditions determining the Abyssinian
rainfall, and consequently the Nile Flood, it has now
a much wider importance and is one of the recognised ©
national meteorological services.
The increasing demands of agriculture and its de-
pendence on the supply of water provided by the Nile
have necessitated a high precision in river-gauging,
and the hydrological work which this involves is now
centred in the Physical Department, where the records
of 70 river-gauge stations are discussed, and hydro-
logical investigations are undertaken. The storage of
water in the valley of the Nile at various points, the
need for accurate measurements of the discharge
throughout the low stage of the river, the study of the
effect of turbulence in the water at flood stage, etc.,
present a series of physical problems which are of direct
importance to Egypt, as well as being of great interest
to many other countries.
The department is also charged with the inspection
of weights and measures throughout the country, and
the prototype standard metre and the secondary
standards of length, which were acquired for the pur-
pose of the Survey of Egypt, are now kept at the
Helwan Observatory, where any comparisons desired
are carried out in a well-equipped comparator house.
AvuGUST 26, 1922]
Weights are compared with standard copies at the
observ atory, and sets of certified weights are supplied
to all who require them.
The Government analytical laboratory and assay
office undertake a large amount of important work
which falls under the headings of (a) chemical and
physical inspection of materials ; ; (2) technical chemical
consultations ; and (c) experimental research. Stores
and materials of inferior quality frequently find their
way on to the Egyptian market, and only by the
systematic analysis of material tendered can these be
eliminated and’ economies effected. To the same end
the technical clauses in specifications governing supply
by contractors are drafted by the staff of the laboratory.
The chemical work carried on in connexion with
criminal investigation and other legal matters forms a
branch of work which demands much time and great
care. Recently published reports indicate that the
consultative and research work is at present mainly
related to questions affecting petroleum, and the
development of petroleum resources in Egypt has given
rise to an inquiry into the actual conditions under
which petroleum products are used in Egypt, which
was undertaken by the laboratory. The small refinery
which the Egyptian Government has recently installed
at Suez to deal, in the first instance, with royalty
petroleum only, but with a view to its ultimate exten-
sion if that is found to be desirable, is also under the
supervision of the director of the laboratory.
The first medical school in Egypt was formed in
1827 at Abu Zabel by Clot Bey, a French doctor in
the service of Mohammed Ah, and ten years later it
was transferred to Qasr el Aini on the south side of
Cairo, where it still remains. For many years the
number of students was small, but of late the school
has been much enlarged and the number now amounts
to 387. Attached to the school is the Qasr el Aini
hospital, and these two form an important centre of
scientific work in the country. There are now in the
medical school well-staffed departments of biology,
physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, pathology,
and pharmacology, and in all of these not only is
instruction given to students but research is carried on
by the staff.
Although the number of scientific men in the institu-
tion has until recently been too restricted to admit of
much research being undertaken in addition to teaching,
several important investigations have been carried
out ; among these may be mentioned the study of
the ‘anatomy and racial characteristics of the ancient
Egyptians, and of those neighbouring races whose re-
mains occur in the cemeteries of the Nile Valley, and
the comparison of them with the present inhabitants
has added greatly to our knowledge of the Mediter-
ranean peoples; the investigations which have been
carried out of the life history of Ankylostoma and
Schistosomum (Bilharzia) have done much to place our
knowledge of these on a sound basis, the Bilharzia
organism having been discovered in these laboratories,
while work of no less importance has been done on the
treatment of the diseases which are caused by these
parasites. Valuable work on pellagra has also been
done recently. Not only is there much more to be
investigated in the interest of Egypt itself, but the
special conditions, climatic, racial, etc., which occur
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
NATURE 285
there provide opportunity for many promising lines of
research.
The Department of Public Health, which dates from
1886, is also actively working in the same scientific
field and, in addition to the administrative work which
it carries on throughout the country, maintains several
branches specialising in scientific work. Under the
director of the laboratories of the department the
water service carries out a regular inspection of all
public water supplies, whether in the hands of the
Government, municipalities, companies, or private in-
dividuals. The examination of substances having a
direct bearing on questions of hygiene, such as foodstuffs,
drugs, ete., is also undertaken in these laboratories, as
well as the chemical and bacteriological examination
of water.
Here too research on the main diseases of the country,
ankylostoma, bilharzia, and typhus, is in progress with
the co-operation of eminent specialists, and in this
connexion the recent work of the late Mr. Bacot and
of Dr. Arkwright will be recalled. An antirabic insti-
tute provides for the treatment of persons bitten by
rabid animals. The annual reports of the Department
indicate the wide scope of the scientific investigations
which have to be undertaken in the course of its work,
and highly expert assistance must without doubt be
employed if they are to be brought to a successful
conclusion under the peculiar conditions which an
arid subtropical climate provides.
The special conditions which obtain in Egypt, a
highly fertile soil, a controlled water supply rendering
agriculture independent of rainfall, and a moderately
hot climate, form the foundation of its agricultural
wealth ; the prosperity of the country depends on the
efficiency with which these favourable conditions are
utilised, and to this end the irrigation engineer, the
entomologist, the economic botanist, and the agricultural
chemist are working in co-operation. Perennial irriga-
tion has now been extended until about half the
cultivable area is supplied with water at all seasons of
the year, with the result that in normal years about
32 per cent. of that area is occupied by cotton. It
will be evident therefore that the scientific institutions
of the Ministry of Agriculture are of the highest
national importance, and on their efficiency Egypt’ s
prosperity must mainly depend.
In 191r9 a Cotton Research Board was appointed
with the object of bringing together the heads of all
the technical departments which were interested in the
cotton crop, and to ensure that all problems relating
to it were dealt with as adequately as possible. It
was also to provide laboratory accommodation for
investigators engaged in research on cotton. In its
first annual report published last year the experimental
work upon cotton which had been undertaken was
reviewed, and a programme for further work at the
scientific institutes of the Ministry was outlined. These
institutes include laboratories, experimental farms,
gardens, etc.
The chemical laboratory of the Ministry, which
undertakes examination and study of soils, water,
manures, feeding stuffs, and agricultural products, is
situated close to the botanical laboratory and the
experimental farm. The work carried on at these has
for its object the improvement of cotton, wheat, and
286
other crops which are grown in the country, on the
basis of field selection combined with self-fertilisation
and hybridisation. One important and promising
research which is in hand is the effect of the gradually
diminishing ‘“sharaki” (waterless) period on the
soil flora. Propagation in bulk of improved strains
of wheat and cotton is arranged with the State ex-
perimental farm and with selected private cultivators.
The fungoid and bacterial diseases of Egyptian crops
in general and of cotton in particular are investigated,
and means for their control are devised and tested.
The supply of trustworthy cotton seed of the best
growths is so important in order to produce a high
quality of staple, and the opportunities of mixing good
seed with inferior qualities before it reaches the culti-
vator are so many, that the Ministry actively interests
itself in the matter, through the botanical laboratory.
To this may be added the important work which
is being done on the flowering-curve method as an
index to the effect of environmental conditions; or
investigations of the causes of bud-shedding ; and on
the root systems of cotton plants. Similar attention
is being paid to millet, rice, opium poppy, beans, and
sesame ; and sugar cane will be added shortly.
The Entomological Section undertakes the study and
investigation of insect pests and advises on methods
for their control. The fumigation of all cotton seed
produced in the ginneries of Egypt is also controlled
by this section, and samples of the seed obtained from
ginning are sent to it for germination and examination
for worms.
The work of the horticultural section should also
be mentioned, for in it much work is being done in
introducing and acclimatising new species or varieties
of trees, and farm and garden plants.
Thus a beginning has been made to provide the
scientific organisation necessary for the development
of agriculture on sound lines, but something on a
larger scale will be needed before it can be adequate to
the country’s requirements. In these institutions a
number of questions of first-rate importance to the
Egyptian cultivator are under study, such as the effect
on the cotton crop of a high subsoil water-table, of
rotation in irrigation, of reduced watering, and many
others, and for their satisfactory solution the provision
and efficient maintenance of a highly trained and
experienced scientific staff is essential.
NATURE
[AucusT 26, 1922
The scientific diagnosis and investigation of animal
diseases are carried out at the veterinary pathological
laboratory which was opened in 1904, and the Serum
Institute, which dates from 1903, provides the anti-
cattle-plague serum required for the immunisation of
cattle against cattle plague both in outbreaks and as
a preventive measure.
Outside the State departments science is not widely
represented in Egypt. There are a few scientific
societies, of which the oldest is the Institut d’Egypte,
which was founded in 1859; its object is the study
of all that concerns Egypt and the surrounding countries
from the literary, artistic, and scientific points of view.
The Geographical Society was founded in 1875 and
publishes bulletins and memoirs at intervals. In
1925 the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation is to be
; the occasion of an international geographical . con-
ference.
The Cairo Scientific Society, founded in 1898, is an
active institution which meets fortnightly throughout
the winter half of the year and publishes its proceedings
monthly in the Cairo Scientific Journal. At Alexandria
a hydrobiological institute has been recently estab-
lished, and much important work awaits the scientific
research which should be undertaken there. But these
are all too few for the needs of the country, and their
paucity suggests a lack of appreciation of the import-
ance of scientific knowledge.
In spite of difficulties due to the war, which Egypt
has experienced in common with most other countries,
science has of recent years been playing a more and
more important part in the development of the country
and its resources. The conditions there prevailing
often differ widely from those which have been studied
in other countries, and much research by scientific
men of high training and wide experience will be
necessary before the many problems which present them-
selves are solved. Such work is not in the interest
of Egypt alone, for much that is done there will, if it
is of a high scientific standard, be a permanent addition
to the general stock of knowledge. Egypt in the past
has benefited largely by the science and technical skill
which has been gradually built up by generations of
students in many lands, and she may now furnish
her own quota in return by scientific research in the
many fields of inquiry which the Valley of the Nile
affords.
Gelatin.
By Dr. T. SLATER PRICE.
> ELATIN, in the form of glue, has been so long
known that, according to Dr. Bogue (J. Franklin
Inst., 1922, vol. 193, Pp. 795), ‘‘ we are unable to pene-
trate the archives of the human race to a date where
we may say with assurance that glue was not yet dis-
covered. Certain it is that this material was in use as
an adhesive in the days of the great Pharaohs of Egypt.”
As glue, or «6A Aa, it has given us the term “ colloid,”
and at the time when this term was first used by Graham
it was supposed that all colloids were substances of very
complex constitution, such as is glue. This, however,
is by no means the case, since what are known as the
suspensoid colloids may consist of the elements them-
NO. 2756, VOL, 110]
selves, e.g. colloidal gold and silver. The emulsoid
colloids, however, consist to a large extent of very
complex chemical substances, as, for example, the
proteins, and it is to this class that gelatin belongs.
Because of its complex constitution the chemical in-
vestigation of gelatin and of the processes which occur
in its extraction from bones and hides is still in its
infancy, and essentially progress has only been made
in the direction of the examination of the degradation
products. It is therefore not to be wondered at that
the enormous literature on gelatin consists, to a very
great extent, of accounts of results obtained in the
investigation of its colloidal properties.
AvGUST 26, 1922]
Naturally, the earliest physical properties to be in-
vestigated were the viscosity of the sol and the swelling
of the gel, and it was soon found that the relations
were very complicated, depending on previous history,
even in systems made up from gelatin and pure water
alone. For example, shaking, or repeated passage
through a viscometer, will decrease the viscosity of a
gelatin sol; at ordinary temperatures the viscosity of
a freshly made sol gradually increases, whilst that of
a freshly diluted sol gradually decreases ; in a freshly
made gel the intensity of the Tyndall effect gradually
increases ; and-so on, all indicative of the formation
of a structure and of the attainment of an equilibrium
of some kind.
If the results obtained with gelatin in pure water
are so complicated it is no wonder that they are still
more so in the presence of acids, bases, and salts. Von
Schroeder showed that in the presence of either hydro-
chloric acid or sodium hydroxide a maximum viscosity
of the sol is attained at a low concentration of either
of these substances. Again, according to other in-
vestigators, the effect of equivalent (tenth normal)
solutions of various acids on the swelling is indicated
by the following series, which is known as a Hofmeister
series, after the investigator who was the first to
examine the effects of different salts on the physical
properties of the proteins :
HCl>HNO,> acetic acid >H,SO,> boric acid.
With the sodium salts of various acids the swelling
decreases in the order :
Thiocyanates > iodides > bromides > nitrates > chlorates >
chlorides > acetates > tartrates>citrates >sulphates.
Moreover, the order in the series may be affected by
the concentrations of the substances used.
Such series are very difficult to understand, since
the order of the compounds does not bear much relation
to their ordinary chemical properties; for example,
it is difficult to understand why acetic acid comes
between nitric and sulphuric acids.
A way out of such difficulties has been found in
recent years by the realisation that gelatin, like other
proteins, behaves as an amphoteric substance and that
its properties in solution depend on the hydrion con-
centration. For progress in this direction we are
chiefly indebted to the work of Procter in England,
Pauli in Austria, and Loeb in America, the basic ideas
being due to Michaelis and Sérensen.
Gelatin is a stronger acid than base, so that hydrion,
in the form of an external acid, has to be added to
the solution in order to bring the gelatin to the iso-
electric condition. At the isoelectric point the hydrion
concentration, C,,, is approximately 2°5 x ro~°, that is,
the pH (= —log Cy) is 4°7, which is on the acid side
of the neutral point of water (pH=7-0). The theory
of amphoteric electrolytes shows that at the isoelectric
point their solutions should contain a maximum number
of neutral particles and should therefore possess peculiar
properties ; in accordance with this it is found that
the properties of swelling, viscosity, osmotic pressure,
etc., show a minimum at that point.
On the acid side of the isoelectric point, 7.e. at
pH<4-7, gelatin should behave as a base and form
gelatin-acid salts, whilst on the alkaline side, pH > 4-7,
it should act as an acid and form metal gelatinates.
Loeb has endeavoured to show that this is true in
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
IAT ORE.
287
several ways, of which the following may be quoted,
where use is made of silver nitrate and gelatin which
is brought to different pH’s, all less than pH=7-0, by
treatment with varying concentrations of nitric acid.
It can be predicted that on the alkaline side of the
isoelectric point the gelatin, when treated with silver
nitrate, will combine with the silver forming a silver
gelatinate, and that the amount formed will be greater
the higher the pH. If such a silver gelatinate is
formed the silver should not be readily washed out
by water and should remain in the gelatin after washing.
On the acid side of the isoelectric point the gelatin
should form gelatin nitrate, and it should be easy to
remove the silver by washing. The following analytical
figures show the agreement between theory and ex-
periment.
c.c. 0-orN-Ag in combination with 0-25 gm. Gelatin at different pH’s.
PEE 3:0 35739 4° 4:3 4:0 4:7 (5:0 5:30577 (Ox (6-4
C.C. O75 0-3. 0-3 0-2 0-2 0-2 0-55 1-25 3:2 4:0 4-85 4-9
The retention of the silver by gelatin at a pH >4:7 is
well shown by the fact that if test tubes containing
samples of the various gelatins are exposed to light,
those which are on the alkaline side of the isoelectric
point blacken, whereas those on the acid side do not,
but remain transparent even when exposed to light for
months.
Results similar to those with silver nitrate are
obtained when a nickel or copper salt is used. With
potassium ferrocyanide the gelatin should retain the
ferrocyanide, as gelatin ferrocyanide, on the acid side
of the isoelectric point, and this is found to be the case.
Results such as the above indicate the necessity of
knowing the pH when any investigations are carried
out, and also of making comparisons of any particular
property at the same pH. When such comparisons
are made, Loeb has shown that the Hofmeister series,
with their. anomalies, disappear; for example, the
various monobasic acids, and acids such as phosphoric,
oxalic, and citric acids, which dissociate into two ions
at ordinary dilutions, have the same effect on swelling,
viscosity, etc., at the same pH. Dibasic acids, such
as sulphuric acid, which dissociate into three ions at
ordinary dilutions, should, and do, give different effects
from the monobasic acids. Similar results were found
with alkalis, and abnormal effects produced by such
salts as sodium acetate were shown to be due to the
alteration of the pH of the gelatin solutions when the
salt was added.
The increased swelling, viscosity, etc., which take
place on either side of the isoelectric point and reach
a maximum at pH’s of about 3-5 and 8-5 respectively,
are attributed by Pauli to the greater hydration of the
gelatin ions formed, as compared with that of the
neutral molecule, but Loeb is not in agreement with
this. The latter postulates the existence in any protein
solution of molecularly dispersed particles, floating side
by side with submicroscopic particles occluding water,
the amount of which is regulated by the Donnan equili-
brium (Procter was the first to apply the Donnan
equilibrium to the study of gelatin solutions). The
osmotic effects are determined by the molecular par-
ticles, the viscosity effects by the submicroscopic
particles. Any influence in the solution (change in
H-ion concentration) by which the molecular dispersion
288
NATURE
[AuGusT 26, 1922
is increased at the expense of the solid particles will
result in an increase in the osmotic pressure and a
decrease in viscosity, and the opposite conditions would
result in the reverse of these effects.
The quantitative investigation of the physical pro-
perties of gelatin seems to have passed through three
phases: in the first phase it was treated mainly as a
colloid, in the second mainly as an amphoteric electro-
lyte, and now, in the third phase, as illustrated by
Loeb’s latest ideas, it is being realised that both its
amphoteric and colloidal properties must be taken
into account, since both play a part in its industrial
applications. For example, its action as a protective
colloid is of great importance in the preparation of
photographic emulsions, but in the operations of de-
veloping and fixing its behaviour as an amphoteric
substance must be considered, as may readily be realised
when one remembers that the usual developers are
alkaline, and that acid fixing baths are often used ;
the swelling of the gelatin film will vary In the baths,
and in the change “from the dev eloper to the fixing
bath the gelatin must, at some time, pass through the
isoelectric point.
The structure of gels has been a bone of contention
for a long time. Néageli assumed that gels were two-
phased and that the solid phase was crystalline, but
Scherrer has not found any indication of crystalline
structure in gelatin when examined by the X-ray
method. Biitschli and van Bemmelen have advocated
a cell-like structure, forming a net-work, and Hardy
concluded that the solid phase consists of a solid
solution of water in gelatin and the liquid phase a
solution of gelatin in water; Wo. Ostwald has put
forward the idea of a two-phase liquid-liquid system.
Procter postulates the existence of a solid solution of
the exterior liquid in the colloid in which both con-
stituents are within the range of the molecular attrac-
tions of the mass, and Loeb has extended this idea. At
the present time the conception of a fibrillar structure,
as advocated by McBain and his co-workers for soaps,
is gaining ground and is especially supported by Bogue
in America and Moeller in Germany.
Current Topics and Events.
Pror. F. G. Coker was recently presented in
London with the Howard N. Potts gold medal of
the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, awarded to
him in recognition of his recent work on photo polari-
metry. His method of determining stress in models of
pieces and shapes made of homogeneous nitro-
cellulose material was brought to the attention of
the Institute’s committee on science and the arts
in February 1921, and it was found that the General
Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, had
in use Prof. Coker’s apparatus. A committee was
appointed to investigate the apparatus and method,
and it reported that Prof. Coker’s work was in the
highest degree worthy of recognition by the Insti-
tute on Basin of the ingenuity and experimental
skill shown “in applying the principles of photo
elastimetry to the study of the magnitude and
distribution of strains in models of pieces and shapes
under stress.” The medal, with the accompany-
ing certificate and report upon which the award was
made, was presented to Prof. Coker at a dinner at
the Savoy Hotel by Dr. R. B. Owens, secretary of
the Franklin Institute.
SoME very remarkable achievements in gliding, or
soaring flight, are described by the Berlin corre-
spondent of the Times in the issue of August 21.
The flights were made by two of the competitors in
a test competition on the Wasserkuppe, near Fulda,
for the grand prize for motorless sail-planes offered
by the German Aeronautical Industrialists Union.
On August 18 one of the competitors, Herr Martens,
remained in the air forty-three minutes, cruised over
the starting-place, and then flew due west, at an
altitude of about 320 feet, a distance of ten kilo-
metres, landing comfortably in a meadow near
Weyhers. On the following day Herr Hentzen
remained in the air about one hour forty-five minutes
at an altitude varying between three hundred and
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
six hundred feet, then cruised to the starting-line
and across country, landing also in Weyhers, near
the spot where Herr Martens had landed the day
before. His total time in the air was two hours and
ten seconds. The wind was west-north-west, a
moderate breeze with occasional gusts. It died away
as he set off for the cross-country flight. The
machine flown by Herr Martens was a monoplane,
designed by the Science Section of the Hanover
Technical High School, in conjunction with the
Hanover Flying School. The Times correspondent
gives the following details of its structure: span,
39°4 ft. ; wind surface, 172-2 sq. ft. ; surface pressure,
2-4 lb. to the sq. ft. The pilot sits directly under
the plane. The controls are worked by both the hands
and feet. Lilienthal’s glider, the correspondent recalls,
had a span of 23 ft. and a wind surface of 151 sq. ft.
WE learn from Science that from the list of applicants
for the Bishop Museum fellowships Yale University
has selected the following fellows for the year 1922-
1923: Dr. H. W. Fowler, ichthyologist, Philadelphia
Academy of Science; Dr. N. E. A. Hinds, instructor
in geology, Harvard University; and Dr. Carl
Skottsberg, director of the Botanical Garden, Géte-
borg, Sweden. Dr. Fowler will devote his attention
to a study of the fish of Hawaiian waters; Dr. Hinds
will continue his investigations of the geology of the
island of Kauai; and Dr. Skottsberg proposes to make
a study of the flora of Hawaii with particular reference
to comparison with the plant life of Juan Fernandez
and other islands of the south-east Pacific. The four
Bishop Museum fellowships yielding one thousand
dollars each were established in 1920 by a co-operative
agreement between Yale University and the Bernice
P. Bishop Museum of Honolulu. They are designed
primarily for aid in research on problems in ethnology
and natural history which involve field studies in the
Pacific region.
AucustT 26, 1922]
WATORE
289
On September 18 to 24 will be held at Leipzig
the Centennial Festival of the Gesellschaft Deutscher
Naturforscher und Arzte (Association of German
Men of Science and Physicians). The meetings will
be preceded by a series of lectures and demonstrations
in scientific microscopy to be given at Leipzig Uni-
versity. At the festival an exhibition will be held
and a number of papers read by leading German men
of science. Among the latter are the following:
“ The Theory of ‘Relativity in Physics,’”’ Dr. Einstein ;
“The Theory of Relativity in Philosophy,” Dr.
Schlick; ‘‘ Restorative Surgery,” Drs. Bier and
Lexer; “A Century of Atavistic Research,’ Dr.
Johannsen (Copenhagen); ‘‘ External Phenomena
and Atavism,’’ Dr. Meisenheimer (Leipzig); and
“The Theory of Human Atavism’”’; “ Progress and
Retrogression in the Course of the World’s History ”’ ;
“Germany’s Climate’”’; ‘‘ The Highlands of Tibet
and their Inhabitants,’ by Dr. Sven Hedin. Follow-
ing the festival will be a series of continuation courses
in medicine to be given at Leipzig, while during the
period of the meetings special theatrical performances
and concerts are to be arranged. Any one interested
in medicine or natural science may take part in the
meetings for a fee of 100 marks (or a correspondingly
higher fee in the case of foreign countries). Those
who wish for further particulars should apply to the
Association at Leipzig.
THE autumn meeting of the Institute of Metals will
be held at Swansea on September 19-22. On the
evening of the opening day the first annual lecture
on subjects of practical interest to those engaged in
the non-ferrous metals industry will be given by Dr.
R. S. Hutton, on ‘‘ The Science of Human Effort
(Motion Study and Vocational Training).’’ There
will be a number of social functions and visits to
works, and the following are among the communica-
tions to be submitted : Sixth report to the Corrosion
Research Committee on the Nature of Corrosive
Action and the Function of Colloids in Corrosion,
Dr. Guy D. Bengough and J. M. Stuart; report to
the Aluminium Corrosion Research Sub-committee
on Experiments on the Oxide Method of Deter-
mining Aluminium, J. E. Clennell; “ Grain-size
and Diffusion,’ Prof. J. H. Andrew and R. Higgins ;
“The Structure of Eutectics,” EF. L. Brady; “ The
Antimony - bismuth System,” M. Cook; ‘“ The
Effect of Superheated Steam on Non-ferrous Metals
used in Locomotives,’ Sir Henry Fowler; “ The
Constitution and Age-hardening of Alloys of Alu-
minium with Copper, Magnesium, and Silicon in the
Solid State,’ Marie L. V. Gayler; “ Intermetallic
Actions: the System Thallium-arsenic,” Q. A.
Mansuri; “ The Effects of Overheating and Melting
on Aluminium,” Dr. W. Rosenhain and Jf. D.
Grogan ; and “ The Copper-rich, Aluminium-copper
Alloys,” D. Stockdale.
THE programme arranged for the Engineering
Section of the British Association at the Hull meeting
is somewhat of a departure from those of recent years.
Two mornings are to be devoted entirely to papers
and discussions on single definite subjects, and every
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
effort has been made to arrange the programme in
such a way that ample time will be available for
discussion. The subject for Thursday, September 7,
is “The Strength of Railway Bridges ’’—a vital
topic at the present moment, when bridges are
being subjected to loads very much in excess of those
for which they were originally designed. Papers on
the subject will be read by the engineers of some
of the leading railway companies. On Friday,
September 8, a descriptive paper will be read on
“The Equipment of a Modern Portland Cement
Works.”’ The manufacture of cement is one of the
leading local industries, and a visit will be paid to
the new works of the Humber Portland Cement Co.,
which have been recently equipped on the most
up-to-date lines. A paper of interest to the cement
industry will be that on the effect of fire on reinforced
concrete buildings. On Friday morning also the
president, Prof. Hudson Beare, will give his pre-
sidential address on ‘‘Some Australian Railway
Problems.’’ Monday morning, September 11, will
be devoted entirely to a discussion on ‘* Economic
Steam Production, with special reference to Marine
Practice,” and papers on the subject will be read
by representatives of the Fuel Research Board, the
Admiralty, and Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox. On
Tuesday morning a paper on a closely allied and highly
controversial subject, viz. ‘‘ The Propelling Machinery
of the Cargo Carrier of the Future,’’ will be read by
one of the leading engineers of Messrs. Beardmore
and Co., who have done a great amount of work in
developing the oil engine for this purpose. On
Wednesday morning a paper on the resolution of
compound stresses will be read and also one on
electrical ignition apparatus for internal combustion
engines, and a demonstration of the Collins micro-
indicator for high-speed engines will be given. A
number of afternoon visits to works and objects of
engineering interest has also been arranged.
THE meetings of Section M (Agriculture) of the
British Association at Hull are to be held under
the presidency of The Rt.. Hon. Lord Bledisloe,
whose presidential address is to be on the subject of
“The Proper Position of the Landowner in Relation
to the Agricultural Industry.” Following the
practice introduced by Mr. Orwin last year, Lord
Bledisloe will circulate his address and invite a
discussion on his views. This will take place on
September 11. In the programme of the section
are three joint meetings and discussions with other
sections. The first of these on the opening day—
Thursday, September 7—is to be held at 11.30 A.M.,
and will be opened by Sir William Beveridge on the
subject of ‘‘ Weather Cycles in Relation to Agri-
culture and Industrial Fluctuations.’’ This meeting
is in association with Sections A and F (Mathematics
and Physics, and Economics). Contributions have
also been promised by Mr. Udny Yule and Mr. R. A-
Fisher. On the following day a meeting will be held
at 11.30 A.M. jointly with the Physiology Section
to discuss the subject of Vitamins. This discussion
will be opened by Prof. Drummond, and Messrs.
290
Golding, Orr, and Prof. T. B. Wood have promised
to take part. The other joint discussion is also with
the Economics Section, and should prove of wide
interest, as the subject is ‘‘ The Possibility of In-
creasing the Food Supply of the Nation.” Sir John
Russell, Sir T. H. Middleton, Mr. C: S. Orwin, and
Prof. Somerville have promised to speak from the
agricultural side. Sir A. Daniel Hall is reading a
paper on “ Land Reclamation on the East Coast,”
and an excursion to see natural and artificial warp-
land should be interesting in this connexion. Prof.
T. B. Wood is contributing a paper embodying some
of the results which have been obtained in the work
at the Animal Nutrition Institute at Cambridge.
Among other interesting papers are several dealing
directly or indirectly with the use of lime in the
improvement of soil conditions, and with the evapora-
tion of water from soil. Horticulture and the nutri-
tion of fruit trees will be dealt with by Mr. H. V-
Taylor and Prof. B. T. P. Barker, and farm costs
in Yorkshire by Dr. A. G. Ruston. In addition to
the excursions already mentioned another has been
arranged to enable members to see something of the
farming of the Yorkshire Wolds, and it is also hoped
to visit some of the oil-cake factories in Hull.
THE Toronto correspondent of the Times announces
that the Quebec Government has decided to set aside
about 22,o000/. for the purpose of establishing a
Radium Institute, under the control of the University
of Montreal, for the experimental treatment of cancer.
NATORE
[AucusT 26, 1922
ACCORDING to the Spanish journal Ibevica, two
underground railways are now in course of construc-
tion in Barcelona, viz. the Ramblas-Gracia, of a
total length of 3400 metres, and the Puerto branch,
1800 metres in length. The two lines, which will
be double-track systems, are of 1-435 metres gauge.
The construction of the system will be a matter of
some difficulty, as most of 1t will be underground
tunnel-driving, although a certain part, serving
traffic in the busiest part of the city, will be in the
open. Little difficulty is experienced as regards
water, because most of the ground through which
the tunnels will be driven consists of a thick stratum
of quaternary clay, superimposed in places by strata
of hard limestone marl. The method of construction
adopted is the Belgian system. The diameter of
the tunnels on the straight will be 7 metres, and in
curves, etc., 9°95 metres.
A CORRESPONDENT informs us that the admirable
drawings referred to in a review of Messrs. Heron-
Allen and Earland’s report on Antarctic Foraminifera
in NAturE of August 19, p. 241, were by Miss
M. H. Brooks and not My. M. H. Brooks as therein
| stated.
Tue Cambridge University Press promises for the
autumn “ The Air and its Ways,” by Sir Napier Shaw.
The volume will contain the Rede Lecture for 1921,
and other contributions to meteorology, for schools
and colleges.
Our Astronomical Column.
Comets.—A photograph of Skjellerup’s Comet,
1922b, was obtained on July 31 at Greenwich: it con-
firms the short period, which appears to be very close
to 5 years, thus making it definitely the second shortest
cometary period. That of Encke’s Comet is 34 years,
that of Tempel’s Second Comet is 54 years. The
identity with Grigg’s Comet, 1902 II, is rendered almost
certain, since both the period and the other elements
accord closely. The perihelion distance has increased
considerably, but only by an amount comparable
with that which has occurred in the case of the Comet
Pons-Winnecke.
The Journal des Observateurs of August 15 contains
a series of observations of Reid’s Comet, 1922a, made
at Santiago da Chili by Rosauro Castro. There are
twenty-two days of observation, from February 6 to
March 31. The places of the comparison stars are
taken from the Perth Astrographic Catalogue. The
comet was observed for 24 months, so that there is
ample material for deducing the orbit. As the later
observations deviate considerably from Mr. Wood’s
ephemeris, there is some reason to suspect appreciable
departure from a parabola.
M. Kamensky has made in Asty. Nachr. 5168 a
very elaborate investigation of the perturbations of
Wolf's Periodic Comet from 1884 to 1919, due to
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The comet
was observed at five apparitions (1884, 1891, 1808,
T91r, 1918), and the normal places are all closely
satisfied by the final elements, the largest residual
being 8-6. The perturbations during the above
period have been small, the range of the mean daily
motion being from 518”-4 in 1898 to 523”-8 in 1884,
ort percent. There is, however, a near approach to
Jupiter in 1922, which is likely to produce notable
NO. 2756, VOL. I10]
changes in the orbit, making it quite doubtful whether
it will ever be seen again. M. Kamensky promises
to investigate them. It is to be hoped that others
will emulate him in similar researches on other periodic
comets. Those of d’Arrest, Pons-Winnecke, and
Tuttle are all in need of such work. ;
THE PROBLEM OF THREE BopieEs.—It has long been
recognised that the analytical solution of the general
problem of three finite masses, moving under their
mutual attraction, cannot be obtained in a form that
is of practical utility. Something can, however, be
learnt of the circumstances of motion, by studying
particular cases by the method of mechanical quadra-
tures. Researches of this kind are being pursued at
Copenhagen Observatory under the direction of Prof.
FE. Stroémgren. Some of the results were published
in the Jubilee Number of Astvonomische Nachrichten,
and are now reprinted as a brochure. There are two
cases of special interest where the masses are as I,
2, 1, the largest being in the centre. The first is an
approximation to an “‘ orbit of ejection,’’ and involves
periodic near approaches. The outer masses describe
curves resembling /imagons (without loops or cusps),
while the central one describes a curve resembling
the inverse of an ellipse with respect to the centre.
The other case is an approximation to the case of
the arrangement of the three masses at constant dis-
tances along a rotating straight line. When the con-
ditions for the straight line are slightly departed from,
each body describes a small loop; that of the central
body is practically an ellipse with its major axis
perpendicular to the rotating line. In each case the
motion is periodic, and the curves repeat themselves
indefinitely.
- AUGUST 26, 1922] .
NATURE
291
Research Items.
THE AGE OF STONEHENGE.—In the August issue
of Man Mr. E. Herbert Stone describes some astro-
nomical enquiries into the midsummer sunrise at
Stonehenge. The date, 1840 B.c., given here for
midsummer sunrise in line with the axis of Stone-
henge must, the writer says, be regarded merely as
a rough approximation. Owing to want of pre-
cision in the data Sir Norman Lockyer considered
that the error—phis or minus—might amount to as
much as 200 years ; that is to say, the actual date is
probably not earlier than 2040 B.c., and not later
than 1640 B.c.
Tue Hutt Municipat Museum.—Mr. T. Sheppard,
Curator of the Hull Municipal Museum, has published
a pamphlet giving an account of the collections under
his charge. The museum originated in the collections of
the museums of the Literary and Philosophical Society,
which dates back to 1823. Eventually these collec-
tions were made over to the Hull Municipality, and
the new museum, which has been improved by
numerous gifts and purchases, was opened in 1902.
It now contains numerous examples of the Prehistoric,
Bronze, and Roman periods, and of the Anglo-Saxon,
pre-Viking, and Viking ages, besides more modern
productions. The Geological Gallery is an important
feature of the institution, which seems to be efficiently
conducted. The publication in a cheap form of
monographs for the use of visitors is an important
part of the work of the museum.
THE FLORA OF THE DaKoTa SERIES.—The Uppet
Cretaceous flora, so widely known as that of the
Dakota Beds, is receiving detailed attention from
C. Wilber Berry, who marks out successive stages in
the southern states of N. America. His review of
these in a paper on “‘ The Flora of the Cheyenne Sand-
stone of Kansas’ (U.S. Geol. Survey, Prof. Paper
129—I, 1922) shows that the term ‘“‘ Dakota flora ”’
has been too vaguely used. The author has proved
the Patapsco flora of Virginia and Maryland to be
Albian. A comparison of genera gives the Cheyenne
Sandstone a distinctly higher position, presumably
Cenomanian, since the flora of the Woodbine Sand of
Texas (ibid., 129—G) is held to succeed it and to be
Turonian rather than Cenomanian. The Woodbine
flora is synchronous with that of the true Dakota
Sandstone of the western interior, and floras older
than this should not now be described as of Dakota age.
DEVONIAN FossILs FROM CHITRAL AND THE PAMIRS.
—Dr. H. H. Hayden in the course of his journey
through Chitral and the Pamirs in 1914 studied the
geology and collected the fossils he came across.
Of these the Devonian Invertebrata, chiefly Brachio-
poda, have now been described and figured. by F. R.
Cowper Reed (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, New Series,
vol. vi. mem. 2). His investigations go to show
that in Chitral the Upper Devonian is developed
with a fauna of a west European type indicating a
Frasnian age; the presence of the Middle Devonian
is not proved, but the Lower Devonian is believed
to be present. In the Pamirs the Upper Devonian
fauna presents a different facies and does not possess
a single species in common with the Chitral beds,
it is unlike that of any beds of western Europe, but
on the other hand, especially as regards the Brachio-
poda, is characterised by a certain American element.
Beds of Middle Devonian age are also probably
present in the Pamirs. As might be expected, a fair
number of the species proved to be new and are
accordingly named and illustrated on the sixteen
accompanying plates, which are of unusual excellence.
THE CRETACEOUS MARINE TRANSGRESSION IN THE
AFRICAN ReGion.—The investigation by Dr. L. F.
Spath (Annals of the Durban Museum, vol. 3, part 2,
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
August 1921) of Cretaceous ammonoidea from Pondo-
land assigns the strata from which they have been
collected to upper stages, Turonian to Campanian.
Prof. J. W. Gregory, however, has gathered from the
other side of the continent, in° Angola, evidence of
Albian strata, and it may be concluded that a sub-
mergence of some extent took place before the widely
recognised Cenomanian transgression. Dr. Spath,
following on Mr. R. B. Newton’s account of the
brachiopods and molluscs, describes the ammonoids
from Angola in a memoir in the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 53, part 1, 1922,
with handsome plates provided by the funds of the
Carnegie Trust. Most of the 117 specimens were
collected near Labito Bay, and not a single Ceno-
manian ammonite occurs among them. The fauna
is compared with that of Albian horizons in Mada-
gascar and India; but the author holds that its
closest affinities are with that of the Mediterranean
region. Similar relations have been indicated for
the Cenomanian fauna of West Africa. The paper
includes considerations affecting the classification of
ammonoidea from the British Gault.
Mount Erna AND UPPER AIR CURRENTS.—In a
paper published by the Reale Accademia Nazionale
dei Lincei (vol. xxxi. ser. 5a, fasc. 7, 1922), Prof.
Filippo Eredia shows that numerous pilot balloon
observations conducted at Catania confirm what had
been revealed by cirrus clouds and smoke from the
volcano, namely, that the upper wind is very per-
sistently from the N.W., and that Mount Etna does not
effect any local modification in the general course of the
Temperate latitude westerlies, which have been shown
by Hildebrandsson to acquire a northerly deviation
at the higher levels. The balloon observations in
question disclose a definite N.W. direction at all
seasons at the height of about 2400 metres (7000 feet
ciyca), this direction becoming very persistent at
3300 metres (10,000 feet). It is found that the
increase in the speed of the wind with altitude is in
the Etna region more pronounced in summer than
in winter, and the fact is connected with the greater
rotation of the direction of the wind with height in
summer, the surface winds in winter being also W.
or N.W. The N.W. upper current is styled “il
contro-aliseo boreale,’’ that is, the northern counter
(anti) trade feeding the tropical high pressure, in
accordance with the terminology of Hildebrandsson.
BRAZILIAN CLimaTtoLocy.—An official publication
(““ Boletim de Normaes, Ministerio da Agricultura, etc.,
Directoria de Meteorologia’’), under the direction of
Sampaio Ferraz, has recently appeared, comprising
meteorological statistics for a large network of stations
scattered over the republic of Brazil, so that, although
the records cover but a few years, it is evident that
a commencement has been made towards a_ very
thorough climatological survey of this remarkably
progressive tropical state. For the capital, however,
Rio de Janeiro, situated in lat. 23° S., near the
southern tropic, a thirty years’ record or more exists
for most of the meteorological elements, and it may
be of interest to quote a few figures. The annual
range of mean temperature is what one would expect
in a maritime city at the margin of the tropics, namely,
about 10° F. between 77°:3 F. in January and 68°-1
F. in July, the figure for the year being 73°-6. The
absolute maximum is 102°-2 recorded in December,
and the absolute minimum for the period 50°-3 in
September. Thus frost, which is often quite severe in
the extreme south of the republic, has not been recorded
in the capital by a wide margin. The mean annual
rainfall is 46 inches, with a summer maximum, and the
greatest 24-hour fall of 8-9 inches is in no way remark-
292
NALORE
[AuGusT 26, 1922
able for a hot country, this amount having actually
been exceeded in England. The mean annual evapo-
ration exceeds the rainfall by 1 inch—a balance fairly
typical of this type of climate. Rain falls on 136 days,
and thunderstorms occur on as many as 68 days. The
mean annual humidity is 78-3 per cent., with little
monthly variation, whilst the vapour tension follows
closely the monthly mean temperature. The general
subject of the geographical and seasonal variation of
absolute humidity is deserving of more study, but it
seems almost inevitable that, except perhaps in arid
continental interiors away from sources of vapour
supply, the dominating factor controlling the varia-
tions must be temperature. ;
CURRENT METERS.—A pamphlet by Dr. M. A.
Hogan on “‘ Current Meters for use in River Gauging ”’
has been issued by the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research for the committee on gauging
rivers and tidal currents (London: H.M. Stationery
Office, Is. 6d. net). The pamphlet gives in vi + 33 pp.
a useful summary of information relating to the con-
ditions affecting the design and use of current meters.
Several meters in common use are described, and
sections are devoted to a discussion of the effects of
oblique and varying velocities, and also of turbulence.
Theoretically, the best type of meter is the screw
type fixed on a rod, with blades or guard rings
specially designed for the good measurement of oblique
velocities. But the main disadvantages attached to
this type of meter concern the practical details, such
as the supporting of the rod during measurement,
and in this respect it is concluded that the cup-type
meter, being supported by a cable, is more easily
manipulated. The results of tests of meters in
turbulent water and also for low velocities are collated.
The author concludes that in favourable circum-
stances most meters will give results of sufficient
accuracy for river gauging, but that when the condi-
tions are unfavourable, as when turbulence is present,
the crude results given by a single meter of any
existing type are likely to be considerably in error.
The most important effects of turbulence arise through
the variations in direction of velocity rather than in
magnitude. With the cup type of meter turbulence
causes over-registration, while with the screw-type
meter it causes under-registration, so that a combina-
eu of the two types can be used to measure turbulent
ow.
TELESCOPES VERSUS FIELD GLAssEs.— Although
almost every text-book which deals with optical
instruments describes the astronomical or Kepler
and the Galilean telescopes, and explains how the
former may be converted into an erecting telescope
like the latter, few of them direct attention to the
decrease of luminosity of the field due to the erecting
devices, and still fewer give any information as to
the relative extents of the fields of view of the two
instruments. It is, however, on account of the small
field of the Galilean instrument that it is no longer
used in astronomical observatories, and some ex-
planation of this restriction of the field should be
given in any modern text-book on optics. To fill
the gap in present-day text-books Dr. A. Sonnefeld,
of Jena, contributes an article on the subject to the
issue of Die Naturwissenschaften for July 28. From
the point of view of the instrument-maker wishing
to widen the field, the subject has been treated
recently by Messrs. Hughes and Everitt, Transactions
of the Optical Society, 22, p. 15, and by Mr. T.
Smith in the same volume, p. 84.
SPECTRA ON THE QuanTUM-ORBIT THEORY.—This
theory has been so successful in describing the known
facts as to the spectra of elements constituted of a
single nucleus and a single electron, that there is
considerable justification in the hope that it may
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
help to explain the spectra of more complicated
elements. An approximate solution of the larger
problem has been given by Sommerfeld in his
“ Atombau und Spektrallinien,’’ but there are assump-
tions made by him as to actual spectral observations
which Prof. Hicks points out in a paper on the subject
in the August issue of the Philosophical Magazine
are not justified. In the first instance the expression
for the frequencies of the lines of a series which
results from taking the atom to consist of a central
nucleus, a ring of equally spaced electrons and out-
side it a single electron obeying the quantum laws,
is not general enough to cover all known series. In
the second instance observation lends no support to
Sommerfeld’s deduction that the different types of
spectra are obtained by giving one of his constants
successive integral values. Lastly, many small and
often irrelevant points are referred to as striking
confirmations of the theory, which, when examined
more carefully, are found to afford no support to it.
HEXOSAMINES AND Mucins.—Dr. P. A. Levene,
in Monograph No. 18 of the Rockefeller Institute,
gives the interesting results of his work on constitu-
tion of these substances. He shows that the nitrogen
in the amino-sugars- is present as a primary amino
group, in analogy with the other glucosides. A large
number of derivatives are described and many of
the hexosamines were synthesised. As regards the
mucins, it is shown that there are two groups, from
one of which chondroitin-sulphuric acid is obtained,
from the other mucoitin-sulphuric acid. They differ
in the fact that the former, obtained from cartilage,
aorta, and sclerotic, contains the amino-hexose,
chondrosamine; the latter, obtained from umbilical
cord, vitreous humour, and cornea, contains in its
place chitosamine. This latter amino-sugar is some-
times called glucosamine. The chitosaminic acid
derived from it turns out to be 2-amino-mannonic
acid, whereas chondrosaminic acid is 2-amino-talonic
acid. Apart from this difference, the two conjugated
sulphuric acids are similar and consist of the amino-
hexose, glucuronic, acetic, and sulphuric acids in
equi-molecular proportions. The amino-sugar -and
glucuronic acid are combined as a disaccharide. The
acetyl group is linked to the amino group. Finally
two molecules of the whole are joined as glucoside
by their glucuronic acids. There appears to be a
slight difference in the place of attachment of the
sulphuric acid to the amino-sugar.
THE Composition OF PHosPHORITE.—Mr. A. F.
Rogers (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 203, p. 269, April
1922) writes of “ Collophane, a much _ neglected
mineral,’’ and shows that this name deserves a more
general recognition. It was given by Fridolin Sand-
berger in 1870 to an amorphous calcium phosphate and
carbonate, with some water, from Sombrero. Sand-
berger eliminated the carbonate; but the material
has been shown by Lacroix to consist almost exactly
of 3Ca,(PO,),.CaCO;. Dahllite is clearly its crystal-
lised representative. The author regards the varia-
tions in composition as due to solid solution, calcium
fluoride and sulphate being sometimes concerned.
Collophane becomes important if we recognise that
a large part of the ordinary phosphorite of commerce,
rock-phosphate and the rest, consists of this material.
When the author states that, “like most other
amorphous minerals, it is of colloidal origin,’ he
probably means that it once was in a colloidal state.
Dahllite has, of course, been previously recognised as
forming the concretions of phosphorite in Podolia,
which show internal radial crystallisation. Carbon
dioxide varying from 2-40 to 11-72 per cent. is recorded
by J. Samojlov (Compte vendu Congr. internat. géol.,
r2™° session, Canada, 1913, p. 850) as a constituent
of the widely spread Jurassic and Cretaceous phos-
phorites of Russia.
AucusT 26, 1922]
NATURE | 29
ios)
The Glasgow Meeting of the British Medical Association.
“iis ninetieth annual meeting of the British
Medical Association was held in Glasgow on
July 25-28, under the presidency of Sir William
Macewen, and its proceedings included much of
interest to men of science outside the circles of
medical specialism. In his address delivered on the
evening of July 25 in the Bute Hall-of the University,
after welcoming the Association to Glasgow and refer-
ring to some of the great names associated with the
University of Glasgow during the 471 years of its
existence, the president put in a strong plea for a
broader scientific outlook with less concentration on
purely human phenomena. He referred to the want
of scientific training and scientific habits of thought
in the general community, and pointed out how this
had led to the neglect of discoveries of the greatest
practical importance. It had now been discovered
that such a disease as syphilis was a preventable germ
disease, which could be stamped out by means made
known to them: “If this generation did not stop the
disease it committed a crime against posterity.’’ The
main part of the address dealt with the enthralling
subject of brain-surgery, of which the speaker is one
of the most distinguished pioneers, and of which he is
still an acknowledged master.
On the following three days the Association met in
separate sections, housed in the medical and scientific
departments of the University, and in various of
these papers were read and discussions held which
were of wide scientific importance. In the section of
pathology an interesting discussion took place on
“Animal and Vegetable Pathology in Relation to
Human Disease,’ the openers being Prof. Hobday
and Prof. Lang. The former dealt mainly with the
importance of diseases communicable to man, such as
glanders, rabies, anthrax, and tubercle. Prof. Lang
discussed in a more general way the relations of
vegetable pathology to animal, tending on the whole
to sound a note of caution against the assumption
that the principles underlying the processes of disease
and healing are identical in the twe kingdoms. He
discussed the case of crown gall, on which important
recent work had been done by Smith and Townsend,”
and by Robinson and Walkden. In this case tumours
developed in relation to wounds such as those made
in grafting, and it had been shown that the new growth
was due to infection by a specific microbe Bacterium
tumefaciens. The fundamental differences in organisa-
tion between the higher animal and the higher plant
should, in Prof. Lang’s opinion, be carefully borne in
mind before instituting close comparisons between
such tumours caused by B. tumefacium and the
malignant new growths of man. The probability
was that the pathogenic processes of plants and
animals had begun to diverge from one another at a
very remote period of evolutionary time, and the
value of the study of plant pathology to the human
pathologist (and incidentally to the student of
medicine) lay rather in its broadening the outlook
than in its providing the bases for direct inferences
from one subject to the other. In the course of his
paper Prof. Lang referred to the fact that the study
of ancient plants obtained from the Old Red Sand-
stone of Scotland had disclosed injuries, due ap-
parently to irritating gases, and healing processes,
bearing the closest similarity to what may be observed
in modern plants after exposing them to irritating
vapour. This fact is obviously of extraordinary
biological interest as being the most ancient case of
pathological reaction which has been subjected to
histological investigation.
The discussion just mentioned had its supplement
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
on the following day in the new but highly successful
section of micro-biology, sitting under the presidency
of Dr. R. M. Buchanan, when Prof. V. H. Blackman
opened a discussion on “‘ Some Similarities and Dis-
similarities in the Micro-biology of Plant and Animal
Diseases.’’ Prof. Blackman also was inclined to
emphasise the differences rather than the resem-
blances between the diseases of plants and animals.
He gave an interesting general review of the relations
of parasite and host in the parasitic diseases of plants.
The immunity of plants towards hostile micro-
organisms was a natural immunity: the acquired
immunity so characteristic of many human diseases
and forming the basis of modern serum-therapy was
quite unknown in relation to specific diseases in
plants. Immunity was often of a passive kind, such
as is provided by a resistent enticle or cell-wall,
successful invaders in such cases making their way in
through natural openings such as the stomata, or
through special perforations made by their own
activity. In other cases the immunity was of an
active kind, involving a distinct physiological reaction
on the part of the plant. Thus in cereals immune
to “rust” the cells have developed a hyper-sensitive-
ness to the proximity of the fungus, dying upon its
approach, before they can be penetrated by the
parasite. In other cases the host imprisons the
invading parasite in an envelope of impermeable cork
cells. Prof. Blackman also directed attention to the
existence amongst plants of diseases due to so-called
ultra-microscopic organisms. Two diseases of this
type occurring in the potato had recently been found
to show a further analogy with diseases of a similar
type occurring .in animals in that they were insect-
borne, being transmitted by aphides or green-fly.
The “ultra- microscopic’ or “filter - passing ”’
organisms were also to the fore at other meetings of
the section of micro-biology. On Wednesday, July
26, Dr. F. d’Herelle, of the Pasteur Institute, opened a
discussion on his theory of ‘‘ Bacteriophage ’’—a
theory formulated to explain the fact that among the
contents of the alimentary canal there always exists
a “something ’’ which possesses the power of dis-
solving bacteria of certain definite types, e.g. in the
case of man bacteria of the coli-typhoid-dysentery
group. This “something,’’ sometimes called an
enzyme, sometimes given the more definite name
bacteriolysin, is of uncertain origin. The balance of
probability would probably appear to most biologists
to be in favour of its being formed by the activity of
the host, its formation being part of the general
defensive mechanism of the body. Dr. d’Herelle,
however, believes it to be formed by an ultra-micro-
scopic enemy of the bacteria, which he names Bactervio-
phagum intestinale, and he supports his theory by a
mass of striking arguments. Dr. Twort, of the
Brown Institute, gave an account of his earlier work,
in which he determined the existence of a similar
bacteriolytic substance in cultures of micrococcus. A
point of much interest emphasised by Dr. Twort, but
usually ignored by biologists, is the probability that
ultra-microscopic organisms exist in abundance free
in nature, and are not confined to a parasitic existence.
In the discussion on Thursday, July 27, upon the
“ Bacteriology of Influenza,’’ an important réle was
again assigned to the ultra-microscopic type of
organism. Dr. Mervyn Gordon recalled that a large
number of diseases, such as measles, mumps, small-
pox, were now attributed to these organisms, measur-
ing under 0.54 in diameter, to which Prowazek had
given the name Chlamydozoa. Strong evidence had
recently been adduced that the real causative agent
294
NAT ORE
[AucusT 26, 1922
of common cold was an organism of this type, measur-
ing 0.2-0.34 in diameter. Dr. Gordon gave an
account of his recent researches, which are entirely
confirmatory of the view that influenza is similarly
due to organisms of this type, which can be obtained
from the nasal and pharyngeal secretion during the
first three days of the disease, though not later.
The section of physiology met on two days only,
each being taken up mainly with an interesting dis-
cussion. The first, on the “‘ Etiology of Rickets,”’
opened by Dr. Leonard Findlay and Prof. Mellanby,
was mainly of medical interest, but it left two distinct
impressions on the lay mind: (1) That there is still
much difference of opinion in regard to the cause of
this blot on the health of our great cities, and perhaps
too great a tendency to the belief that one single
factor is responsible rather than a complex of factors ;
and (2) A strong impression of the valuable return
which is bound to accrue to the community through
the activities of the Medical Research Council under
the guidance of its present secretary.
The other discussion in this section had for its
subject ‘‘ Basal Metabolism,” 7.e. the metabolism
during complete rest. In his interesting opening
address Prof. Cathcart incidentally emphasised the
extreme complexity and elusiveness of the phenomena
grouped under that blessed word metabolism—facts
which are liable to be accorded insufficient weight by
biological writers and teachers.
One of the most important features of the Glasgow
meeting was the discussion which took place on
Friday morning, July 28, in the section of medical
sociology upon “‘ Alcohol as a Beverage in its relation
to certain Social Problems ’’—a discussion which
stood out in strong relief from most discussions on
this much discussed subject from its including
moderate and calmly reasoned statements from
scientific investigations of recognised status. The
discussion was opened with an admirable introductory
statement by Prof. Mellanby, of Sheffield, in which
he laid down the basic facts regarding the physio-
logical action of alcohol. As a drug it was to be
regarded as a narcotic, acting on the cells of the
cerebral cortex and slackening its control and dis-
cipline over the lower nerve centres. It was as a
narcotic drug that alcohol in small doses found its
usefulness in human life, dispersing temporarily
worries and troubles, and so facilitating bodily
functions that were known to be interfered with by
anxiety. As a food the value of alcohol in moderate
amounts rested on the fact that it is rapidly absorbed
and to the extent of about 98 per cent. oxidised so as
to set free heat. Experiment showed that as much
as 40 per cent. of the heat lost from the body during
a given period could be supplied by alcohol, but the
practical utility of this was to a great extent
neutralised by the poisonous drug action. Under
abnormal conditions, however, such as those of
Diabetes mellitus, the food value of alcohol in small
doses could be utilised to take the place of sugar. Dr.
J. T. MacCurdy, of Cornell, speaking as a psychiatrist,
emphasised the fact that ‘‘ the Alcoholic is, before he
ever touches a drop, an abnormal person,’’ and also
emphasised the great difficulty in carrying out a just
Broadcasting
N Rk. A. P. M. FLEMING, manager of the research
A and education departments of the Metro-
politan-Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., who has been
closely identified with the development of radio
broadcasting in Great Britain, recently attended a
conference of the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers at Niagara Falls as a representative of the
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
comparison between the two evils of such abnormality
finding expression in alcoholism or in some other form
of vice or crime. From the purely scientific point of
view one of the most interesting contributions to the
debate was that from Prof. C. R. Stockard, of Cornell
Medical College, which told of his experiments,
extending over a long series of years, on the influence
of alcohol in causing abnormalities of developing eggs
andembryos. His experiments on mammals (Guinea-
pig) were of particular interest in demonstrating how
heavily dosing the parents with alcohol produces
marked effects in diminishing fertility, in increasing
pre-natal and early post-natal mortality, and in
causing defectiveness of the offspring. If we are
justified, as no doubt we are, in extending Stockard’s
results to man, we are afforded incidentally a fine
illustration of natural selection at work in the civilised
community—for these individuals that are afflicted
with the particular form of ‘‘ unfitness ’’ that finds its
superficial expression in drunkenness are seen to
be subjected to a severe process of weeding-out
during foetal and infantile life which works in the
direction of keeping up the standard of the surviving
stock.
It must not be thought that the proceedings of the
sections exhausted the activities of the meeting. An
admirable ‘‘ Museum ’’ was got together by Prof.
Teacher, while Dr. Dunkerly arranged a micro-
biological exhibition, which included beautiful series
of Leishmania and of Spirochaetes exhibited by Sir
Wm. Leishman, and Dr. Connal’s series of develop-
mental stages of Loa loa in the body of the trans-
mitting fly. Numerous interesting demonstrations
were given at the afternoon meetings of the various
sections, and the meetings concluded on Friday
evening, July 28, with the “ popular’ lecture—
entitled “‘ The Physician—Naturalist, Teacher, Bene-
factor ’’—delivered to a large audience by Prof.
Graham Kerr.
The gold medal of the Association was presented to
the Right Hon, Sir. T. Clifford Allbutt and to Lieut.-
Col. A. Martin-Leake at the general meeting on the
evening of July 25. The presentations were made by
the president on behalf of the association. The medal
for distinguished merit was instituted by the associa-
tion at its annual meeting in Manchester in 1877.
The medal is awarded on the recommendation of the
Council to some person who shall have conspicuously
raised the character of the medical profession by
scientific work, by extraordinary professional services,
or by special services rendered to the association.
On this occasion the medal was in each case accom-
panied by a testimonial or address stating the grounds
of the award.
The Stewart Prize of the Association was presented
to Dr. J. C. McVail at the same meeting on July 25.
The prize was founded by the late Dr. Alexander
Patrick Stewart, who was among the earliest to give
attention to sanitary questions and also to distinguish
between typhus and typhoid fever. The primary
object of the Stewart Prize is to afford recognition
of important work already done or of researches
instituted and promising good results regarding the
origin, spread, and prevention of epidemic diseases.
in America.
British Institution of Electrical Engineers and the
British National Committee of the International
Electrotechnical Commission. He took advantage
of the opportunity while in America to make a close
investigation of the position of radio telephony
extending over a period of two months, and, in
addition, studied the trend of public taste and opinion
AucusT 26, 1922]
NATURE
295
with regard to broadcasting and the steps which are
being taken by the Government to control radio
transmission. He tested a wide variety of makes of
receiving apparatus and discussed the methods of
working, cost and organisation of broadcasting
stations, and obtained a considerable amount of
valuable experience which will assist in enabling
British manufacturers to avoid the pitfalls into which
many American firms have fallen. Mr. Fleming also
visited the largest broadcasting stations and discussed
the situation with the leading makers, radio engineers
and officials.
Since the end of 1920 the broadcasting position in
America has been chaotic. Practically anybody—
private companies, municipalities, departmental
stores, universities, Government offices, newspapers
—have been able to set up transmitting stations, the
only restrictions being the wave-length, 360 metres,
and the power, about 1} kw. At the present time
there are nearly five hundred broadcasting stations
in the United States working without reference to
each other, except in a few cases of friendly co-
operation, with regard to time of operation, type of
programme and object of the station. The stations
are concentrated chiefly along the eastern states and
on the Pacific slope, and no less than twenty stations
are in close proximity to New York City. Broad-
casting programmes are announced in advance
through the press, and much use is made of gramo-
phone records for transmission. The U.S. Govern-
ment called a conference of interested parties at
Washington a few months ago under the chairman-
ship of Mr. Herbert Hoover, and appropriate working
conditions were decided. The passage of a Bill now
before Congress will afford the Secretary of the Depart-
ment of Commerce considerable powers to control
and co-ordinate the radio traffic, including broad-
casting. The process, however, at this stage is slow,
and some time must elapse before the American
system is giving the public as efficient service as it is
hoped the British system will give from its inception.
The action of the Postmaster-General in restricting
broadcasting is viewed with much approval in the
States, as affording the most convenient means
whereby confusion may be avoided.
During his visit Mr. Fleming saw the principal
broadcasting stations in operation, including East
Pittsburgh (call sign KDKA), Newark (WJZ), Chicago
(KYW), Springfield (WPZ), all operated by the
Westinghouse Co., the Detroit Free Press, Detroit
News, Federal Telegraph and Telephone Co., Rochester
School of Music, etc. From the two Detroit stations,
as well as those at Pittsburgh and Chicago, Mr.
Fleming broadcasted for the benefit of American
listeners the position of radio telephony in Great
Britain.
The broadcasting station comprises studios in
which the artistes play and sing, transmission rooms,
control rooms, green room and offices. Every station
differs from others, all being in an experimental stage
of development, and each one has points of interest
which can be incorporated into English practice. It
is estimated that two million radio receiving sets are
in use, and during the last two years about 12,500
companies have been incorporated for carrying on
radio business. Many of these, however, are mushroom
affairs, against which the public has been warned.
The pioneer work in the development of broad-
casting was conducted by the Westinghouse Co., of
Pittsburgh, which opened station IKDKA in December
1920. The Company also immediately placed upon
the market a number of receiving sets and a remark-
able demand arose. The whole country responded
to this new form of entertainment, and the demand
created has no parallel in recent years.
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
The patent situation with regard to radio apparatus,
circuits and valves was so obscure and complicated
that many of the leading makers might unwittingly
have infringed each other’s patents, and the pooling
of the patents by the principal manufacturers has
eased what might have been an extremely difficult
situation. The Radio Corporation, a group of radio
manufacturers already in existence and interested in
communication by radio telephony, was utilised to
act as a selling agent. There are, of course, many
manufacturers outside this group, but small makers
are not permitted to utilise patents for which they are
not licensed, their sets consequently being less effective
and up-to-date than those of the leading makers.
Clearly the “ mushroom ”’ companies are unable to
indemnify their clients against actions which may
take place if basic patents are infringed by the
apparatus they make.
One of the most interesting organisations in the
States is the American Relay League, a national non-
commercial association of radio amateurs who com-
bine to relay friendly messages between amateur
stations across the Continent and to protect the
interests of amateurs. In this way messages from
amateur transmitting stations can be sent over very
much longer distances. Under British conditions
such work is not possible, as those who hold to-watt
transmitting licenses can only send out messages
connected with the experimental work for which their
license is primarily intended, but attempts are being
made to modify these restrictions. Amateur trans-
mission could not, of course, take place while broad-
casting is in progress.
During the hot summer months in America the
public is not particularly keen on indoor entertain-
ment, and noises in the receiving set due to atmo-
spheric electrical disturbances are troublesome. The
public taste is also changing, and those who have
experienced reception last winter are developing a
taste for more serious and solid matter than has
hitherto been the case. Educational matter and
health talks are becoming increasingly popular in
programmes. More and more church services are
broadcasted, and the improvement in the quality of
sermons is helping to fill churches which have hitherto
been very thinly attended. Market and stock reports
are also sent out, and these are of great importance to
farmers, e.g. the ruling price of pork in Chicago,
obtained by radio, may help a farmer to decide
whether to send his hogs to market or not immedi-
ately. University extensions and extra-mural lec-
tures are being broadcasted to an increasing extent,
and invalids and others (‘‘ shut-ins ’’) who are unable
to seek entertainment out of doors find radio a great
boon.
There is no doubt that radio has come to stay. Its
character will change, both through technical improve-
ments and through changes in the public taste, but
it is rapidly becoming a permanent part of the national
life. It is being used to an increasing extent to send
out what is known as “ perishable news,’’ to relieve
the load on the ordinary telephone and telegraph
lines. In this respect the attitude of the press has
undergone a notable change. From opposition it
has changed to whole-hearted support. Newspapers
publish programmes at length, and have radio
columns in which expert advice is given to amateurs.
Mr. Fleming is most optimistic as to the future of
radio in Great Britain. While British audiences are
likely to be more critical than American, with the aid
of all that American experience has to offer British
broadcasting will establish itself as the best in the
world, and the public will find in it a unique and
continuous source of entertainment and instruction,
full of possibilities of expansion. The develop-
296
NATORE
[AucusT 26, 1922
ments which are taking place even now in America
are likely to produce far-reaching changes, such as
the so-called wired wireless, by which radio trans-
Third International Congress
pe papers read at this Congress, which was held
in London on July 17-22 under the presidency
of Dr. Charles Singer, may be classified in four main
groups according to their subjects, viz., epidemi-
ology, anatomy, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.
Among the papers on epidemiology special mention
may be made of those by Prof. Jeanselme, on bubonic
plague in the Middle Ages, in which a relationship
between famine and plague was shown; by Dr.
Ernest Wickersheimer on the black plague at Stras-
bourg in 1349, with extracts from a contemporary
document; by Miss M. Buer on the decrease of
epidemic diseases in the 18th and early roth cen-
turies, a decrease attributed by her to improvements
in agriculture, improvements in house and town
planning and the advance in medicine; and an
interesting account by Sir William Collins of Sir
Edwin Chadwick, the father of English sanitary
science. Other papers of epidemiological interest
were those of Dr. Torkomian of Constantinople on
inoculation against small-pox by the ancient Ar-
menians, of Dr. Belohlavek of Prague on epidemics
in Bohemia in the Middle Ages, and of Dr. Neveu of
Paris on plague in Tuscany in the fifteenth century.
Perhaps the most interesting contribution to the
history of anatomy was the paper of Prof. Wright on
Leonardo da Vinci’s work on the structure of the
heart, in which it was stated that Leonardo was the
first to show the exact attachment of the chorde
tendinee to the cusps of the auriculo-ventricular
valves, the first to direct attention to the dilatations
of the origins of the aorta and pulmonary valves, the
first to note the occasional presence of an inter-
auricular foramen or foramen ovale, and the first to
describe the moderator band in the right ventricle of
the heart. Dr. Donald Campbell made a communica-
tion on the significance of the Arabic MSS. of Galen’s
work on anatomical administration, in which he
suggested that the preservation of this work when
portions of it were totally lost otherwise indicated
that the Muslems did not completely destroy the
second library of Alexandria, as is generally supposed.
In a paper on the anatomical studies of Descartes in
Holland, M. Fosseyeux showed by extracts from con-
temporary literature that Descartes, who was the
grandson and great grandson of medical men, studied
anatomy both in the human subject and in animals
at Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leyden, and MHarlem
between the years 1630 and 1638. Other anatomical
papers were those by Dr. T. Wilson Parry on the
collective evidence of trephination of the human skull
in Great Britain during prehistoric times, by Dr.
Kathleen Lander on women as anatomists, by Dr.
Krumbhaar of Philadelphia on the beginnings of
anatomical instruction in the United States, and by
Dr. J. D. Comrie on early anatomical instruction in
Edinburgh.
In an historical sketch of pharmacy in Great
Britain and Ireland, Mr. J. B. Gilmour showed that
it was not until the 16th century that any beginning
was made with the regulation of the practice of
medicine or the sale of drugs, and even down to the
18th century the sale and dispensing of drugs was
chiefly in the hands of the physicians and apothe-
caries. The paper deals successively .with the evolu-
tion of the pharmacist, the history of pharmacy law,
the origin of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
mission is conducted for part of its path by an ordinary
wired line. What these developments do, however,
must be left for the future to determine.
of the History of Medicine.
Britain, pharmaceutical education and science, the
protection of professional interests, pharmacy in
Ireland, and the history of pharmacopoeias and
pharmaceutical literature. In his paper on art in the
Italian pharmacy of the 15th century Prof. Casti-
glioni of Trieste stated that at the beginning of the
15th century the practice of medicine was closely
associated with that of the apothecary, so that the
druggist’s shop was often an intellectual centre which
served not only as a consulting-room for the doctor
but also as a place where books and curiosities were
exhibited. Prof. Castiglioni showed a large number
of photographs of pharmacy jars from his private
collection, illustrating the development of medicine
in the 15th century. Mr. C. J. S. Thompson traced
the history of “‘ Hiera Picra,” a remedy composed
mainly of aloes and colocynth, which was first used,
according to tradition, in the temples of A®scu-
lapius in Greece and is still sold in the pharmacies of
Great Britain and the Continent. M. Buchet con-
tributed a paper on the history of legislation concern-
ing poisons, and M. Fialon described the ancient
statutes of the apothecaries of Lyons.
Major-General Sir Frederick Smith gave an interest-
ing description, illustrated by lantern slides, of the
position of veterinary anatomy in England during
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, in which he
emphasised the following points: (1) The compara-
tive absence of information on the subject, in spite
of the fact that up to the 15th century practically
only the anatomy of animals was studied by students
of human medicine. (2) The interest shown by lay
writers On a subject in which they were ignorant,
but the importance of which in the advancement of
veterinary knowledge they fully recognised. These
men wrote on the subject and drew on their imagina-
tion. (3) The absence of any veterinary school in
this country until the end of the 18th century, when
one was founded in 1791 with Vial de Sambel as
professor. Prof. F. J. Cole of Reading read a paper
on Ruini on the anatomy of the horse, a work which,
published in 1598, was the first monograph on the
anatomy of an animal. Other papers on veterinary
medicine were read by Mr. F. E. Bullock on “‘ Mulomedi-
cina Chironis,”” a compilation of ancient veterinary
treatises; by M. H. J. Sevilla on the syndrome of
colic in the Greek Hippiatric writings, and by M.
Moulé on the history of glanders in Greek and Roman
writers.
In addition to the papers on the history of epi-
demiology, anatomy, pharmacy, and _ veterinary
medicine, communications on various topics of
medico - historical interest were read. In a paper
entitled “‘ Magistri Salernitani nondum cogniti,” Dr.
Capparoni of Rome gave an account of a manu-
script which he had found in the cathedral of St.
Matthew at Salerno, containing the names of thirty-
one hitherto unknown medical men from the second
half of the tenth to the sixteenth century, most of
whom were monks or ecclesiastics of some kind.
This discovery confirmed Dr. Capparoni’s view that
scientific medicine at this period was mainly practised
by monks until the papal prohibition in the 12th
century to practise medicine outside the cloisters,
with the result that the school of Salerno was founded
by laymen. Ina paper on Dante and Averrhoism in
Italy, Prof. Castigloni discussed the relations of
AucusT 26, 1922]
IMA TORE
297
Dante with medicine. Though opposed to the view
that Dante himself was a medical man, the professor
stated that the poet studied medicine at Bologna,
was closely connected with Alderotti and Pietro
d’Albano, two of the most distinguished physicians
of that time, was prior of the corporation of physicians
and apothecaries, and was given the title of magister
in a contemporary document.
Other papers on miscellaneous topics were those by
Dr. F. J. Poynton on doctors and the dawn of aero-
statia, by Dr. J. D. van Gils of the Hague on the
doctors of Moliére and Shaw, and by Mme. Panayo-
tatou of Alexandria on hygiene and dancing in
ancient Greece. It is proposed to hold the next
Congress of the history of medicine at Geneva in 1925.
The Research Association of British
Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers.
ROBABLY in no industry is the old ground of
knowledge less thoroughly explored and the
new unbroken field for useful research so extensive
and attractive as in the rubber industry taken as a
whole. A hundred years or a little more have passed
since the discovery that rubber could be converted
into a workable form by solution in suitable solvents
or by mechanical kneading, and the process of
vulcanisation was discovered eighty years ago.
These operations, which are yet applied unaltered in
principle and very little different in practical detail,
still represent the foundation of rubber manufacture
of the present day; compared with them, all the
other innovations have been of minor importance.
The disadvantages, however, inherent to these
fundamental operations are so marked as to cause
surprise that so little further advance has been made
during the last half-century. It is almost astounding
that so large a portion of the effective history of the
industry should be found recorded in the remarkable
“Personal Narrative ’’ of Thomas Hancock, published
in 1857, after his retirement.
If anything further had been needed to emphasise
the importance of the rubber industry, particularly
that section of it dealing with the production of
rubber tyres for various types of vehicles, and the
call for its further scientific development, the period
between 1914 and 1918 supplied the necessary stress
in an unmistakable manner. It was natural, there-
fore, that members of certain companies interested
in the manufacture of rubber goods should decide to
take advantage of the assistance offered by Govern-
ment to found a Research Association of British
Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers. An _ energetic
Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Alexander
Johnson saw the Association pass from the embryo
stage to a state of healthy and vigorous existence with
Mr. B. D. Porritt as director of Research.
On account of the early part of the year 1920
being inopportune for the purchase of premises and
equipment, the Research Association first found a
temporary home in University College, London, thus
enabling a commencement with a preliminary,
albeit necessarily restricted, programme of work,
more particularly of a purely physical and chemical
nature. Later, after careful search and inspection of
suitable premises, purchase was completed of two
detached houses at 105 and 107 Lansdowne Road,
Croydon. These possessed several advantages, and
after necessary alterations have been converted into
a prepossessing unit. The space between the two
houses is now occupied by a substantial connecting
building which provides increased accommodation in
addition to inter-communication. The frontage of
NO. 2756, VOL. I10]
the site is 120 feet and the depth 206 feet, the latter
leaving ample room for future extensions.
The building, which was formally opened by Lord
Colwyn on July 26, comprises administrative offices,
library, experimental laboratory for the preparation
of rubber, incorporation of compounding ingredients
and vulcanisation, workshop, mechanical testing
laboratory, physical laboratory, chemical laboratories,
storage accommodation and caretakers’ quarters.
All the necessary heavy experimental plant is con-
tained in the basement of the inter-communicating
building, and one of the two original houses has been
kept entirely free from running machinery in order to
permit the use of delicate instruments without risk
of disturbance from vibration.
Those responsible for the founding of this Associa-
tion have realised that the importance of research
to industry lies not so much in the possibility of very
occasional discoveries of a revolutionary nature as in
the sure benefits which are the abundant fruit yielded
by the application of science to the improvement of
existing methods. The functions of the Association,
while not excluding the study of fundamental prob-
lems, include more prosaic considerations such as
improvement in the control of manufacturing opera-
tions and the testing of raw materials and final
products. In such directions there is indeed urgent
need for work, such vital matters as. the reasons for
the use and selection of various necessary “ com-
pounding ingredients ’’ and the methods adopted for
the production of vulcanised rubber possessing
special physical properties, e.g. resistance to cutting
or abrasion, resilience, toughness or even hardness,
being based on almost entirely empirical grounds,
often of the least desirable type.
Whatever requirement may have to be left un-
satisfied in such an Association as this, it should be
able to anticipate with the utmost confidence an
abundant and unceasing supply of problems for
investigation. IDEMae Abe
University and Educational Intelligence.
Prospectuses of Universities and Colleges for
1922-23 are beginning to appear. Leeds University
publishes an extensive programme of evening courses
(advanced) in engineering, dyeing, textile and leather
industries, and geology, and afternoon courses in
coal-mining. During each of five evenings of the
week from five to nine classes will be held. The
faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol
announces additional vacation courses to be held in
1923. University College, Exeter, is establishing new
courses, intermediate and final, in horticulture and in
agriculture, the final course in agriculture being at
the Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbot.
SECONDARY education in the United States is, as
every one knows, conducted chiefly in public (that is
to say, in State) schools. But the part of the field
occupied by the private high schools and academies
is not inconsiderable. Advance sheets from the -
biennial survey of education in the United States,
1918-20 (Bulletin, 1922, No. 9 of the Bureau of
Education), show that in 1919-20 there were 2093
of these institutions, attended by 184,153 secondary
students and, in addition, 250,000 elementary pupils.
A remarkable growth occurred between 1905 and 1920.
During this period the number of their secondary
students increased by 72 per cent. Nearly 75 per
cent. of the institutions are under denominational
control; of these 60 per cent. are Roman Catholic,
and the following analysis shows that to the Roman
Catholic schools is chiefly attributable the above-
298
NATURE
[AucusT 26, 1922
mentioned increase in the number of secondary
students in private schools. The increase was—
in Roman Catholic schools from 20,150 to 76,054; in
other denominational schools from 39,106 to 53,965;
in non-sectarian schools from 47,951 to 54,134; in
all from 107,207 to 184,153. The increase in the
number of secondary students of negro race in private
schools is also noteworthy—from 2774 in 1905 to
9526 in 1920. Less than half of the total number of
these schools are co-educational, 385 being for boys
only and 728 for girls only.
“We should have a dynamic education to fit a
dynamic world ”’ is the burden of the address delivered
by Dr. James Harvey Robinson, on ‘‘ The Humanising
of Knowledge,’’ before the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, at a meeting with the
Pacific division in Salt Lake City on June 23-24.
Once it was well to dehumanise science ; now it must
be rehumanised. Dr. Harvey thinks there is a real
danger threatening the progress of science itself in
neglecting the ‘protest of philosophy, that the ideal
of dehumanising scientific investigation loses sight
of the fact that the onlooker is one of the essential
elements in the observing and recording. The danger
is not that the scientific ideal is faulty, but that
mankind will not accept an idea unless it is attractive
as well as true. “‘ The politicians in the Kentucky
legislature think themselves competent to decide
whether the State should grant funds to any institution
in which man’s animal extraction is taught; the
politicians in the New York legislature have provided
that no one shall teach in the schools of the State who
is known at any time to have expressed any distrust
of our institutions.’’ We on this side may smile at
these fears; but after all it is well to be reminded that
the scientific investigator is prone to take himself
for granted and not to realise ‘‘ what an altogether
astonishing and even grotesque mystery he and his
doings constitute’ for the general mass of social
human beings.
“CO-OPERATION and the Problem of Unemploy-
ment ’’ is the title of a pamphlet issued last month by
the Calcutta newspaper Capital, being a reprint of a
series of articles contributed by Captain J. W. Petavel,
Principal of Maharajah Kasimbazar’s Polytechnic
Institute, together with correspondence between
Captain Petavel and the Vice-Chancellor of the
Calcutta University. The recent establishment by
this university of a Poverty Problem Study Fund, to
meet the cost of lectures and publications devoted
particularly to the exploitation of a definite scheme
of social reform, constitutes a new departure in uni-
versity policy in regard to research in applied sociology.
This scheme “to organise the children and the
adolescents in schools and continuation schools, so as
to make them form the trunk of a great tree of co-
operative production and exchange, whose branches
will extend in all directions and carry health into
every part of our social system,” is not new. Among
its earliest supporters were the late Lord Roberts
and Sir Horace Plunkett. Of late “economists and
educationists in almost every part of the world,”
says the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, have
been canvassed, with the result that there has
been a steadily increasing volume of opinion in
favour of the scheme, and steps are being taken to-
wards operating a large-scale trial application of it
in schools in Bengal by means of self-supporting
school market-gardens and school workshops. The
experiment cannot fail to arouse keen interest, not
only in India but wherever attempts are being made
to extend and improve education without increasing
its cost.
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
August 27, 1898. John Hopkinson died.—Dis-
tinguished as an engineer and a mathematical phy-
sicist, Hopkinson was a graduate of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and in 1871 was senior wrangler and
Smith’s prizeman. For some years he was scientific
adviser to Messrs. Chance, of Birmingham, and made
improvements in lighthouse apparatus. As a con-
sulting engineer in London he took up the study of
electrical problems ; in 1882 patented the three-wire
system, and four years later, with his brother Edward,
published an important memoir on the principles of
the design of dynamos. In 1890 he became professor
of electrical engineering at King’s College, London,
and on two occasions served as president of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers. Huis death was
the result of an Alpine accident.
August 27, 1914. William Thomas Lewis, Lord
Merthyr of Senghenydd, died.—Coal owner, iron
master, steel maker, engineer, and a captain of
industry, Lewis began life as an apprentice in a
South Wales engineering works. In 1860 he became
mining engineer to the estates of the Marquis of
Bute, and twenty years later was made sole manager.
He was a pioneer in the construction of steel works.
August 31, 1751. Christopher Polhem died.—A
famous mining engineer of Sweden, Polhem was born
in 1661, in 1693 became engineer of the mines at
Fahlem, and in 1716 was raised to the nobility and
was made a member of the council of mines. He
travelled extensively, carried out important engin-
eering works, and was one of the original members of
the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm.
August 31, 1865. John George Appold died.—After
amassing a considerable fortune as a fur skin dyer,
Appold turned his attention to mechanical pursuits
and at the Great Exhibition of 1851 attracted atten-
tion by his centrifugal pump. -Among his other
inventions was the brake used in connexion with
the laying of the first Atlantic cable.
September 2, 1834. Thomas Telford died.—The
son of a shepherd of Eskdale, Dumfries, Telford was
born on August 9, 1757. Apprenticed to a mason,
he afterwards worked in Edinburgh, London, and
Portsmouth, became surveyor of public works in
Shropshire, engineer of the Ellesmere Canal, and in
Scotland built the Caledonian Canal and opened up
the country by the construction of 920 miles of roads
and of 120 new bridges. Many other bridges, canals,
and harbour schemes were due to him, and among
these were the Gotha Canal between the Baltic and
North Sea and the famous suspension bridge over
the Menai Straits. An acknowledged leader in the
world of civil engineering, in 1818 he became the
first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers
and held that position till his death. He died at
24 Abingdon Street, Westminster, and was buried
in the nave of Westminster Abbey. His statue
stands in the Chapel of St. Andrew.
September 2, 1883. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley
died.—One of the pioneers of the Atlantic Telegraph
Cable, Varley as a boy entered the service of the
Electric and International Telegraph Company and
of this firm became engineer-in-chief. After the failure
of the first Atlantic cable he constructed an ex-
perimental line for studying the phenomena of
signalling, and during 1864-5 tested the whole of the
new cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
Retiring from active work in 1868, he continued his
investigations and in 1870 transmitted musical sounds
over an ordinary telegraph wire. E.C.S
Avcust 26, 1922]
NATURE 299
Societies and Academies.
Paris.
Academy of Sciences, July 24.—M. Haller in the
chair.—Charles Moureu: The third international
conference of pure and applied chemistry. This
conference was held at Lyons from June 27 to July 1,
and was attended by representatives from 24 nations.
The next meeting will be held at Cambridge in June
1923.—Maurice Leblanc: The electrification of rail-
ways by means of high frequency alternating currents.
—V. Grignard and A. C. Purdy: a-§’-dichlorethyl
ether. Three of the four possible dichlorethers are
known. The fourth, CH,.CHCl.O.CH, .CH,Cl,
has now been prepared by the action of dry hydro-
chloric acid upon a mixture of paraldehyde and
ethylene monochlorhydrin.—M. Abramesco: The
series of polynomials with two complex variables.—
Farid Boulad Bey: The geometrical examination of
the internal forces and displacements round a point
in an elastic body.—Paul Dienes: The displacement
of tensors.—Paul Sacerdote and Pierre Lambert: A
new method for detecting the presence of a submarine.
The plan proposed is suitable for a narrow entrance
to a port and is based on the difference between the
electric conductivity of the submarine and of sea
water.—G. Athanasiu: An actinometer with elec-
trodes of mercury covered with a thin layer of
mercurous chloride, bromide, fluoride, or sulphide.
A cell is constructed of H form, with mercury elec-
trodes covered with a thin film of haloid salt. Ex-
posure of one electrode to light causes an immediate
increase in the E.M.F. of the cell.—St. Procopiu : The
variations in the arc spectrum of mercury with the
conditions of emission. In a vacuum, working at 14
to 15 volts, with low vapour pressure, there are more
lines visible in the ultra-violet (up to 2191) than when
working with 65 volts and 3-5 amperes. Other
modifications are noted if the arc is working in air or
in coal gas, the lines forming the triplets in the two
secondary series being specially affected.—Mlle. Iréne
Curie: The determination of the velocity of a rays of
polonium. The method of deviation in a magnetic
field was employed; and this gave 1-593 x 10° cm.
per second for the velocity of the a rays of polonium,
with a precision of about 0-3 per cent. Geiger, by a
different method, obtained a result within 0-4 per
cent. of the above.—P. Lebeau and M. Picon: The
reactions furnished by sodammonium with hydro-
carbons. Paraffins and ethylene derivatives are
unacted upon by sodammonium: allylene gives 66
per cent. of the sodium derivative and 33 per cent. of
propylene, and other hydrocarbons of the acetylene
series behave similarly. Benzene and its derivatives
are unacted upon, as are also the terpenes. Naphtha-
lene, acenaphthene, and phenathrene give tetra-
hydrides.— Octave Mengel: The fall of dust called a
“yain of blood.’”” Remarks on the coloured snow
which fell in Briangon on March 12, 1922. The
meteorological data suggest that this dust came from
the Sahara.—Emile F. Terroine and René Wurmser :
The utilisation of ternary substances in the growth of
Aspergillus niger. This mould would appear to
utilise indifferently any sugar in its growth, and shows
no qualitative preference. The sugars used were
glucose, levulose, saccharose, maltose, arabinose, and
xylose. The concentration of the nitrogenous food
(ammonium sulphate) was also without effect on the
growth, but the nature of the source of nitrogen had
a marked influence.—L. Blaringhem: The heredity
of the physiological characters in the hybrids of barley
(second generation).—Paul Becquerel: The theory of
the meriphyte in the phenomena of vascular ontogeny.
NO. 2756, VOL. 110]
—A. Pézard: The idea of the “‘seuil différentiel’’ and
progressive masculinisation of certain female birds.
The experimental results relating to the action of the
ovary on the plumage of birds can explain, on the
hormone theory alone, some anomalies apparently in
disagreement with recent theories of endocrinology.—
Paul Wintrebert : The mode of building of the vomer
in the course of metamorphosis in the Salamandride.
—Paul Carnot and Marc Tiffeneau: A new hypnotic
in the barbituric series: butyl-ethyl-malonylurea.
The hypnotic properties of the dialkyl-malonylureas
were studied by E. Fischer from dimethyl to the
di-isoamyl] derivative ; but the unsymmetrically sub-
stituted malonylureas were not examined. This has
been taken up by the authors, who find in ethyl-
butyl-malonylurea a useful new hypnotic. It has
three times the hypnotic power of veronal and has
given satisfactory results in clinical practice.
July 31.—M. Guignard in the chair.—The president
announced the death of M. Louis Favé.— Emile
Picard: The meeting of the International Re-
search Council held at Brussels in July 1922. The
address given by M. Picard at the opening of the
meeting.—L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy: The
influence of calcium on the utilisation of the
reserves during the germination of seeds. It has
been shown that the influence of calcium on the
germination of seeds is specific, and other elec-
trolytes do not produce the same effect. Calcium
salts are almost without influence on the diastatic
conversion of the insoluble reserves into soluble
products ; it is possible, but not yet proved, that the
ferments responsible for the reconversion of the
soluble products into plant tissue may be stimulated
by the presence of lime.—R. Chodat and E. Rouge:
The intracellular localisation of an oxydase and
localisation in general.—Jules Baillaud: Some data
on the constitution of the galactic cluster deduced
from the study of the zone of the Paris photographic
catalogue.—Jean G. Popesco: The relation between
photo-electric phenomena and the surface tension of
mercury. The surface tension of an _ electrically
charged drop of mercury was measured by a photo-
graphic method before and after exposure to ultra-
violet light. The results of the experiments show
that there is a relation between the photo-electric
phenomenon and the surface tension.—E. M. Lémeray:
The structure of the universe and general relativity.—
R. de Mallemann: Molecular double refraction and
optical activity.—M. Yovanovitch and Mlle. Chamié:
The preparation of a standard radium salt. A
solution of barium chloride containing radium is
precipitated by ammonium carbonate in a special
apparatus due to M. Jolibois. The radiferous barium
carbonate produced was fairly satisfactory as a
standard, different preparations agreeing in their
radioactive properties within 0-5 per cent.—Er.
Toporescu: The preparation of sodium bicarbonate.—
Mlle. G. Marchal: The dissociation of beryllium
sulphate. The dissociation pressures are given for
seventeen temperatures ranging from 590° C. to
830° C.—Maurice Frangois and Louis Gaston Blanc:
A method of preparing the iodobismuthates of the
alkaloids in the crystalline state—H. Gault and T.
Salomon: The alkyl-methyl-pyridazinone carboxylic
esters.—G. Vavon and A. Husson: Catalysis by
platinum black. Platinum black may have its hydro-
genating power reduced by the gradual addition of
catalyst “ poison,” such as carbon bisulphide. Thus
the activity of a certain specimen of platinum black,
after treatment with o-4 mgr. of carbon bisulphide,
lost the power of reducing acetophenone, but retained
its catalytic power as regards the reduction of cyclo-
hexene.—Kenneth C. Bailey: The direct synthesis of
300
NATORE
[AucusT 26, 1922
urea starting with carbon dioxide and ammonia.
Applying the device of the hot and cold tube, carbon
dioxide in presence of ammonia in excess and with
from Leptospermum Liversidgei. The variation in
the essential oils obtained from a well-known Tea
Tree (Leptospermum Liversidgei) is tabulated as
thoria as catalyst, gave a 19 per cent. conversion into | follows :—
urea.—M. Gignoux and P. Fallot:
The marine Pliocene on the Medi- Specific : . Solubility in
: = ~ensrity, | Optical | Refractive y * Fi
terranean coasts of Spain. —A. Yield. | Gravity | Rotation.| Index, | 7°,Pef cent. | Citral. |Citronellal.
ae r5~\Gs Alcohol.
Guilliermond: Remarks on _ the
formation of chloroplasts in the
bud of SElodea canadensis. —G. ae rer Per
ne Spin A cen cen
André: The filtration of plant | yo.1| ‘os 08960 | + 6-2° T48540 lininsevols: || ys ca type “b”
juices. Comparative analyses. of Nonapaeos ae nena a . + 70 type “c”
rein < zs 0.3 o2 0°8885 +12-10 14822 insol. 10 vols, 46 BA type ‘‘a”’
juice expressed from the potato, No. 4 Bee 08903 | +12-75°| 7-4820 FS 46 ai type “a”
after clarification by the centrifuge, No. 5 0°55 08826 | +11-2° | 1-4603 | x in r-5 vols. Ka 82 type “c”
filtration through porous porcelain | No.6] 06 o89r0 | + 725°) 1-4832 ditto. 70 + type “b”
filter, and filtration through collod-
ion. In the last case, the proportions of nitrogen and
phosphorus present are reduced.—Gabriel Bertrand
and B. Benzon: The importance of zinc in the food of
animals. Experiments on mice.—H. Vallée and H.
Carré: The degree of infection of aphthous fever.—
Georges Bourguignon : Double chronaxy and a double
motor point in certain human muscles.
SYDNEY.
Linnean Society of New South Wales, June 28.—
Mr. G.-A. Waterhouse, president, in the chair.—
W.F. Blakely : The Loranthacee of Australia, Part
ii. A revised classification of the Loranthacez, based
on that of Engler, is put forward. The most notable
changes in the nomenclature affect the genus Atkin-
sonia which is displaced by Gaiadendron, while the
species under Loranthus, with versatile anthers, are
transferred to Phrygilanthus.—Dr. R. J. Tillyard :
Some New Permian Insects from Belmont, N.S.W.,
in the collection of Mr. John Mitchell. Nearly half
the insect wings discovered at Belmont belong to the
family Permochoristide. In association with these
are two other Mecopteroid types, viz., Belmontia and
a new type, described in this paper, which stands in
the same relation to the Order Diptera that Belmontia
does to the Trichoptera and Lepidoptera. In addition
the first discovery of a true Lacewing (Neuroptera,
Planipennia) of Paleozoic times is recorded. The
remainder of the fauna consists of Homoptera, both
Auchenorrhyncha and Sternorrhyncha, a new genus-
of the latter being described.—J. Mitchell: A new
Gasteropod (fam. Euomphalide) from the Lower
Marine Series of New South Wales. Description of
a new species of Platyschisma from Allandale, where
it occurs associated with P. oculus, Eurydesma
cordatum, and Aviculopecten mitchelli—Vera Irwin-
Smith : Notes on Nematodes of the genus Physal-
optera. Part iii. The Physaloptera of Australian
Lizards. This paper deals with specimens of Physal-
optera contained in three collections. They were
found to consist of two forms, one of which has been
identified as P. antarctica Linstow var. typica. The
other has been treated as a new variety of the same
species. Linstow’s brief and inadequate diagnosis of
the species has been supplemented by a detailed
description. The rest of the paper is devoted to a
special study of the female reproductive organs, in
which it is pointed out that the practice of helmin-
thologists of basing specific distinctions, in this group,
upon the dimensions and arrangement of these parts
is not reliable, since very considerable variations have
been found within the one species.—]. McLuckie :
Studies in Symbiosis. i. The Mycorhiza of Dipodium
punctatum R.Br.
Royal Society of New South Wales, July 5.—Mr.
C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chair.—A. R.
Penfold: Observations respecting some essential oils
NO. 2756, VOL. T10]
The author is inclined to the opinion that there are
probably three forms of this shrub, and points out
that the types ‘“b”’ and ‘“‘c”’ are of great economic
importance. The type “a” (the original one) is of
very little commercial value, hence the importance of
the other types, particularly as botanical diagnosis
has so far failed to distinguish them.—A. R. Penfold
and F. R. Morrison: Preliminary note on a new
Stearoptene (probably a phenol ether) occurring in
some essential oils of the Myrtacee. The authors
announced the isolation of a beautifully crystalline
solid of a yellow colour from the essential oils of
Bekea crenulata and Darwinia grandiflora. It has
a melting-point of 103-104° C., molecular formula
C,3H,gsO,, and contains two methoxy groups. It is
apparently a phenol ether. It has, so far, only been
obtained in small quantity, amounting to 6 per cent.
in the former, and 2 per cent. in the latter oils, but
it is anticipated that other essential oils at present
being investigated will yield it in greater amount.—
J. K. Taylor: A chemical and bacteriological study
of a typical wheat soil of New South Wales. Monthly
determinations of soil moisture, bacterial numbers,
nitrates, and nitrifying power were made in soil from
various plots at Wagga Experiment Farm. The
bacterial numbers, nitrates and nitrifying power were
greater in summer than in winter in spite of the
partial drying out of the soil. The general order of
merit of the plots for bacterial activity and accumula-
tion of nitrates was cultivated fallow, cropped land,
uncultivated fallow, and grass land. The bacterial
numbers are comparable with those from soils from
similar climatic regions but the nitrifying power is
not particularly good and fluctuated curiously from
month to month.
Official Publications Received.
Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion. Vol. 4. (Publication No, 2661.) Pp. xii+390. (Washington :
Smithsonian Institution.)
The British Mycological Society. Transactions, 1920. Vol. 7,
Part 4. Edited by Carleton Rea and J. Ramsbottom, Pp. 221-324,
(London: Cambridge University Press.) 12s. 6d.
Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. 6: Zoological
Results of a Tour in the Far East. Edited by Dr. N. Annandale.
Part 7. Pp. 397-433+plates 15-17. 2 rupees; 3s. Part 8. Pp.
435-459-+ plates 18-21. 2 rupees; 3s. Vol..7, No. 4: Introduction
to the Study of the Fauna of an Island in the Chilka rire
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By Dr.
N. Annandale. Pp. 257-319+plates 7-11. (Cal-
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The Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering
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plates. (London; Newcomen Society.) 20s.
University of Colorado Bulletin. Vol. 22, No. 3;
No. 180: Catalogue, 1921-1922. Pp. 426. (Boulder, Colo. :
versity of Colorado.)
Experimental Researches and Reports published by the Department
of Glass Technology, The University, Sheffield. Vol. 4, 1921. Pp.
ii+118. (Sheffield : The University.)
3 rupees ;
General series,
Uni-
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INERTOR TE: 301
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, ee
CONTENTS.
Children and Museums
Ninety Years of British Sends.
A Standard Treatise on Crystallosraphy”.
New Editions of Chemical Works
Phosphatic Fertilisers. By H. J. P.
Our Bookshelf - : :
Letters to the Editor :—
Spectrum Lines of Neutral Helium.—Prof. W. M.
Hicks, F.R.S. :
Micro Methods ini the Practical Teaching bE Chemistry.
—Prof. Egerton C. Grey .
An Atomic Model with Stationary Blectrons) “Dr.
H. S. Allen : 5
The Variable Depth oh Parthquale peat ine
Dorothy Wrinch and Dr. Harold Jeffreys
An Electrical Analogue of the Vocal reams: roo
Q. Stewart
Interspecific Sterility. _Dr. Jo Ww. H. Henson
The Mass Secu of Iron.—Dr. F. W. seton
F.R.S. :
Density of esorbed. E ‘ims, oR M. Deciey
The Pigeon Tick.—L. H. Matthews and A. D.
Hobson .
An Ancient Wasp. —Prof. pie D. A. Cockerell
Black Coral.—Dr. M_ Nierenstein 3 5
The Zoological Society: Us By E. G.
Boulenger 3 5 5 é
The Resonance heey of nadition® eek dia-
gram.) By Prof. E. H. Barton, F.R.S. :
The Lesser Whitethroat’s Fanfare. He: ‘Prof. w.
Garstang .
Obituary :—
W. H. Hudson
Current Topics and Events .
Research Items . a : z :
The Weights and Measures of India. By CeAY
Silberrad . : c ;
School Instruction in Botany, :
University and Educational Intelligence :
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2757, VOL. 110]
Children and Museums.
HE direct educational work accomplished by
museums in the United States is a perpetual
source of shame to us in this country. We are well
aware that much is being done in some of our own
museums, often at the self-sacrifice of their officials ;
but have we anything to compare with what is de-
scribed in a recent number of Natural History (March-
April 1922)—the journal of the American Museum of
Natural History ? Consider lantern-slides, for ex-
ample. Our own Natural History Museum has recently
started one or two loan collections, comprising in all
some few dozen slides. Those of the American Museum
number many thousands. They are stored in a room
accessible to teachers, who can thus select precisely
what they want for their class-room lectures. Last
year more than two hundred thousand slides were cir-
culated. It is not long since a fair collection of slides
made by an assistant In our own museum was handed
over to another institution because there were no
facilities for keeping it in the museum itself. Needless
to say, the American Museum has a lecture theatre.
It has 869 nature-study collections to be lent to any
public school in greater New York. .There are two
motor cars and a motor cycle to deliver slides and
collections. Each messenger visits from twenty to
forty schools a day. The American Museum is about
to erect a special School Service building of five storeys
where from three to five thousand children daily may be
taken care of properly. The blind are also provided
for.
Of course, all this cannot be done by the ordinary
officers of the museum, and that is a fact which must be
recognised in this country. The American Museum
has its own Department of Education, with Mr. George
H. Sherwood at the head. In the same way the
Brooklyn Botanical Garden has its Curator of Ele-
mentary Education, who contributes to the same
issue of Natural History an interesting article on
“ Gardening and the City Child.” But the work which
starts in the museums and public gardens of New York
and Brooklyn is taken up by other outside bodies, as
the School Nature League of New York City, the
president of which, Mrs. John I. Northrop, here tells
us how in one of the elementary schools: in the middle
of the slums a wonderful nature-room has been in-
stalled. It is visited by from eight hundred to one
thousand children every week. Here is a place for all
those miscellaneous curiosities so frequently rejected
by the staid museums. They can be placed in the
hands of the children and many a fascinating lesson
drawn from them. The love of nature thus begun is
carried out into the open by means of summer camps,
302
and so becomes linked up with the Boy Scout camps
with their travelling museums.
Well, why is it that the Americans have got so far
ahead of us on these lines? They have no doubt a
new field to cultivate, and they do not have to contend
against the terrible weight of inertia inevitable to
some of our royal and ancient establishments. But to
a large extent it is because Americans are not ashamed
of having an ideal and of talking about it. They do
not mind saying what they are going to do, and they
make the utmost of everything that they have done.
This is not the Englishman’s way, but it is a way that
interests the public both rich and poor. It brings
money from the former and enthusiasm from the latter.
If we want to achieve the same results we must not be
above following somewhat similar methods. Here,
during the summer holidays, are the children crowding
our museums at South Kensington day after day.
Cannot something more be done for them, even if we
shed a little dignity in the process ?
Ninety Years of British Science.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science :
A Retrospect, 1831-1921. By O. J. R. Howarth.
Pp. vii+318. (London: British Association, Bur-
lington House, 1922.) 7s. 6d.
R. HOWARTH is to be congratulated on the
N manner in which he has used his opportunity,
while the record he has produced is a most ample
justification of the title of the Association—the British
Association for the Advancement of Science—British
in that its meetings have been held in nearly every
part of the Empire, India excepted ; and perhaps, as
the part India can play in advancing science is more
fully recognised, we may in the years to come have a
meeting at Delhi, the centre of a civilisation dating back
centuries before the Association.
The work is due to a suggestion made by Sir Charles
Parsons when president in 1919-20, and owes much
to his generous support, while the author has been
helped in his task by many friends whose assistance
is gratefully acknowledged in the preface. Com-
mencing with the history of the foundation of the
Association in 1831, the work deals with its relation
to the advancement of science, its organisation and
meetings, its aid to research, its connexion with the
State, and its work overseas. The author states that
his aim has been “ to provide a summary review of its
activities, with examples,’ and this he has done with
conspicuous success.
Founded in 1831, the Association’s life of ninety
Sir David
Brewster was its founder ; in the Edinburgh Journal of
NO. 2757, VOL. 110]
years has been full of stirring events.
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 2, 1922
Science (vol. 5, 1831) he wrote: “ Some months ago
it occurred to the editor of this work [himself] that the
general interests of science might be greatly promoted
by the establishment of a Society of British Cultivators
of Science which should meet annually in some central
town in England.” In writing this Brewster had in
mind the work of the Deutscher Naturforscher Ver-
sammlung, about which an article had appeared in
the preceding volume of the journal. The objects
of the meeting of this society were, as the author of
this article stated, to promote ‘‘ acquaintance and
friendly personal intercourse among men of science ;
but other great and more important benefits grow out
of them.” ‘‘ Might not,’ he continued, “ similar
results in our older country be looked for from a
similar institution.’ This statement sums up the work
of the Association. Similar results have followed, but
to an extent undreamt of by Brewster and his col-
The first meeting was held at York. Dalton
was there—‘‘ old Dalton, atomic Dalton, reading,” as
Murchison wrote later, “ his own memoir, and replying
leagues.
with straightforward pertinacity to every objection
in the highly instructive conversations which followed
each paper.”
Ninety years later the atom has been resolved into
its constituent electrons, and Thomson, Rutherford,
and Bohr have stated in no uncertain terms the laws
which govern the planetary system of the atom,
atom no longer when subject to the bombardment of
the swift-moving electrons of the cathode rays.
The second meeting of the Association was held at
Oxford, and the third at Cambridge. Sedgwick was
president, and Mr. Howarth has printed an interesting
selection of autographs of members present—Brewster
Airy, Babbage, Faraday, Forbes, Herschel, Buckland,
Harcourt, Murchison, Phillips, Peacock, Rigaud,
Sedgwick, Whewell, Houston, etc., all great names ;
the physical sciences predominate. Biology was not,
or rather it was represented by a little natural history,
with some botany and geology. Of the Oxford meeting
Murchison, afterwards general secretary and (1846)
president, wrote that ‘‘ under the presidency of Buck-
land, the body was licked into shape and divided into
six sections.”
Started thus under brilliant auspices, the Association
has been a potent factor in the advancement of science ;
in its earlier years, it Is true, it met with criticism and
ridicule in some quarters—Dickens’s “‘ Mudfog Papers ”
may be mentioned; these it has outlived, and the
striking success of the Edinburgh Meeting of 1921
showed that even in the altered conditions of the
twentieth century there is still ample work for it to
undertake.
Turning now to a brief reference to its numerous
SEPTEMBER 2, 1922]
activities, from the commencement these have not
been confined to the period of its annual meetings,
and its main contributions to the advancement of
science have been through the work of. its various
committees, aided by grants from its funds, and
through the reports on the state of some special science
drawn up by a member deputed for this work. ‘‘ We
repudiate,” wrote Murchison in 1845, “ that the chief
aim of our existence is to stir up a few embers of scientific
warmth in the provinces,’ and Owen, president in
1858, claimed that the association was realising the
dream of Francis Bacon recounted in his ‘“ New
Atlantis.” Whewell in 1862 wrote: ‘The Association
wants money and ought to get it for it spends a great
deal ;”” he might have added, on objects of the utmost
importance to the welfare and progress of mankind.
Mr. Howarth has given in an Appendix a complete
list of the grants for research.
The following is a summary of these:
Section. l. Sa.
A (Mathematics and Physics) 34,977 18 7
B (Chemistry) : 4,178 17 8
C (Geology) . c : 3 i 6,956 3 I1
D (Zoology) and K (Botany) jointly . 15570) © TO
D (Zoology) 5 4 6 : 12,093 15 5
E (Geography) 3,695 13 4
F (Economics) TRA 22
G (Engineering) a,to4)> 7 (6
H (Anthropology) 7,226 16 It
I (Physiology) 3,115 13 7
K (Botany) 5 3 5 I,952 15 I
L (Education : founded in 1901) 538 18 6
M (Agriculture: foundedin 1912) . : 5 Oo)
The total sum expended since 1834 has been about
83,000/., somewhat less than rooo/. a year it is true,
but no inconsiderable sum when it is remembered it
has been raised almost entirely from the subscriptions
of its members, in the main men and women of science
themselves.
The attempt to give details of the researches pro-
moted by these grants would occupy far too much
space. An interesting account will be found in Mr.
Howarth’s pages. Reference may, however, be per-
mitted to a few taken from the list for Section A.
Between the years 1862 and 1910 about r11ool. was
spent in establishing electrical standards, which are
now adopted throughout the world and have formed
the foundation on which the whole edifice of applied
electricity is reared. The observatory at Kew was
supported from 1843 to 1872 in great measure by
grants of more than 12,o00/., and for many years, by
the issue of accurate standards and in other ways,
promoted in a marked degree meteorological science.
Under the subject Heat we find “ Remeasurement of
dynamical equivalent, 1870-80, 1o6/. os. 6d.” ; Joule’s
work was thus supported by the Association.
Seismology has been aided to the extent of more than
NO. 2757, VOL. 110]
NATURE
$93
2500/., while grants to tidal observations have reached
about the same sum. Similarly, from the other
Sections examples might be given, showing the
influence the Association has exerted on progress and
the value and wide scope of its work. For ninety
years the Association has laboured, a union of voluntary
workers for the advancement of science. In the words
of Rayleigh, president in 1884, ‘‘ The work may be hard
and the discipline severe, but the interest never fails,
and great is the privilege of achievement.” Of the
achievements of the Association Mr. Howarth’s book
is a fitting record.
A Standard Treatise on Crystallography.
Crystallography and Practical Crystal Measurement. By
Dr. A. E. H. Tutton. Second edition. In 2 vols.
Vol. 1: Form and Structure. Pp. xviit746+xiv.
Vol. 2: Physical and Chemical. Pp. vii+747-
1446. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1922.
50s. net each.
HE eleven years which have elapsed since the
first edition of this work appeared, have
witnessed a remarkable and welcome increase in the
interest taken in crystals by chemists and physicists.
On the chemical side this has been due partly to the
efforts made by Pope and Barlow to correlate chemical
composition and crystalline form, and partly to the
tardy recognition on the part of organic chemists that
the crystal form and optical properties of a substance,
once accurately determined, form the most valuable
means of identifying it that we possess. On the
physical side interest has been aroused by the remark-
able discovery of Laue and his collaborators that the
conception of a crystal as an orderly arrangement of
very minute particles arrived at by the experimental
study of crystal morphology, and also from purely
geometrical considerations, had a solid basis in fact
and could be demonstrated by the diffraction of
Roéntgen rays. In the hands of the Braggs and of
others working on similar lines, this discovery has led
to a very wonderful increase in our knowledge of crystal
structure. It is natural that these advances should
be reflected in the work before us, and we find accord-
ingly that Dr. Tutton has found it necessary to employ
nearly five hundred additional pages to deal with the
wealth of matter the past ten years have provided.
This has necessitated the division of the work into
two volumes, each consisting of two sections, and has
also led to a certain amount of re-arrangement of the
material contained in the first edition. The first
section, which occupies nearly one-third of the whole
work, deals with crystal measurement by means of
304
the one-circle, horizontal, reflecting goniometer, and
follows closely on the lines of the original edition. A
useful account of methods of goniometry at low
temperatures has been introduced ; and the use of the
two- and three-circle goniometers, and the methods
based on the gnomonic projection and associated with
the name of V. Goldschmidt, receive more adequate
treatment than before. The student will, however,
miss in this chapter the extraordinarily detailed
description of every step in experiment and in com-
putation to which Dr. Tutton has accustomed him in
what has gone before ; and when he finds that three
hundred pages are devoted to the discussion of one-
circle goniometry the enthusiast for two-circle methods
will scarcely perhaps feel content with part of one
chapter. Many readers will wish for fuller information
as to the methods of drawing crystals devised by
Penfield and by Goldschmidt, and would have welcomed
some account of the ideas on “* complication ” developed
by the latter.
The second half of the first volume deals with crystal
structure and X-ray analysis and contains much new
matter. In particular, attention may be directed to the
well-illustrated and concise account of the Sohncke
point systems and also to the useful table of the 230
space groups, which will be found helpful as an intro-
duction to a somewhat inaccessible part of the subject.
Dr. Tutton’s treatment arouses the wish that he had
used his powers of clear exposition to elucidate still
further these difficult but very important matters.
The chapter on the application of X-rays to the deter-
mination of crystal structure gives an admirable account
of the progress that has been made, while the sketch of
Fedorov’s views on the correct setting of crystals and
on the compilation of a dictionary of crystal forms to
facilitate the identification of chemical compounds by
their morphology alone, whets our curiosity, and leads
us to wish that Dr. Tutton had shown us how to work
out the reticular density and the correct setting in a
few typical cases.
The third section deals in the main with crystal
optics, and begins with an introductory chapter which
contains readable accounts of matters so diverse as
thermionic valves, radio-activity, atomic numbers,
isotopes, theories of atomic structure, the Zeeman
effect, Aston’s positive ray mass spectrograph, the
Michelson echelon, and the Lummer-Gehrcke plate.
The succeeding chapters are in the main reprinted from
the first edition, but the treatment of the modes of
production of monochromatic light is fuller and includes
a useful description of the mercury vapour lamp.
When explaining the colour effects observed when thin
crystalhne plates are placed between crossed Nicols,
Dr. Tutton says: ‘‘ The Nicol analyser itself introduces,
NO. 2757, VOL. 110]
INA LORE
[SEPTEMBER 2, 1922
when crossed to the polarising Nicol, a change of phase
of half a wave-length, like the act of reflection in the
case of thin films, and this A/2 requires to be added to the
retardation of one ray behind the other brought about
in traversing the crystal.” Experience has shown that
this statement is a source of perplexity to the average
student, and it is to be regretted that Dr. Tutton has
not followed the more readily intelligible treatment
adopted by Groth in the successive editions of his
“ Physikalische Krystallographie.”
The general excellence of the illustrations is so high
that the figures explanatory of the use of the mica
plate in finding the optical sign of crystals seem
scarcely to come up to the standard. g6r
Current Topics and Events é © é > 6362
Our Astronomical Column . . . . . . 364
Research Items . eh? 11305
The First Messel Memorial Tecate E Be ey
Stellar Radiation in the Infra-red. c : - 367
University and Educational Intelligence . 3 - 368
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . 7 : . 368
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
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ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
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Editorial communications to the Editor.
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PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
ios)
ios)
iss)
Animal Mechanism.
HE presidential address of Sir Charles Sherrington
to the British Association at Hull directs our
thoughts to problems of the mechanism of vital pro-
cesses, especially to those of the nervous system. It
is evident that the obstacles which we meet with in
our progress to better understanding of what happens
in those complex systems which we call “ living ” have
greatly occupied the attention of the learned president,
and those of us who are struggling on our way will be
grateful for his helpful and stimulating outlook. We
shall do well to take careful note of his remarks.
The great difficulty which continually presents itself
to us is the conception of any physiological process as
a whole. We find out, often at the expense of much
labour, some isolated facts, but the integration of these
facts to explain the complete mechanism remains
beyond our powers. Take the case of muscle. We
discover that muscular contraction and relaxation are
associated with a change from glycogen to lactic acid
and back again. But how is the energy of the chemical
reaction converted to that of tension, which is the
really important matter? It is easy to say that it is
through changes in surface tension on longitudinally
arranged elements, but we soon meet with further
difficulties. It may be remarked that more work is
needed on the electrical properties of surfaces and
especially as to the effect of electric charge on the rate
of passage of ions through membranes which are
themselves charged. The problem in the nervous
system shows itself in the form of finding out what
happens in the centres between the receipt of an
ef ” impulse and the motor reaction
sensory
How is the impulse directed into some par-
afferent
to it.
ticular channel and prevented from passing into
Why does it go sometimes one way, and at
What is it that stops
The president is careful
another ?
other times in another way ?
it after it has been set going ?
to point out that when the physiologist says
he means “ how,” and we must not forget this.
It will be realised that one of the most important and
difficult problems, especially suggested in the last of
the questions put above, is that of inhibition. Is it
possible to account for all the phenomena on the basis
of difference in rate, refractory period and decrement
as affecting the transmission of a nervous impulse ?
The article on “Spinal Reflexes” by Prof. Alex.
Forbes in Physiological Reviews gives us a very valuable
account of what can be done in this way. On the
other hand, is there evidence for the existence of some-
essentially different between excitation and
When a nervous impulse arrives at a
is there some
¢
‘why ”
thing
inhibition ?
muscle cell or a neurone in activity,
334
structure in which it ends that causes it to stop abruptly
the process going on? In other words, are there two
Opposite processes of excitation and inhibition, similar
in nature but opposite in sign? We come across the
old problem of duality, of some philosophical interest.
The question as to the existence of positive and negative
electricity, as in the nucleus and electrons of an atom,
is a cognate one, and we are reminded of the frequent
physiological opposition between anions and cations.
With respect to the hope or probability of further
progress in the explanation of vital processes, Sir
Charles Sherrington directs attention to the justifica-
tion that what has already been done gives us in
believing that “further application of physics and
chemistry will furnish a competent key ”’
mechanisms.
to many
Although we may not be able to con-
struct such mechanisms ourselves, we may understand
the principles on which they work, somewhat as a man
may be able to explain how an electro-motor works,
notwithstanding that he may not have the skill to
make one. There are, however, other things, more
particularly concerned with growth and development,
which we, as yet, are a long way from comprehending.
What it is that makes a living creature a united whole
and “ how the mind is connected with its bodily place ”
belong to these. The question is asked, “Can we
suppose a unified entity which is part mechanism and
part not ?”
The latter part of the address is devoted to some
important relations of the physiology of the brain to
the doctrines of psychology and sociology. We must
not leave out of consideration the combination of
individuals into social organisms, ‘‘ new in the history
of the world.” Man must feel that to rebel against
this great supra-individual process “‘ would be to sink
lower rather than to
upward.”
There are many apposite points brought out in the
discussion on the “‘ mental” functions of the brain.
We know that the integrity of certain parts of the brain
is essential for mental activity, while what we call the
lower levels are non-mental.
continue his own evolution
Since we step from one
world to another, as it were, when we pass from a
nerve impulse to a psychical event, we might expect
that there would be some striking change of structure
when we cross the boundary between the non-mental
and the mental regions of the brain. But we find the
“ The structural inter-
connexions are richer, but that is merely a quantitative
change.” Another difficult problem is the position of
psychical events in the energy balance-sheet of the
body. Do they take their place in obeying the first law
of energetics ?
“same old structural elements.”’
3ut the whole of this discussion must
be read in the address itself to be properly appreciated.
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 9, 1922
The United States Chemical Foundation.
ARLY in July last, President Harding instructed
the Alien Property Custodian of the United
States to demand the return of all patents, trade
marks, etc., which had been sold to the Chemical
Foundation, on the ground that “ the sale was made
at so nearly a nominal sum that there is reason to
believe that this government has not faithfully ob-
served the trust which was implied in the seizure of this
property.” The birthof the Foundation was the subject
of much abuse in Germany, and now a resolution of the
third German-American National Conference, with Mr.
G.S. Viereck as chairman of the resolutions committee,
declares that ‘‘ we greet with satisfaction the first steps
of the administration to correct the iniquities com-
mitted by the custodian of alien enemy property.”
Meanwhile, the consternation produced among chemists
of the United States by the President’s action will be
readily understood.
The Chemical Foundation was established in 1919,
and purchased 4ooo patents from the Alien Property
Custodian for a sum of 250,000 dollars. It 1s a privately
managed enterprise, with well-known men of high
character as voting trustees, and the president, Mr.
Garvan, is not salaried. ‘The Foundation was generally
commended at the time of its inception, and its affairs
appear to have been conducted on altruistic principles
and without profit. Non-exclusive licences have been
granted in order to break monopolies and to benefit
consumers ; licences to the Government -have been
free, and on others the royalties have been low. To
illustrate the beneficial effect of this policy, it has been
stated that under the German monopoly the cost of
salvarsan was 4°50 dollars per dose to the physician,
and 2-50 dollars per dose in quantity to the Govern-
ment, whereas now the price has fallen to 1-50 dollars
and about 30 cents, respectively.
A reasonable conclusion to draw from such evidence
is that although the original price paid by the Founda-
tion for the patents may have been “ nearly a nominal
sum ”
if regarded as a monopoly price, it was never-
theless a fair competitive price. Action is being taken
by the American Chemical Society, which represents
some 15,000 men and women working in educational
institutions, research laboratories, and industrial plants,
who regard the Chemical Foundation as the nucleus
of organic chemical industry in the United States. The
society, through a committee which does not include
dye-makers or chemical manufacturers, is seeking a
conference with President Harding for the purpose of
presenting information which it believes he cannot
have received before adopting such revolutionary
procedure.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE
335
Galton’s Centenary.
Francis Galton, 1822-1922: A Centenary Appreciation.
By Karl Pearson. (Department of Applied Statistics,
University College, London. Questions of the Day
and of the Fray, No. 12.) Pp. 23. (London:
Cambridge University Press, 1922.) 2s. net.
ROF. KARL PEARSON does not think that this
generation is likely to do justice to the part Sir
Francis Galton played in the spread of human know-
ledge and in its application to the future of the human
race. His own appreciation he would have others
share, and he whips them with scorpions as an induce-
ment. As he says, “the time is hardly suited to
impressing on the majority of men a conviction of the
futility of most of their aims, of the depths of their
ignorance of what makes for progress, and of the un-
satisfying nature of their present pleasures.”
The welcome appreciation begins with an account of
Victorian science, the science of Darwin, Lyell, Hooker,
Faraday, and other giants, which, he says, little men
belittle—for it is impossible to appreciate Galton unless
we bear in mind that he was the product of the Victorian
epoch. Endowed ‘with a fine inheritance, Francis
Galton had the advantage of broad training and wide
experience, very different from the early specialisation
of to-day ; ‘‘ he had far more mathematics and physics
than nine biologists out of ten, and more biology than
nineteen mathematicians out of twenty, and more
acquaintance with diseases and anomalies than forty-
nine out of fifty biologists and mathematicians to-
gether.” Darwin awoke him from “ the torpor of tribal
dogmas,” and turned his widely interested mind to the
problems of evolution. Along both observational and
experimental lines, he began to study sweet-peas, moths,
and man. “In his notebook on the sweet-pea experi-
ments occur the first correlation table, the first regression
curve, and the first numerical measure of the intensity
of heredity, z.e. that between mother and daughter
plant.” From Mendel’s peas has arisen the greater
part of modern genetics ; from Galton’s there sprang
the correlational calculus, solidly founded in “ Natural
Inheritance ” published in 1889.
Darwin had suggested, contrary to his usual method
of keeping to observed facts, the hypothesis of “ pan-
genesis,” that hereditary particles or gemmules given
off from the various structures of the body are con-
centrated in the reproductive cells, and influence the
development of these into new individuals. Galton
suggested an experimental test, transfusing the blood
of different kinds of rabbits to see if the offspring were
influenced. The results showed that the transfusion
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
had no effect on the offspring, and Galton tacitly dis-
carded pangenesis. But continued reflection led him,
as it also led Weismann, to the idea of germinal con-
tinuity. We believe that the idea of parent and child
being successive representatives of the same “ stirp”’
or germ-plasm had occurred, more or less clearly, to
two or three other biologists before either Galton or
Weismann; but Prof. Karl Pearson seems to find
something “little” in directing attention to historical
anticipations. There is no doubt, however, that
“ Galton’s idea of the ‘ stirp, better known under the
name given to it by its later German propounder [we
should say, ‘independent discoverer’], the ‘con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm,’ has played a very large
part in modern theories of heredity.’ It has indeed
enabled biologists to understand for the first time
clearly why like must tend to beget like.
From the fundamental idea of germinal continuity
there arose in Galton’s mind two broad principles, (1)
that bodily modifications, or “acquired characters” in
the technical sense, are not likely to be transmitted ;
and (2) that the differences in the characters of the
offspring produced by a difference of stirp are immensely
more important than those which can be produced by
differences of environment. From his study of identical
and non-identical twins he concluded that “ nature ”
is indefinitely stronger than ‘“‘ nurture.” We confess
to sympathy with what Prof. Pearson calls the platitude
are inseparably corre-
‘
?
that “nature” and “ nurture’
lated as two essential components of one resultant.
Moreover, we feel sure that Galton was naturalist enough
to know that improvements in “‘nurture”’ may determine
the meshes of the sieve in relation to which germinal
fluctuations and mutations—better and worse changes
in “ nature ”—are sifted.
It is plain, however, that pondering over the relative
evolutionary values of “ nature” and “ nurture” led
Galton to the question which dominated the rest of
his life: what evolution may mean for man. What
Pasteur was along one line, Galton was along another,
a pioneer in the biological control of life. Can man’s
constitution—in modern phraseology, his gametic
composition—be improved, by mating best with best,
and fit with fit, and by refraining from sowing tares
with wheat ? . Or may we hope to effect some progress
by amelioration of “ nurture ”’—environmental, nutri-
tional, and functional? For improved “ nurture ”’
may prompt, for all we know, progressive germinal
variations ; may determine the survival or elimination
of variations ; may, in viviparous organisms, count for
much in the ante-natal life; and may, in mankind,
have an almost hereditary influence on the amelioration
of the social miliew. Galton’s view was that the im-
provement of the human breed was the promiseful line
336
of evolution, but we cannot think of him as failing
to appreciate the manifoldness and the subtlety of
nurtural influences, both on the individual and on the
race.
Prof. Pearson gives us in his masterly appreciation
a useful tonic. “The laws of evolution are open to
our study, let us once understand them, and man can
elevate man as he has developed his domestic animals
—such was the gospel of Galton.” Here we are all
agreed, Galton was a great man of science and also a
social reformer ; and it is a satisfaction to all men of
goodwill that he continues to live with such vigour in
the Laboratory which he founded. The appreciation
has as its frontispiece a beautiful sketch of Sir Francis
“still unexhausted exuberant
Galton in 1910, in his
youth.”
Modern Dietetics.
Vitamins and the Choice of Food. By Violet G. Plimmer
and Prof. R. H. A. Plimmer. Pp. xii+164. (London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) 7s. 6d. net.
HE old view that a diet was satisfactory, pro-
vided that it contained a certain amount of
protein and had a sufficient calorie value, has, as is
now well known, been modified in two very essential
particulars. The quality of the protein is of the first
importance ; it must supply the particular amino-acids
required by the consumer, and must supply them in
the proper amount. Further, there must be present
the vitamins, the exact nature and function of which
are still unknown, but which are essential for growth
and health.
It is to these two aspects of the subject that the
present work is chiefly devoted, the authors having set
themselves the task of producing an account suitable
for the general reader. In this they have been on the
whole successful, although occasionally the super-
abundance of facts renders the matter difficult of
assimilation, After an introduction dealing with the
general principles of dietetics, the subject of the
vitamins and their discovery is developed on orthodox
lines. The important question of qualjty of protein,
led up to and illustrated by an account of pellagra, is
then treated, and the book concludes with two very
interesting chapters on the effect of partial deficiencies
in the food and errors in selection of food. In an
appendix are given a table of distribution of the
vitamins in food-stuffs and lists of food-stufis rich in
each of the three vitamins, followed by a very useful
series of notes on food-stuffs, from which a good idea
of the efficiency of a diet can be easily and rapidly
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 9, 1922
obtained. The book is well produced and contains a
number of interesting illustrations.
It is an inevitable consequence of the rapid progress
which is being made in this branch of dietetics that the
position with respect to some of the matters dealt with
has changed considerably since the book was printed.
This is notably the case with regard to rickets, the very
recent work of McCollum and of Korenchevsky on
experimental rickets in rats, and the remarkable dis-
covery of the preventive and healing effect of sunlight
on this disease, having come too late for inclusion.
Similarly, the large part played by atmospheric oxida-
tion in the inactivation of the antiscorbutic vitamin is
not made clear.
The gospel preached by the authors is the orthodox
one that safety is to be found in fresh natural food-
stuffs, and it is wisely pointed out that instinct, often
believed to be a guide to the choice of food, is no longer
so under the conditions of modern civilisation. White
bread, for example, almost universally preferred in this
country, is far inferior in vitaminic potency to whole-
meal or “germ” bread, and no instinctive need is felt
for green vegetables and salads. The choice of food
must be guided by knowledge, and it is pointed out
that the distribution of food within the family is often
conducted on quite erroneous principles.
“cc
“Children are supposed to be sufficiently nourished
if they have bread and jam and plenty of puddings
with little meat or butter. It is unfortunately the
custom to give to the fathen or wage-earner the best
food, whereas his requirements for heavy manual work
are actually better satisfied by the high energy value
of bread, jam, and margarine. The child needs the
wherewithal to grow, that is protein and vitamins in
addition to calories.”
It is in the provision of fresh vegetables to supplement
the staple diet of bread, margarine, and meat, all very
poor in vitamins, that the chief value of the allotment
movement lies (as pointed out by Drummond), and it
is to be hoped that the great extension of this system
which was called forth by the necessities of the war
will be maintained and still further increased in the
scarcely less strenuous times of peace.
Even natural food-stufis, however, are by no means
constant in their content of vitamins. Little is known
as yet of the cause of the variations in vegetable
products at different periods of growth and under
diverse conditions, but that wide variations occur has
been definitely proved. In products derived from
animals this variation is still more marked, and the
authors rightly lay stress on this fact, pointing out that
the potency of materials such as animal fats, and above
all milk, depends upon the diet of the animal from
which it is derived.
SEPTEMBER Q, 1922]
NATURE
337
“The milk of cows at grass contains more A-factor
than the milk of the same cows on their winter food.
. . . At certain times of the year a child receiving
fresh whole cow’s milk may for this reason only be
getting a small amount of this vitamin. . . . Breast-
feeding is no protection against rickets if the mother’s
food is poor in A-factor.”
The provision of fresh natural food-stuffs, although
greatly to be desired, is a matter of much difficulty,
especially in large towns, and is often impossible when
military expeditions or explorations in barren regions
have to be undertaken. Then the problem of preserv-
ing food-stuffs without destruction of their vitamins
becomes of great interest and importance. ‘The chief
methods for the prolonged preservation of food are
canning or bottling and drying, and a considerable
amount of investigation has already been directed to
the question how far these methods of treatment affect
the vitamins. Up to the present, however, sufficient
attention has not been paid to the influence of oxidation
in these processes. The results so far obtained vary
very much with the nature of the material employed.
Thus vegetables on drying, as a rule, undergo a con-
siderable loss of antiscorbutic power, that of cabbage
being reduced by drying in the air at 37° to about
5-10 per cent. of the value of the fresh material. (The
authors are not quite clear on this point, the somewhat
misleading statement being made that “ cabbage has
been successfully dried by a special process devised by
Holst and Fréhlich.”) Retention of antiscorbutic
power by material in the dry state seems to depend on
the complete absence of moisture.
Heat sterilisation as applied in bottling and canning
processes affects the antiscorbutic more than the other
two vitamins, but the influence of oxidation is very
great. However, it has been found in practice that a
material originally rich in the vitamin, like the tomato,
will withstand the commercial process and yield a
powerfully active product, canned tomatoes having
been successfully used for the prevention of scurvy.
Again, lemon-juice in presence of the natural oil of the
rind retains its potency for long periods. There seems,
indeed, to the writer, to be no insuperable difficulty in
the way of the provision of preserved foods containing
at all events a large proportion of their original vita-
minic potency. Much further investigation on this
subject, on strictly quantitative lines, is, however,
required, and at present each case must be separately
examined, no generalisation being as yet justified.
It is, moreover, not beyond the bounds of probability
that some method will before long be found of enriching
cheap edible oils so that they may supply vitamin A
as well as energy at a reasonable cost.
Interesting problems are suggested by almost every
NO. 2758, VOL. 110}
page of this book, and it cannot fail to be of great value
in disseminating sound doctrine on a subject concerning
which there is now widespread ignorance.
Germany and English Chemical Industry.
Englands Handelskrieg und die chemische Industrie.
Von Prof. Dr. A. Hesse und Prof. Dr. H. Grossmann.
Band rx. Pp. iv+304. Band 2: Neue Folge.
England, Frankreich, Amerika. Pp. iv+344. Band
3: Dokwmente tiber die Kali-, Stickstoff- und Super-
phosphat-Industrie. Herausgegeben yon A. Hesse,
H. Grossmann, und W. A. Roth. Pp. iv+2o04.
(Stuttgart: F. Enke, rgr5-1919.) 98 marks.
HIS work consists of a series of translations of
lectures, speeches, and articles by English,
French, American, Russian, and Italian chemists, and
by certain publicists like Lord Moulton, and by public
bodies as the British Science Guild, which appeared at
the outbreak of the Great War, or immediately prior
to it. In addition, a number of utterances by public
men and others, of more or less importance, have been
culled from newspapers and the periodical press to
support what is the apparent purpose of the publica-
tion, namely, to insinuate that the real motive which
impelled England to participate in the war was her
distrust and jealousy of Germany’s industrial pre-
eminence, especially in the chemical arts, and her
consciousness that she was losing the world’s markets
owing to Germany’s greater technical skill and scientific
knowledge, and her better business organisation and
financial methods. This idea is implied in the title
of the work. It has been sedulously propagated in
Germany that the real author of the war was England,
and that it was solely to her diplomacy that the cata-
strophe was brought about—an explanation, and it
may be added an exculpation, which doubtless com-
mends itself to the soul of the Teuton.
There is, of course, no necessity to refute an im-
plication which is notoriously at variance with the
facts, and is certainly not held by ordinarily well-
informed people, even in Germany. But it is char-
acteristic of German mentality that it should have been
seriously entertained even in 1915, when the first
volume of this work was issued, and that persons of
the position of its editors should have been found to
support it.
The translations of the English lectures and ad-
dresses, most of which have appeared in the recognised
journals dealing with applied chemistry, seem to have
been well rendered, although exception may occasion-
ally be taken to the comments and explanatory notes
which the editors have appended. But it is more
169)!
338
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 9, 1922
particularly to the tone and purport of the introductory
matter which prefaces the several volumes, and for
which they are solely responsible, that exception is
chiefly to be taken.
At the same time there is an element of unconscious
humour about the whole production. In view of the
hardihood with which they reproduce, for the benefit
of German readers, the many strictures on German
commercial methods with which they have been visited,
one is tempted to suggest that their knowledge of our
national literature might have disposed the editors
to prefix as a motto on their title-page the lines :
O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us !
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
And foolish notion.
But possibly these strictures are really considered by
them as implying a compliment to what they regard
as their business acumen, but what other people are
apt to characterise as “ slimness.”’
Railway Electric Traction.
Railway Electric Traction. By F. W. Carter. Pp.
vilit+4r2. (London: E. Arnold and Co., 1922.)
25s. net.
HE problems of electric traction on railways
deserve special study at the present time. In
the past, electrification has been adopted, as a rule,
only when abnormal difficulties, such as the existence
of along tunnel, busy urban traffic, very steep gradients,
or a very high price for fuel, had to be overcome. It
will be remembered that, largely as the result of a
tunnel accident attributed to an accumulation of
noxious gases, the New York authorities insisted that
practically all lines entering the city should be electri-
fied. The underground of London, the
Simplon tunnel, and the Belt line tunnel of the Balu-
more and Ohio Railway, electrified so long ago as 1895,
are further examples. The Norfolk and Western
Railroad, a heavy goods line, was electrified because
of its long and steep gradients. For the same reason
the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, which
crosses the Rocky Mountains, had to electrify several
of its sections. The development of electric railways
in Switzerland, in Sweden, in Bavaria, and in Italy
is mainly due to the high price of fuel in these countries.
It does not follow, however, that electric traction
should be used only when special difficulties have to be
overcome. When steam operation is a commercial
success, the justification of electrical operation must
be that it provides increased transport facilities with
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
railways
no increase in the rates. With steam operation in-
dividual power generation is employed, whereas with
electrical operation the power is developed in bulk at
central stations. In the electrical system a break-
down at a vital point may stop traffic over a wide area,
and to obviate this risk a large amount of capital has
to be expended in stand-by plant. In several cases,
however, it is more advantageous for the railway to
purchase its power from a “‘ bulk supply ” station. A
disadvantage of a steam locomotive is that it consumes
fuel so long as it is in commission ; whether it is inside
or outside the shed, and whether it is at rest or in motion.
Tube-cleaning, oiling, and overhauling also occupy a
considerable time. The electric locomotive, on the
other hand, takes power only when running, and the
time spent in inspection, overhauling, and cleaning is
insignificant. Experience shows that for a given
service the number of electric locomotives required is
less than half the number of steam locomotives, but
to make the comparison fair it has to be remembered
that each electric locomotive must be debited with its
share of the working costs of the central station.
The advisory committee of the Ministry of Transport
has decided in favour of the direct current system,
with a line pressure of 1500 volts, but multiples or
submultiples of this pressure may be used. The
French, Belgian, and Netherlands governments have
come to alike decision. There are, however, thoughtful
advocates of single-phase and polyphase systems.
Luckily the difference in cost of the various electric
systems does not exceed about one, or at the most
two, per cent. of the total cost of running the railway.
Although from many points of view standardisation
of systems is desirable, yet we think that at the present
time the carrying out of the single-phase system adopted
by the London and Brighton Railway and the direct
current system of the North Eastern Railway will be
for the benefit of the country.
In the volume under notice the author gives an
excellent discussion of the mechanical and electrical
problems which traction engineers have to consider.
He points out that the bad riding qualities of a loco-
motive are due to one or both of two general causes,
namely, the constraint of the wheels to follow other
courses than those towards which they naturally tend,
and the setting up of resonant oscillations under the
The phenomena of “nosing ”
control of the springs.
and ‘‘ rearing” he ascribes to the former cause, and
those of “ rolling” and “ pitching ” to the latter.
The book be recommended to the traction
engineer, who will find not only a good account of the
most modern practice, but also many original dynamical
discussions which have a direct bearing on his every-
It will well repay study.
can
day work.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1922]
NALORE
339
Our Bookshelf.
(1) Hampshire. By T. Varley. (Cambridge County
Geographies.) Pp. xi+212. (Cambridge: At the
University Press, 1922.) 3s. 6d. net.
(2) Munster. Pp. xii +176. (3) Ulster. Pp. xii +
186. (The Provinces of Ireland.) Edited by George
Fletcher. (Cambridge: At the University Press,
1921.) 6s. 6d. net each.
(4) A History of the County of Bedford. (The Victoria
History of the Counties of England.) Part 1, Geology
and Paleontology. Pp. 36. (London: Constable
and Co. Issued in parts, 1920.) 35. 6d. net.
(t) Mr. VarteEy’s volume is one of the excellent series
of the Cambridge County Geographies. The general
plan of the series is followed, successive chapters being
devoted to different aspects of the county, relief, geology,
hydrography, natural history, climate, people, place-
names, occupations, history, architecture, and so forth,
concluding with a gazetteer of towns and _ villages.
There are a number of illustrations and coloured oro-
graphical and geological maps. The maps include the
Isle of Wight, which otherwise is outside the scope of
the book, but unfortunately they stop short at the
county boundaries. This seems to be a needless curtail-
ment of their usefulness. The volume is an excellent
handbook to the county and is full of information, but
it certainly would be improved by an index. Two
criticisms may be offered, which apply rather to the
scheme of the series than to this useful volume in
particular. The treatment of England by counties can
never be completely satisfactory, as it inevitably cuts
across geographical regions. Thus the omission of
eastern Wiltshire cuts out part of the Avon valley,
while the inclusion of the northern slope of the Hamp-
shire downs includes a fragment of country that would
be better treated with Berkshire. The other criticism
refers to the use of the term geography, as applicable
to the book. Since the series claims to be geographical,
there should be more correlation of various distributions
than is actually the case in the pages ; causal effects are
not sufficiently emphasised. This is particularly the
case with regard to the distribution of population and
the sites of towns.
(2) and (3) These volumes are on much the same plan,
but they do not claim to be geographies, although in
some respects the two volumes are more geographical
than the English one. The coloured maps are not
strictly confined to the area under consideration, and
the regions treated being large, if not always naturally
defined, lend themselves to more satisfactory treat-
ment. ‘There is no gazetteer of towns and villages, but
a full index to each volume. The books should find a
wide acceptance in giving a trustworthy and impartial
account of Ireland.
(4) The well-known Victoria History is now published
in parts, each of which may be purchased separately.
It is thus possible to obtain a full but concise memoir
on the geology, botany, zoology, occupations, etc., of
each of the counties, furnished with coloured maps by
Bartholomew. The separate parts for some thirty
counties are now on sale. Many readers whose interests
do not embrace all aspects of county lore will be
grateful to the publishers for this means of making
accessible the scholarly articles of the Victoria History.
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
A Synopsis of the Accipitres (Diurnal Birds of Prey).
Part 1 (Vultur to Accipiter). Part 2 (Erythrotrior-
chis to Lophoaetus). Part 3 (Herpetotheres to
Pernis). By H. Kirke Swann. Second edition,
revised and corrected throughout. Pp. 1-63, 65-122,
123-178. (London: Wheldon and Wesley, Ltd.)
6s. each part.
THE work issued in 1920 as “A Synoptical List of
the Accipitres”’ has now reappeared in an enlarged
and revised form under the above title. The new
edition affords original descriptions of a number of
new sub-species ; includes others which have appeared
elsewhere ; gives the type-species of each genus ; the
type localities of each species; and, alas, further
changes in nomenclature. The Synopsis will be most
appreciated by those who have some knowledge on
the subject, for the extreme brevity of its descriptions
of the ordinal, generic, specific, and sub-specific char-
acters will not be of much help to the general student.
The diagnostic characters of the species are restricted
to adult plumages, and leave untouched the immature
stages, which are the most difficult of all. The treat-
ment of the geographical range of the various forms is
also very brief.
A monograph of the Accipitres is an admitted de-
sideratum, and as Mr. Kirke Swann has evidently de-
voted much attention to their study, perhaps he will
supply the want. Such a treatise dealing with the
plumages, distribution and life-histories would be
much appreciated, especially as the birds of this order
are among the most attractive and interesting of the
class Aves.
Life-histories of North American Gulls and Terns. Order
Longipennes. By Arthur Cleveland Bent. Bulletin
No. 113. (Smithsonian Institution, United States
National Museum.)
THIs is the second instalment of an important work on
the life-histories of North American birds—the first of
which, dealing with the order Pygopodes, has already
been noticed in NATURE.
In this volume Mr. Bent, who possesses an intimate
personal knowledge of the birds of the order Longi-
pennes, gained during extensive travels as well as in
the laboratory, has been fortunate in securing the
co-operation of a number of field-naturalists ; and
their combined experiences, supplemented by im-
portant published matter, has resulted in a remark-
able series of life-histories of the fifty species of
gulls and terns which are members of the Nearctic
avifauna.
Under the description of each of the birds there are
sections devoted to habits, nesting, eggs, young,
plumages, food, behaviour, and distribution. All of
these are treated in an interesting manner, and
are made further attractive by a series of beautiful
coloured plates, 38 in number, depicting the eggs of
each species ; while a second series of 77 plates, from
photographs, illustrate breeding colonies, sitting-birds,
nests, chicks in down, half-feathered young, and
haunts. The work, apart from the absence of coloured
figures of the adult birds themselves, is wonderfully
complete, and is a valuable contribution to orni-
thological literature.
340
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 9, 1922
The Individual and the Community. By R. E. Roper.
Pp. 224. (London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd.,
1922.) 8s. 6d. net.
Mr. Roper has produced a thoughtful and, in many
respects, a stimulating book. He is a whole-hearted
evolutionist, who regards the failure of post-war recon-
struction as arising from the fact that our statesmen
have resorted to outworn precedents while neglecting
the teachings of evolution. There is, he maintains, a
wilful confusion of State and community. A com-
munity he defines as “an association of two or more
human beings for common (though not of necessity
identical or similar) purpose or advantage in their
evolution.” Immediately the common purpose ceases,
the community also ceases. Taking each of the
principal States of Europe in turn, Mr. Roper shows
that, owing to the division which has been made and
is perpetuated by the financial-governing class between
themselves and the working-governed class, none of
them constitutes a community in his sense. The
imposition of the will of one section of society upon
another which is involved in our modern system of
government by the majority is therefore fundamentally
wrong. The difficulty is old, and if in practice we have
made no very essential advance beyond the compromise
expressed in Rousseau’s distinction between le volonté
de tous and le volonté général, it is an advantage that it
should be kept before our minds by the clear vision of
writers such as Mr. Roper.
Metric System for Engineers. By C. B. Clapham.
(Directly-Useful Technical Series.) Pp. xii+181+
3 charts. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1921.)
12s. 6d. net.
THE author’s justification for his book is that ‘‘ even
among those who use the millimetre in drawing-office
or workshop there are probably few who feel confident
in calculating with metric units,” and his object is to
explain the metric system and to state in full how to
convert from the English units to metric units, and
vice versa. Incidentally there is given an excellent
account of the vernier and other devices used by
engineers for accurate measurement. The book should
be of great use in industrial life : the conversion tables
are very exhaustive.
A brief survey is offered of the controversy which
has been raging for so long round the question whether
the metric system should or should not be introduced
compulsorily in this country. It is claimed that this
survey is not a piece of propaganda work in favour of
the change, but the arguments given pro and con do
much to support the view, that a good deal of the
opposition to the enforced use of the metric system
in England is attributable to mere conservative objec-
tion to change. Mr. Clapham’s book is itself one of
the best arguments in favour of the change—why
should the Englishman be condemned to waste so
much time and energy in making conversions and in
looking up tables of equivalents ? S. B.
Wild Bush Tribes of Tropical Africa. By G. C.
Claridge. Pp. 314. (London: Seeley, Service and
Cor Ltd 1922:)) vers. nets
Mr. Crartpce’s “ Bush Tribes” are the Ba-Congo of
Northern Angola, and the country the inhabitants of
which he describes stretches from the Congo on the north
NO. 2758, VOL, 110]
s)
" Readable School Physics.
to St. Paul de Loanda in the south, and from the Kwilu
and Kwangu rivers in the east to the Atlantic. He
writes of the native with sympathy, but, for the most
part, despises his customs : he rarely fails to stigmatise
them as “ degrading,” “ disgusting,” or worse when he
has an opportunity. Notwithstanding this drawback,
as it must seem to those who wish to study native
custom impartially, the author has given a full and
careful account of Ba-Congo culture, and his collection
of folk-lore is both interesting and useful. The most
important part of his book deals with fetishism, and, in
particular, with the N’Kamba fetish of the women,
which controls their most important function, that of
child-bearing. The men are rigorously excluded from
the rites of this fetish. A ‘“‘ Death and Resurrection ”
secret society, which effects “cures”? by death and
rebirth, is described from information supplied by a
native, but here unfortunately the author’s prejudice
colours the narrative to such an extent that considerable
knowledge of similar societies is required to disentangle
the facts.
By J. A. Cochrane. Pp.
xi+13r. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Lid., 1922.)
2s. 4d.
A TEACHER who loves his subject will find matter of
interest for his pupils even in its most prosaic parts.
“This book,” writes Mr. Cochrane in an interesting
Preface, “is an attempt to humanise Elementary
Physics without popularising it.” We are of opinion
that in this task the author has achieved very con-
siderable success. Theory has been given the main
prominence. Experiments have not been described
unless to elucidate principles. References to the
makers of scientific history are frequent, and are
reinforced by a number of interesting plates which
inchude portraits of Newton, Pascal, Boyle, Galileo,
and Joseph Black. The pupil’s own experience is
brought into connexion with physical principles as
often as possible. Part 1, which might have been called
Mechanics instead of Hydrostatics since it includes
chapters on volume, weight, and density (not to
mention surveying), occupies about two-thirds of the
book, the remainder being devoted to what is certainly
a “readable” account of the elementary principles
of heat.
Ions, Electrons, and Ionising Radtations. By Dr. J. A.
Crowther. Third Edition. Pp. xii+292+ii pls.
(London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1922.) 12s. 6d.
net.
Tue first edition of Dr. Crowther’s useful manual has
already received notice in these columns (August 12
1920, p. 740.). The fact that a third edition has
been called for so soon is sufficient evidence that the
book has been appreciated. The material has been
thoroughly revised and the various tables of constants
brought into accord with the best data obtainable.
Siegbahn’s work on X-ray spectra and Aston’s work
on positive rays receive notice, and an account is
civen of Sir Ernest Rutherford’s recent work on the
problems of atomic structure and of Bohr’s theory.
We have no hesitation in recommending this volume
to readers desiring a systematic account of the latest
developments in physics.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1922 |
NATURE
341
Letters to the Editor.
The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is
taken of anonymous communications.]
The British Association.
TuE Association is to consider whether it will once
more adventure into the outer regions of the Empire.
That such transgress is desirable I am satisfied and
so stated most definitely in the lecture I gave in 1915,
at the Royal Institution, on our Australian excursion.
In the interest of the younger scientific generation
and of our Empire, it is of the utmost importance
that we should roam over the world and discover its
amenities—but the effort must be wholehearted,
whenever it bemade. The one failure of our Australian
expedition was the insufficient support of the younger
men.
It is a question whether, at the present time, when
the cost of travel is so high, it will be desirable to
attempt a new expedition—the chance that it will
be well supported by the young men is not great.
The Society of Chemical Industry could carry only
a very small party last year to Canada. Therefore,
the choice of a region that shall not be too distant is
desirable, 1f the decision be to travel.
Properly speaking, the Association should go
further westward, to British Columbia, north of the
C.P.R., to visualise its potentialities and gain some
idea of its conditions. To recommence the cycle at
a middle point such as Toronto seems undesirable,
at present. Montreal is the natural and would be
the proper point of redeparture and discovery. It
has also the advantage that it is the centre of the only
region on the American continent where freedom still
prevails and men are thought to be capable of taking
care of themselves. It is the duty of science to
protest and erect some barrier against the advancing
wave of spurious puritanism which so affects Americans
and now so threatens the freedom of mankind. The
recent all but successful attempt to ban Darwinism
in every shape and form is sufficient proof of what
may happen. Henry E. ARMSTRONG.
Bohr and Langmuir Atoms.
Cuemists feel a difficulty in explaining molecular
combination in terms of electrical attraction between
the apparently revolving electrons which seem to
compose the peripheral parts of an atom; and they
naturally prefer a more static arrangement. Indeed,
it is not easy to explain the stability of molecules
in terms of any kind of purely electrical attraction
between the atoms composing them: and yet, ever
since Faraday, there has been an instinctive feeling
that electrical attraction and chemical affinity are
one and the same.
The facts of spectroscopy seem to insist on a system
of revolving electric charges, while the facts of
chemical combination seem to demand forces which
can be treated statically ; so it has been suggested
that internal electrons are responsible for the radia-
tion, while external electrons control the chemical
forces. But the stability of chemical compounds
can scarcely depend on loosely held external electrons,
which, moreover, ought to be revolving just as much
though not so fast as the inner ones.
May not a reconciliation be found by abandoning
the idea of electrical attraction between atoms as the
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
major chemical force, and substituting for it the
interlacement of the magnetic fields which inevitably
accompany rapidly revolving electric charges. The
orbital motion of the electrons responsible for chemical
affinity, so far from constituting a difficulty, gives us
a clue; for in every magnet electrons are rapidly
revolving, and yet magnetic force is static. The
clinging together of nails or needles near a magnet
is all due to revolving electrons. Working with
magnetised steel spheres, tetrahedra, and other
shapes, some one with the ingenuity of Dr. Langmuir
or Prof. Bragg might succeed in building up structures
or models of adequate chemical significance.
The difficulty about substituting a magnetic field
for an electric one, as accounting for the facts of
chemical affinity, is no doubt the double polarity.
But, on the other hand, this inevitable feature gives
greater scope as well as greater complexity, and may
ultimately be found to be an advantage; in fact, I
am beginning to think that the constitution of bodies
cannot be explained without it. The phenomena
which long ago suggested ‘‘normal- and contra-
valence ’’ would fall into line. The stability of
chemical combination would be all that could be
desired, and the electrons in each atom would be
peacefully engaged in giving their spectroscopic
evidence (so well interpreted by the genius of Prof.
Bohr), unharassed in their movements and perturba-
tions by having to associate themselves with any
electric field other than that of their own nucleus.
Their magnetic linkages would be a sort of uncon-
scious extra.
The undoubted phenomenon of ionisation would
have to be developed independently, along with other
known facts about gross positive and negative electric
charges, but in the formation of stable chemical
molecules we should not have to appeal to ionic charge.
Moreover, certain molecular groupings, held together
by magnetic forces, might be found readily susceptible
to ionisation, especially when subject to bombard-
ment, or when packed close together in a liquid.
I do not suppose that magnetic attraction as the
equivalent of chemical affinity is any new idea, but
I suggest that it has been inadequately developed,
and that it seems capable of effecting a reconciliation
between the extraordinarily ingenious schemes—
apparently opposed, and yet both containing elements
of truth—of which the names at the head of this
letter may be regarded as principal types.
OLIVER LODGE.
The Acoustics of Enclosed Spaces.
SINCE writing the letter published in Nature of
August 19, p. 247, my attention has been directed to
a paper on ‘‘ Sound Proof Partitions ”’ by Prof. R. F.
Watson (University of Illinois Bulletin for March
1922). The paper contains a valuable experimental
investigation on one aspect of the subject, but much
remains to be done.
I take this opportunity of correcting an error which
seriously affects the numerical results I gave for the
sound transmitted through walls. In applying the
optical equations, I forgot for the moment that the
intensity of reflection in the case of sound does not
only depend on the refractive index but also on the
relative densities of the two bodies concerned. Even
if the refractive indices were equal, so that the sound
would proceed in the same direction, there would
still be a powerful reflection if the densities were very
unequal. In the equation I gave, 1—y* should be
replaced by a—w*a-t, where a is the ratio of the
densities. When sound passes from air to a solid
body the second term is in general negligible, and
342
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 9, 1922
the transmitted intensity depends almost entirely on
the ratio of the densities. If we take the case of a
partition of wood having a density half that of water,
calculation then shows that at normal incidence about
4 per cent. of the sound is transmitted if the thickness
be rt cm. Reducing the thickness to 2 mm., the
intensity of the transmitted sound increases to
50 per cent., and rises to 80 per cent. if the thickness
is only I mm.
What I desired to emphasise in my previous letter
is that the diminution in the sound transmitted with
increasing thickness is not necessarily due to any
absorption, but is explained by the effect of the
reflection at the second surface which, when the
thickness is small compared with the wave-length,
neutralises the reflection at the first surface. This
does not appear to be sufficiently appreciated, and
some of the conclusions drawn in Prof. Watson’s
paper require correction accordingly. The effect of
the second surface is also of importance when total
reflection ought to take place according to the usual
formule at the first surface. With a thickness less
than a wave-length, part of the sound is transmitted.
This case has been treated by Lord Rayleigh (‘‘ Col-
lected Works,’ vol. vi. p. 71).
ARTHUR SCHUSTER,
The Annelids of Iceland and the Faroes.
TuIs is a subject about which very little has
hitherto been known. In discussing the part which
white ants play in the economy of nature Prof.
Henry Drummond compared them with earthworms.
He referred to Darwin, and said that in ‘‘ Vegetable
Mould’ a reference was made to the existence of
earthworms in Iceland. I cannot find any such
allusion. It is true that a few worms have been
recorded for Iceland and one for the Faroes. I am
fortunately in the position to add somewhat to our
knowledge. My son, Dr. J. Newton Friend, having
recently returned from an expedition in those islands,
I have had the privilege of examining his collection
of annelids. The following are the results :
The common earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris, L.)
flourishes in Iceland. I examined twenty-three
specimens, twenty of which were perfectly adult.
Not one of them differed in any particular from the
type as found in England. I hoped to find sper-
matophores, but in this matter disappointment was
experienced. The specimens were collected near
Reikjavik at the beginning of August, and were just
in the right condition for laying their cocoons.
The red earthworm (L. vubellus, Hoffm.) was also
found. Though adult it was smaller than our English
specimens usually are, and the dorsal surface was of
a darker brown colour. I have often found similar
specimens, however, in the British Isles, so that they
are in no sense to be looked upon as a variety.
The purple worm (L. purpureus, Eisen=L. cas-
taneus, Sav.) has already been recorded, alike for
Iceland and the Faroes. Thus each of the three
common species of European Lumbrici is now known
to be a denizen of Iceland. To these may be added
two species of the genus Dendrobaena. One of these
(D. vubida, Sav.) is best known by the variety
usually named the gilt-tail, a denizen of ripe manure
and decaying leaves. The other (D. octoedva, Sav.),
although widely distributed geographically, is not a
common species in Great Britain. Up till the present,
then, five species only of the Lumbricidae have been
recorded.
The shores of Iceland, if they could be worked as
Claparede worked the Hebrides, would doubtless
yield a variety of forms, especially the red-blooded
pot-worms or pachydrilids. None of these, so far
NO. 2758, VOL. 110]
as I am aware, has been up till the present placed
on record, but Clitellio arenarius, O. F. M., well
known on our English coasts, 1s reported for the
coasts of Iceland.
I can find no records for the Faroes except the
purple worm already noted. It is, therefore, with
peculiar pleasure that I am able to add two new
members to the list. These are both enchytraeids,
and were collected in peaty earth near a stream
some two miles inland from Thorshaven. One of
these was a _ pachydrilid (Lumbricillus lineatus,
O. F. M.). I have written fully on the synonymy
in the Jvish Naturalist, and my conclusions are
supported by the more recent investigations of the
American helminthologist, Welch.
The other enchytraeid is of the white-blooded
kind (Mesenchytraeus oligosetosus, Friend). It was
found some time ago among gleanings made in Jersey,
and described by me in the Zoologist. I have more
recently found a striking variety of this worm, or
an allied species, near Birmingham. The Faroes
material agreed with the Jersey. The worm is about
a third of an inch in length, and belongs to the group
which has enlarged setae on the segments which
contain the spermathecae. It may also be noted
that I found one of the commoner opalines parasitic
in the Faroese enchytraeids. Our list therefore
stands thus: Mesenchytraeus oligosetosus, Faroe Is. ;
Lumbricillus lineatus, Faroes; Clitellio arenarius,
Iceland ; Dendyvobaena rubida, Iceland ; Dendrobaena
octoedva, Iceland; Lumbricus purpureus, Faroes and
Iceland; Lumbricus rubellus, Iceland; Lumbricus
tevvestvis, Iceland.
Addendum (Aug. 16).—A further investigation with
pocket lens has resulted in some interesting additions
to the foregoing list :
Achaeta minima Southern, only I mm. in length,
but agreeing exactly in all particulars with the
material from Ireland. The intestine contained
peaty soil with a number of diatoms.
Marionina (Chamaedrilus) sphagnetorum (Vejd.).—
Very slender, but true to type. White (colourless)
blood. I stated my reasons in these columns some time
ago for transferring this species to the genus Chamae-
drilus.
Dorylaimus obtusicaudatus Bastian.
PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2761, VOL. I10]
The Protection of Inventions: An Empire
Patent.
(eee legislative action among the constitu-
ent parts of the British Empire would materially
strengthen the bond which unites the peoples to one
another and to the motherland. When, in addition,
increased productiveness, lessening of cost, and
simplification of procedure are its accompaniment,
and when general expediency points to the special
course prescribed by it, few voices could well be heard
in opposition. For many years a dream of politicians
and reformers, manufacturers and inventors, has been
the granting of a single patent to an inventor which,
effective throughout the British Dominions, would give
adequate protection without the necessity of securing
patents from each of the constituent countries of the
Empire. To obtain this wide measure of protection,
an inventor, at the present time, must make not less
than forty-six separate applications at a cost in official
fees of more than three hundred pounds. Further, if
protection be desired for the full periods which the
respective laws permit, an additional sum of twelve
hundred pounds and more must be forthcoming ; and
to this sum there is to be added the cost of the highly
skilled preparation of the necessary documents, a
formidable item which alone may amount to as much
as the official fees for the applications. Now, if it
were genuinely believed by all classes that the stimula-
tion of invention results in greatly increased pro-
duction, and that trouble and outlay in that direction
are amply repaid, expenditure by governing bodies
would no longer be deemed speculative, but would be
looked upon as a sure and certain investment to be
welcomed on all hands.
Although there is much to be urged in favour of this
belief, possibly to the point of conviction, many
reasons may be adduced for its non-acceptance by the
authorities. The reasons, however, need not be
specified, for the fact remains that hitherto there has
been no such consensus of opinion as to lead the
separate law-making bodies to common action and,
through simplification of procedure and great reduction
in cost, to encourage the inventor to successful effort
within the territories of the several legislatures. Yet
until the year 1852 it was the practice in this country
to issue a single patent which was co-extensive in its
operation with the whole of the Colonies, and in the
Patent Law Amendment Act of that year a similar
power was reserved. Although this power was not
employed, for, in fact, no extensions were made, the
reservation in the Act secured a practical result. It
set on foot a series of inquiries by the Government,
and led India and the Colonies to pass various patent
438
acts and ordinances. Simultaneously with the
demand in the ’sixties of last century for the total
abolition of patents, opinion was hardening upon the
desirability for the extension of a patent to countries
other than that in which it originated. In the Patents
Act of 1883, which replaced the Act of 1852, no power
was given for extending the territorial limit of a patent,
nor in the Acts which now govern patents in this
country is any such power present. In spite of much
sporadic agitation, no practical steps were taken for
a patent of the United Kingdom to become operative
in India, the self-governing Dominions, the Colonies,
and Protectorates. This invoked Sir Robert Hadfield
to say that “It is a crying shame that in a great
Empire like ours we do not have one Empire Patent
to cover the whole of our Dominions.”
Although many societies and various learned bodies
had discussed the question and emphasised the need
of an Empire Patent, and, from time to time, had made
representations to Government, officialdom appears
to have been deterred by inherent difficulties in the
production of an acceptable scheme. It had not
perceived the possibility of formulating a practical
measure to satisfy the justifiable aspirations and fair
demands of inventors. But steady pressure and
persistent endeavour are meeting with reward, for
there are now indications of Governments treating
seriously the proposals for an Empire Patent. A
notably important advance was made in rg2r at a
conference of Prime Ministers and representatives of
the United Kingdom, the Dominions, and India, when
a memorandum, prepared in the Board of Trade, was
discussed by a special committee. The conference
agreed with the recommendation of its committee that
representatives of the Patent Offices of His Majesty’s
Dominions should sit in London to consider the
practicability of an Empire Patent. Accordingly
sittings were held in June last, and a report of the
conference has since been published.t
The report is not for popular reading ; indeed in
the main it is highly technical, and in its entirety can
be understood only by those to whom the details of
patent law and practice are of everyday concern.
Further, its importance and significance are not to be
measured simply by what it states expressly, since its
implications and inferences must be gathered before
its true import can be realised.
The discussion at the conference ranged round the
present situation of affairs; the desirability for an
Empire Patent; various schemes for obtaining the
Patent and their practicability ; and alternatively the
possibility of rendering uniform the patent laws
1 British Empire Patent Conference. Report of the Conference held
at the Patent Office, London, from 12th June 1922 to the 23rd June 1922.
8vo. Pp. 28. (London: H.M. Stationery Office.) rs. net.
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
throughout the Empire. The conference, while
emphasising the importance of the preservation of the
autonomy of the self-governing Dominions and of
India, and insisting upon the rights and facilities at
present enjoyed by inventors, concluded that an
Empire Patent is desirable. Five schemes of the many
that had been brought to notice were selected for
special examination, the conference taking for its basis
a memorandum prepared by the Comptroller General
of Patents in 1919. A few particulars of these schemes
are set out in the report. Looking over these, it is
apparent that for each much can be urged. In one,
it may be, large expenditure is involved, although the
advantages to be secured are great; in another,
expenditure is comparatively small, with corresponding
diminution in beneficial results. That difficulties will
be encountered whatever scheme may ultimately be
adopted is well known, but so far as can be judged, no
such difficulty will be met as cannot be surmounted
in the presence of a spirit of give-and-take, a spirit
which must permeate the various legislatures and
governing bodies before a uniform plan of action can
be agreed upon.
According to one of the schemes, there is to be
established a single central patent office for the issue
of grants which should be operative throughout the
Empire, local patent offices being abolished. This
scheme was not approved, “‘ having regard to practical
difficulties,” the chief of which were the distance apart
of the units of the Empire and the loss of time which
accordingly would be involved in transacting the
necessary business. Another scheme contemplated
the retention of local patent offices from which the
usual territorial patents would issue, the issue taking
place without examination into the novelty of the
inventions to be protected. In addition, a central
office would be established for the recording of the local
patents and for their resultant extension to the Empire.
The central office on being called upon by its patentees
would also undertake a limited examination for novelty,
and when the patent specification was suitably amended
as a result of the examination, a note would appear
that the examination had thus taken place. This
scheme was not recommended, owing, it would seem,
to the resulting abolition of the existing compulsory
examination into novelty. The third scheme entailed
the granting of Empire Patents in each self-governing
Dominion and in India, each office being fully equipped
with the registers and material necessary for the ex-
amination into novelty. In view of the expense and
difficulty involved in setting up the offices and of the
uncertainty as to the quality and value of the patent
so granted, the conference found the scheme to be
wholly impracticable. According to the “ Preferred
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
439
Scheme,” a scheme which the conference recommended
for adoption in the future, local patent offices are to
be retained, each performing its present functions.
There is also to be a fully organised central office for
the detailed examination of applications for patents,
the examination to include an extended search for
novelty, the office eventually, issuing the Empire
Patents. But to make a patent operative in any
country, registration in that country is compulsory,
the registration being open to opposition if the local
law provides for opposition to the granting of a patent.
By a “ Provisional Scheme,” which is recommended
for immediate adoption and for continuation until the
“ Preferred Scheme” can be introduced, the grant of
a patent in the United Kingdom carries with it the
right to registration in any desired country of the
Empire, the act of registration extending the grant
to that country. But here, again, before the registra-
tion is made, it is open to opposition, if opposition to
local grants is permitted by the local law.
Manifestly, whatever scheme came to be adopted by
the separate legislatures or law-making bodies, much
mutual adjustment of substantive and adjective law
would be required. Some of these necessary adjust-
ments were discussed at the conference, and suggestions
emanating therefrom appear in the report. None
appears to be of such a character as to be outside the
bounds of practicability. But to review those sub-
jects which call for adjustment, and to discuss the
opinions on these and other points expressed at the
conference, would require for each a monograph.
From the report it is clear that an extremely small
portion of the necessary amendments which the re-
spective authorities would be called upon to make
could have been discussed, bearing in mind that the
conference held ten meetings only, and that it refused
to admit oral evidence from outside, deciding that
“no useful purpose would be served by hearing such
evidence.’ There therefore, excluded from
consideration the oral evidence that could have been
given, for example, by the Chartered Institute of
Patent Agents, a body which is continually in touch
with the needs of inventors and conversant with the
working and details of the various patent laws. Of
necessity must the conference be looked upon as
merely preliminary to attacking at close quarters the
problem which it set out to solve.
On the unanimous selection of a scheme by each of
the governing authorities, the next step will be for each
to submit for general consideration the law, rules, and
regulations which must be formulated in order that the
selected scheme may be successfully put into operation.
Moreover, it will be necessary to distinguish between
the law to be applied when the patent is granted and
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
was,
the procedure for obtaining the patent. It will also be
found that, in endeavouring to secure a basis for action,
the task will be the easier by reason of the large majority
of the patent laws of the Dominions having copied the
law of the United Kingdom, and of the ultimate Court
of Appeal for the Empire being the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council.
In the preparation of a scheme for general adoption
it Is to be hoped that the authorities will not continue
to ignore oral evidence from outside bodies ; to do so
will be to court failure. Procedure for obtaining a
patent and the law and rules relating to patents are
so intricate that none but those who are in daily contact
with such matters and have learned in the hard school
of experience the needs of inventors on one hand and
the reasonable requirements of the public on the other,
can be expected to produce a scheme which, satis-
factory to all parties, can be put into operation without
friction, much change in procedure, or extensive amend-
ment of existing laws.
There is no reason to suppose that, if all parties are
determined to produce an Empire Patent, the adjust-
ment of conflicting opinions cannot be made nor suit-
able machinery devised. The result undoubtedly
would be to the advantage of all inhabitants of the
Homeland and of His Majesty’s Dominions beyond
the Seas, whether as inventors, manufacturers, or
users. It remains, therefore, for the public to urge
expedition upon the authorities, or it will be met with
the charge of apathy, a plea which so often saves the
situation where officials are concerned.
A word or two is to be said in respect of the charge
for a copy of the report. In pre-war days, each copy
of this small octavo would have been sold for 3d. or 4d.,
and the edition promptly exhausted with a consequent
wide-spread dissemination of its information. For
each copy of this edition of five hundred, however,
one shilling is required, a charge which scarcely makes
for extensive circulation. The wider the public that
the report reaches, the greater chance of a definite
outcome of its suggestions, while, at the same time, by
the lowering of the price the probability of the recovery
of the cost of the edition would not be appreciably
lessened.
Industrial Physics.
A Dictionary of Applied Physics. Edited by Sir
Richard Glazebrook. (In 5 volumes.) Vol. 1:
Mechanics, Engineering, Heat. Pp. ix + 1067.
(London: Macmillan and Co,, Ltd., 1922.) 3/. 3s. net.
N years to come the publication of this monumental
work will rank as one of the milestones in British
applied science. If argument were needed, none more
440
convincing could be adduced in illustration of the
necessity for a working co-operation between the
physicist and the engineer. Sir Alfred Ewing recently
defined engineering as “ the turning to man’s use and
convenience of the things which it is the business of
physics to understand.” This Dictionary helps one
to realise, as perhaps never previously, that in all
branches of engineering the engineer, whether reveal-
ing or directing, whether inventing or designing,
whether testing or measuring, whether systematising,
co-ordinating, or clarifying, is continually turning
physical principles to account.
Sir Richard Glazebrook, not content with the endur-
ing monument to his fame in the shape of the National
Physical Laboratory, has now laid physicists and en-
gineers under perpetual obligation by undertaking the
editorship of this “ Dictionary of Applied Physics.”
No other British man of science, it is safe to say, could
have brought the same wide experience, intimate
knowledge, and critical judgment to bear upon the
production of an encyclopedic work of this nature.
For twenty years Sir Richard Glazebrook directed the
policy of the N.P.L., and during that period, when the
attitude of the nation towards scientific investigation
was very different from what it is to-day, he toiled
unceasingly to foster the applications of science to
industry. To take one example alone, the fact that
this country in 1914 led the world in aeronautical re-
search is due in no small measure to his foresight and
skilful guidance during the preceding eight years. Sir
Richard’s breadth of interests and his habit of estab-
lishing and preserving personal contact with original
investigators are reflected in his choice of collaborators
in the preparation of this Dictionary.
The work under review is the first of a series of five
volumes, planned to cover the entire range of physics
and, in particular, the applications of physics to
industry. Volume 1 contains some fifty articles,
covering mechanics, engineering, and heat.
Three main facts emerge from a survey of the work
before us—first, the unexampled wealth of material ;
secondly, the authoritativeness, the maturity of
judgment, the originality and inviting freshness of
treatment which are exhibited by the majority of the
writers ; and, lastly, the presumption and futility of
any single reviewer attempting to appraise such a
diversity of articles by such a galaxy of experts. A
glance at the names of contributors furnishes sufficient
guarantee that the various subjects are dealt with by
accepted authorities and experienced investigators ;
and probably the only useful service that a reviewer
can hope to perform is to point out a few of the sins
of omission which are inevitable in a treatise planned
on such a comprehensive scale.
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
The first article in the volume is on air pumps, by
the staff of the General Electric Co., and deals with
the fundamental principles of the various types of
pumps employed for evacuation and compression.
Calorimetric measurements are dealt with in a series
of five articles by Dr. Ezer Griffiths. The subject is
divided into sections dealing with bomb calorimetry,
electrical methods of calorimetry, method of mixtures,
methods based on change of state and the applications
of the quantum theory to specific heat data. A glance
through these articles shows how different are the
methods employed by research workers from those
described in text-books on this subject. As an indica-
tion of the highly developed state of technical calori-
metry, it might be mentioned that with one of the
bomb-calorimeter equipments described—that of the
U.S. Bureau of Mines—a skilled operator can average
thirty-five determinations per day of the calorific
value of fuels. The purely scientific aspect of the
subject is not neglected, for we find concise descriptions
of the researches of White on specific heats at high
temperatures and those of Dewar at low temperatures.
Electrical methods of calorimetry naturally occupy a
prominent place, for the ease with which electrical
energy can be measured and controlled has placed a
powerful tool in the hands of workers concerned with
thermal measurements.
The principles of dynamical similarity are discussed
in an article by Dr. H. Levy. The results of wind-
channel and ship-tank experiments on models can be
applied to full-scale machines by the use of the Prin-
ciple of Similitude, which also finds application in
numerous other branches of engineering. One is re-
minded of a famous article by the late Lord Rayleigh
in NatuRE, vol. 95, p. 66, 1915, in which the full gener-
ality and beauty of the Principle of Similitude are
brought out. In the space of a column or two Rayleigh
deduced a series of fundamental conclusions with the
lucidity and brevity which distinguish all his writings.
Four articles are devoted to various aspects of steam
engineering. Sir Alfred Ewing contributes one on the
theory of the steam engine; Mr. A. Cruickshank
another on the reciprocating steam engine, while the
importance of the steam turbine fully merits the
38 pages devoted to the two articles on the physics
of the steam turbine by Dr. Gerald Stoney and Mr.
Telford Petrie, and the development of the steam
turbine by Mr. R. Dowson of Messrs. Parsons.
These articles cover the ground pretty thoroughly,
so far as present-day practice goes, but one would have
liked to know something of the writers’ views on the
future trend of their subjects. For example, nothing
is said of the possibilities of the gas turbine, should the
practical difficulties connected with it be overcome, or
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
of the advantages and disadvantages of the steam
turbine for aircraft propulsion and on locomotives.
The internal combustion engine is dealt with in
three articles: Mr. Aubrey Evans writes on the water-
cooled petrol engine ; Sir Dugald Clerk and Mr. G. A.
Burls on the thermodynamics of internal combustion
engines and also on some typical internal combustion
engines. The standard work of these authors on the
subject is familiar to most students.
On general engineering subjects we note, among
many others, a brief monograph by Prof. W. E. Dalby
on the balancing of engines and prime movers. In an
article on the strength of structures by Mr. J. W.
Landon, it is curious that no mention is made of
airship and aeroplane structures, which are certainly
of considerable interest at the present time.
Dr. T. E. Stanton’s article on friction, supplemented
by a very brief one by Mr. W. B. Hardy on boundary
conditions in lubrication, form a complete and masterly
résumé of this fascinating subject, in which there have
been considerable developments during the past few
years.
Elasticity has two articles devoted to it, one on the
theory of elasticity by Mr. R. V. Southwell, and the
other on elastic constants by Mr. R. G. Batson. Mr.
Southwell’s article of 11 pages is as brief as Mr. Batson’s
article of 125 pages is long. One would have liked to
see included in the former a brief account of the mathe-
matical researches which find practical application,
such as the effect of keyways on the strength of a
shaft, the vibration of rotating masses, such as turbine
discs, the torsional vibration of propeller shafts, etc.
Mr. Batson’s article, which is lavishly illustrated, deals
primarily with the testing of the materials of con-
struction. We note that Fig. 120, p. 196, has evidently
been transferred direct from a catalogue without the
superfluous lettering being removed. In view of the
thorough treatment of the subject of thermoelectric
pyrometry in this volume, there was doubtful justifica-
tion for including an elementary account of the prin-
ciple of thermoelectric pyrometers in an article devoted
to elasticity. Moreover, the sections on the per-
meability of concrete, together with those on attrition
and abrasion tests, are somewhat uncomfortably
housed in an article on elastic constants. The question
of the seasoning and testing of timber merits a more
exhaustive treatment than is accorded to it here.
Space does not permit of a review of the numerous
short articles on various aspects of engineering, but
some of the omissions may be pointed’ out for future
rectification. In the brief article on gyroscopes by
Dr. G. T. Bennett, no mention is made of important
practical applications, such as gyro-compasses, stabil-
isers, and aeroplane-level indicators. The article on
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
NATURE
44t
dynamometers, by Mr. J. H. Hyde, is confined mainly
to the more familiar types. One would have liked, for
example, to know something of those developed for
testing aircraft engines during flight.
Mr. F. H. Schofield contributes articles on heat
conduction and conyection, the recent work of the
Heat Department of the National Physical Laboratory
on these subjects being well summarised. The classical
researches on the mechanical equivalent of heat are
ably reviewed by Dr. E. H. Griffiths. Reading his
account of the difficulties encountered by early workers
makes us realise how much they did indirectly to
advance progress by following up the discrepancies
between various temperature scales on one hand and
the several electrical standards on the other. Sir
Alfred Ewing contributes articles on thermodynamics,
the liquefaction of gases and refrigeration, which are
models of charm and clarity. The article on lique-
faction might well have been amplified to include the
advances of the last few years.
Temperature measurements are covered in a series
of six articles. Messrs. Day and Sosman of the Geo-
physical Institute, U.S.A., are authors of an article on
the realisation of the absolute scale of temperature.
In this most readable contribution will be found a
critical review of the numerous researches on the gas
thermometer throughout the past century, which
have helped to lay the basis of the standard scale of
temperature in use at the present day.
Dr. Ezer Griffiths contributes noteworthy articles on
resistance thermometers, thermocouples, total radia-
tion pyrometry, and optical pyrometry. The resist-
ance thermometer holds a unique position in practical
pyrometry. Too fragile for works’ use, as originally
intended by Siemens, it has developed into a precision
laboratory instrument. The practical scale of tem-
perature over the range —40° C. to +11oo° C. can be
reproduced with extraordinary accuracy by the aid of
a platinum resistance thermometer calibrated at the
ice, steam, and sulphur points. Detailed descriptions
of the methods to be employed in calibration and the
precautions which must be observed will be found in
the article.
As modern methods of measuring temperature have
developed chiefly in the direction of electrical appli-
ances, one naturally finds that prominence is given to
a discussion of various types of potentiometers in the
article on thermocouples. Considerable advance has
been made in recent years in the design of thermo-
electric potentiometers, and the student of purely
electrical measurements might also with advantage
study this section.
A notable feature of the article on optical pyro-
meters is the discussion of the theory underlying the
Orr
442
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
use of red glass for obtaining approximately mono-
chromatic light. This is a factor of fundamental
importance when temperatures of the order of 3000° C.
have to be measured by means of pyrometers calibrated
on the basis of Wien’s law to represent the distribution
of energy in the spectrum of a “ full radiator.” The
“ disappearing filament ” type of pyrometer has been
greatly developed in recent years at the N.P.L. and
elsewhere, and it would appear that, in time, it will
supplant most of the other types now in use for high-
temperature measurements.
Thermometry is covered by a comprehensive article
written by Mr. W. F. Higgins. 20-42 2-Ome2a-Siee 22-3 22-7
It will be noted that when the load becomes excessive
the efficiency rapidly falls away. This means that,
although the effort may be continued as strenuously as
before, and although the physiological cost of the effort
remains at a very high level, the amount of external
work done is reduced to a very low figure. The static
element in the muscular effort has become dominant,
NO. 2761, VOL. I10]
and static expenditure is parasitic on dynamic work.
The more static the work becomes the greater is
the fall in the efficiency. Personally I am of the
opinion that the severity of muscular work, qua
the organism as a whole, is a function of the static
component of the effort made. Fatigue, 7.e. inability
to carry on, is more readily induced by static work
than by either positive or negative work. The follow-
ing figures, from experiments which I have carried out
with Miss Bedale and G. McCallum, show clearly this
diminution in efficiency as the static element in the
work is increased :
TABLE IV.
Net Efficiency
per cent,
Cost in grm, cals.
Pulls per min, 5
per kgm. p.sq.m.
Kem. per min.
Loe}
AN
[o}
HNwWtE ANN
HN won)
RS ear te
bunt ong
on
H
>
fo)
Very closely allied with the rate of working is the
rhythm with which the work is performed. Although
they are not identical phenomena, they are so closely
related that the habit of work may be considered along
with rhythm. Every one is well aware that once a
rhythm, or the proper co-ordination in the play of a
set of muscles in the performance of some definite act,
is mastered, not only is the energy expenditure reduced
by the exclusion of numerous extraneous muscular
activities, but there is an actual enhancement of the
ease with which we perform the specified act. It is
not a mere question of rate. Ina series of experiments
which I carried out with Burnett, the subject, working
on a specially geared ergometer, was allowed to select
his own rate of working, the load being varied from
nothing to 4 kilos. At each change of load the subject
was directed either to work rapidly or very slowly,
and after a period of such work was told to adopt the
rate he liked best. As the following table (Table V.)
TABLE V.
Load in Rate of Work per min. voluntarily selected.
kilos.
Exp. I Exp. II. | Exp. III. | Exp. IV. (Immediately
fo) 78 80 83 Ae after 1 hour’s
I 80 79 79 71 work at rate
2 8r 80 81 : of 45 per min.)
3 80 78 83 73
4 82 77 78 iB
shows, the rhythm of work was
037 029 024 ox3 practically identical for all loads.
ae Fame This occurred under all conditions,
105 [eo . .
He wee ae $31 provided the working spells were
204 197 170 94 not of too long duration. If the
work were continued over a long period, the
rhythm tended to alter, to increase in speed, and if
the subject became really tired, periods of rapid move-
ment alternated with periods of slow movement.
The rhythm adopted, although it may suit the
worker, is not of necessity the series of muscle move-
ments which lead to the least expenditure of energy.
456
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
Most probably the rhythm selected is only in small
part due to the worker’s physical configuration ; in
greater part it is evolved in imitation of some more
experienced or older worker. The average workman
is not so much concerned with the diminution of the
physiological cost in the performance of a given act
as in the reduction of conscious effort. It is not, of
course, suggested that the methods adopted by workers
independently are the perfect methods, and that
proper investigation will not discover better and easier
methods of performing certain given operations. If
newer and more economical methods are to be de-
veloped and brought into operation, the only real
chance will be to segregate the newer young workers.
There is good evidence, that of Muscio, for example,
that both resting and working, in addition to the
individual muscle rhythm, there is a definite variation
in the course of the day in the capacity to carry out
work ; that, in other words, a diurnal rhythm exists.
There is a certain amount of evidence also in favour of
the view that a seasonal rhythm exists. Further, when
efficiency is measured in terms of output, it is found
that there is a definite rhythm in output during the
course of the working day and of the working week.
This type of curve is not peculiar to any one industry.
The total weekly output curve with the low Monday
effect and the sharp fall on Saturday resembles in
general shape the daily output curve. The main point
about these curves is that they seem to demonstrate
the absence of progressive fatigue from overwork,
which would have been deduced had there been a
sharp rise at the commencement of the week, followed
by a steady fall.
The third of the potent factors in the control of
fatigue is rest. If work is done, rest is ultimately
imperative. Rest not merely relaxes the muscle,
allowing a more thorough and complete removal of the
waste products and a more abundant supply of oxygen,
but it removes the strain of attention. Rest is best
obtained, not by simple quiescence, but by change of
posture ; slow movement of another type to that which
produced the fatigue will, unless the organism is tired
practically to complete exhaustion, give the most
beneficial results.
So far, little attention has been paid to the duration
of the rest period in relation to the work done. As a
general rule, it may be said that, in the majority of
occupations, although the hours of labour are con-
tinuous, the actual spells of hard manual work are
discontinuous, either due to the iact that certain
operations are intermittent in their severity, that
supplies of material are not constant, or that, if these
more or less natural conditions do not operate, rests
at irregular intervals are deliberately taken by the
operative. So far as I am aware there is only one
type of hard work where a definite rest period is laid
down as part of the exercise, namely, in Army route
marching.
So much, then, for the ordinary effector factors.
There are many other factors directly concerned with
the efficient action of the organism, some directly
influencing the internal economy of the body, others
acting more indirectly on the organism from the
environment.
One of these factors is the state of the nutrition. It
NO. 2761, VOL. 110|
may be definitely stated that an insufficient intake of
food or the consumption of poor or inadequate food is
one of the chief sources of general inefficiency. The
capacity of the body to store reserve food material
which will meet the daily demands for energy and
leave a surplus is another of the vital factors of safety.
The much more important problem is unfortunately
only too common, the influence of chronic undernutri-
tion, a condition which lowers efficiency, not merely in
the actual performance of muscular work, but by
inducing an increased susceptibility to disease. This
is a question which has never received the attention
which its importance demands, largely on account of
the immense difficulties of carrying out the investiga-
tion in a practical manner. As the direct result of
the war, we have the records of at least two sets of
observers. Benedict and his co-workers investigated
the problem, using a group of twelve men, comparing
them with a similar group drawn from the same class.
In the experimental group the food intake was reduced,
so that there was a loss of 12 per cent. of the body
weight. Although the experiment was carried on for
more than four months, the diminution in muscle
power, so far as laboratory tests were concerned, was
not great. The subjective impression, however, of
the subjects was that they felt weaker and less
capable.
The other recorded experiment is that of the condi-
tion in Germany during the war years. A general
statement of the effects of the blockade is contained in
a long document prepared by the German Government
(dated December 1918). Admittedly the document
was prepared for a specific purpose ; but, after making
all allowances, the record of the far-reaching effects
of chronic underfeeding is valuable. Apart from the
increased death rate, the increased liability to disease,
and the slow recovery from the attacks of disease,
the document definitely states that the working
capacity of the people was reduced by at least one-
third. Evidence would also indicate that it is not
only the quantity but the quality of the food consumed
which plays a part in the fitness of the individual to
perform hard muscular work.
Another factor which plays an enormous role in the
general efficiency is the response of the organism to the
multiple psychic imponderahilia which compose such
a large part of the average environment. When we
are dealing with the efficiency of the human organism,
male and female, we are dealing with ‘individuals
whose performance is neither uniform throughout the
year nor from week to week, nor even from hour to
hour. We have to deal with an organism, as I have
already mentioned, which is not only under physical
control, but is very responsive to psychic influences.
Man is, in the main, a psychic chameleon.
In this connexion monotony of work must be con-
sidered. Although there may be a close relationship
between monotony and fatigue, as generally recognised,
they are not identical. The temperament of the
operative plays an enormous part in determining
whether or no any particular operation is a monotonous
one. As Munsterberg has shown, it is extremely
difficult, if not impossible, for an outsider to determine
what is a monotonous operation.
There are many other factors which play a definite
sale edhe +0
Pe ware
4
wer, oe
ee eee
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
and important role in the maintenance of efficiency,
such as lighting, heating, ventilation, the mode of life
led by the worker outside his definite hours of labour,
his housing, etc. Many of these factors have been
partially examined. Thus Leonard Hill has carried
out a great deal of valuable work on the influence of
the cooling power of the air. Vernon has collected
much interesting evidence, which shows that there is
a very definite relation between the efficiency, as
measured by output, and the temperature of the
working place. The output in the hottest weather was
about 30 per cent. below that when the weather was
coldest. He also observed an apparent connexion
between the relative humidity of the air and the
efficiency of the worker. The efficiency, as might have
been expected, was apparently greatest when the
relative humidity was low. Elton has reported on
the influence of lighting in silk weaving. He found
IN SEI OTIS
] that the output was lowest when artificial ight was
457
used. He stated that even when electric light of
sufficient intensity was used, the output was about
ro per cent. lower than the daylight value. The actual
equipment of the factories, the provision of seats of
suitable size, height, etc., the design of the machines,
and so on, all play their part, as is shown by the many
records, particularly from the United States.
In other words, the real over-all industrial efficiency
of the worker cannot be causally related to any single
factor. It is not the mere capacity of the individual
to perform so many kilogram-metres of work in a given
time with the smallest expenditure of energy. The
quest of efficiency calls for the closest and most inti-
mate co-operation between the scientific investigator,
the employer, and the employee, and it can only be
satisfactorily attacked when mutual distrust of motives,
capacities, and methods is stilled.
The Total Solar Eclipse of September 21.
By Dr. A. C, D. CRomMELIN.
pie failure of the Christmas Island eclipse expedi-
tion is a great astronomical disappointment.
Messrs. Jones and Melotte have devoted ten months
or more to it, and hoped to secure useful photometric
results for connecting the northern and southern stellar
magnitude scales in addition to the eclipse work. The
climate, however, proved unexpectedly unfavourable,
and practically nothing could be done.
On the other hand, the conditions appear to have
been ideal right across Australia, and enthusiastic
reports have come from Wollal (West Coast), Cordillo
Downs (centre), and Goondiwindi and Stanthorpe
(Queensland). The Einstein problem was studied at
Wollal by the Lick Observatory party under Prof.
Campbell, and that from Toronto under Prof. Chant.
Mr. Evershed also finally selected this station in pre-
ference to the Maldives, and is believed to have under-
taken the same investigation, in addition, doubtless,
to spectroscopic work. Prof. Dodwell, the Govern-
ment Astronomer at Adelaide, had the use at Cordillo
Downs of a tower telescope lent by the Lick Observa-
tory for the Einstein problem ; the New South Wales
astronomers were in Queensland and did some spectro-
scopic work; they intended also to make Einstein
investigations, but the telegrams do not allude to these.
It is well to point out that the test of the Einstein
theory does not depend wholly on the results of this
eclipse. The plates secured in the 1919 eclipse at
Principe and Sobral settled definitely that at least the
half-shift was present, while the two cameras with the
best definition gave values very close to the Einstein
value. Further, the star-field in that eclipse was the
best along the whole extent of the ecliptic, the stars
in the present eclipse being much fainter. There are,
however, two circumstances that should add weight
to this eclipse: (x) that some of the observers were
pointing directly on the stars, avoiding the use of a
ceelostat or other mirror ; (2) that the plan was being
tried of photographing another star-field during totality,
thus obtaining an independent scale-value for the
plates, which gives a much larger coefficient to the
Einstein displacement in the equations of condition.
Probably weeks or months must elapse before the
Einstein, results are to hand.
The corona is said to have had four long streamers,
one extending to three solar diameters, which is more
than the average, though by no means a record.
Prof. Chant reports that the shadow bands were
photographed. Prof. Kerr Grant, of Adelaide Uni-
versity, made measures at Cordillo by the photo-
electric cell of the relative brightness of the sun and
the corona. The results, with this very sensitive
instrument, should be more trustworthy than previous
determinations.
The next two total eclipses (1923, September, and
1925, January) are visible in the United States ;
1926, January, in Sumatra, etc., and 1927 in England
and Norway.
Obituary.
Pror. ALEXANDER SMITH.
LEXANDER SMITH, emeritus professor of chem-
istry in Columbia University, New York, died in
Edinburgh on September 8, aged fifty-seven. Smith was
born in Edinburgh, and entered the University there in
1882, where he studied mathematics under Chrystal,
natural philosophy under Tait, and chemistry under
Crum Brown, graduating as B.Sc. in 1886. During
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
the following three years he attended the University
of Munich, working in Baeyer’s laboratory, chiefly
under the direction of Claisen, and obtained the degree
of Ph.D. in 1889.
After a year spent as assistant in the chemistry
department of the University of Edinburgh, Smith
was offered the chair of chemistry and mineralogy
in Wabash College, Indiana, a post which he held for
four years. In 1894 he became assistant professor of
458
chemistry in the University of Chicago, and rose
through intermediate grades to that of professor and
director of general and physical chemistry in 1903.
Here his extraordinary gifts as organiser and teacher
found ample scope. His “ Laboratory Outline of
General Chemistry’ was published in 1899, since
when at short intervals new text-books or new editions
flowed from his pen. Each book had im view the
requirements of students of a definite stage of develop-
ment, and all were characterised by an orderliness
of method, combined with an originality of thought,
which have made them popular not only throughout
the English-speaking world but also as translations
in almost every country where science is studied.
An even wider field was offered to him in the principal
chair of chemistry in Columbia University in the City
of New York, where he became director of the depart-
ment of chemistry. Here he may be said to have
revolutionised the methods of teaching and the organisa-
tion for chemical research.
Smith at the outset of his career was an organic
chemist, and until 1902 his published papers are all
concerned with organic topics, chiefly the chemistry
of diketones, the benzoin reaction, and, generally, the
action of potasstum cyanide as a condensing agent.
After 1902 his work is inorganic and physico-chemical,
the physical character of his investigations becoming
more and more marked with the lapse of years. An
admirable series of papers on the liquid and amorphous
modifications of sulphur formed the first-fruits of his
cultivation of this new field. Chiefly in conjunction
with A. W. C. Menzies, now professor of chemistry
at Princeton, Smith published a long series of papers
on vapour pressures, many new devices for their exact
measurement and for the measurement of boiling-
points under standard conditions being described.
Among the valuable data obtained may be noted the
exact determinations of the vapour pressure of mercury
from 250° to 435° C. The vapour pressures of dis-
sociating substances such as ammonium chloride,
calomel, and phosphorus pentachloride were also
measured and discussed, particularly in connexion
with the unexpected values obtained when the sub-
stances were perfectly dry. His scientific merit was
recognised by his election to membership of the
National Academy of Sciences, and to the Presidency
of the American Chemical Society. In t1g919 the
honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by
the University of Edinburgh.
Smith was a most genial personality, a pleasant
companion, and a delightfully amusing talker. He was
filled to overflowing with energy, which in the end
proved his undoing. A breakdown owing to over-
work, complicated by a serious operation, forced him
after a year’s leave to relinquish his chair, and his
death at a comparatively early age deprives his science
of a great teacher whose name will not soon be for-
gotten. We
Dr. SopHig BRYANT.
By the death of Dr. Sophie Bryant in the Alps last
month the educational world has lost a great person-
ality. As mathematician, philosopher, Irish patriot,
suffragist, and, above all, as a teacher and pioneer in
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
education, she had gained distinction in so many fields
that it is difficult to give any adequate account of her
in a few paragraphs.
Mrs. Bryant in her own person gave the lie to the
old conception of the unwomanly “ bluestocking.”
Her greatness of intellect was shot through with a
warmth of genial humanity and an endearing charm
that those who knew her can never forget. She came
of a scholarly stock: her father, Dr. Willock, a clergy-
man of the Church of Ireland in Co. Fermanagh,
worked in the cause of education there. After his
death the family moved to London, and his brilliant
daughter distinguished herself by obtaining, at the age
of sixteen, first-class honours in the Senior Cambridge
Local Examination, with distinction in mathematics,
and an Arnott scholarship at Bedford College. It was
only after her marriage and early widowhood that she
became acquainted with Miss Buss, and, having joined
the staff of the North London Collegiate School in 1875,
was one of the first to take advantage of the opening
of London University degrees to women. After
matriculating in honours in 1879 (with the distinction
of being placed second on the list), in two years she had
obtained the B.Sc. with honours in mathematics and
moral science, and three years later was the first woman
to gain the doctor’s degree of London University, her
subject being mental and moral science. She used
to relate an amusing story about this :—one of the two
examiners wrote to his colleague, ‘“‘ There’s a very
good man in;” the other, who knew Mrs. Bryant,
replied, ‘‘ Your man’s a woman!”
Ten years later, in 1894, Mrs. Bryant was appointed
to sit on the Royal Commission for Secondary Educa-
tion, of which Lord Bryce was chairman. In rgoo she
became a member of the Consultative Committee of
the Board of Education, and in the same year took
her seat on the Senate of London University. From
1908 to 1914 she was a member of the London Education
Committee.
During all this time she was, in a very real sense, a
“ ouide, philosopher, and friend” to her pupils at the
North London Collegiate School; the writer of this
article is one of many whose debt to her in this respect
is beyond all reckoning. When in 1895 Mrs. Bryant
succeeded Miss Buss as head-mistress, her mathematical
teaching perforce devolved to a large extent on her
colleagues, but she remained the guiding moral force
in the school, explicitly through her Scripture lessons
and weekly addresses, but zwzplicitly in all that she did.
She was a pioneer in the revitalising of Scripture teach-
ing, bringing to bear on religious instruction the same
psychological insight and width of outleok by which
she and her fellow-reformers brought life into the dry
bones of the educational curriculum. Of this work
she has left a permanent memorial in her books :
“The Teaching of Morality in the Family and the
School,” ‘The Teaching of Christ in Life and Con-
duct,” “ How to read the Bible in the Twentieth
Century,” ‘‘ Moral and Religious Education.”
Mrs. Bryant was a devoted Irishwoman, and perhaps
no honour pleased her more than the degree of doctor
of literature, honoris causa, bestowed upon her by
Trinity College, Dublin, when first it opened its degrees
to women. Her love of Ireland also found expression
| in her writings : “ Celtic Ireland,” “‘ The Genius of the
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
IAT OLE:
459
Gael,” and the book on the Brehon laws, barely com-
pleted before she left England for the last time, which
is to be published shortly under the title “ Liberty,
Order, and Law under Native Irish Rule,” dedicated
to “the Rebuilders of Ireland United and Free.”
Like Plato’s philosopher “the spectator of all time
and all existence,’ Mrs. Bryant by her clearness of vision
and width of outlook made it impossible to think of
anything mean or ungenerous in association with her.
She was a great teacher, a great personality, and a
splendid friend, a perpetual source of inspiration and
joy to those who knew her. Her spirit lives, not only
in the school she helped to build (advancing it alike
in science and the humanities till it stood first among
a band of sister-schools), but in all those who owe to
her a grasp of the ideal, an understanding of the meaning
and value of life. M. H. W.
We much regret to announce the death on September
21, at the age of fifty-eight years, of Prof. F. T. Trouton,
F.R.S., emeritus professor of physics in the University
of London.
THE secretary of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers informs us of the death of Mr. Louis
Heathcote Walter, a member of the Institution staff,
who had been editor of Science Abstracts since 1903.
Current Topics and Events.
Ir was no mean occasion that the members of the
Yorkshire Philosophical Society met together on
Wednesday, September 20, to celebrate. To have
held aloft the lamp of learning for a hundred years,
and to have conserved and preserved, amid all the
changing scenes and conditions of a century, the
ancient ruins of St. Leonard’s Hospital, the Roman
Wall and the Multangular Tower, the ruins of St.
Mary’s Abbey, and built up a museum second to
none in the provinces in the richness of its collections,
is indeed a record of which the society might feel
justly proud. Moreover, during this period the
society has been instrumental in founding two most
powerful and wide-reaching institutions, for the
Yorkshire Museum was the birthplace and cradle of
the British Association and the younger Museums
Association. It was therefore very fitting that the
society should celebrate the occasion of its hundredth
birthday and receive the congratulations of its
honoured patron His Majesty the King, and various
universities and learned societies. Mr. W. H. St.
Quintin, the president, occupied the chair, and was
supported by the vice-presidents and council, the
hon. treasurer (Mr. Edwin Gray), the hon. secretary
(Mr. C. E. Elmhirst), the keeper of the museums
(Dr. Walter E. Collinge), and the Rt. Hon. the Lord
Mayor, the City Sheriff, Aldermen, and Council.
After briefly tracing the history of the society, the
work it has done, and recounting its benefactors,
Mr. St. Quintin pointed out that a considerable sum
of money will be necessary if the society is to con-
tinue its good work for the advancement of science,
and he asked that in this, its centenary year, a sub-
stantial amount should be forthcoming. Addresses
were read or presented from a number of leading
scientific societies and other national institutions.
His Highness the Maharaj Rana of Jhalawar offered
congratulations on behalf of the Indian Empire, and
congratulatory messages were received from other
distinguished people. At the close of the meeting
a highly picturesque procession was formed to the
Cathedral, where a special evensong was held, the
Lord Bishop of Beverley officiating. The delegates
and visitors were later entertained to dinner in the
De Grey Rooms, after which a conversazione was
held in the Yorkshire Museum and the Tempest
Anderson Hall.
NO. 2761, VOL. I10]
ACCORDING to the September issue of the Decimal
Educator, the official organ of the Decimal Association,
the metric system has been or is soon to be adopted
in Greece, Poland, Haiti, and Japan, while the Russian
government is rapidly introducing it into its adminis-
trative departments. The British Chamber of Com-
merce in the Argentine and the Consul for Bolivia
again warn British exporters of the futility of quoting
in pounds, shillings, and pence for amounts specified
in Imperial weights and measures. Mr. W. A.
Appleton, secretary of the General Federation of
Trade Unions, states that “ these weights and measures
of ours cheat the home buyer and arouse the suspicion
of the foreigner,’ and asks how many buyers know
the difference in weight of a peck of potatoes and a
peck of peas. The Lancashire cotton market has
ceased to quote cotton in sixty-fourths of a penny
and now gives the price in hundredths, but we still
appear likely to fulfil the prediction of Augustus de
Morgan and “adopt the metric system when every
other country has done so.” Sir Richard Gregory,
president of the association, recommends in an
introductory article that the metric system should
be made the sole legal system in all departments of
State, and the nation thus prepared for its general
introduction, which is bound to come in its time, as
it is foolish to expect the world to adopt the Imperial
as an international system.
A REPORT has been received that the ruins of an
ancient city of great extent have been discovered
in Colombia by the South American Archeological
Expedition from Chicago. As yet the information
is scanty, but Dr. J. A. Mason, the leader of the
expedition, states that the ruins are situated in the
Province of Magdalena, twenty miles south of Santa
Marta: ‘“‘There must have been a_ tremendous
population here at one time, as the country is covered
with house sites. The country is very mountainous,
and the houses, which were of wood, were built on
terraces made with retaining walls.’’ It is not certain
that these terraces may not be those used in terraced
cultivation, but Colombia has been little explored,
and a detailed report of the excavations must be
awaited before the value of the discovery can be
estimated.
AFTER having been lost for centuries the remains
of the ancient monastery of Nendrum, on Mahee
460
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
Island, Strangford Lough, have been brought to light
by the agency of the archeological section of the
Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.
Founded about A.D. 450 it is mentioned in con-
nexion with St. Patrick, and it held for centuries an
important position in the Celtic Church. The dis-
covery of the site is due to Bishop Reeves. The
most remarkable part of the ruins is a long stone
causeway which was probably the monks’ walk.
Near the north door of the Church a fragment of an
important old Norse inscription has been discovered.
Words meaning ‘“‘ Prime Abbot” and “‘ Church of
Christ ’’ have been interpreted by Prof. Macalister
of Dublin. Every effort to preserve the ruins is now
being made by the Belfast Society.
ON September 16, Sir Humphrey | Rolleston,
president of the Royal College of Physicians of
London, opened the John Elliott Memorial Patho-
logical and Bacteriological Laboratory at the Chester
Royal Infirmary, which has been equipped by public
subscription in memory of Dr. John Elliott, honorary
physician of the infirmary from 1895 to 1921. Dr.
Elliott had a well-furnished laboratory of his own,
which he used for the elucidation of his cases, and, in
addition to his consulting work, was much interested
in radiology and in the treatment of venereal disease.
The provision of such laboratories in hospitals in
recent years has done much to promote the progress
of medicine by bringing together the clinician and
the worker in pure science; and the pathological
laboratory is now recognised as a necessary part of
an efficient hospital.
THE Faraday Society and the British Cold Storage
and Ice Association will hold a joint meeting at the
Institution of Electrical Engineers on Monday, October
16, to discuss the present position of the generation
and utilisation of cold. It will be divided into
three sessions, at the first of which laboratory methods
of liquefaction and methods of measuring low tem-
peratures will be discussed. The opening address
will be delivered by Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes,
and Dr. Crommelin will give a description of the
equipment of the cryogenic laboratory at Leyden.
The second and third sessions will be devoted to
industrial methods of liquefaction and practical
applications of low temperatures. A general intro-
duction will be given by Mr. K. S. Murray of the
British Oxygen Company (Limited). M. Claude will
deal with the industrial manufacture of hydrogen
by the partial liquefaction of water gas, and Mr.
E. A. Griffiths with the subject as it touches aero-
nautical work. Invitations have been extended to
members of the London Section of the Society of
Chemical Industry and to the Physical Society of
London. Others desirous of attending should com-
municate with the Secretary of the Faraday Society,
10 Essex Street, London, W.C.2.
A PROVISIONAL programme of lectures on meteoro-
logy in connexion with the Imperial College of
Science and Technology, South Kensington, for the
ensuing session is given in the Meteorological A Tagazine
for September. There are twenty-one lectures by
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
Capt. D. Brunt on advanced meteorology, dynamical
and physical, on Mondays at 3.30 p.m. during the
winter and spring terms, beginning on Monday,
October 9; seven lectures by Sir Napier Shaw on
meteorological conditions of the air-routes of the world,
at 3 P.M. on Fridays, commencing on October 13,
and continued each week until November 24; three
lectures by Mr. R. A. Watson-Watt on wireless
telegraphy and weather, at 3 p.m. on Fridays in each
-of the first three weeks of December; ten lectures
on forecasting weather by Sir Napier Shaw on
Fridays, at 3 p.M., during the spring term, beginning
on Friday, January 19. Discussions on the incidents
of the weather charts of the previous week are arranged
for on Saturdays at to a.m. throughout the year
during term-time, beginning on Saturday, October 14.
We learn from the September number of the
Museums Journal that Dr. W. Rushton Parker has
offered to set aside 1oo/. a year for several years to
induce any men excavating in any part of the United
Kingdom to look out for fossil remains of any kind,
to extract them as completely as possible, and to
preserve them until some expert can value them,
with the view of presenting them to the National
Museums. This is an offer that should be made
known to the scientific societies as well as to the
museums in various parts of the country.
Dr. R. C. FARMER has been invited to take up the
position of deputy director of explosives research
at the War Office Research Department, and will
commence duty in October. Dr. Farmer was formerly
chemical adviser to the Explosives Department
under Lord Moulton, and was a member of the
nitrogen products committee and the chemical
committee of the Munitions Inventions Department.
Since the armistice he has been a director of Messrs.
W. J. Bush and Company, Ltd., chemical manu-
facturers, of Hackney, London, which position he is
now resigning.
A COMMITTEE has been appointed by the Secretary
for Mines to undertake research, under the general
direction of the Safety in Mines Research Board,
into the causes of, and the means of preventing, the
ignition of firedamp and coal dust by the firing of
permitted explosives. The Committee has been
constituted as follows: Sir F. L. Nathan, Mr. W.
Rintoul, Dr. G. Rotter, Mr. H. Walker, and Prof.
R. V. Wheeler. A grant has been made by the
Miners’ Welfare Committee out of the Miners’ Welfare
Fund to meet the cost of initiating the research.
On account of continued poor health, Dr. George
Eliery Hale, director of the Mount Wilson Observa-
tory, has resigned from the Committee on Intellectual
Co-operation of the League of Nations. Dr. Robert A.
Millikan, director of the Norman Bridge Physical
Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, has been appointed by the council of the
league to succeed Dr. Hale.
Tue Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers, the first award of which was made by the
council in the early part of the year to Mr. Oliver
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
Je Ss Highfield, president of the institution, at
Torquay, on September 9.
THE Secretary for Scotland has appointed Dr.
James Ritchie to be an additional member of the
committee appointed to advise him on matters
connected with the administration of the Wild Birds
Protection Acts.
Sir LAWRENCE WEAVER will shortly relinquish the
post of second secretary and director-general of land
settlement at the Ministry of Agriculture in order to
take up the appointment of director of the Art
section and of the Agriculture section of the British
Empire Exhibition.
THE Model Abattoir Society, the objects of which
are the improvement of methods and conditions in
slaughter-houses, has organised an annual Benjamin
Ward Richardson lecture in memory of its founder.
The memorial lecture, on the sanitarian and humani-
tarian aspects of Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson’s
work, will be delivered by Sir William Collins on
October 12. Admission is free, and invitations may
be obtained from the Rev. George Martin, St. John’s
Vicarage, Kilburn.
Mr. W. K. Forp writes to inform us that an un-
usually large specimen of the common viper, Viper
berus, was caught recently in Epping Forest. The
snake, which was a female, is stated to be 29-5 in. in
length, the tail measuring 3:12 in. The largest
specimen in the British Museum is only a little more
than 27 in. in length, though on account of the diffi-
culty of measuring a snake’s skin without stretching
it—it can be stretched to one and a half times its real
length—larger specimens have been recorded. Mr.
Ford’s specimen appears to be unusually large, but
the skin should be submitted for examination to the
Zoological Society, Regent’s Park, or similar authority,
before it can be accepted as a record.
NATURE
Heaviside, was personally presented to him by Mr.
461
A “ WIRELESS WEATHER MANUAL ”’ has been pub-
lished by the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry.
It is a guide to the reception and interpretation of
weather reports and forecasts distributed by wireless
telegraphy in Great Britain. A table is given showing
the information issued by wireless, revised to June 1,
and the instructions are clear and concise for persons
who possess wireless receiving sets. It is not only
possible to pick up.the messages distributed, to aid
which the codes used are interpreted, but a “ general
inference ”’ is given by the Meteorological Office in
plain language twice daily, which with a very little
intuition can be understood by those little versed in
meteorology. A study of the manual will aid in the
general understanding of the subject and will render
the charting of the information received quite simple.
A short list of elementary text-books is given, a study
of which will simplify the interpretation of the charts.
A weather chart is given daily in many of the news-
papers, but the wireless information gives the details
much earlier, for it is possible to draw a weather map
within about an hour of the observations being made.
In the introduction to the manual, it is stated that
those wishing to know can find out ‘‘ what the weather
will be in the next twenty-four hours (sometimes
longer).”’
THe Automatic and Electric Furnaces, Ltd.,
informs us that the increasing demand for Wild-
Barfield electric hardening furnaces has made
necessary the removal of the firm to larger works
and offices. The address now is: Automatic and
Electric Furnaces, Ltd., Elecfurn Works, 173-175
Farringdon Road, London, E.C.r. Demonstration
rooms with furnaces in operation will be provided,
and suitable arrangements made for hardening large
and small parts for firms which desire to compare
both the results and costs with those obtained by
gas or solid fuel furnaces. Laboratory and industrial
electric muffles will also be available for trial purposes.
Our Astronomical Column.
THE OrpBIT oF Sir1us.—This orbit is of peculiar
interest from the conspicuous brightness of the
primary, from the irregularity in the proper motion
having led to a prediction of its duplicity, and from
the subsequent verification by the discovery of the
companion in 1862. It now presents one of the not
very numerous cases in which a complete revolution
has been observed. The various determinations of
the elements that have recently been published give
an index of the degree of accuracy that is attainable.
A new determination by Mr. C. P. Howard is given
in Pop. Ast. (Aug.-Sept. 1922), and that by Mr. R.
Jonckheere (Mon. Not. R.A.S., June 1918) is printed
for comparison. Both were made by graphical
methods, using every refinement possible :
Howard. Jonckheere,
Periastron passage 1894°25 1894°IO
Period in years. 3. : 50°17 50°00
Eccentricity 0°5938 0°60
Semi-axis major 7482 FONG
Inclination 42°01 43°°4
Node 3 a : . 5 44°°50 42°°7
Arc from node to periastron 148°°38 145°°6
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
AN INTERESTING ALGOL VARIABLE.—Mr. A. H. Joy
gives a discussion of the Algol Variable, RS Canum
Venaticim, in Publ. Ast. Soc. Pacific, August 1922.
It is possible to study the spectra of both components,
since the faint star is the larger, and totally eclipses
the bright star at principal minimum, when the
magnitude is 9-0. The two stars are of equal mass,
each 1-3 times the sun; they differ greatly, however,
in spectral type, the brighter being F3, the fainter
Ko. This wide difference is difficult to explain “in
view of their equal mass. The period is 4:8 days,
and the radius of the orbit of each component
5,700,000: miles. The absolute magnitude of the
brighter star, deduced from its spectrum, is 2:8,
giving a parallax of 0o”’-o08. Three spectrograms
have been obtained of the faint star by Mr. Adams ;
the star is too faint to give satisfactory spectrograms,
but it is stated that, taken by themselves, they would
indicate a dwarf star. However, from its large size,
indicated by the duration of totality being two or
three hours, and consequent low density, there can
be little doubt that it is really a giant; its absolute
magnitude, about 4:2, is very low for a K giant,
Altogether the star is rather a puzzling one, and
merits careful study. :
462
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
Research Items.
THE OLDEST-DATED SEAL CyLINDERS.—M. Leon
Legrain, in the March issue of the Museum journal,
claims for the University Museum, Philadelphia,
the possession of the oldest-dated cylinder seal,
brought from Baghdad in 1890, which belonged
to Basha-Enzu, probably the first king of the
IVth Kish dynasty, about 2990 B.c. It therefore
antedates the famous buffalo seal of Sargani of Akkad,
and pushes back toward the third millenium B.c.
a standard of art formerly known as the Gudea style.
The engraving is of special interest from the point of
view of Babylonian ritual.
itself on possessing the oldest Cassite royal seal
cylinder so far known, bearing the earliest contem-
porary record of the war god Shugamuna. It is
inscribed with the name of the son of King Karaindash,
and may be dated about 1540 B.c.
HONEY THAT DROVE MEN Mav.—In the September
issue of Discovery, Prof. W. R. Halliday, with the
help of his colleague, Prof. McLean Thompson, has
cleared up a difficulty unsolved by editors of Xeno-
phon’s “‘ Anabasis.”” The historian describes how the
retreating Greeks, when they arrived near Trebizond,
ate some honey, with effects ranging from intoxication
to insensibility. Some authorities have denied that
poisonous honey was found in Pontus, but the writers
now point out that there is no evidence to show |
that the breed of bees in Pontus, or the general
climatic condition, was responsible for this poisonous
honey. When honey is produced in excess, and the
floral parts fail to develop, there results an accumula-
tion of by-products in which toxins abound. When
the competition for nectar pollen is intense many
insects develop a biting habit, piercing the tissues
of plants in search of short-cuts to food supply, and
this habit results in the formation of poisoned honey.
The observation of Pliny that honey was poisonous
in some seasons and not in others is thus proved to
be accurate, and can be explained on scientific grounds.
THE Rocks or Mount EveEerest.—In the Geo-
graphical Journal for September, Dr. A. M. Heron
has a note on a small collection of rock specimens
made at heights between 23,000 ft. and 27,000 ft.
by the climbers.on the recent expedition. These
specimens show Mount Everest to be a pile of altered
sedimentary rocks—shales and limestones—converted
into banded hornfels, finely foliated calc-silicate
schists, and crystalline limestones. They confirm
the views reached by Dr. Heron last year by ex-
amination of moraine material from the northern spurs,
and by inspection of the mountain by telescope from
the Rongbuk valley. From 21,000 ft. to 27,000 ft.,
Mount Everest appears to be built of these dark
hornfels and schists, with occasional bands of white
limestone and veins of quartz and muscovite granite.
From 27,000 to 27,500 ft. extends an almost horizontal
belt of schorl muscovite granite, above which are
black schists. Dr. Heron thinks that the age of the
rocks may perhaps be assumed, for the present, to
be Jurassic or Trias.
WIND-SPEED FROM SEA AND LanD.—The Meteoro-
logical Office has issued, as Professional Notes No.
28, a comparison of the anemometer records for
Shoeburyness and the Maplin lighthouse, by Messrs.
N. K. Johnson and S. N. Sen. The wind-speed in
each case is recorded by a Dines pressure tube anemo-
meter. For wind direction Shoeburyness has been
used throughout, the Maplin direction recorder being
out of order. The wind-speed observations are only
available for about ten months in 1919, no observations
WO. 2761, VOL. IIO1
The museum also prides |
being to hand from Maplin for the comparison from
June 12 to September 1. Maplin lighthouse is five
miles from the coast, and is situated twelve miles
east-north-east of Shoeburyness. The head of the
anemometer at Shoeburyness is carried above the
top of a steel girder tower to a height of sixty feet
above the surrounding buildings and ninety feet
above ground, but there is an avenue of trees about
seventy feet high running parallel to the coast at a
distance of 150 yards on the landward side of the
anemometer. At Maplin the head of the anemometer
is about five feet above the apex of the roof of the
lighthouse, on the western side, being fifty feet above
sea-level. Shoeburyness is said to have a slight
predominance of light winds, and at Maplin lighthouse
strong winds are decidedly more frequent ; the latter
is explained by the suggestion that the increased
friction over land as compared with the sea causes
the air to pile up over the land. This difference of
pressure, it is said, must tend to reduce the speed
of the surface wind as it approaches the shore-line.
There is good evidence of the land and sea-breeze.
The height of the head of the anemometer at Maplin
seems scarcely sufficient to insure that it is clear
from an upward rush of air caused by the obstruction
of the lighthouse.
METALLURGICAL RESEARCH.—Volume 16 of the
Collected Researches of the National Physical Labora-
tory has recently been published. It is predominantly
of a metallurgical character, although certain papers
dealing with engineering subjects are contained
therein. The twenty-one papers which it contains
are all reprints of papers published by members of
the staff in various scientific and technological
journals during the years 1919 and 1920. Fourteen
of the papers are definitely metallurgical, and a
considerable number of these relate to aluminium and
its alloys, which have been intensively studied during
the last few years, under the general superintendence
of Dr. Rosenhain, the head of the department.
These investigations are of a very valuable nature,
and have contributed in no small degree to the
continually extending use of aluminium alloys, not
only in aviation, but also in general engineering.
Of the papers dealing with iron, attention may be
directed to that published by Dr. and Mrs. Hanson
on the constitution of nickel iron alloys. The
investigations of these authors on this series of
alloys have finally enabled the general nature of
the equilibrium diagram to be settled once and for
all, although they are careful to point out that no
very high degree of accuracy can well be claimed.
It is interesting to notice that the general result
of their researches is to establish firmly the late
M. Osmond’s hypothesis of the constitution of these
alloys, particularly in the range from 0-30 per cent.
of nickel. The importance of keeping down the
impurities to a minimum is clearly seen in this work,
otherwise a true equilibrium is not established.
Attention may also be directed to the paper by
Dr. Haughton on the study of thermal E.M.F. as an
aid in the investigation of the constitution of alloy
systems and on the measurement of the electrical
conductivity of metals and alloys at high tempera-
tures. The volume contains a paper of the first
importance by Dr. Stanton, D. Marshall, and C. N.
Bryant on the conditions at the boundary of a fluid
in turbulent motion, and two papers by Mr. Baker,
the superintendent of the William Froude National
Tank. The high character of the series is well
maintained in the present volume.
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
463
The Inheritance of Size.
“[ HE study of size-inheritance is beset with diffi-
culties which do not attend the study of
qualitative differences involving colour and form.
Students of genetics have stated size-inheritance in
various plants and animals in terms of multiple
size factors segregating independently in the Mendelian
fashion; but the universal presence of fluctuations
which obscure the quantitative effects of separate
factors, as well as other difficulties, have prevented
the study of size factors being in the same satis-
factory condition as that of the factors which control
sharply marked qualitative characters.
Stature in man has been investigated from the
time of Quetelet and Galton to the recent paper of
Davenport,” but investigators are not yet agreed
even concerning the nature of the Mendelian units,
if such they be, which affect and control this feature
of bodily measurement. Are there only general
growth factors, or are there also separate factors
influencing the length of individual segments of
the body, such as the legs, trunk, and neck? Daven-
port concludes that both types of factors are present,
and that some races and families have different
relative lengths of these segments because of the
independent inheritance of such local factors con-
trolling the length of individual bones or segments.
Moreover, Davenport believes that crossing between
traces leads to various bodily disharmonies, such
as large teeth in small jaws or a small heart in a
large body.
Castle, in a recent study of size-inheritance in
tabbits,* criticises Davenport’s view of local size
factors as essentially preformationist, and shows
with considerable success that, so far as the rabbits
of his breeding experiments are concerned, general
inherited growth factors appear to control the size
reached by all parts. In crosses between the large
Flemish rabbit and small varieties such as the Polish
and Himalayan, Castle concludes, as Punnett and
Bailey * had concluded from earlier experiments on
weight in rabbits, that several size factors are in-
volved, as indicated by the greater range of variation
in F, and later generations than in F,. This sub-
stantiates other results of these authors® with
poultry. They crossed Gold - pencilled Hamburghs
and Silver Seabright Bantams and obtained in F,
and F, both larger and smaller birds than the original
parental types. That several independent factors
are concerned in the determination of size or weight
in birds and mammals seems then well established.
But another difficulty comes in to obscure such
quantitative results, and that is the fact of hybrid
vigour or heterosis, which occurs largely or entirely
in the F, generation, producing a general increase in
the size of the F, offspring. For example, in the
rabbit crosses, the F, is nearer the size of the larger
parent owing to this effect, but the effect disappears
in the F, and later generations. This of course
shifts the curve of size temporarily towards the
right.
Castle made a careful study of the growth-curves
of his rabbits, weighing them at intervals throughout
their development to maturity, but he appears not
to have studied the variation of his races before
1 “ Genetic Studies of Rabbits and Rats.” By W. E. Castle. (Publication
No. 320.) Pp. 55. (Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1922.) 1 dollar.
* Davenpott, C. B., 1917, ‘‘ Inheritance of Stature,’’ Genetics, 2, pp. 313-
389.
% Castle, W. E., 1922, ‘‘ Genetic Studies of Rabbits,’’ etc.
4 Punnett, R. C., and Bailey, P. G., 1918, ‘‘ Genetic Studies in Rabbits:
i J ,” Journ, Genetics, §, 1-25.
Sy ley, P. G., 1914, “On Inheritance of Weight in
Poultry,” Journ. Genetics, 4, pp. 23-39+
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
crossing. He concludes that the adult Flemish rabbit
is larger because it is larger at birth and grows more
rapidly and for a longer period than the small Polish
rabbit. This is contrary to the views of Punnett
and Bailey that age of maturity is not necessarily
closely correlated with size. Castle applies his results
to man, and reasons that natives of the south of Italy
are short of stature and short-limbed because they
cease to grow at a relatively early age, while
Swedes and Scotch are tall and long-limbed because
they mature later.
In the hybrid rabbits, series of measurements
were made of weight, ear-length, skull dimensions,
and certain leg bones. From these data the correla-
tion-coefficients between the various measurements
were determined and were found to be uniformly
high. Thus the correlation between ear-length and
weight in F, and F, rabbits was 0-836, and between
lengths of femur and skull 0-871. This furnishes
strong support for the conclusion that the size of
all parts is determined by general growth factors
affecting the whole body, and not by independently
segregating factors affecting the size of particular
organs. Davenport points out that certain races
of man have long legs and relatively short trunks,
while others have short legs and longer trunks, but
Castle holds that the former races are absolutely
taller, and regards them as a later growth stage than
the short races. Whether this explanation will
apply to all races of man remains to be seen. The
most urgent requirement at the present time is a
mass of accurate anthropometric measurements of
all parts of the body in various races.
Many genetic factors are known to affect chiefly
one organ of the body, such as the eye or the wing in
flies, and since that is the case there seems no @ priori
reason why some size factors should not also affect
chiefly certain organs. To demonstrate such an
effect, however, a considerable mass of biometric
data is required. So far as plants are concerned,
the results of Gates*® show that size factors in hybrids
are in some cases local in their effects. In crossing
species of Ginothera having large and small flowers
respectively, he obtained in F, and later generations
frequently a wide range of flower-size on the same
plant, and in many cases even the four petals of the
same flower differed widely in length. Thus it is
clear that local size factors occur in plants. Whether
they also occur in animals and man remains to be
determined.
That an increase in the range of variation of the
F, as compared with the F, is not in itself sufficient
to prove the presence of several inherited size-factors,
is indicated by a recent paper of Sumner and Huestis.”
In connexion with extensive breeding investigations
of the California deer-mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus,
they have compared the length or weight of corre-
sponding right and left bones such as the mandible
and femur. In this way they obtained sinistro-
dextral ratios for these bones and showed statistically
that there is no inheritance of such a ratio from one
generation to the next, ¢.g. if the parents had a
slightly longer left femur there is no tendency for the
same condition to be repeated in the offspring.
Nevertheless, they found that in crosses between
different sub-species these ratios showed greater
variability in F, thanin F,. This fact will need to be
taken into account in future studies of size-variation.
6 Gates, R. R., r917, “‘ Vegetative Segregation in a Hybrid Race,” Journ.
Genetics, 6, pp- 237-253- : ee
7 Sumner, F. B., and Huestis, R. R., 1921, ‘‘ Bilateral Symmetry in its
Relation to certain Problems of Genetics,’’ Genetics, 6, pp. 445-485.
464
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
An Optical Sonometer.
NE torm of an optical sonometer recently made by
Messrs. Adam Hilger, Ltd. (of 754 Camden Road,
N.W.1), is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1. The
apparatus is designed to record the pressure variation
caused by sound waves. It consists of a diaphragm
box B, to which is attached a horn for receiving
sound waves. In box B is a
diaphragm with a_ platinised,
silvered, or gilt inner face; this
is the actual receiver. Recording
the vibrations produced in the disc
is accomplished by means of a
beam of light directed from the
source D (a Pointolite Lamp of
30 or 100 candle-power) by a con-
denser E through the slit F and brought to a focus on
the diaphragm C. Thence by means of lenses G and H
an image of the slit is formed on the photographic paper
or film on the drum J. The lens H being cylin-
drical with its axis parallel to the drum, the beam
of light is brought to an intense point image on
the drum, and as the latter rotates a record of
the deflection of the diaphragm is obtained. The
spot of light can be focussed on the drum at any
distance from 4 to 20 inches according to the
amplitude of vibration under investigation and
the degree of magnification consequently — re-
quired.
Some of the models constructed are fitted with a
camera into which the film is loaded through a small
aperture at the back, while an arrangement for visual
observation of the sound wave is also included. The
revolving drum, on which the record of the vibrations
is made, is enclosed in a specially designed camera
with an automatic shutter; by this means any
fraction of the drum, from one-sixth to one complete
revolution, can be exposed according to the type of
record which it is desired to make.
Records of various sounds have been made with the
apparatus, e.g. for whistling at a frequency of about
1300 per second, singing at about 200 per second, and
A
‘ NORE
.PLLLL TO
Fic. 2.
of the sound produced by a leather-covered mallet
on wood. This last is shown in Fig. 2, the frequency
being about 250 per second.
The Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen.
“| HE Rowett Institute, which was formally opened
by Her Majesty the Queen on September 12,
had its origin in the scheme of research in agriculture
adopted by the Development Commission in IoIt.
Under that scheme provision was made for the
establishment of one or more Institutes to carry
out research in each of the branches of agricultural
science. It was decided to establish two Institutes
for the study of Animal Nutrition, one at Cambridge
and one in Scotland. In 1913 a Joint Committee
representing the University of Aberdeen and the
North of Scotland College of Agriculture was con-
stituted to act as a governing body for the Scottish
Institute. Preliminary work was begun in tota,
but was stopped by the war. In 1920 the scheme
for the development of the Institute was approved
by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland and the
Development Commission, and the erection of the
buildings began early in 1921. The buildings are
now practically completed, except for the fitting up
of one or two of the laboratories.
In determining the nature of the Institute to be
established it was recognised that the basis of practical
experimental work is the researches of the purely
scientific worker. Provision was therefore made for
work in those branches of science that constitute
animal nutrition. The Institute was planned to
consist of the following departments: physiology,
biochemistry, bacteriology, and pathology, which are
housed in the one main building, and animal husbandry,
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
which consists of an experimental stock farm with
buildings adapted for conducting feeding experiments.
To facilitate the collaboration of those engaged in
laboratory researches and those carrying out feeding
experiments, the main building containing the labora-
tories has been erected on the experimental farm.
This enables the workers to be in daily eontact with
each other, and to be conversant with the different
aspects of the problem or group of problems on
which the Institute is engaged.
The experimental farm is situated on the out-
skirts of Aberdeen, within easy access of tramway
and train. The building containing the laboratories
is built of granite and is 156 feet long by 45 feet
deep in the central block and 39 feet deep in the
wings. It consists of two floors and a basement.
The biochemical department, the calorimetry room,
the aseptic room, and certain other rooms occupy
the ground floor. The physiology and the bacteri-
ology and pathology departments are on the first
floor. In the west wing of this floor is the adminis-
trative department, rooms for filing records and
statistics, and the library. About 30 yards west
of this building are the experimental farm buildings
which have a floor area of about 1500 square yards.
The part nearest to the building containing the
laboratories is occupied by two rooms, where animals
under metabolic experiment can be kept in cages.
The rest of the building consists of food stores,
food preparation rooms, and stalls and pens for the
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
accommodation of farm animals under feeding ex-
periments.
The capital outlay, which was estimated in 1920
at 40,000/. to 50,000/., will amount to about 46,000/.
Of this sum the Treasury, on the recommendation of
the Development Commission, provided 20,000/. Mr.
John Quiller Rowett, LL.D., generously contributed
10,000/., and in addition supplied sufficient funds to
purchase the experimental farm. Various smaller
sums have been received from other contributors ;
but the whole of the necessary funds have not yet
been raised.
The Queen, at the opening ceremony, visited all
the departments and talked with the senior workers,
asking questions that showed a deep interest in the
research work in progress. She was especially
interested in the work on indirect calorimetry, and
asked to be shown all the apparatus and to have
NATURE
465
the method explained. In the experimental farm
she was chiefly attracted by the dairy cows. These
are Ayrshires, a breed kept at the Balmoral Estate.
She asked questions about the breed and also about
milk production in general, which showed an interest
in and an appreciation of the importance of the
dairy industry.
After the visit to the different departments the
Queen proceeded to the library, where there was
a company of about 120, including the Duchess
of Atholl, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, the
Marquis and Marchioness of Aberdeen, the Marquis
and Marchioness of Huntly, and representatives
of public bodies. Here she was presented with a
gold key by Dr. Rowett, and formally declared
the Institute open. She signed the visitors’ book,
and before leaving planted a tree in the grounds of
the Institute to commemorate the visit.
The Sun’s Activity, 1890-1920.
HE sun, as is well known, is a variable star having
a period of approximately eleven years, but,
unlike other stars, its variability can be determined
from several different visible phenomena and not
solely from the total integrated light emitted. As
classed among stars, it is not con-
sidered, however, as a regular variable,
because the approximate period of eleven
years is itself made variable through SENS EOTS
other minor periods of various lengths. Bearers |
Though the sun has a dominating action 1000
on many terrestrial phenomena, authorities a
differ as to the exact relation between the
pulsations of the two bodies. It is import-
ant, therefore, always to keep in mind, so
far as possible, the actual state of solar
activity at the moment, 7.e. whether the
sun is in a quiescent state through lack OF v
of spots and prominences, or whether it SUNSPOTS | hi a
is in a very turbulent condition caused by Ree Ke PC ae
their abundance. -20 1 . Jae
The data for determining the state of ; ' {-
the activity of the sun are published +80
separately year by year in various volumes 160
from differentsources, and are only brought
together, probably with some difficulty, by NHEMIS® , 36
research workers who wish to use them
for particular inquiries. +20
Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer has recently co- LATITUDE OF ..
ordinated the solar data regarding the
sunspotted area, the latitudes of the
activity zones of sunspots and promin-
ences, together with the variations in the
form of the corona for the period 1920 to
as near the present as possible. The accom-
panying diagram (Fig. 1) illustrates the
solar changes in graphic form. The
following paragraphs deal briefly with
S HEMIS&
POLAR
N HEMISS
LATITUDES.
PROMINENCES.
LaTITuDES OF Sunspots.—Under this heading
there are two sets of curves—one for the northern
and the other for the southern hemisphere of the sun.
Each point represents the mean heliographic latitude
of all spots for each hemisphere throughout the whole
.1890 s 1900 5 1910 5
3000 :
1920 5
aa
-20°
-40)
-60°+
-go+
each set of curves individually, including
the sources of the data:
MEAN Dairy AREAS OF SUNSPOTS.—
Each of the: points in the curve repre-
(IRREGULAR)
INTERMEDIATE
sents the mean of the daily areas of
sunspots corrected for foreshortening for
each year. The values are published by
the Astronomer Royal yearly in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
the last value published being that for 1918 (vol. 82,
p- 485). The three later years marked with crosses
are only provisional values.
It will be seen that the maximum spot activity
occurred in the years 1893, 1905, and 1917, while the
years of minimum were rgor and 1913. The next
minimum will probably fall in 1924 or 1925.
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
(SQUARE)
EQUATORIAL
(WIND VANE)
1890 5 1900 5 1910 5 1920 5;
Fic. x
year. The data are taken from the same sources as
mentioned above. It will be noticed that a new
sunspot cycle is always heralded by outbursts of spots
in zones of high latitudes (about 22°), while the zone
of spots nearer the equator is dying out.
LATITUDES OF PROMINENCES.—Here also there are
two sets of curves, one for each hemisphere; where
in the case of the spots there was only one zone for
466
NATURE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
each hemisphere, for prominences there are two
zones. Each point in the curves represents the mean
latitude of each zone throughout the year. It will be
noticed that in each hemisphere the zone in lower
latitudes gradually approaches the equator, dying out
just before or at sunspot minimum, while the zone
further away from the equator increases its latitude
rapidly and dies out at or a little after sunspot
maximum. The data up to 1914 are published in the
Memoirs of the Kodaikanal Observatory (vol. 1,
part u.) by Mr. John Evershed, and the remainder
have been extracted from that Observatory’s Bulletins
published half-yearly, from which the mean yearly
latitudes of the zones have been provisionally deter-
mined by Dr. Lockyer.
THE FORMS OF THE CoroNA.—The last curve shows
the condition of activity of the sun as indicated by
the form which the corona takes when seen at total
eclipses.
When the corona (polar form) exhibits streamers
all around the solar disc, 7.e. in all solar latitudes, this
indicates a very turbulent state of the solar atmo-
sphere and a time therefore of maximum activity.
At this time the prominences reach their highest
latitudes. When the streamers are confined to the
equatorial regions and the poles are quite clear and
void of streamers, the corona takes an “‘ equatorial ”
or “‘wind-vane”’ form, and the solar activity is at a
minimum. Intermediate stages are indicated by the
corona taking an ‘“‘intermediate’’ or ‘‘ square”’
shape. The various forms of the corona are indicated
clearly in the curve by three different symbols. The
curve also shows the forms expected in the two
approaching eclipses, namely, of this and of next
year. The form for the present year will be of the
“intermediate ’’ type, while that for 1923 should be
typical of the “ equatorial’? type. The data for the
various forms of the corona have to be obtained from
the individual reports of eclipse expeditions, but those
to which reference has here been made have been
collected by Dr. Lockyer and published in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
(vol. 82, p. 326).
All the solar phenomena described above thus
indicate clearly that the activity of the sun is decidedly
on the wane, and that the epoch of minimum dis-
turbance in the solar atmosphere is approaching and
will be reached in the year 1924 or 1925.
University and Educational Intelligence.
BristoLt.—The degree of Ph.D. has been awarded
to Mr. Joseph Lineham for his dissertation on “‘ The
Concept of Activity.”
Lonpvon.—The list of courses of University Ex-
tension Lectures for the session 1922—23 has recently
been issued, containing particulars of some 90
courses and lectures which will be given in the
University and locally. Of this number, 14 only
are on scientific topics. Dr. W. B. Brierley is
giving a course of 24 lectures at Gresham College on
inter-racial problems of man, and a similar course
at Morley College on the principles of evolutionary
biology ; F. Womack is giving 2 lectures on wireless
telephony at Hatch End and at Hounslow, and 5
lectures on pioneers of science at Wood Green ;
and F. J. Chittenden, 3 lectures on horticulture at
Hatch End. The remaining science lectures are
related to psychology: Miss V. H. Hazlitt, 10
lectures on the psychology of character and conduct,
at Croydon; Mr. Cyril Burt, 5 lectures on psycho-
analysis, at Twickenham; S. E. Hooper, 24 lectures
on psychology, at Wimbledon and also at Wood Green ;
and E. O. Lewis, 24 lectures on psychology, at the
NO. 2761, VOL, 110]
Working Men’s College, Crowndale Road, N.W.
There are also four psychology courses, at Croydon,
at the Mary Ward Settlement at Tavistock Place, W.C.,
at Wandsworth, and at Wood Green, for which lec-
turers’ names are not yet given. Further particulars
of the lectures can be obtained from the local secretaries
whose addresses are given in the lecture list, applica-
tion for which should be made to the Registrar,
University Extension Board, University of London,
South Kensington, S.W.7.
THE Chemikey Zeitung of August 29 reports that
Dr. H. Lecher, of the University of Munich, has been
appointed professor of organic chemistry at the
University of Freiburg.
A SPECIAL committee of the World’s Student
Christian Federation has been appointed to co-
operate with the Universities’ Library for Central
Europe in its work of securing British books, journals,
and scientific papers for the universities of Central
Europe. Donations of books, periodicals, and money
should be forwarded to Mr. B. M. Headicar, Univer-
sities’ Library and Student Relief for Europe, London
School of Economics, Houghton Street, W.C.2.
On several occasions recently the Chemiker Zeitung
has reported the gifts of large sums granted by in-
dustrial concerns to universities and to associations
of students, for the assistance of these bodies in
teaching scientific subjects, particularly chemistry.
Although the amounts, which run into millions of
marks in individual grants, may seem modest when
translated into English currency, they represent
important contributions in Germany, and_ the
attention of British manufacturers might well be
invited to the matter. It is evident that Germany
realises, as she did in former years after defeat, that
the hope of the future lies in education, and one
cannot help feeling that the victors in the recent war
would do well to consider whether their future also
does not lie in the same direction, and do a little
more of a practical character in the furthering of
the work of our educational institutions. The
reduced grants made to the universities will be re-
flected in reduced facilities, and if the industries
which have reaped so much benefit from research
in pure science made in the universities, often
associated with individual hardship on the part of
the students, were to make some return, it would be
repaid to them a hundred-fold.
Tue draft Regulations for Secondary Schools
recently issued by the Board of Education remedy
the anomalous position which hitherto geography has
occupied in advanced courses. As a school subject,
geography has steadily gained ground, and in 1921
was offered by no less than 78 per cent. of the can-
didates taking the School Leaving Examination.
Furthermore, Sir Richard Gregory, in his presidential
address to the Education Section of the British
Association this year at Hull, pointed out the still
greater part this subject could, and should, play in
economy of time-table and efficiency of teaching. At
the other end of the scale, the Universities have
steadily increased the facilities for graduation in
geography. There remained, however, the hiatus of
the advanced courses which cut off, in large measure,
the supply of students of geography. The 1922
Regulations provide for a new group of studies, E,
which is defined as ‘‘ Geography, combined with two
other subjects approved by the Board, of which one
must be History or a Science.’’ The way is now clear
for a complete revision of the syllabuses in geography
for the Higher School Certificate and for the provision
of university scholarships in this subject.
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
October 1, 1838. Charles Tennant died. — The
founder in 1797 of famous chemical works at St.
Rollox, Glasgow, Tennant while manager of a bleach-
ing field near Paisley discovered a method of con-
trolling chlorine gas by the admixture of lime. He
introduced the manufacture of chloride of lime in a
solid state, to which he gave the name bleaching
powder. His production of bleaching powder in
1799-1800 was 52 tons, the price being 140/. per ton.
By 1835 the St. Rollox works had become the most
important chemical works in the world.
October 2, 1804. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot died.—A
military engineer and the author in 1766 of ‘‘ Eléments
de l'art militaire ancien et moderne,’ Cugnot in
1769 made the first steam-propelled road carriage,
and two years later built a steam tractor for the
French Government for hauling artillery. This
vehicle was to carry a load of 44 tons at 24 miles per
hour. Though never used, this carriage is preserved
in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.
October 3, 1867. Elias Howe died.—One of the
chief pioneers of the sewing machine, Howe was the
son of a farmer of Spencer, Massachusetts, and was
born in 1819. He began work on the sewing machine
in 1841, took out a patent in 1846, and was one of
the first inventors to place the eye of the needle
towards the point.
October 4, 1821. John Rennie died.—Acknow-
ledged as the greatest civil engineer of his day,
Rennie was the builder of the London Docks, the
East India Docks, the Plymouth Breakwater, Water-
loo and Southwark Bridges, and he prepared designs
for London Bridge. He was born at Phantassie,
East Lothian, in 1761, gained practical experience
under Andrew Meikle, attended the lectures of
Robison and Black, and in 1789 erected the Albion
Mills for Boulton & Watt, in London, the site of
which was afterwards occupied by Rennie’s workshops.
He is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“October 5, 1892. Alexander Carnegie Kirk died.—
The author of many improvements in marine en-
gineering, Kirk, after gaining experience at Maudslay’s
and at Elder’s, became a partner in 1877 in the firm
of Napier. He was especially known for his advocacy
of high steam pressure and the triple-expansion engine,
the advantages of which were demonstrated in the
s.s. Aberdeen built by him in 1882, which on a voyage
to Australia showed a saving of 500 tons of coal.
October 6, 1905. Charles Brown died.—Brown has
been called the founder of mechanical industry in
Switzerland. Brought up in London, in 1851 at the
age of 24 he entered the service of Sulzer Brothers,
a firm of mechanical engineers at Winterthur. He
established afterwards the Swiss locomotive works
at Winterthur and also played a prominent part in
the creation of the Swiss electrical industry.
October 7, 1908. Jean Baptiste Gustave Adolphe
Canet died.—A distinguished armament engineer,
Canet was trained at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et
Manufactures, fought in the Franco-German War, and
for a time engaged in railway engineering. From
1872 to 1881 he was associated with Vavasseur at
the London Ordnance Works, and in 1876 brought
forward his theory of hydraulic brakes for checking
the recoil of guns. Returning to France he became
the head of armament works at Havre and after the
amalgamation of these works with those of Schneider
at Creusot became manager.
iBeG. (S:
NO. 2761, VOL. 110]
NATURE
407
Societies and Academies.
SWANSEA.
Institute of Metals, September 20.—G. D. Bengough
and J. M. Stuart: The nature of corrosive action,
and the function of colloids in corrosion (Sixth Report
to the Corrosion Research Committee of the Institute).
—Sir Henry Fowler: The effect of superheated
steam on non-ferrous metals used in locomotives.
Superheated steam as used on locomotives generally
leaves the superheater at a temperature of 340° C.
On the Midland Railway, piston tail rod bushes
were made of M.R. A.r alloy (copper, 87; tin,
9; zinc, 2; lead, 2). A phosphor bronze (copper,
88; tin, 11; phosphorus, 1) has been found satis-
factory. For piston rod packing, McNamee rings
(copper, 75:5; tin, 8-5; zinc, 0:33; phosphorus,
trace ; nickel, 0-5 ; lead, 15-0) are used satisfactorily.
These rings prevent the steam coming into contact
with the white metal (lead, 70 ; antimony, 30) packing
rings. With the temperature rising to 425° C. the
packing rings may fuse. Piston valve fittings and
cylinder relief valves are made of alloy M.R. A.1.
For by-pass valves which are subjected to shock, a
nickel-brass gave good service, but was replaced for
economy by malleable iron or steel castings.—A. H.
Mundey, C. C. Bissett, and J. Cartland: White metals.
The manufacture and use of white metal for industrial
purposes is described, and constitution and micro-
structure are dealt with only so far as the uses and
manufacture are concerned. Antifriction or bearing
metal, printing alloys, die-casting alloys, metals for
chemical works castings, solders, are discussed.—
J. H. Andrew and R. Higgins: Grain-size and
diffusion. Diffusion at high temperatures may take
place simultaneously with grain-growth, while at low
temperatures it promotes a breakdown in the grain-
size. These results have been applied to the anneal-
ing treatment of castings. It has been assumed
that in the interior of the crystalline grains the
system of closest packing holds, while at the boundaries
the atoms in the separate grains touch only at one
part of the circumference. This explains the decrease
in specific gravity with an increase in the number
of grains, for in such an arrangement free spaces
occur. Plastic deformation, by shifting some of the
atoms from their positions of equilibrium, will cause
them to rearrange themselves when heated to a
sufficiently high temperature. This rearrangement
will be such that the stressed atoms will fall in, row
for row, with the unstrained atoms of the adjacent
crystal. This effects a gradual migration of the grain
boundary which, proceeding from every side of a
crystalline unit, may result in one grain being divided
up and absorbed by others. The final bounding
surface will result when the boundary configuration
is reached.
PARIS.
Academy of Sciences, August 28.—M. L. Maquenne
in the chair.—L. Mangin and N. Patouillard: The
destruction of the woodwork at the chateau of
Versailles by Phellinus cryptarum. A detailed ex-
amination of the oak beams showed a varied fauna
and flora, but Phellinus cryptarwm is mainly respon-
sible for the damage. This fungus has not hitherto
been regarded as destructive to wood.— Jacques
| PO), dy
cima
as a continued fraction.—Ch. N. Moore: The equiva-
lence of the methods of summation of Cesaro and
of Holder for multiple limits.—Nilos Sakellariou :
Polar systems.—Amédée Béjot : Placing in reciprocal
Chokhate: The development of the integral
468
perspective, figures of the same species.—M. Gignoux
and P. Fallot: The marine quaternary on the
Mediterranean coasts of Spain.—Raoul Combes and
Denise Kohler: The rdéle of respiration in the diminu-
tion of the carbohydrates in leaves during the
autumnal yellowing. It has been commonly held
that during the change of colour of leaves in the
autumn, the carbohydrates are withdrawn from the
leaf and stored in the plant as reserves. It has
been proved by Michel Durand that some of the
carbohydrates are removed by rain, and in the present
communication proof is given that part is used up
by respiration and leaves as carbon dioxide—L.
Carrere: The sphincter of the iris in the selacians.
This muscle in the selacians, especially in species
possessing a pupil-shaped opening, is more developed
at the nasal and temporal extremities of the pupil :
it is less important, and may even disappear, in the
ventral and dorsal sectors.—Paul Wintrebert: The
mechanical polarity of the germ of selacians (Seyllio-
vhinus canicula) at the time of gastrulation.
September 4.—M. L. Guignard in the chair.—
Théodore Varopoulos: A theorem of M. Rémoundos.
—Alf. Guldberg: The theorem of M. Tchebycheff.—
Victor Henri and Pierre Steiner: Absorption of the
ultraviolet rays by naphthalene. From a quanti-
tative study of the absorption of solutions in hexane,
ether, alcohol, and water, seventeen bands have been
found between wave lengths 3207A and 2563A. These
results are compared with those previously obtained
for benzene by a similar method.—Erik Hulthén and
Ernst Bengtsson: Researches on the band spectra of
cadmium.—G. Murgoci: The classification of the
blue amphiboles and of certain hornblendes.—Marcel
Mirande: The formation of anthocyanin under the
influence of light on the scales of the bulbs of certain
liies.—Raphaél Dubois: The destruction of mos-
quitos by eels. Goldfish have been suggested for
destruction of mosquitos as they eat the larva, but they
have the disadvantages of being costly and requiring
a pure and well-aerated water. Young eels in the
spring are equally voracious and devour the larve
readily. They are more readily procurable than gold-
fish, and live equally well in fresh and salt water,
and even in water containing sewage effluent.
SYDNEY,
Royal Society of New South Wales, August 2.—
Mr. C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chair.—C. E.
Fawsitt and C. H. Fischer: The miscibility test for
eucalyptus oils. Instead of testing the solubility
by measuring the volume of aqueous alcohol required
to obtain complete solution of a measured volume
of oil, the critical solution temperatures with
definite mixtures of alcohol and water are taken after
the manner of testing fixed oils. This method is
more sensitive for the indication of small changes
in composition of the oil. The critical solution
temperature in some cases varies markedly with
time and as the oil is kept.—R. T. Baker and H. G.
Smith: The Melaleucas and their essential oils, Pt. VI.
Two species are discussed, Melaleuca ericifolia, Sm.,
and M. Deanei, Fr. M. Oil was first distilled from
M. evicifolia by Mr. J. Bosisto in 1862, and Dr. J. H.
Gladstone in 1864 determined its physical constants.
The chief oxygenated constituent was thought to
correspond with that in ordinary oil of “ cajuput.”’
The yield of oil obtained by the present authors was
o-8 per cent., and the chief oxygenated constituent
found to be dextrorotatory terpineol, while less than
10 per cent. of cineol was present. Pinene, limonene,
and a sesquiterpene were also detected. The yield of
oil from young material of M. Deanei was also 0:8
per cent., and consisted almost entirely of pinene
NO. 2761, VOL. T10]
NATORE
[SEPTEMBER 30, 1922
with about 15 per cent. of cineol. Old leaves of
this species contain very little oil—A. R. Penfold:
The essential oil from Backhousia myrtifolia, Pt. I.
This small tree inhabits gullies containing running
water in the coast and coast mountain districts of
New South Wales. Material collected at Lane Cove
near Sydney, and at Currowan of the southern district,
yielded 0-3-0-75 per cent. of a brown-yellow oil,
varying with the time of year and locality. The oil
possesses a pleasant odour and is heavier than water.
Its principal constituent is elemicin (80 per cent.),
a somewhat rarely occurring phenol ether. The
remainder of the oil consists of a-pinene, unidentified
alcoholic bodies and phenols, sesquiterpene, and a
paraffin of melting-point 62°-63° C.
CAPE Town.
Royal Society of South Africa, August 16.—Dr.
D. F. Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—W. A.
Jolly: The rhythm of discharge of the spinal centres
in the frog. The rate of discharge of the cord in
Xenopus at different temperatures, as indicated by
galvanometric records from the gastrocnemius muscle
reflexly excited, was discussed.—J. P. Dalton: On
the mathematics of the homogeneous balanced action.
It has been shown by the author that the integrated
velocity equations of chemical reactions can be
written in terms of a certain function. The same
function may be employed in the treatment of the
homogeneous balanced action.
Official Publications Received.
Western Australia. Annual Progress Report of the Geological
Survey for the Year 1921. Pp. 61. (Perth.)
Northampton Polytechnic Institute, St. John Street, London, E.C.
Announcements, Educational and Social, for the Session 1922-1923.
Pp. 248. (London: Northampton Polytechnic Institute.)
New Zealand. Department of Mines: Geological Survey Branch.
Paleontological Bulletin No. 9: The Upper Cretaceous Gastropods of ©
New Zealand. By Dr. Otto Wilckens. Translated into English by
the Author. Pp. iv+42+5 plates. (Wellington, N.Z.)
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, S. Kensington, London.
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NATURE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 10922.
CONTENTS.
Broadcasting in Great Britain
The Problem of Solution
The New Way of Thinking Physical Reality, By
Prof. H. Wildon Carr
Ceremonial Exchange.
F.R.S.
Pure and Applied Electricity :
The Petroleum dadnatey: By H. B. Milner
Our Bookshelf. 0
Letters to the Editor :—
Dampier’s ‘* Discourse of the Winds” and the Distri-
bution of Wind on the Earth’s Surface. (Z//ustrated. )
—A. Mallock, F.R.S. 5
The Conditions of Sex-change in the Oyster (Ostrea
edulis).—R. Sparck
Rise in Temperature of Living Plant Tissue when
infected by Parasitic Fungus.—Dr. I. B. Pole
Evans and Mary Pole Evans . c
Coral in Medicine.—Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell
Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer.—Lady Lockyer
Harpoons under Peat at Holderness, Yorks.—O. G.
S. Crawford 3 5 c
A Curious Luminous Phenomenon. 1S, R. 0
A Fifty-foot Interferometer Telescope. (///ustrated.
By Dr. George E. Hale, For. Mem. R.S.
Motorless or Wind Flight. By Dr. S. Brodetsky
The Influence of the late W. H. R. Rivers on the
Development of Psychology in Great Britain. By
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ERS. :
Obituary :—
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Prof. F. T. Trouton, F. Rist BY 'E.N.daC. A.
Current Topics and Events.
Our Astronomical Column
Research Items .
A Florentine School of Physics. and Optics.
trated.) By Dr. L. C. Martin . 5
Fruit-Growing and Research
Volcanic Activity in Nigeria
The Royal Photographic Society’s Exhibition.
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Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies
Official Publications Received
Diary of Societies :
By Dr. A. C. Haddon,
(IMus-
| By
PAGE
469
470
471
472
474
474
470
478
480
480
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481
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NO, 2762, VOL. 110]
469
Broadcasting in Great Britain.
HE Postmaster-General has, it is announced,
decided temporarily to suspend the issue of
licences for the reception of wireless telegraphy and
telephony, except to those engaged upon experimental
work. In an official statement sent out by the Post
it is
been
Office in relation to the broadcasting situation,
explained that the Postmaster-General
prompted to adopt the course he has taken in con-
has
nexion with the issue of licences for reception purposes
owing to the fact that there has been a divergence
of views concerning the details with regard to the
constitution of the company which it is proposed to
form for the purpose of providing the broadcasting
services. Not only have the proposed articles of
association of the proposed broadcasting company
proved unacceptable, as a whole, to the Postmaster-
General and his advisers, but also, it would appear,
that differences on essential points have also been
manifest between the members of the committee
dealing with the Postmaster-General in this matter.
Considerable progress has, it is stated, now been made
towards the solution of the differences between the
members of the committee in question, and, at a
conference held at the Post Office on September 12,
an agreement was reached as to the conditions under
which the Postmaster-General will issue the necessary
licences for the erection of the broadcasting stations ;
it therefore now only remains for the Post Office
officials and the committee representing the proposed
company to settle certain details.
In the official statement in question it is announced
that the Postmaster-General and the committee both
desire it to be known that membership of the proposed
broadcasting company will not, of itself, entitle a
member to use the patents of other members in the
manufacture of receiving apparatus. The manner in
which the broadcasting situation is being handled by
the Post Office has, in some quarters, caused consider-
able disquietude ; the policy which is being pursued
by the Postmaster-General, whereby an attempt is to
be made to control the broadcasting situation by and
through the means of the proposed articles of associa-
tion of the company which it is proposed to license
to provide the broadcasting services, certainly seems
to be one of doubtful wisdom. As
be included in the proposed articles of association at
the instance or with the approval of the Postmaster-
General have not yet been made public, it would be
the provisions to
premature further to discuss the matter at the
moment.
A point of considerable importance, which requires
470
early attention, is the attitude the Post Office is taking
in connexion with the issue of licences for experimental
work. In the official statement, to which reference has
already been made, it is indicated that the Postmaster-
General intends in future to issue licences for experi-
mental stations alone to those who can satisfy him
that they have a sufficient knowledge of the subject
to enable them to make a proper use of such licences.
It is surmised in some quarters that this departmental
rule has been framed with the view of restricting the
erant of licences for experimental work alone to trained
scientific workers. In the interests of the progress
of science it is essential that the terms and conditions
under which it is possible to obtain a licence for experi-
mental work shall not be made so exacting and stringent
as to exclude the amateur from the field of wireless
research.
The requirements in relation to the issue of licences for
experimental stations are definitely laid down in clause 2
of the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1904 (4 Ed. 7, c. 24),
wherein it is provided that ‘“‘ where the applicant for
a licence proves to the satisfaction of the Postmaster-
General that the sole object of obtaining the licence
is to enable him to conduct experiments in wireless
telegraphy, a licence for that purpose shall be granted,
subject to such special terms, conditions and restric-
tions as the Postmaster-General may think proper,
but shall not be subject to any rent or royalty.”
The language used in this clause is sufficiently clear
to show that it cannot have been the intention of the
legislature in any way to penalise the amateur experi-
mentalist in connexion with the procuring of a licence
for experimental work. In the matter of the grant
of such licences the amateur experimentalist and the
trained scientific worker have an equal claim upon
the Postmaster-General, provided that they can prove
to his satisfaction that the station which they desire
to equip is an experimental one, in contradistinction
to one fitted up for commercial work. The amateur
should receive the fullest encouragement and considera-
tion from the Post Office. Mischief will alone result
should the steps which the Postmaster-General and
his advisers are contemplating with regard to the issue
of licences for experimental work have the unfortunate
effect of moving amateurs to evade the official regula-
tions and the provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy
Act, 1904.
The Problem of Solution.
HE problem of solution has engaged the attention
of many men of science from the time of Newton
to the present day, and it cannot be said that a complete
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
and all-embracing theory has yet been advanced that
will interpret all the observed facts. The subject
lends itself admirably to those who concern them-
selves with pointing out weaknesses of accepted con- .
ceptions without replacing these ideas by adequate
substitutes.
A contributor, writing under the pseudonym Dr. B.
Lagueur, in the Chemical Age of September 2, very ably
and wittily adopts the style of the ““ Compleat Angler,”
and produces an imaginary conversation between a
““Chymist ” (baptised Henry), in whose chemical
philosophy there has not arisen the necessity of adopting
the ionic hypothesis, and a “ Friend,” who, being a
creation of the author and therefore fundamentally
of similar persuasion, is unable to make a satisfactory
case for its adoption.
Of the theories advocated it is now generally recog-
nised that the older conception of hydrate formation
is insufficient to account for the experimental results
obtained. The hydrone theory of Armstrong appears
to be that beloved of the “‘ Chymist,” and explains
solution by assuming the existence of new molecules
formed by the union of the water with the solute. It
has a certain measure of experimental support, but,
despite this, despite the known complexity of water,
and despite the crystal work of Bragg, it embodies a
number of assumptions difficult to verify, and by
itself is scarcely likely to displace the more firmly
established hypothesis of Arrhenius, which, though
revolutionary, imperfect, and easily attacked, yet
fulfils the functions of a hypothesis, and therefore
serves a useful purpose.
The ionic hypothesis has explained many facts
hitherto extremely puzzling ; it has opened out new
lines of research, and “‘ as a working hypothesis gives
qualitative and quantitative explanation of a large
number of chemical phenomena which can otherwise
only be accounted for in a vague and unsatisfactory
way.” The solvate theory—a combination of the
original ionic hypothesis with the hydrate and hydrone
conceptions—has been the outcome of a long series of
experiments on solution by Jones and his collaborators
in America. The ionic hypothesis, shorn of the frills
and furbelows given to it by enthusiasts, is generally
accepted with certain mental reservations as to the
existence of ions, except by those who, as Jones says,
“oppose it after a careful study of the facts or are
unable or indisposed to adapt themselves to new
ideas.”
Many hypotheses are at best unstable and transient,
but before any are discarded they must be killed, and
the death of the theory of electrolytic dissociation is
not yet, notwithstanding the thrusts given to it in the
article in our contemporary.
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
471
The New Way of Thinking Physical
Reality.
(1) The Philosophy of Humanism and of other Subjects.
By Viscount Haldane. Pp. xiv+302. (London:
J. Murray, 1922.) 12s. net.
(2) L’Expérience humaine et la causalité physique. Par
Prof. Léon’ Brunschvicg. (Bibliothéque de Philo-
sophie Contemporaine.) Pp. xvit+625. (Paris:
Félix Alcan, 1922.) 30 frs. :
(3) La Notion d’espace. Par Prof. D. Nys. (Fonda-
tion Universitaire de Belgique.) Pp. 446. (Bruxelles:
Robert Sand; London: Oxford University Press,
1922.) 155. net.
(4) The Evolution of Knowledge. By George Shann.
Pp. vii+1oo. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.,
1922.) 4s. 6d. net.
HE direction which scientific research has taken
in the twentieth century is imposing on
philosophy a task the magnitude of which is probably
not yet realised by any one. Aristotle, in his doctrine
of the four causes and in his discovery of the syllogism,
the logical instrument which gave that doctrine the
appearance of precision, determined the type and the
mode to which all succeeding scientific research right
up to modern times has adhered. ‘The essential thing
in the Aristotelian doctrine is that the analysis of the
physical universe proceeds in precisely the same way
as the analysis of the elementary conditions which
govern the production of a work of art. There is, that
is to say, a matter on which an agent impresses a form
in order to express an end or purpose. The modern
sciences of biology and psychology had already begun
to undermine this esthetic mode of thinking reality
and now the Einstein theory in mathematical physics
has swept away its foundations. The result is that
once more in human history physics and metaphysics
are joined together. The union has been brought
about by physical science itself, without any betrayal
of its positive and experimental character, by fearless
acceptance of the apparently paradoxical results of
experiments. It is the outcome, we can now see, of a
historical progress of pure science in the last three
centuries, continuous in its development from Galileo
to Clerk Maxwell, Mach and Einstein, which has led
to a complete revolution in the way of thinking
physical reality.
The philosophical current of human thought,
although always a reflection of the scientific current,
has not the same rhythm. It happens at times, un-
expectedly and as if by a sudden explosion, that the
scientific current is interrupted ; some wholly unlooked-
for results of experimental investigation have occurred,
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
and the human mind has sprung at once to the general
principles whence those results proceed. A new vision
of truth then opens out before human consciousness
involving its whole conception of the universe and mind.
It was such a vision which produced the new birth of
modern philosophy in the seventeenth century. To-
day a new and most startling discovery, following
indeed a long historical development, but a develop-
ment we can appreciate only now because the discovery
has given us the vantage ground from which to look
back on the history, is opening to us a new vision of
truth and making us rethink our whole concept of the
nature of physical reality.
(x) and (2) It is this new way of thinking physical
reality which, each in his own way, the authors we have
grouped together are seeking to express. In the case of
Lord Haldane’s “ Humanism ” and Prof. Brunschvicg’s
“T’Expérience humaine ”’ there is full consciousness of
it and a direct purpose of exposition. It is noteworthy
that two such books, widely different in their method
and scope and yet so singularly in agreement, both in
their viewpoint and aim, should appear together.
Lord Haldane, who is not a mathematician, devotes
himself to detailed philosophical analysis of the new
mathematical concept, while Prof. Brunschvicg, a
mathematician of distinction and known to us chiefly
by his editio princeps of Pascal’s works, traces with an
extraordinary grasp of details the historical develop-
ment of the concept of physical causality which has
resulted in the generalised theory of relativity ; and
both interpret to us the new concept of the physical
universe in practically identical terms. The humanism
of the one is the human experience of the other, and
Lord Haldane’s “‘ foundational nature of knowledge ”
is Prof. Brunschvicg’s ‘“‘ philosophie de la pensée.”
The cosmology of Einstein differs fundamentally
from every previous doctrine inasmuch as it discards
both the factors which in the long history of human
thought have contended against one another for pre-
It regards neither the definition of the
concept, whence deduction is made, nor the datum of
experience, on which induction is based, as funda-
mental, Einstein’s world is a world of figures, sup-
posing neither a priori concepts nor sensible images.
These figures, however, are not fictions, they are not
even abstractions, they correspond to coefficients
which reality furnishes. Mathematics determines for
us the zuvariant which passes from one system to
eminence.
another.
Between Newton and Einstein, Prof. Brunschvicg
tells us, there is this difference that according to Newton
the thing to be measured has an absolute content,
inaccessible it may be directly to man, but certainly
accessible to God. That is to say, the Newtonian
472
NATURE
[OcToBER 7, 1922
universe would be an object of intuition, that is, would
form a picture, at least to God. According to Einstein,
we cannot say, speaking absolutely, that there is any
picture even for God. The picture is only known as a
function of the frame. That is, the things measured
are only known through the measurings, and the
measurings are bound up with the things they
serve to measure. The understanding of this reci-
procity makes it impossible to separate and consider
apart what, for the convenience of language alone, we
distinguish as frame and picture. Science goes in a
kind of perpetual oscillation, with an ever-narrowing
adaptation, from the measured to the measuring, from
the measuring to the measured. Thus, considered
from the point of view of the measuring, it 1s impossible
by any physical means whatever to reveal a uniform
movement of translation in which both the observer
and all that he observes participate. Considered from
the point of view of the measured, the velocity of light
is the only velocity which is unchanged when we pass
from one system of reference to another, and in the
electromagnetic universe this velocity plays the réle
which infinite velocity formerly played in the mechan-
istic universe. The constancy of the velocity of light
implies further an irreducible plurality of physical
measurements of times, because the various groups of
observers cannot make clocks from which they can
detach themselves and compare them as instruments
with one another. They are themselves the inhabit-
ants of a clock, prisoners in their own time-measuring
instrument, bound to its state whether they suppose
it at rest or moving.
To most of us, however, whether our interest in the
principle of relativity is scientific or philosophical, the
greatest stumbling-block is probably the hypothesis of
a finite universe. This seems a contradiction in thought
and at least an unnecessary appendage of the principle.
Prof. Brunschvicg shows us very clearly why the
equations lead necessarily to this hypothesis, for they
allow us to show that without it the total reduction of
inertia to reciprocal action between masses is impossible.
The metaphysics which the new physics implies
means therefore a complete revolution both in philo-
sophy and science. As metaphysics it claims neither
priority over science nor independence of it, not even
the independence implied by Kant in the theory that
the conditions of experience are a priori. This is not
because metaphysics has learnt to be humble or to be
resigned, but because in reality there is a contradiction
in the very notion that by reflecting on science we can
disengage certain antecedent conditions capable of
enclosing all past and future knowledge in static
schemes. On the side of positive science we have
come to see that by the pure experimental method we
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
are not and cannot be brought into contact with
elemental constituents of experience, whether material
as Democritus conceived them, or intelligible as Plato
conceived them, or sensible as Hume conceived them.
The realities we are dealing with in physical science are
statistical, so that all reflection on the results of ex-
periment is, not an approach to the absolute, but a
progress in the discovery of relativity. The early
nineteenth-century ideal of a pure positive science per-
petually progressive by means of a division of labour
has given place in the twentieth century to a new and
more subtle idea, the idea of a progress which is
reflective.
(3) Prof. D. Nys’s “ La Notion d’espace”’ is a valuable
book, but belongs to a different category from that of the
two works we have mentioned. It is the fourth volume
of his ‘‘ Cosmologie ou Etude philosophique du monde
inorganique,’ and is encyclopedic in its treatment of
the subject. It includes in a general view of the various
philosophical doctrines a very clear account of the
recent theories with the criticisms upon them and is a
model of careful compilation. It develops no original
theory and is written from the point of view of neo-
scholasticism.
(4) Mr. Shann’s short treatise on ‘‘ The Evolution of
Knowledge” is the work of one who knows how to
think out a problem for himself. It deals with a
different aspect of relativity from that of the physical
principle, namely, with the nature of the vital need
which has produced in man and some animals the
function of knowing. All those friends of Mr. Shann
who have received from him from time to time his
excellent privately printed pamphlets, bound in the
well-known scarlet wrapper, will welcome this pub-
lished work. H. Wiipon Carr.
Ceremonial Exchange.
Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of
Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes
of Melanesian New Guinea. By Dr. Bronislaw
Malinowski. Pp. xxxii+527. (London: G. Rout-_
ledge and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 21s. net.
N this volume Dr. Malinowski has given the first-
| fruits of his extended stay in the Trobriands, a
group of islands off the south-east of New Guinea. A
good deal of more or less desultory information, pub-
lished in Government reports and elsewhere, has in-
dicated that these islanders differ in some respects from
their neighbours; Dr. Malinowski now shows how
intimately they are all associated with one another,
not merely by ordinary trade, but by a hitherto un-
recorded and very remarkable system of ceremonial
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
473
exchange, known as Kula, with which this book is
almost solely concerned.
The exchange takes place between partners who
may reside in the same island, but for the most part in
different islands. The Kula articles of value are shell-
necklaces of a special type and armlets made of Conus
shell. The former always travel N.-E.-S.-W., 2.e.
clockwise, and the latter in the contrary direction, but
other articles of value may be implicated in the trans-
actions in a subsidiary manner. ‘The islands mainly
concerned in Kula are those between Nada and the
Trobriands, the Amphletts, part of the southern
d’Entrecasteaux and the Tubetube group. The real
Kula necklaces and the arm-shells have various worth,
and highly valued ones have individual names, and
their wanderings are followed with interest. The
ownership, or rather trusteeship, of each object is
temporary, and ranges from a few minutes to one year
or possibly two, but a man who retains an object beyond
a year is regarded as a mean person. The exchange
is by the natives sharply differentiated from barter, as
no haggling takes place. An equivalent gift is always
expected, but cannot be demanded or enforced, the
only punishment for failing in this being loss of esteem.
If at any time an equivalent gift cannot be bestowed,
intermediate gifts will smooth the way till the real
repayment takes place. Meanness is the most despised
vice, and generosity the essence of goodness. Noblesse
oblige is in reality the social norm regulating their
conduct. This does not mean that people are always
satisfied and that there are no squabbles nor even
feuds about the transactions. It is obvious that how-
ever much a man may want to give a good equivalent
for the object received, he may not be able to do so;
and then, as there is always a keen competition to be
the most generous giver, a man who has received less
than he gave will not keep his grievance to himself but
will brag about his own generosity and compare it with
his partner’s meanness; the other resents it, and the
quarrel is ready to break out. All the preparatory
activities, as well as those connected with the voyages
and the ceremonies of exchange, are permeated by
magic, as indeed is the whole economic life of the people.
The most important character of Kula is the mental
attitude of the natives towards it. The objects of the
Kula are neither used nor regarded as currency, as they
are never used as a medium of exchange or as a measure
of wealth; they serve merely to be owned and displayed
and then exchanged. -It is through being the means
of arousing envy and conferring social distinction and
renown that these objects attain their high value and
form one of the leading interests in native life. The
ceremonial attached to the act of giving and the manner
of carrying and handling shows distinctly that they are
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
not mere merchandise, but something that confers
dignity on a man, that exalts him, and which he there-
fore treats with veneration and affection. Nothing of
the same kind has been described elsewhere, but some-
thing analogous may be discovered now that attention
has ‘been directed to it. The potlatch of British
Columbia, for example, is worth reconsidering in the
light of this book.
Dr. Malinowski has not confined himself to a mere
detailed description of Kula, but he has endeavoured,
apparently with great success, to explain its psycho-
logical significance. Kula so pervades the life, thought,
and emotion of the people concerned in it that it seems
in some respects to fulfil functions which are character-
istic of many religions, but with magic supplying the
place of spiritual powers. The system might almost
be termed the Kula cult, as Dr. Malinowski seems to
hint ; but he distinctly states that the natives worship
nothing.
The inter-insular Kula requires seaworthy canoes,
and Dr. Malinowski describes how these are made,
and the series of magical rites which accompany every
stage in their manufacture, equipment, and sailing.
The smaller fishing canoes are owned by one man,
but the sea-going canoe is constructed by a group of
people ; it is owned, used, and enjoyed communally,
and this according to definite rules, all of which
are described with careful detail and psychological
insight. To the natives a canoe of this type is a
marvellous achievement, a thing of beauty, and an
object permeated by magic. “‘ He has spun a tradition
around it, he adorns it with his best carvings, he colours
and decorates it. It is associated with journeys by
sail, full of threatening dangers, of living hopes and
desires to which he gives expression in song and story.
In short, in the tradition of the natives, in their customs,
in their behaviour, and in their direct statements, there
can be found the deep love, the admiration, the specific
attachment as to something alive and personal, so
characteristic of the sailor’s attitude towards his
craft.”
An outstanding merit of this book is that it is
a well-considered study in ethnographical method ;
indeed the author’s remarks on field-work will prove
of great value for the guidance of future workers. A
large number of magical formule and oral texts is
given in the native language and in translation, which
provides unusual documentary evidence of exceptional
value for the elucidation of native psychology. The
book is well illustrated and of reasonable cost, for which
the publishers are to be thanked. Mr. Robert Mond
and others, by their liberality, have enabled these
investigations to be made, and they have the satis-
faction of knowing that they have afforded an
PE
474
IMAL LE,
[OcToBER 7, 1922
opportunity for a young student to produce a work of
absolutely first-class value. It is to be hoped that
Dr. Malinowski will be able to publish in full the
remainder of his material, which, judging from this
sample, will mark a distinct progress in ethnographical
research and interpretation. A. C. Happon.
Pure and Applied Electricity.
(1) Einfiihrung in die Theorie der Elektrizitit und des
Magnetismus. Zum Gebrauch bei Vortrdgen, sowie
sum Selbstunterricht. Von Prof. Dr. Max Planck.
Pp. v+208. (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1922.) 42 marks.
(2) Elettrotecnica elementare con
By A. Occhialini. Vol. 1:
statica — Elettrochimica — Elettrodinamica — Elettro-
magnetismo — Induzione elettromagnetica. Pp. v+
344. (Firenze: Felice Le Monnier, n.d.) n.p.
(3) Installations
numerost problemi.
Magnetismo—Elettro-
choix du
(Paris: J-=Be
électriques industrielles :
matériel. Par R. Cabaud. Pp. 316.
Bailliére et Fils, 1922.) 10 francs.
HE first of these three books discusses the ground-
work of the theory of electricity, the next dis-
cusses the experimental laws and their laboratory
applications, and the third is a severely practical work
for the commerical electrician. They are all intro-
ductions to the subject, but they are intended for very
different classes of readers.
(1) Dr. Max Planck’s work is philosophical, and pre-
supposes a knowledge of mathematics and of the
mathematical theory of electricity which is possessed
by few. The foundations on which the ordinary
mathematical equations rest are examined, and par-
ticular stress is laid on the units in which they are
measured. The Gaussian, the electrostatic, and the
electromagnetic systems of units are considered. The
work will be very welcome to the pure theorist and will
increase his confidence in the soundness of the physical
basis of the mathematical theory. The clear dis-
tinction made between magnetic force and magnetic
induction is very convincing. The experimenter will
find little that is directly helpful to him in this book,
but he will appreciate, however, the author’s method
of getting the capacity of an ellipsoid and the deductions
that can be made from it.
(2) The second work under notice is very similar to
the standard English books on experimental electricity
and magnetism. The author’s descriptions of the
main phenomena are yery clear, and the numerous
examples given are instructive. A very full discussion
is given of the problem of a number of batteries. of
different electromotive forces and resistances in parallel
with one another. A thorough knowledge of this
NO. 2762, VOL. I10]
problem is a great help to students when they come to
the corresponding problems of dynamos or alternators
running in parallel with one another. The definition
given of the temperature coefficient of metals, however,
is not sufficiently accurate for modern requirements.
The rating of a dynamo depends on its temperature
after a run at full load, and the temperature of the coils
is computed from their measured resistance and a
knowledge of the temperature coefficient of copper.
As the problem is one of great commercial importance
it is necessary to distinguish between the temperature
coefficeint of the volume resistivity, the mass resistivity,
and the constant mass resistance. These are all
different and vary with the lower of the two tempera-
tures considered. The approximate formule for the
self-induction of a coil are given, but we think that
their limitations should have been stated.
(3) M. Cabaud’s book is very general and can be
appreciated only by a technical expert. It presupposes
a thorough knowledge of practical electrical engineering.
In the first section of the book a general discussion is
given of the kind of electric machine required to do
special work ; for example, whether a direct-current
or an alternating-current machine will be the more
useful. In the latter case also the question of whether
it 1s to be single phase or polyphase is considered. The
efficiency of the machine, its heating under load, the
electric strength of the insulating wrappings, etc., have
all to be considered. In the second section the char-
acteristics of the machines, whether rotating or station-
ary, are described. In the last section the usefulness
of the various characteristics are discussed, and the
important question of the best guarantees that should
be demanded from the manufacturers is considered.
The Petroleum Industry.
(1) Encyclopédie Scientifique: Bibliotheque de géologie
et de minéralogie appliquées: Les Gisements de
pétrole. Par Jean Chautard. Pp. viii+viii+330.
(Paris: Gaston Doin, 1922.) 14 fr.
(2) The Oil Encyclopedia. By Marcel Mitzakis. Pp.
xvi+551. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.,
TOZ2:) ee2iseen ets
(3) The Economics of Petroleum. By Joseph E.
Pogue. Pp. ix+375. (New York: J. Wiley and
Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.,
1921.) 335. net.
HE “Encyclopédie Scientifique” constitutes a
comparatively new departure in French technical
literature, and has for its scope the ultimate publication
of some thousand volumes dealing with the various
| phases of pure and applied science. M. Jean Chautard’s
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
475
little book (1) is apparently one of the earliest of the
series, and if it indeed sets the standard of future
productions, this encyclopedia will undoubtedly prove
of very great value. Well written, profusely illustrated
with photographs, maps, plans, diagrams and sections,
this particular volume covers a wide subject in a
minimum of space. The major part is concerned with
the geology of petroleum and a consideration of the
petroliferous regions of the world. Other chapters
deal with the nature of petroleum, natural gas and
solid hydrocarbons, their origin, mode of occurrence,
surface manifestations, exploration, and economic
development. ;
The author has drawn on most of the more recent
literature for his descriptions of the oil occurrences
throughout the world, and in consequence the informa-
tion given is most up-to-date ; several minor errors
occur in the spelling of place-names, but these will
doubtless be corrected in a future edition. Not the
least valuable of the contents of the book are the
bibliography, and a noteworthy preface by M. Louis
Mrazec, whose structural theories, incidentally, receive
careful treatment in the text. At the present time,
when scientific books are usually published at prohibi-
tive prices, it is gratifying to be able to recommend a
volume which is both an inexpensive and necessary
addition to the library of petroleum technology.
(2) In the “Oil Encyclopedia,’ by Mr. Marcel
Mitzakis, we meet with a very different type of book,
one which will doubtless make its appeal more to
the commercial than to the scientific community. To
the many people whose province it is to control the
destinies of oil-land development and economics—the
administrative as distinct from the technical branch
of the industry—this volume will prove of value,
presenting as it does the many and varied phases of
oil-mining in the form of an elaborate and explanatory
index. The volume includes information of a_bio-
graphical, geological, geographical, and chemical nature,
apart from its treatment of the multitudinous technical
factors pertaining to the oil industry, and as a source
of broad reference tosuch matters, hasmuch tocommend
it. It lacks in many cases, however, that atmosphere
of authority and degree of accuracy which are to be
expected in a work purporting to be for widespread
use, and judged from the scientific point of view, leaves
much to be desired. In several cases the definitions,
especially of geological terms, are decidedly loose, if
not actually erroneous, while some of the facts given
are by no means correct, nor are they always up-to-date.
As examples we may quote the definition of “‘ zolian ”
given as “a special kind of sand found in oil-bearing
strata,” and the paragraph devoted to the explanation
of the word “* Cambrian” since
NO. 2762, VOL. I10]
€
“so many oil strata
occur disseminated among Cambrian deposits.’ Fur-
ther, the oil potentialities and realities of Great Britain
are allotted space out of all proportion to their import-
ance, while the remarks on the natural gas resources
of Heathfield, Sussex, though optimistic, are un-
fortunately incorrect.
No work of this nature could possibly be complete,
in the strict sense of the word, unless expanded into
many volumes, and had the scope been a little less
ambitious, the result would probably have proved far
more satisfactory. The biographies could well have
been dispensed with, similarly many of the definitions
of the more complex chemical compounds, and thus
space made available for the inclusion of many terms
used in drilling, for example, which are unintelligible
to the average non-technical man.
(3) The object of Mr. Joseph Pogue’s book is to
present, in perspective, the more important economic
facts relating to petroleum, and it must be said that
the author has certainly achieved his aim. He had
every opportunity of producing an enormous compila-
tion of statistics, relieved by a few terse, explanatory
paragraphs and deductions, a veritable “ blue-book ”
in fact, dreary, lifeless,and incomprehensible, as publica-
tions of that nature are usually wont to be. Instead,
the author has given us a work of tangible value, one
which seeks only to use past and present facts in order
to foreshadow future possibilities.
People to-day are very apt to take things in general,
and the petroleum industry in particular, for granted,
and ignoring such factors as gradual and universal
decline of oil production, more especially in the United
States, they are blind to the economic situation which
must inevitably be faced. Not only that, they are
content to consume oil-fuel and allied products on a
peculiarly wasteful scale at the present time, in a
manner as complacent as it is incomprehensible to
the careful thinker. We recognise in this the basis
of Mr. Pogue’s book. He says, “The point to be
emphasized is the coming necessity for creasing the
over-all efficiency of petroleum ...”, and having
read that and other important observations made
in his excellent preface, we are not surprised at the
skilful manner in which he handles his ramified subject.
The volume is very readable: indeed, it demands
most careful perusal as it takes the reader rapidly
from one aspect to another. Beginning with the
economic organisation of the industry, it sets before
us the salient features of the present trend of oil-field
development, oil refinery practice, oil marketing,
finance and the bearing of automotive transport on
the’ industry, among other factors, while the chapters
on resource situation, international aspects of
petroleum, the full utilisation of petroleum, and the
476
NATURE
[OcToBER 7, 1922
function of statistics in the industry, are especially
good,
In the space at our disposal, it is impossible to review
a work of this nature with justice, and likewise to in-
dulge in that amount of constructive criticism otherwise
desired ; we would suggest that, in view of its import-
ance as an ultimate source of fuel, considerably more
space be devoted to the oil-shale question in future
editions, while present refinery practice might with
advantage be more severely criticised, both
with regard to technique and design. The author is
to be congratulated on the achievement of a remarkably
fine work, one that should be widely read by all serious
servants of a great industry. H. B. MILner.
much
Our Bookshelf.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Special Reports on
the Mineral Resources of Great Britain. Vol. 20:
Lead and Zinc. The Mining District of North
Cardiganshire and West Montgomeryshire. By Dr.
O.T. Jones. Pp.vi+207. (London: H.M. Station-
ery Office, 1922.) 7s. net.
Like the three previous volumes dealing with British
lead and zinc ores which have been issued by the Geo-
logical Survey, it must be admitted regretfully that
the present one has a scientific rather than an economic
interest. Some of the mines described in the present
volume, like Frongoch mine in Cardiganshire and the
Van mine in Montgomeryshire, have been extra-
ordinarily productive; the former has been worked
for 59 years and the latter for 51 years, and from each
more than 100,000 tons of lead and zinc ores have been
produced in the course of its career, but in both cases
the really productive period was something like half
a century ago. The author suggests that it is just
possible that these mines might show an improvement
by sinking deeper and reaching harder rocks than the
soft shales in which they are now bottomed; the
prospect, however, is not a very promising one, and
the present low price of lead affords no encouragement
to spend money on prospecting operations of a highly
speculative nature.
The real value of the present work lies in the excellent
study of the formation of the faults and fissures and the
mode of their filling which Prof. Jones has supplied
in the introductory chapters. The first chapter on
the general structure of the area gives a very valuable
summary of its leading geological features, while the
next two chapters are devoted to a discussion of the
leading system of fissures to which the district owes
its mineral wealth. Finally, the last chapter deals
with a number of important points such as the probable
age and sources of origin of the ore filling, and the
influence upon it of the | country rock tray ersed by the
fissures. These chapters form a most valuable con-
tribution to the stat of mineral deposition, and from
this point of view, quite apart from any possible
remote economic possibilities, Prof. Jones’s volume
deserves the careful attention of the student of mineral
deposits. Jel 1b,
NO. 2762, VOL, 110]
Some Scottish Breeding Duck: Their Arrival and Dis-
persal. By Evelyn V. Baxter and Leonora J.
Rintoul. Pp. vii+90. (Edinburgh: Oliver and
Boyd, 1922.) 5s. net.
THE problems of the increase and extension of range of
ducks in Scotland, and in other countries, have long
exercised ornithologists throughout the British Isles.
As the authors of the volume under notice point out,
protection and a better feeling towards and a greater
interest in all wild birds are probably important factors
in the case but do not explain everything. Certain
species other than ducks are as steadily decreasing,
and the rise and fall of a species is a complicated
biological problem which may have but indirect
association with human interference, or may be due
entirely to other causes. The recent colonisation of
Scotland by other birds, such as the starling, turtle-
dove, and great-crested grebe, may be due to the
necessity for an over-abundant species to find new
areas and the possibilities of settling in an area where
raptorial birds and other enemies have been largely
destroyed by man’s advance and action.
One factor the authors have not stressed, the growing
habit of keeping pinioned ornamental fowl, though they
mention bird sanctuaries. Passing birds are often
‘called down” by pinioned fowl, and some of them
may elect to mate and breed. That the direction of
spread differs in such ducks as the gadwall and wigeon
is no argument against this fact, for the source whence
come the visitors has no bearing on the influences
which cause them to remain. Many pairs of ducks
of various kinds have probably nested in out-of-the-way
places for years and been overlooked, for it is only
within the last thirty years or so that parts of Scotland
have been systematically explored from the ornitho-
logical point of view. Sportsmen and keepers are not
very particular about the species of the ducks which
fill their bags.
We note that the authors use the correct spelling
of two much-discussed names, wigeon and shoveler.
An Introduction to Engineering Drawing. By J.
Duncan. (Life and Work Series.) Pp. x+158.
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 4s.
THe aim of Mr. Duncan’s book is to enable young
students of engineering to produce intelligible work-
ing drawings of the details of engineering machines
and structures. The student is introduced to the
proper workmanlike methods of actual engineering
practice, and is not allowed the use of any special
hybrid methods which are supposed by many to be
sufficient for use in schools.
The book commences with a description of drawing
instruments, their use and handling ; from this, the
student is led to the ordinary problems in plain
geometry with practical engineering examples such as
drawing cams, and plotting small surveys. After-
wards, a little solid geometry introduces the student
to oblique and isometric projection, and prepares him
for the drawing of engineering details. For this latter
portion of the training the author strongly recommends
the use of models. A commencement is made with
simple fastenings such as bolts and nuts, then the more
complicated connexions are dealt with, as exemplified
OcToBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
477
in tie bar joints, cotter joints, and coupling boxes.
The following chapters deal in succession with other
engineering details, such as belt and rope pulleys,
chain drives including sprocket wheels, bearings of
various kinds, and details of shafting, cylinders, and
pistons.° Finally, structural details involving the
usual angles, tees, and channels with the more elaborate
columns, girders, and roof truss joints in which the
sections are employed give the student a useful intro-
duction to this side of engineering practice.
The book covers much ground in its 158 pages. It
is very clearly written, and the publishers’ part, in so
far as concerns the type and diagrams, is quite perfect.
For the purpose of familiarising the budding engineer
with the elements of machines and structures the
author has produced a most excellent book.
Juvenile Delinquency. By Henry Herbert Goddard.
Pp. vi+ 120. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.,
nid.) 35. 6d. net.
No student of modern life can fail to be perturbed by
the number of juveniles who come before the courts
yearly for offences covering a very wide range. That
our present system does not deal with them adequately
is obyious.
Delinquent behaviour is fundamentally unsocial
behaviour, 7.e. the child is obeying his own instincts
instead of modifying them according to the demands
of society. It becomes therefore necessary to ask
why a child behaves unsocially. These unsocially
behaved children fall into at least two groups, (a) those
who are mentally too unintelligent to understand social
behaviour ; and (}) those known as psychopaths, who,
while having normal intelligence, have not normal
control.
The author suggests that these children should be
cared for by some bureau organised by the State, which
should undertake research work, be able to diagnose
cases before the behaviour has become seriously wrong,
and also to control the lives of those who will never be
able to control them for themselves. He describes in
this connexion the Ohio Bureau of Juvenile Research
which, although only established in 1914, has yet
justified itself by its work.
Outwitting our Nerves: A Primer of Psychotherapy.
By Dr. Josephine A. Jackson and Helen M. Salisbury.
Pp. viiit+t403. (London: Kegan Paul and Co.,
Ltd., n.d.) 7s. 6d. net.
Tue stream of books concerned with explanations
of modern psychologists in general, and of Freud in
particular, for people of little or no psychological
knowledge, still flows on. Many fail entirely in their
avowed object, being either too condensed to be in-
telligible, or too popular to be scientific. The effect of a
conversion to Freudian doctrines 1s, only too frequently,
of the nature of a wholly uncritical acceptance of much
that Freud would call problematical. It is therefore
a relief to turn to this book, which not only gives a
very fair and balanced account of the findings of
psycho-analysis, but also keeps these findings in per-
spective, showing them in relation to the known laws
of biology and psychology. The whole book is char-
acterised by a sense of humour foreign to many writers
on the subject, and by sanity of outlook. Written in
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
an easy and popular style it can be safely recommended
to the student of, or sufferer from, ‘‘ nerves,’ and even
to the reader already cognisant with the literature of
psycho-analysis it will prove helpful and interesting.
Imperial Institute : Monographs on Mineral Resources
with Special Reference to the British Empire: Silver
Ores. By Dr. H. B. Cronshaw. Pp. ix+152.
(London: John Murray, rg21.) 6s. net.
Tuts addition to the useful Imperial Institute Mono-
graphs gives details and statistics of the sources of
silver throughout the world. In 1918 the British
Empire produced nearly one-fifth of the world’s supply,
Canada being responsible for the larger part of this
amount. The United States headed the list of pro-
ducers during the war period, but has now been passed
again by Mexico. About two-thirds of the world’s
silver comes from base metal ores, and much of the
remainder is obtained from ores worked primarily for
gold, so that silver is mainly a by-product of other
metallurgical operations. The extraction and uses of
silver are dealt with only very briefly in this monograph,
and some information as to the metallurgical processes
employed in the most important mining regions would
have added to its value. This remark applies particu-
larly to the account of the rich and metallurgically in-
teresting Cobalt district of Ontario, which is responsible
for the greater part of the Canadian production. These
monographs provide much information in a handy
form.
A Systematic Qualitative Chemical Analysis ; A Theoreti-
cal and Practical Study of Analytical Reactions of the
more Common Ions of Inorganic Substances. By
Prof. G. W. Sears. Pp. vitizrg. (New York:
J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and
Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 8s. 6d. net.
THE introductory part of the work under notice con-
tains a brief account of such matters as equilibrium,
ionisation, and solubility product. The section on the
detection and separation of the metals is in the form of
numbered experiments, and is much less clear and
useful than the usual arrangement in tables. The
explanations of the reactions, however, are very clearly
and fully described, and would be useful in supplement-
ing analysis tables. The section on acids relies on pre-
cipitation methods with a single sample, and all pre-
liminary tests are omitted. This seems to be a mistake,
as many acids are readily found by simple preliminary
methods. There appear to be no features which would
indicate any marked superiority of the book over
existing treatises.
An Introduction to the Chemistry of Radio-Active Sub-
stances. By Dr. A. S. Russell. Pp. xi+173.
(London: J. Murray, 1922.) 6s. net.
THERE is at present a real need for a small but up-to-
date book on radioactivity, in which the subject is
dealt with from the chemical as well as the physical side.
Dr. Russell’s book would seem to supply this need very
satisfactorily. It is not overburdened with detail, but
gives a balanced account of the subject, which will be
found very useful to students. A particularly good
feature is the inclusion of the chemical methods of
separation and analysis, which sometimes tend to get
lost in theoretical speculations.
478 NATURE [OcToBER 7, 1922
: rule are not of the type who place their knowledge
Letters to the Editor. onrecord. With the “‘ Discourse ’’ Dampier publishes
pe i Euitor does pat Wola ape mee port Ener maps of the hemispheres in which his observations are
2 ; summarised.
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
he undertake to return, or to correspond with
writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
thi wy other part of NATURE. Wo notice ts
»f anonymous Communications.) G
Can KH
LAKE?
Dampier’s ** Discourse of the Winds’’ and the Dis-
tribution of Wind on the Earth’s Surface:
DAMPIER’S “ Voyages ”’ are well known, at any rate
by name, but his “‘ Discourse of the Winds ”’ is seldom
referred to. It is, however, well worth careful
examination and, so far as I can judge, contains as
For his purposes he divides the earth’s surface into
four regions, namely, the two trade wind areas and
those to the north and south of them. These latter he
calls the ‘‘ Regions of Variable Winds.’’ The direc-
tions of the trades are indicated in the maps by lines
and arrows, but naturally and rightly the regions of
variable winds are left blank.
No indication is given of the directions of the wind
on land, but what he calls coastal winds, that is winds
the direction of which is influenced by the proximity
of land, are shown in some detail.
Parts of the maps are here reproduced (on the
Fic. 1.—Reproduction of parts of Dampier’s Maps to show coastal winds in the Trade wind areas.
much information about the distribution of winds as
any of the modern works on the same subject.
In this “ Discourse”? Dampier propounds no
theories, but aims at setting down the general char-
acter of the winds encountered by ships in all parts
of the world, using for this purpose his own observa-
tions, and such other information as he has gathered
from sources which he considers trustworthy.
It must be remembered that in Dampier’s time
(late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries), the
ships employed even for the longest voyages were
small, and the direction and strength of the prevailing
winds were much more important to navigators than
they are at the present time. It is true that there are
till plenty of small sailing craft in various parts of
the world, the captains of which are probably well
quainted with local conditions, but these men as a
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
original scale) which show that “ coastal’’ influence
in the trade wind areas extends farther to the west
(z.e. to leeward) of the continents than to the east.
Although it is impossible to determine a priori
what the true wind should be at any given spot, it is
not without interest to consider what would happen
in certain imaginable conditions much simpler than
those actually existing, and to see whether in such
conditions the air currents, etc., would at all resemble
those which are observed.
Starting with the earth as the only body in the
universe, without rotation, and at a temperature of
absolute zero, let its surface be uniform and level, and
let its volume and that of adjacent space be divided
into elementary conical cells proceeding from the
earth’s centre. Let the walls of the cells be non-
conductors of heat but transparent to radiation.
OcToBER 7, 1922]
NATUR
479
Now let this earth be warmed by a source of heat
equivalent to the sun, but in the form of a distant
ring surrounding it in the plane of the equator. Let
the atmosphere be transparent to radiation and take
its heat only from the floor of the cell which contains it.
In the course of time the contents of each cell will
reach the temperature of the floor, which will be a
maximum at the equator, and will vary as the cosine
of the latitude to absolute zero at the poles.
The barometric pressure in each cell will be the
same; were all the cells removed the atmosphere
would be in equilibrium. The equilibrium, however,
would be unstable, and the least departure from the
original stratification of density would cause ulti-
mately a circulation to be set up, in which, in the
absence of turbulence, warm air would flow from the
equator towards the poles at high levels, while cooled
air would travel in the opposite direction near the
surface of the earth. A steady distribution of tem-
perature would be reached when each element of the
surface lost by radiation as much heat as it received
from the source plus that supplied by the circulation,
and this distribution probably would not differ much
from that which now exists, though the fact that the
real atmosphere is more or less opaque to long waves
would introduce a sort of “‘ green-house ”’ effect, and
raise the mean temperature above that appropriate
to perfect transparency. Again if the imaginary
earth were completely covered by a deep ocean, a
separate circulation would be set up in the latter, and
the temperature distribution would be somewhat
modified in the direction of greater uniformity.
Since the energy of the circulation is derived from
the source of heat, there will be no change of pressure
due to the velocity, and supposing for the moment
that the air is incompressible, then in the nearly
horizontal path which constitutes the greater part of
each stream line circuit, the cross-section velocity and
dynamic head for each will be constant, though not
necessarily the same for different streams. The cross
section of the ascending and descending parts of the
streams will bear to the cross section of the horizontal
part the ratio of the length of the earth’s quadrant to
the height of the homogeneous atmosphere, and thus
in the neighbourhood of the poles and the equator
there will be a small increase of pressure. The form
of the stream lines due to temperature circulation in
: 2 spherical shell is indicated diagrammatically in
ig. 2.
Melght of Homogenews
Atmosphere.
390 80 70 60 50 30 20 10 0
40
Latitude
Fic. 2.—Stream lines of the circulation in a meridional element of a spherical
shell, the density of the fluid being supposed constant.
As regards the distribution of temperature, the
results would be much the same whether the earth
were stationary or rotating, but the direction and
velocity of the wind referred to a fixed point on the
solid surface would be very different in the two cases.
If, in the absence of surface friction, the earth were
given its present angular velocity the apparent wind
would have an easterly component of about 1000
miles per hour at the equator while at the poles there
would be a calm. If, on the other hand, when the
rotation was started, the air was given the same
velocity as the surface under it, the apparent wind
would vary in direction and force in a period equal
to that of the circulation.
In the real atmosphere, the effects of turbulence,
NO. 2762, VOL. T10]
viscosity, and surface friction will ensure that the
average velocity of the apparent wind shall in no
place exceed 30 or 40 miles per hour. If unresisted
air passes from lat. \ to \+ A) the change of the linear
speed of the ground under it, 7.e. the change in the
E. or W. component of the apparent wind, is
RAX(zr—sin A) linear velocity in longitude, and if the
apparent wind remains constant, it shows that surface
friction is sufficient to accelerate or retard the atmo-
sphere by this amount in the time taken in covering
the distance RA\. In the case of the earth, this
would imply that if the circulating velocity (7.e. the N.
or S. component) is 15 m.p.h., surface friction suffices
to change the speed of the apparent wind by about
I5 m.p.h. per hour near the poles while in lat. 30° the
corresponding change would be somewhat less than
2 m.p.h. per hour.
On the imaginary seasonless earth, the average
wind would everywhere be a definite function of the
latitude and coefficient of friction, provided that the
going and returning parts of the circulation did not
mix on the journey, and in low latitudes this would be
true even when the effects of turbulence were taken
into account. Farther north or south, however, the
hot and cold streams would become interwoven in
eddies the forms of which are incalculable, though the
average winds would always be either from N. and E.
or S. and W. Thus it might be expected that there
Fic. 3.—AA, Circular conducting plate and tank. BB, Annular hot water
trough. C, Axis and cold-water tank.
would be calms at the equator, moderate and regular
trade winds for some distance on either side, and
beyond these, irregular winds, the intensity of which
increased with the latitude. The barometric pressure
would be nearly constant except.in the eddies, and
there the variation of pressure would depend, not on
the actual velocity of the apparent wind, but on its
difference from the average for the latitude.
Such a description with modification depending on
the seasons, the presence of moisture in the air, and
on the distribution of land and water agrees with the
average conditions on the real earth. Dampier’s
maps show that coastal influence may be sensible
through 10° of longitude or more, and it may be
guessed that the direction of the.monsoons is in some
way influenced by the great area of land lying to the
north of the parts where they blow.
There is not much information available concerning
the wind structure of the atmosphere on the borders
of the Trades, and a proper investigation of this
subject would form an important addition to meteoro-
logical science; but such an investigation would
require more than one Challenger expedition devoted
to the exploration of the upper air instead of the deep
sea.
Expeditions of this kind are not likely to be under-
taken at the present time, but some notion of the
manner in which the Trades break up might be
gained by an experiment such as is indicated in
Fig. 3, where a thick circular metal plate, provided
with descending flanges at the circumference and a
thick central axis, carries a shallow circular tank
containing fluid. The flanges dip into a circular
trough of warm water while the axis is kept cold.
If the apparatus is stationary, a circulation is set up
in the tank of the type shown in Fig. 2, but if it has
an appropriate angular speed about the axis, the
480
NATURE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
conditions will have a certain similarity to those
existing in the atmosphere. The difference in the
character of the circulation in the two cases could
scarcely fail to give some useful hints.
Another illustration of the kind of flow to be
expected near the borders of the Trades may be
observed (although the analogy is not so close as in
the experiment) whenever a current of water flows
intoa pond. The central part of the stream continues
on its course for some distance unbroken, but the
margins are bordered by eddies, which (looking down
stream) are right-handed on the right, and left-handed
on the left side, and consist of equal volumes of water
from the stream and from the pond wrapped together
after the fashion of a “ roly-poly’’’ pudding. When
once formed, they have a certain life of their own, and
follow erratic courses, often generating secondary
eddies further from the main stream. In general
their life is short, but occasionally vertical components
in the flow of the main stream give rise to components
in the eddies parallel to their axes, and in such cases
the vortices may be sustained and intensified.
Much the same sort of action must be going on at
the borders of atmospheric currents, and it must
happen, especially in the turbulent regions, that
either on account of the general circulation or from
local causes, warm air will sometimes underlie colder
strata, and this is what is required to prolong the life
of eddies or vortices with vertical axes.
It may be said with some confidence that tornadoes,
sand pillars, and waterspouts are due to local causes
of this kind, and it seems highly probable that the
deep barometric depressions which accompany the
greater storms have a similar origin depending on
inversions of level of the general circulation. In
referring to warm and cold strata, the temperature
must be supposed to be compared at the same altitude
since, so far as thermometric readings are concerned,
the upper air is always colder than that near the
ground. A, MALLOCK.
9 Baring Crescent, Exeter,
August Io.
The Conditions of Sex-change in the Oyster
(Ostrea edulis).
In the issue of NAturE for August 12, p. 212,
and in several previous numbers, Dr. Orton has given
some interesting information concerning the old
question of the breeding habits of oysters, especially
sex-change and its conditions. This problem has
been discussed in a certain number of ancient treatises
(Davaine, Van Beneden, Lacaze-Duthiers, Hoek,
etc.), but has been but little investigated in the
course of the last few years. During my work at the
Danish Biological Station I have, since 1919, been
making experiments and investigations on the biology
of the oyster in the Limfjord. As my results in
several respects confirm and amplify those of Dr.
Orton, I will give here a short account of some of
the most important. In the course of the winter a
more detailed paper will probably be published in
the Report of the Danish Biological Station.
Dr. Orton confirms the observation, made by
Mobius, that in European oysters a specimen directly
after breeding produces spermatozoa, and I fully
agree with him. In several cases I have proved,
through experiments with oysters, in the shells of
which a little hole had been bored, that an oyster in
the course of less than a week changes from a female
to a male.
Dr. Orton further mentions the interesting fact
that he has been able to state that an oyster born in
1921 was spawning already in 1922; this phenome-
NO, 2702,, VOL) [Toll
non he ascribes, and very rightly, to the high tempera-
ture of the summer 1921. I have investigated several
thousand oysters in the Limfjord: the youngest
female found by me was at least three years old,
which is no doubt due to the lower temperature of
the Limfjord. Neither did I ever find that oysters
had ripe spermatozoa in the summer in which they
were born; in the Limfjord that phenomenon only
occurs in the following summer. Formerly the
earliest time for an oyster to breed was much dis-
cussed. If we examine from where the different
authors have obtained their material, it appears that
those who advocated early breeding had got theirs
from Southern France, while those who advocated
two to three years as the age for breeding had had
material from the English Channel and the North
Sea.
From my experiments, and from the study of
previous papers on this subject, I have come to the
conclusion that the duration of the male stage depends
on temperature, so that the colder it is the longer the
stage lasts. At the temperature which ordinarily pre-
vails in the Limfjord (15°-16° in July), this stage will
last three to four years. The oyster, therefore,
breeds for the first time (the first stage being the male
stage) when it is three to four years old; further,
every single oyster individual in ordinary circum-
stances of temperature breeds only every third or
fourth year, in especially cold years still less often,
in warm years more often. These phenomena,
together with the shorter duration of the female
stage, explain the fact that in a certain number of
oysters in the Limfjord we always find only a rela-
tively small percentage of females. This likewise
explains why the oyster breeds more sparingly the
further north it is, and decreases regularly in number
without any sharp boundary-line.
The breeding of the oyster is in at least three
respects influenced by temperature. A high tempera-
ture increases the number of times an oyster may
breed in its life, it shortens the time which the breed
passes in the mantlecave of the mother animal, and,
according to Hagmeier, it shortens the pelagic larva
stage. R. SPARCK.
Copenhagen, September 5, 1922.
Rise in Temperature of Living Plant Tissue
when infected by Parasitic Fungus.
WHILE engaged on some work connected with the
export of citrus fruits from South Africa to England,
we have come across a point of interest to plant
pathologists and bacteriologists which would seem
worth recording at this stage.
In investigating the effects of inoculating oranges
and grapefruit with Penicillium digitatum we found
that a very definite rise of temperature took place
in the infected tissue. We are not aware of such
an observation having been made before in connexion
with the invasion of plant tissue by a parasitic fungus,
and it will be interesting to ascertain whether a
similar rise of temperature takes place in all cases
where living plant tissue is attacked by parasitic fungi
or bacteria.
To what extent direct reaction of the host is
responsible for the rise of temperature is still to be
determined ; certainly no rise of temperature was
observed when the host tissue was killed prior to
inoculation. Mercury-in-glass thermometers were
used in making these observations, but the employ-
ment of thermo-electric apparatus will naturally be
necessary to carry the investigations further.
This observation of ours would seem to open up
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
481
an entirely new field for research by botanists, and
it is probable that it may have an important bearing
on the problem of fruit and vegetable transport and
storage.
An account of the experiments undertaken to
illustrate the above will be published in due course.
I. B. Pore Evans.
Mary PoLe Evans.
Office of the High Commissioner for the
Union of South Africa,
Trafalgar Square, London, September 22.
Coral in Medicine.
In the serious contributions published in recent
issues of NATURE on the subject of black coral, no
one seems to have remembered that in the “‘ Médicin
malgré lui’’ Moliére makes Sganarelle offer a medicinal
cheese to Perrin for his mother, thus :
P. Du fromage, monsieur ?
S. Oui; c’est un fromage préparé, ou il entre de
lor, du corail et des perles, et quantité d’autres choses
précieuses.
And Sganarelle’s last words are, “‘ Si elle meurt, ne
manquez pas de la faire enterrer du mieux que vous
pourrez.”’ FE. JEFFREY BELL.
September 20.
Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer.
Miss Lockyer and I are preparing a biography of
my husband, Sir Norman Lockyer, in a form which
I hope will make it not only of interest to his many
friends and admirers, but also a contribution to the
scientific literature of the present day. If any
readers of NATURE happen to possess letters from my
husband, I should be greatly obliged if they would
give me the opportunity of seeing them. My object
in making this request is that any matters of general
interest which thereby come to light might be incor-
porated in the work.
The letters would not be quoted, except with the
permission of their owners, and would be returned as
soon as their contents had been noted.
T. Mary Lockyer.
Salcombe Regis, Sidmouth,
September 22.
Harpoons under Peat at Holderness, Yorks.
Ar the recent meeting of the British Association
at Hull there was a very lively discussion at Section
H about some harpoons said to have been found under
peat in Holderness. May I ask you to be so good
as to spare a little space, in order that I may say
more fully what time prevented me from saying
then ?
There is a doubt about the authenticity of those
harpoons. Mr. T. Sheppard believes them to have
been made by the supposed finder; Mr. A. L.
Armstrong, who introduced them to the meeting,
believes them to be genuine. I also believe one of
them to be genuine, the smaller of the two; about
the other I am not so sure. But I expressed no
opinion as to whether, if genuine, they were found
locally or not, since I have no means of forming
an opinion. It is possible that they—or the smaller
of the two—were found in archeological excavations
abroad ; and a fictitious site in Yorkshire given to
them later to enhance their interest.
Mr. Sheppard quite rightly says that the discovery
NO. 2762, VOL. II0]
of a flint axe of a certain type ‘‘ in the neighbourhood ”’
proves nothing. But I understood that it was found
under a depth of peat. In type it is Campignian,
exactly what one would expect to find associated
with harpoons of early neolithic type.
There can be little doubt that in Holderness exist
remains of the early neolithic age, remains which are
older than the Long Barrows. Apart from surface-
finds, the pile- -dwellings or platforms at Ulrome are
evidence of the existence of habitations there which
seem to be neolithic; they contained stag’s-horn
axes of a well-known eariy neolithic type—though it
is true that type survived right through the neolithic
period on the continent. There is thus no @ priori
reason for rejecting the harpoons; they are just
what I have always expected would be found in
Holderness.
However, we cannot use suspect material as
evidence, and the best thing to do is to go into the
field and test it. If Mr. Armstrong will find a site
where flint flakes and implements are to be found
under the peat in sufficient numbers to justify
digging, I will come and bring a spade with me.
O. G. S. CRAWFORD.
Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton,
September 18.
A Curious Luminous Phenomenon.
I HESITATE to trespass on your space in describing
an observation which may be more common than
I suppose.
While standing about twenty yards from the sea-
shore and looking due south out to sea, the horizon
and a region slightly above it (elevation only about
1° or 2°) were lit up by a faint white light which
extended laterally over a segment subtending an
angle of about 30°.
The conditions under which this light was seen
were as follows: Time, 7.15 P.M.; wind strong from
the west, bringing up a good deal of low cloud and
very fine rain in the air causing bad visibility ; sea
rather rough with four lines of breakers at the shore.
The appearances of the light were not the same to
my wife as to myself. Her impression of it was that
it was a light which she saw only if her eyes followed
it, yet it consisted of a long streak of light parallel to
the horizon with a break in it and “then another
small streak. My impression was that of a light
which appeared to flash up over the horizon, sub-
tending the angles already noted, the flashes not
succeeding each other regularly. I had the feeling
that my eyes had to be just right for getting the
impression at all.
As to the cause, I think we can eliminate that of
distant lightning; the weather had not been for
many days of a thundery type, and it is unlikely
that distant flashes would light up a streak of the
distant sky embracing such a wide lateral angle and
yet be restricted to an elevation of not more than 2°
The sky above the horizon was darkly and uni-
formly clouded at the time, so that the horizon was
barely visible, but white-capped waves could be
seen far out at sea. The brightest objects in the
field of view were the lines of breakers at the shore,
and it may be that the retinal images of these being
very near to that of the horizon were the cause ot
the phenomenon. Perhaps some readers of NATURE
are familiar with this sort of observation and will point
to the obvious cause. Splits
Aldwick, Sussex,
September 16.
PZ
482 IVA TORE, [OcTOBER 7, 1922
A Fifty-foot Interferometer Telescope.
By Dr. Georce E, Hate, For.Mem.R.S.
| 21,000,000, 270,000,000, and 400,000,000 miles re-
fies angular diameter of a star was measured for
the first time by Mr. Francis G. Pease at the
Mount Wilson Observatory on December 13, 1920,
with a 20-foot Michelson interferometer attached to
the roo-inch reflecting telescope. The method em-
ployed is due to Prof. Michelson, who had adjusted
Fic. 1.—5
spectively. These stars are all in the giant stage, with
densities ranging from o-ooooor (Antares) to o:0002
(Arcturus). The Sun, a dwarf star 866,000 miles in
diameter, in a much more advanced state of develop-
ment, has a density of 1-4 (water=1).
oot interferometer telescope tor the Mount Wilson Observatory.
Model seen from the north (part of wall removed to show 36-inch mirror cell and driving mechanism).
Fic. 2
—so-foot interferometer telescope for the Mount Wilson Observatory.
Model seen from the south, showing movable house that covers the instrument when not in use.
the interferometer and tested it on stars during the
previous summer, with the assistance of Mr. Pease.
Since that time Mr. Pease has measured the diameters
of Betelgeuse, Arcturus, Aldebaran, and Antares. On
the basis of the best available values of their parallaxes,
the corresponding linear diameters are 215,000,000,
+ The substance of this article was communicated to Section A of the
British Association at Hullon Monday, Sept. 11, by Prof. H. H, Turner,
who showed the photographs of the model on the screen,
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
It would evidently be of great interest to measure
the diameters of other stars, of various spectral types,
because of the direct bearing of the results on the
problem of stellar evolution. Unfortunately, very few
are within the range of the 20-foot interferometer, and
neither the capacity of the telescope mounting nor the
width of the observing aperture in the dome will permit
a larger instrument to be used with the roo-inch re-
OcToBER 7, 1922]
NATORE
483
flector. Immediately after the first successful measures
by Mr. Pease, both he and I made several designs
of large interferometers with independent equatorial
mountings, but their cost would have been too great to
warrant their construction. It was also thought ad-
visable to postpone further instrumental developments
until they could be undertaken in the light of prolonged
experience with the 20-foot interferometer.
The method has since proved so successful, and its
wider application so desirable, that the mechanical
problem has recently been taken up anew. Optically
the 20-foot instrument leaves nothing to be desired.
The new instrument is therefore simply a larger Michel-
son stellar interferometer adapted for the observation
of fainter and smaller stars, embodying no new optical
features, but carried by a mounting so simplified in
design as to reduce the cost of construction to a mini-
mum. My specifications for the mounting, which have
been improved in certain respects and developed into
working drawings by Mr. Pease and his associates in the
Division of Instrument Design of the Mount Wilson
Observatory, call for a light but very rigid skeleton girder
about 54 feet long and ro feet deep at its centre, where its
cross-section 1s about 44 feet (Figs. 1 and 2). This is to
be built of standard steel shapes, cut to length at the
mill and riveted together on Mount Wilson. The girder
will be bolted to a heavy plate carried by the upper ex-
tremity of the polar axis, which is a short steel forging
turning in standard roller bearings, mounted on the
upper face of a massive concrete pier. The polar axis
passes through the centre of gravity of the girder, thus
assuring its balance in all positions. A worm-gear
sector of long radius, bolted to the girder, is driven
by a worm connected with a driving-clock fixed near
the north face of the pier. The range of motion in
right ascension is 14 hours east and west, thus allowing
ample time for the observation of a star when near its
meridian passage.
The optical parts comprise a paraboloidal mirror of
36 inches aperture and about 15 feet focal length,
mounted within the girder, as shown in the illustrations.
The two outer plane mirrors, each r5 inches in diameter,
mounted at 45° on carriages which slide along rails
bolted to the upper face of the girder, receive light from
the star and reflect it to two similar 45° plane mirrors,
fixed in position above the 36-inch mirror, to which
they send the two parallel beams. These are returned
as converging beams toward the focus, but are inter-
cepted by a (Newtonian) 45° plane mirror above the
centre of the girder, which sends the light to the focal
plane, in the direction of the north pole. The observer,
seated on a platform carried by the girder, makes the
necessary adjustments and determines the visibility
of the interference fringes corresponding to various
settings of the outer 45° mirrors, which are periodically
moved apart by a single long screw driven by an electric
motor. The distance between these mirrors, when the
fringes disappear completely, gives the angular diameter
of the star if the mean wave-length of its light is known.
To reach stars north or south of the equator, the
two outer 45° mirrors are rotated simultaneously by
synchronous motors about the axis joining their centres.
In this way any star from the pole to 30° south declina-
tion can be observed when near the meridian.
Throughout the design precautions have been taken
to reduce the amount of large and expensive machine
work toa minimum. The girder need be only approxi-
mately straight, as the rails, carefully planed in 12-foot
lengths (the “limit of our planer bed), will be optically
lined up by adjusting screws. The final compensation
for length of path will be effected by a sliding w edge, of
the type designed by Prof. Michelson for the 20-foot
interferometer. Comparison fringes, adjustable for
visibility, will be provided as an aid to the observer.
The instrument will be covered when not in use by a
sheet steel house with double walls, the upper part of
which can be rolled away longitudinally by an electric
motor.
This interferometer should permit the measurement
of more than thirty stars brighter than the fourth
magnitude, representing a wide range of spectral types.
It is now under construction in the instrument and
optical shops of the Mount Wilson Observatory.”
2 For a brief account of the 20-foot interferometer and its method of opera-
tion, see the chapter on ‘“‘ Giant Stars ’’ in the writer’s recent book ** The
New Heavens,” reviewed in Nature of July 11, p. 2. Full details are given
by Messrs. Michelson, Pease, and Anderson in the Astrophysical Journal.
Motorless or Wind Flight.
By Dr. S$. BropeEtsky.
ECENT achievements in motorless flight, variously
designated as gliding, soaring, and sailing, have
attracted considerable attention, and much discussion
has arisen as to the practical and military value of
this new development, as well as to its scientific
significance. While many authorities anticipate
nothing more than the emergence of a new “ sport,”
and ascribe little importance to motorless flights,
others of a more imaginative turn of mind foresee
great possibilities in this type of aerial navigation.
The motorless flying machine has even been pro-
claimed as heralding the doom of the engine-driven
aeroplane !
It is certainly premature to attempt a forecast of
the future of flight in a glider. The art of gliding is,
of course, older than that of flight in an engine-driven
No. 2762, VOL. 110]
machine: Lilienthal’s experiments with gliders were
made more than a generation ago, long before any
aeroplane containing a motor rose into the air and
executed a_ real ‘flight. But Lilienthal, Pilcher,
Chanute, Orville W right, and others were not able
to stay ‘aloft in a glider more than a few minutes ;
whereas during the recent competitions in Germany,
Martens remained in the air nearly three-quarters of
an hour, and Hentzen stayed in the air two hours,
and later three hours, performing evolutions of
an intricate character. It is therefore clear that
the art of gliding has entered upon a new phase,
and the scientific problems involved merit careful
discussion.
As already indicated, there is considerable diversity
in the names given to the flights thus carried out
484
without the aid of a motor. All the three names
mentioned above are really unsuitable. The term
gliding is reminiscent of descent in an aeroplane,
while the real interest of recent events has been in
the fact that pilots were able to stay in the air very
long without the help of a motor, and in fact per-
formed climbing feats. The term soaring is less un-
suitable, but it suggests climbing as the essential
thing, whereas, in reality, horizontal flight in a glider
is just as different from aeroplane flight as climbing
in a glider. Finally, sailing is quite inappropriate
as a description of the flight in question. Perhaps
the term wind-flight is a really suitable name for
flying without a motor, as distinguished from engine-
flight in an aeroplane.
The wind is indeed the main instrument of motor-
less flight. Whether birds and other natural flyers
do or do not derive energy from the air in some mysteri-
ous manner of which we have, as yet, no knowledge is
a question that does not arise in the present connexion.
The successes achieved have been the outcome of care-
ful study of design and of movements in the air. In
construction the gliders used look like aeroplanes
without engines, and the determining factors in the
flights were the various types of winds that blew while
the machines were in the air.
It is clear that in a quiescent atmosphere the net
result of any motion through the air in a motorless
machine must be a diminution in the total energy,
?.e. in the sum of the kinetic and potential energies.
It follows that in the absence of wind, real flight,
namely, flight in which the machine maintains its level
for some considerable time, or rises still higher above
the ground, is not possible without a source of energy
like an engine. It is the presence of wind that puts
in the hands of the pilot a source of energy, which
can be used to neutralise the loss of energy involved
in motion through the atmospheric resisting medium.
Although it should be obvious that the wind must
be upwards or unsteady in order to supply this energy,
it is necessary to say a few words about the case ofa
steady horizontal wind, since it has been claimed that
“once the airman has left the ground he gets his
energy from the wind, which may be level and steady.”
This is not correct, as can be proved quite simply.
If we write down the equations of motion of a glider
through the air under the action of gravity, we get
three types of terms :
(1) Accelerations in terms of the motion of the
glider relative to the earth ;
(2) Gravity components ;
(3) Forces and couples due to air resistance, these
being functions of the motion of the glider relative
to the air.
It is useful to write the first terms, the accelerations,
with reference to the motion of the glider relative to
the air. When this is done for a steady wind, the
resulting equations are exactly of the same form as
if there were no wind at all, since the moving “ air
axes’? move uniformly as seen from the “ earth
axes.” This means that when there is a steady wind,
we get the actual motion of the glider as seen from
the earth, by adding the velocity of the wind to the
motion of the glider in still air; in other words, to
an observer travelling with the wind, the motion of
NO, 2762, VOL. 110]
NAROLTE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
the glider would not reveal any effects that can be
attributed to the steady wind.
In a horizontal steady wind, therefore, real flight is
no more possible without an engine than in absolutely
windless air. Any argument that leads to a contrary
conclusion must have a fallacy somewhere, if we are
to have any confidence in the principles upon which
all our mechanics are based. It is true that a steady
horizontal wind can be used as an aid in gliding.
Thus, by pointing his machine into the wind the pilot
can get off the ground with less initial speed than in
still air. Further, when the machine is already in
the air the pilot can, by pointing it with the wind,
increase the horizontal distance travelled before
reaching the ground again. But a steady horizontal
wind cannot make the machine stay at the same level
in the air for any length of time, or climb. For these
purposes the wind must be upwards or variable.
If the wind is steady, but has an upward component,
it helps in the attainment of real flight, which we can
call wind-flight. Thus, if a glider is so constructed
that in still air it performs a straight line glide with
speed U at gliding angle 6 below the horizontal, then
a steady wind of speed U, blowing at an angle 0 above
the horizontal, will keep the glider suspended in the
air indefinitely, if it points into the wind. And, more
generally, if the steady wind has speed U’ at an angle
@’ above the horizontal, where U’ sin 6’=U sin @,
then the machine will fly horizontally with speed
U cos 6—U' cos 6’ relative to the earth, if it is given
this speed initially against the wind. If U’sin 6’ is
greater than U sin 6, so that the vertical component
of the wind is greater than the rate of vertical fall of
the glider in still air, then the glider will climb with
horizontal speed U cos @— U’ cos 6’ and upward vertical
speed U’ sin 6’—U sin @.
These results are simple and obvious. Given a
steady wind with sufficient upward vertical component,
a glider can perform real flights and make evolutions
similar to those of ordinary aeroplane flight.
It is not necessary, however, to postulate steady
upward wind. If the wind is variable, and this is,
of course, usually the case, energy can be derived
from the wind, even if it is horizontal, or downwards.
This can be seen by a little analysis based on the
ordinary equations of motion of the glider. Thus,
suppose that the wind is in a straight line, but of vary-
ing speed. If we write the accelerations in these
equations in terms of the motion relative to the air,
we readily find that the motion of the glider relative
to the air is the same as if the air were at rest, and a
force per unit mass were given to the glider, in a direc-
tion opposite to that of the wind and proportional to
the acceleration of the wind. If the wind rises steadily
from zero to U’ in time ¢, the motion of the glider is
found by taking the air to be at rest and assuming
that on each unit mass there acts, in addition to the
weight, a force U’/gt in a direction opposite to the
wind.
If, then, the machine is pointed into the rising wind,
and the wind varies quickly enough, flying becomes
possible. If the wind is being retarded, similar pro-
pulsive effect is obtained by pointing the machine
with the wind. It follows that in a fairly sudden gust,
which can be taken to consist of a quickly increasing
OcToBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
485
wind, followed by a quickly decreasing wind, the pilot
can take advantage of both phases by pointing the
machine into the rising wind, and with the falling
wind. Quick manceuvring is, of course, essential, as
well as an intimate acquaintance with the movements
that are always taking place in the air.
With more complicated variations in the wind,
more complex results are obtained. It is now clear,
however, that the future of wind-flight is associated
with three main lines of study :
(1) The motions that are continually taking place
in the atmosphere need to be studied, not only the
meteorological wind phenomena as ordinarily under-
stood, but particularly the detailed air motions, the
“internal structure of the wind.”
(2) Motorless flight presents problems of design
that are different from those of ordinary aeroplanes.
This is because the glider is a much lighter machine
than the aeroplane. Stability is essential, but easy
control is a sine qua non, since so much depends upon
taking as full advantage as possible of any temporary,
and often unanticipated, motion in the air.
(3) The rigid dynamics of wind-flight is also an
important factor in the progress of the art. Only in
very exceptional circumstances can the motion of a
glider be steady. Upward steady winds, or uniformly
varying winds, are only of rare occurrence and brief
duration, and in trying to perform real flight in an
engineless machine the pilot must make use of any
stray wind that comes to his aid. The motion in
wind- flight must consequently be very variable. In
this respect wind-flight must generally differ in
essence from engine- “flight. In the latter steady
flight is the rule, in the former steady flight is bound
to be a comparative rarity. The pilot must there-
fore learn from experience and from calculation to
know what to expect from his machine under different
conditions. The dynamics of wind-flight should be a
fruitful subject of study both for the aviator and the
mathematician.
The Influence of the late W. H. R. Rivers on the Development of
Psychology in Great Britain.t
By CHaries S. Myers, C.B-E., M.A., M.D., Sc.D., F.RS.
MOURNFUL gloom has been cast over the pro-
ceedings of our newly born Section. Since its
inauguration twelve months ago this Section, as,
indeed, psychology in general, has suffered an irrepar-
able loss through the sudden death, on June 4 last, of
him who was to have presided here to-day. When,
only a few weeks ago, it fell to me, as one of his first
pupils, to occupy Rivers’s place, I could think of little
else than of him to whom I have owed so much in
nearly thirty years of intimate friendship and in-
valuable advice ; and I felt that it would be impossible
for me then to prepare a presidential address to this
Section on any other subject than on his life’s work
in psychology.
William Halse Rivers Rivers was born on March 12,
1864, at Luton, near Chatham, the eldest son of the
Rey. H. F. Rivers, vicar of St. Faith’s, Maidstone, and
of Elizabeth, his wife, vée Hunt. Many of his father’s
family had been officers in the Navy—a fact responsible,
doubtless, for Rivers’s love of sea voyages. The
father of his paternal grandfather, Lieutenant W. T.
Rivers, R.N., was that brave Lieutenant William
Rivers, R.N., who, as a midshipman in the Victory at
Trafalgar, was severely wounded in the mouth and had
his left leg shot away at the very beginning of the
action, in defence of Nelson or in trying to avenge the
latter’s mortal wound. So at least runs the family
tradition ; also according to which Nelson’s last words
to his surgeon were: ‘‘ Take care of young Rivers.”
A maternal uncle of Rivers was Dr. James Hunt, who
in 1863 founded and was the first President of the
Anthropological Society, a precursor of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, and from 1863 to 1866 at
the meetings of this Association strove to obtain that
recognition for anthropology as a distinct Subsection
or Section which was successfully won for psychology
by his nephew, who presided over us at the Bourne-
1 From the presidential address delivered to Section J (Psychology) of the
British Association at Hull on Sept. rr.
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
mouth meeting in 1919, when we were merely a Sub-
section of Physiology.
Our “young Rivers” gave his first lecture at the
age of twelve, ata debating society of his father’s pupils.
Its subject was “ Monkeys.” He was educated first
at a preparatory school at Brighton, and from 1877 to
1880 at Tonbridge School. Thence he had hoped to
proceed to Cambridge ; but a severe attack of enteric
fever compelled him to take a year’s rest, and thus
prevented him from competing for an entrance scholar-
ship at that University. He matriculated instead in
the University of London, and entered St. Bartholo-
mew’s Hospital in 1882, sharing the intention of one
of his father’s pupils of becoming an Army doctor.
This idea, however, he soon relinquished ; but, like
his desire to go to Cambridge, it was to be realised later
in lite.?
When he took his degree of Bachelor of Medicine in
1886 he was accounted the youngest Bachelor ever
known at his hospital. Two years later he graduated
as Doctor of Medicine, and he spent these two and the
two following years in resident appointments at
Chichester (1888) and at St. Bartholomew’s (1889)
hospitals, in a brief period of private medical practice
(7890), and in travelling as ship’s surgeon to America
and Japan (1887), the first of numerous subsequent
voyages.
In 1892 he spent the spring and early summer at
Jena, attending the lectures of Eucken, Ziehen, Bins-
wanger, and others. In a diary kept by him during
this visit to Germany the following sentence occurs :
““T have during the last few weeks come to the con-
clusion that I should go in for insanity when I return to
England and work as much as possible at psychology.”
Accordingly, in the same year he became clinical
assistant at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, and in 1893
he assisted G. H. Savage in his lectures on mental
2 For many of the above details of Rivers’s early life and antecedents I
am indebted to his sister, Miss K. E. Rivers.
486
NATURE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
diseases at Guy’s Hospital, laying special stress on their
psychological aspect. Meanwhile, at Cambridge,
Michael Foster was seeking some one who would give
instruction there in the physiology of the sense organs,
McKendrick having, as examiner in physiology, recently
complained of the inadequate training of the Cambridge
students in this branch of the subject. Foster’s choice
fell on Rivers, and in 1893 he invited him to the
University for this purpose. Rivers went to Germany
for a short period of study under Professor Krapelin,
then of Heidelberg, whose brilliant analysis of the work
curve and careful investigations into the effects of
drugs on bodily and mental work had aroused his
intense interest. At Cambridge he set himself to
plan one of the earliest systematic practical courses in
experimental psychology in the world, certainly the
first in this country. In 1897 he was officially recog-
nised by the University, being elected to the newly
established lectureship in physiological and experi-
mental psychology. But the welcome and encourage-
ment he received from cognate branches of study at
Cambridge could scarcely be called embarrassing.
Even to-day practical work is not deemed essential
for Cambridge honours candidates in elementary
psychology ; psychology is not admitted among the
subjects of the Natural Sciences Tripos ; and no pro-
vision is made for teaching the subject at Cambridge
to medical students. Rivers first turned his attention
principally to the study of colour vision and visual
space perception. Between 1893 and 1go1 he pub-
lished experimental papers ‘On Binocular Colour-
mixture’ (Proc. Cambs. Philosoph. Soc., vol. viii.,
pp. 273-77), on ““ The Photometry of Coloured Papers ”’
(Jour. of Physiol., vol. xxii., pp. 137-45), and “ On
Erythropsia ” (Trans. Ophthal. Soc., London, vol. xx1.,
pp. 296-305), and until rg08 he was immersed in the
task of mastering the entire literature of past experi-
mental work on vision, the outcome of which was
published in 1900 as an article in the second volume of
the important ‘‘ Text-book of Physiology,” edited by
Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer. This exhaustive article
of 123 pages on vision by Rivers is still regarded as the
most accurate and careful account of the whole subject
in the English language.
In 1896 Rivers published an important paper “ On
the Apparent Size of Objects ” (Mind, N.S., vol. v.,
pp. 71-80), in which he described his investigations
into the effects of atropin and eserin on the size of seen
objects. He distinguished two kinds of micropsia
which had hitherto been confused—micropsia at the
fixation-point due to irradiation, and micropsia beyond
the fixation-point, which is of special psychological
importance. Rivers came to the interesting conclusion
that the mere effort to carry out a movement of
accommodation may produce the same micropsia as
when that effort is actually followed by movement.
In other words, an illusion of size may be dependent
solely on central factors. His later work, in conjunc-
tion with Prof. Dawes Hicks, on “The Illusion of
Compared Horizontal and Vertical Lines,” which was
published in 1908 (Brit. Jour. of Psychol., vol. i1., pp.
241-60), led him to trace this illusion to origins still
less motor in nature. Here horizontal and vertical
lines were compared under tachistoscopic and under
prolonged exposure. The amount of the illusion was
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
found to be approximately the same for tachistoscopic
as for prolonged exposure of the lines, but in the former
the judgment was more definite and less hesitating—in
other words, more naive, more purely sensory, more
“physiological ”—than in prolonged exposure. Al-
though this result is not inconsistent with the view that
visual space perception depends for its genesis on eye
movement, it compels us to admit that visual space
perception, once acquired, can occur in the absence of
eye movement; or, in more general language, that
changes in consciousness, originally arising in connexion
with muscular activity, may occur later in the absence
of that activity. The provision of experimental
evidence in favour of so fundamental and wide-reaching
a view is obviously of the greatest importance.
In 1898, in which year he was given the degree of
Hon. M.A. at Cambridge, Rivers took a fresh path in
his varied career by accepting Dr. A. C. Haddon’s
invitation to join the Cambridge Anthropological
Expedition to the Torres Straits. This was the first
expedition in which systematic work was carried out
in the ethnological application of the methods and
apparatus of experimental psychology. His former
pupils, Prof. W. McDougall and I, assisted Rivers in
this new field. Rivers interested himself especially
in investigating the vision of the natives—their visual
acuity, their colour vision, their colour nomenclature,
and their susceptibility to certain visual geometric
illusions. He continued to carry out psychological
work of the same comparative ethnological character
after his return from the Torres Straits in Scotland
(where he and I sought comparative data), during a
visit to Egypt in the winter of 1900, and from rgo1-2
in his expedition to the Todas of Southern India.
His psychological investigations among the Torres
Straits islanders, Egyptians and Todas (Reports of the
Cambridge Anthrop. Exped. to Torres Straits, vol. i1.,
Pt. I., pp. 1-132; Jour. of Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxxi.,
pp. 229-47 ; Brit. Jour. of Psychol., vol. i., pp. 321-96)
will ever stand as models of precise, methodical observa-
tions in the field of ethnological psychology. Nowhere
does he disclose more clearly the admirably scientific
bent of his mind—his insistence on scientific procedure,
his delight in scientific analysis, and his facility in
adapting scientific methods to novel experimental
conditions. He reached the conclusion that no sub-
stantial difference exists between the visual acuity of
civilised and uncivilised peoples, and that the latter
show a very definite diminution in sensibility to blue,
which, as he suggested, is perhaps attributable to the
higher macular pigmentation among coloured peoples.
He observed a generally defective nomenclature for
blue, green, and brown among primitive peoples, both
white and coloured, and large differences in the
frequency of colour-blindness among the different
uncivilised peoples whom he examined. In his work
on visual illusions he found that the vertical-horizontal-
line illusion was more marked, while the Miller-Lyer
illusion was less marked, among uncivilised than among
civilised communities; and he concluded that the
former illusion was therefore dependent rather on
physiological, the latter rather on psychological factors,
the former being counteracted, the latter being favoured,
by previous experience, e.g. of drawing lines or of
apprehending complex figures as wholes.
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
WAT ORE
487
In 1903, the year after his return from the Todas,
and the year of his election to a Fellowship at St. John’s
College, Rivers began an investigation, continued for
five years, with Dr. Henry Head}; in which the latter,
certain sensory nerves of whose arm had been experi-
mentally divided, acted as subject, and Rivers acted
as experimenter, applying various stimuli to the arm
and recording the phenomena of returning cutaneous
sensibility. The exact interpretation of this “ Human
Experiment in Nerve Division,’ published at length in
1908 (Brain, vol. xxxi., pp. 323-450), has been dis-
puted by subsequent workers, whose divergent results,
however, are at least partly due to their employment
of different methods of procedure. Head’s experiment
has never been identically repeated, and until this has
been done we are probably safe in trusting to the results
reached by the imaginative genius and the cautious
critical insight of this rare combination of investigators.
While working upon Head’s arm, Rivers’s indomit- |
able activity led him to simultaneous occupation
in other fields. In 1904 he assisted Prof. James
Ward to found and to edit the British Journal of
Psychology, and in that year he also received an in-
vitation to deliver the Croonian Lectures in 1906 at
the Royal College of Physicians, of which in 1899 he
had been elected a Fellow. The study of drug effects
had long interested him. So, reverting to the work
he had done under Krapelin many years previously, he
chose as his subject for the Croonian Lectures, ‘* The
Influence of Alcohol and other Drugs on Fatigue ”’
(Amold, 1908). But although he utilised Krapelin’s
ergograph and many of Krapelin’s methods, Rivers’s
fiaiy for discovering previous ‘“‘ faulty methods of
investigation ” and his devotion to scientific methods
and accuracy could not fail to advance the subject.
Of no one may it be more truly said than of him,—
nihil tetigit quod non ornavit. He felt instinctively that
many of the supposed effects of alcohol were really due
to the suggestion, interest, excitement or sensory
stimulation accompanying the taking of the drug.
Accordingly he disguised the drug, and prepared a
control mixture which was indistinguishable from it.
On certain days the drug mixture was taken, on other
days the control mixture was taken, the subject never
knowing which he was drinking. He found that the
sudden cessation of all tea and coffee necessary for the
study of the effects of caffeine induced a loss of energy,
and that other mental disturbance might occur through
giving up all forms of alcoholic drink. Therefore most
of his experiments were carried out more than twelve
months after the taking of these drinks had been
discontinued. Instead of recording a single ergogram
Rivers took several sets of ergograms each day, each
set consisting usually of six ergograms taken at intervals
of two minutes, and separated from the next set by an
interval of thirty or sixty minutes. He arranged that
the drug mixture or the control mixture should be taken
after obtaining the first set of ergograms, which served
as a standard wherewith subsequent sets on the same
day might be compared. He worked with Mr. Webber
on alcohol and caffeine, and was followed by the similar
work of Dr. P. C. V. Jones in 1908 on strychnine, and
of Dr. J. G. Slade in 1909 on Liebig extract:
With these vast improvements in method Rivers
failed to confirm the conclusions of nearly all earlier
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
Investigators on the effects of from 5 to 20 c.c. of
absolute alcohol on muscular work. His results with
these doses, alike for muscular and mental work, were
mainly negative, and indeed with larger doses (40 c.c.)
were variable and inconclusive ; although an equivalent
quantity of whisky gave an immediate increase of
muscular work—a result which strongly suggests the
influence of sensory stimulation rather than the direct
effect of the drug on the central nervous system or on
the muscular tissues. Rivers concluded that alcohol
may in some conditions favourably act on muscular
work by increasing pleasurable emotion and by dulling
sensations of fatigue, but that probably its most
important effect is to depress higher control, thus
tending to increase muscular and to diminish mental
efficiency.
From the concluding passages of these Croonian
Lectures the following sentences may be aptly cited :
“The branch of psychology in which I am chiefly
interested is that to which the name of individual
psychology is usually given. It is that branch of
psychology which deals with the differences in the
mental constitutions of different peoples, and by an
extension of the term to the differences which char-
acterise the members of different races. . . . These
experiments leave little doubt that variations in the
actions of drugs on different persons may have their
basis in deep-seated physiological variations, and I
believe that the study of these variations of suscepti-
bility may do more than perhaps any other line of work
to enable us to understand the nature of temperament
and the relation between the mental and physical
characters which form its two aspects.” Throughout
his life Rivers was steadfast to this biological stand-
point, correlating the psychological with the physio-
logical, and hoping to discover different mental levels
corresponding to different neural levels.
Now we approach the last phase of Rivers’s psycho-
logical work, the outcome of his war experiences. In
1907 he had given up his University teaching in ex-
perimental psychology ; for six years before the war
he had published nothing of psychological or physio-
logical interest. This was a period in which Rivers
devoted himself wholly to the ethnology-and sociology
of primitive peoples. The outbreak of war found him
for the second time visiting Melanesia for ethnological
field work. Failing at first to get war work on his
return to England, Rivers set himself to prepare the
Fitzpatrick Lectures on “ Medicine, Magic and Re-
ligion,”’ which he had been invited to deliver to the
Royal College of Physicians of London in 1915 and
1916. In ro91s his psychological and ethnological
researches were recognised by the award to him of a
Royal Medal by the Royal Society, of which he had
been elected a Fellow in 1908. In July 1915 he went
as medical officer to the Maghull War Hospital, near
Liverpool, and in 1916 to the Craiglockhart War
Hospital, Edinburgh, receiving a commission in the
R.A.M.C. In these hospitals he began the work on the
psychoneuroses that led him to his studies of the un-
conscious and of dreams, which resulted in his well-
known book, “‘ Instinct and the Unconscious,” and in
a practically completed volume on “Conflict and
Dream,” which is to be published posthumously.
From 1917 he acted as consulting psychologist to the
488
Royal Air Force, being attached to the Central Hospital
at Hampstead.
This period marks not merely a new phase in Rivers’s
work, but is also characterised by a distinct change in
his personality and writings. In entering the Army
and in investigating the psychoneuroses he was fulfilling
the desires of his youth. Whether through the realisa-
tion of such long-discarded or suppressed wishes, or
through other causes, e.g. the gratified desire of an
opportunity for more sympathetic insight into the
mental life of his fellows, he became another and a far
happier man. Diffidence gave place to confidence,
hesitation to certainty, reticence to outspokenness, a
somewhat laboured literary style to one remarkable
for its ease and charm. More than forty publications
can be traced to these years, between 1916 and the date
of his death. It was a period in which his genius was
released from its former shackles, in which intuition
was less controlled by intellectual doubt, in which in-
spiration brought with it the usual accompaniment of
emotional conyiction—even an occasional impatience
with those who failed to accept his point of view. But
his honest, generous character remained unchanged to
the last. Ever willing to devote himself unsparingly
to a cause he believed right, or to give of his best to
help a fellow-being in mental distress, he worked with
an indomitable self-denying energy, won the gratitude
and affection of numberless nerve-shattered soldier-
patients, whom he treated with unsurpassed judgment
and success, and attracted all kinds of people to this
new aspect of psychology. Painters, poets, authors,
artisans, all came to recognise the value of his work, to
seek, to win, and to appreciate his sympathy and his
friendship. It was characteristic of his thoroughness
that while attached to the Royal Air Force he took
numerous flights, looping the loop and performing
other trying evolutions in the air, so that he might gain
adequate experience of flying and be able to treat his
patients and to test candidates satisfactorily. He had
the courage to defend much of Freud’s new teaching at
a time when it was carelessly condemned in toto by
those in authority who were too ignorant or too incom-
petent to form any just opinion of its undoubted merits
and undoubted defects. He was prepared to admit the
importance of the conflict of social factors with the
sexual instincts in certain psychoneuroses of civil life,
but in the psychoneuroses of warfare and of occupations
like mining he believed that the conflicting instincts
were not sexual, but were the danger instincts, related
to the instinct of self-preservation.
Thus in the best sense of the term Rivers became a
man of the world and no longer a man of the laboratory
and of the study. He found time to serve on the
Medical Research Council’s Air Medical Investigation
Committee, on its Mental Disorders Committee, on its
Miners’ Nystagmus Committee, and on the Psycho-
logical Committee of its Industrial Fatigue Research
Board. He served on a committee, of ecclesiastical
complexion, appointed to inquire into the new psycho-
therapy, and he had many close friends among the
missionaries, to whom he gave and from whom he
received assistance in the social and ethnological side
of their work.
In 1919, in which year he received honorary degrees
from the Universities of St. Andrews and Manchester,
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
he returned to Cambridge as Prelector in Natural
Sciences at St. John’s College, and began immediately
to exercise a wonderful influence over the younger
members of the University by his fascinating lectures,
his “Sunday evenings,’ and above all by his ever-
ready interest and sympathy. As he himself wrote,
after the war work “ which brought me into contact
with the real problems of life . . . I felt that it was im-
possible for me to return to my life of detachment.”
And when a few months before his death he was in-
vited by the Labour Party to a still more public sphere
of work, namely, to become a Parliamentary candidate
representing the University of London, once again he
gave himself unsparingly. He wrote at the time:
“To one whose life has been passed in scientific research
and education the prospect of entering practical politics
can be no light matter. But the times are so ominous,
the outlook both for our own country and the world so
black, that if others think I can be of service in political
life I cannot refuse.” On several occasions subse-
quently he addressed interested London audiences, con-
sisting largely of his supporters, on the relations be-
tween psychology and politics. It was one of these
very lectures—on the herd instinct—at which it hap-
pened that I took the chair, which was to have formed
the basis of his Presidential Address to you here to-day.
Rivers’s views on the so-called herd instinct were the
natural outcome of those which he had put forward
during the preceding five years and collected together
in his “ Instinct and the Unconscious.’ His aim in
writing this book was, as he says, “to provide a
biological theory for the psychoneuroses,”’ to view the
psychological from the physiological standpoint. He
maintained that an exact correspondence holds be-
tween the inhibition of the physiologist and the re-
pression of the psychologist. He regarded mental
disorders as mainly dependent on the coming to the
surface of older activities which had been previously
controlled or suppressed by the later products of evolu-
tion. Here Rivers went beyond adopting Hughlings
Jackson’s celebrated explanation of the phenomena of
nervous diseases as arising largely from the release of
lower-level activities from higher-level controls. He
further supposed that these lower-level activities repre-
sent earlier racial activities held more or less in abey-
ance by activities later acquired. This conception he
derived from his work with Henry Head on cutaneous
sensibility. Rivers could see but ‘‘ two chief possi-
bilities” of interpreting the phenomena disclosed in
the study of Head’s arm. Either epicritic sensibility
is protopathic sensibility in greater perfection, or else
protopathic sensibility and epicritic sensibility repre-
sent two distinct stages in the development of the
nervous system. Failing to see any other explanation,
he adopted the second of these alternatives. He sup-
posed that at some period of evolution, when epicritic
sensibility, with its generally surface distribution, its
high degree of discrimination, and its power of accurate
localisation, made its appearance, the previously exist-
ing protopathic sensibility, with its punctate distribu-
tion, its “‘all-or-nothing” character, and its broad
radiating localisation, became in part inhibited or
“suppressed,” in part blended or “ fused’ with the
newly acquired sensibility so as to form a useful
product. He supposed that the suppressed portion
OcroBER 7, 1922]
NADORE
489
persisted in a condition of unconscious existence, and
he emphasised the biological importance of suppression.
He considered at first that the protopathic sensibility
“has all the characters we associate with instinct,”
whereas the later epicritic sensibility has the characters
of intelligence or reason. So he came to hold that
instinct ‘“‘led the animal kingdom a certain distance
in the line of progress,’ whereupon “a new develop-
ment began on different lines,” “ starting a new path,
developing a new mechanism which utilised such por-
tions of the old as suited its purpose.”
Evolutio per saltus was thus the keynote of Rivers’s
views on mental development. Just as the experience
of the caterpillar or tadpole is for the most part sup-
pressed in the experience of the butterfly or frog, so
Instinctive reactions tend to be suppressed in intelli-
gent experience whenever the immediate and unmodifi-
able nature of one becomes incompatible with the
diametrically opposite characters of the other. Just
as parts of the protopathic fuse with the later acquired
epicritic sensibility, so parts of our early experience, of
which other parts are suppressed, fuse with later ex-
perience in affecting adult character. ‘ Experience,”
he explained, ‘‘ becomes unconscious because instinct
and intelligence run on different lines and are in many
respects incompatible with one another.”
From his point of view Rivers was naturally led,
wherever possible, to interpret abnormal mental con-
ditions in terms of regression to more primitive, hitherto
suppressed activities. He held that the hysterias are
essentially “substitution neuroses,” connected with
and modified by the gregarious instincts, and are
primarily due to a regression to the primitive instinct-
ive danger reaction of immobility, greatly modified by
suggestion. So, too, he held that the anxiety neuroses,
which are for him essentially ‘“‘ repression neuroses,”
also show regression, though less complete, in the
strength and frequency of emotional reaction, in the
failure during states of phantasy to appreciate reality,
in the reversion to the nightmares, and especially the
terrifying animal dreams, characteristic of childhood,
in the occurrence of compulsory acts, in the desire for
solitude, ete. He criticised Freud’s conception of the
censorship, substituting in place of that anthropo-
morphically-coloured sociological parallel the physio-
logical and non-teleological conception of regression.
We are now in a position to examine Rivers’s treat-
ment of the gregarious behaviour of animal and human
life, on which he was still engaged at the time of his
death. In the gregarious instinct he recognised a
cognitive aspect which he termed “intuition,” an
affective aspect which he termed “ sympathy,” and a
motor aspect which he termed ‘ mimesis.”’ He used
“mimesis ” for the process of imitation so far as it was
unwitting ; ‘‘sympathy ” he regarded as always un-
witting. “Intuition” he defined as the process
whereby one person is unwittingly influenced by
another’s cognitive activity. But I feel sure that the
term “unwittingly ”’ is not to be considered here as
equivalent to “ telepathically.” All that Rivers meant
was that the person is influenced by certain stimuli
without appreciating their nature and meaning. He
preferred to employ the term “ suggestion ” as covering
all the processes by which one mind acts on or is acted
on by another unwittingly. He supposed that in the
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
course of mental evolution epicritic characters dis-
placed the early protopathic characters of instinctive
behaviour owing to the incidence of gregarious life,
especially among insects, and owing to the appearance
and development of intelligence, especially in man.
The suggestion inherent in gregarious behaviour im-
plies some graduation of mental and bodily activity—
an instinctive and unwitting discrimination distinct
from the witting discrimination of intelligence.
Were he here to-day Rivers would have carried this
conception of the evolution of gregarious life still
further by distinguishing between the more lowly
leaderless herd and the herd which has acquired a
definite leader. He would have traced the develop-
ment of the new affect of submission and of the new
behaviour of obedience to the leader, and he would
doubtless have accredited the leader with the higher
affects of superiority and felt prestige, with the higher
cognition that comes of intuitive foresight, and with
the higher behaviour of intuitive adaptation, initiative,
and command. I expect, too, that he would have
sketched the development of still later forms of social
activity, complicated by the interaction and combina-
tion of intellectual and instinctive processes—the
witting deliberations and decisions on the part of the
leader, and the intellectual understanding of the
reasons for their confidence in him and for their
appropriate behaviour on the part of those who
are led.
But it would be idle further to speculate on the ideas
of which we have been robbed by Rivers’s untimely
death. Let us rather console ourselves with the vast
amount of valuable and suggestive material which he
has left behind and with the stimulating memories of
one who, despite the fact that his health was never
robust, devoted himself unsparingly to scientific work
and to the claims of any deserving human beings or of
any deserving humane cause that were made upon him.
There are, no doubt, some who believe that Rivers’s
earlier experimental psychological work—on vision,
on the effects of drugs, and on cutaneous sensibility—
is likely to be more lasting than his later speculations
on the nature of instinct, the unconscious, dreams, and
the psychoneuroses. No one can doubt the scientific
permanence of his investigations in the laboratory or
in the field; they are a standing monument of
thoroughness and accuracy combined with criticism
and genius. But even those who hesitate to suppose
that at some definite period in mental evolution in-
telligence suddenly made its appearance and was
grafted on to instinct, or that epicritic sensibility was
suddenly added to a mental life which had before
enjoyed only protopathic sensibility—even those who
may not see eye to eye with Rivers on these and other
fundamental views on which much of his later work
rested, will be foremost in recognising the extraordinary
stimulating, suggestive, and fruitful character of all
that he poured forth with such astounding speed and
profusion during the closing years of his life. Above
all, we mourn a teacher who was not merely a man of
science devoted to abstract problems, but who realised
the value of and took a keen delight in applying the
knowledge gained in his special subject to more real and
living problems of a more concrete, practical, everyday
character. Rivers’s careful methods of investigating
490
cutaneous sensibility and the rationale of his successful
treatment of the psychoneuroses were directly due to
his psychological training. So, too, his epoch-making
discoveries and his views in the field of anthropology
on the spread and conflict of cultures were largely due
to the application of that training. Shortly before his
death he was developing, as a committee member of
the Industrial Fatigue Research Board, an intense
interest in that youngest application of psychology,
namely, to the improvement of human conditions in
industrial and commercial work by the methods of ex-
perimental psychology applied to fatigue study, motion
study, and vocational selection.
NATURE
[OcToBER 7, 1922
Unhappily, men of such wide sympathies and under-
standing as Rivers, combined with a devotion to scien-
tific work, are rare. He himself recognised that
“specialisation has . . . in recent years reached such
a pitch that it has become a serious evil. There is
even a tendency,” he rightly said, “to regard with
suspicion one who betrays the possession of know-
ledge or attainments outside a narrow circle of interests”
(Brit. Jour. of Psychol., vol. x., p. 184). Let his life,
his wisdom, his wide interests, sympathies and attain-
ments, and the generosity and honesty of his character,
be an example to us in the common object of our
meeting this week—the advancement of science.
Obituary.
Pror. F. D. Brown.
WE regret to announce the death, on August 2, at
Remuera, New Zealand, of emeritus professor
Frederick Douglas Brown, at the age of seventy years.
Prof. Brown began the study of chemistry in 1870,
under Dr. Matthiessen, at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.
On the death of Dr. Matthiessen, he continued his
studies at the Royal College of Science, South Kensing-
ton and afterwards in Leipzig. On his return to
England about 1876, he began research work at the
London Institution with Prof. Armstrong, whom he
had known at St. Bartholomew’s. He then spent
some time in Prof. Guthrie’s laboratory and after-
wards in the University Laboratory, Oxford. During
this period, he was concerned in the teaching of
chemistry at Cheltenham and Clifton Colleges and
he also supervised the construction of the chemical
laboratories in University College, Nottingham.
In 1883, Brown was appointed professor of chemistry
and physics in Auckland University College, a post
he held until r914, when he came to England ; but
he was so upset by the conditions of the war, especially
the bombing, that he gave up his intention of settling
here and, in 1918, returned to the quiet of New Zealand.
He did the greatest possible service to the cause of
scientific education in New Zealand, where he was
generally held in high esteem.
A man of original and independent, aristocratic mind
but entirely unobtrusive though charming manner,
firm and clear in his convictions and with a specially
developed sense of accuracy and thoroughness, Brown’s
scientific work was of a classic character, though
through force of circumstances it could not be large
in amount: however, he not only made the best of
the material that was at his disposal in Auckland but
was also successful in inspiring those who studied
under him with his own high conceptions of scientific
duty. The work by which he is best known probably
is that relating to fractional distillation, a subject on
which he was an authority in early days; he also
paid much attention to the cyanide process of extracting
gold.
Pror. F. T. TrouTon, F.R.S.
Ar Trinity College, Dublin, in the ’eighties of last
century, there assembled under Prof. FitzGerald a
small band of enthusiastic physicists of great ability
and originality, brought together by a common admira-
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
, tion and affection for their chief. Names which will
always be connected with this brilliant school of physics
are Joly, Preston, and Trouton. FitzGerald himself
did not live to be fifty, Preston died in his fortieth year,
and now, to the great grief of all those who ever knew
him, Trouton has left us at the age of fifty-eight, after
having been kept by illness for the past ten years from
the researches he loved.
Trouton was born in Dublin in November 1863, the
son of a family well known in that city. As a student
at Trinity College he gave early evidence of that
versatility and quickness of grasp which characterised
his scientific career. He studied both engineering and
the physical sciences, and before graduating had already
on one hand taken a leading part in surveying for
a railway, and on the other enunciated that connexion
between latent heat and molecular weight which is
known as Trouton’s Law.!_ He closed a brilliant under-
graduate career by taking degrees in engineering and
science at the same time, being awarded the coveted
Large Gold Medal, rarely bestowed for science. He
at once became assistant to the professor of physics
at Trinity College, and until FitzGerald’s death in
rgor he remained the cherished colleague and intimate
friend of that greatman. They carried out in collabora-
tion many experiments, including an important series
confirming, to a high degree of accuracy, Ohm’s law
for electrolytes. Trouton never spoke of FitzGerald
without emotion characteristic of his generous nature.
The Dublin school was immediately struck with the
importance of Hertz’s experiments on electromagnetic
waves, which were published in 1887 and 1888, and
Trouton was one of the first to repeat them and to
carry out original work on the subject. He settled
the long-disputed question as to the relation between
the direction of the vibration in the wave-front of an
electromagnetic (light) wave and the plane of polarisa-
tion, by showing that the electric vector is normal to,
and the magnetic vector in, the plane of polarisation.
He demonstrated many analogies with optical experi-
ments by suitably increasing the size of the apparatus
to correspond to the great wave-length of the Hertzian
wayves—thus a wall built of bricks of paraffin wax was
used to replace the soap film of ordinary light experi-
ments. Trouton’s work did much to establish the
common electromagnetic nature of ordinary light and
of Hertzian waves.
1 If M be the molecular weight, L the latent heat, T,the absolute tempera-
ture, then ML/T is constant.
OcTOBER 7, 1922 |
NATURE
491
FitzGerald was deeply interested in the question of
the possibility of detecting the earth’s motion through
the «ther, and Trouton eagerly took up a suggestion
to investigate the mechanical effect of charging a
condenser moving in the plane of its plates through
the ether. The experiment, which is well known to
all students of relativity, gave a negative result. It
was in 1902, just after this research, that Trouton was
appointed to the Quain professorship of physics at
University College, London. He had at the time been
for some years a Fellow of the Royal Society. His
first work here was to repeat, with Noble, the condenser
experiment in an improved form. Later he devised
another experiment, designed to detect the FitzGerald
shrinkage, which consisted in comparing the electrical
resistance of a wire when moving in and across the
ther stream. This was carried out in collaboration
with Mr. (now Prof.) A. O. Rankine, and led to a
negative result. The results of these experiments are
in accord with the theory of relativity, for which they
offer important evidence.
Trouton carried out researches in a variety of direc-
tions, including some on the viscosity of solids, and
others on the condensation of water vapour on different
surfaces, the latter of which led to the discovery of an
interesting analogy to the James Thomson portion of
an isothermal. His last work was on the adsorption of
dye-stuffs on sand at various concentrations, and gave
results of an intriguing nature which cannot be described
here. It was while engaged on these investigations
in 1912 that Trouton was attacked by a severe illness.
He recovered from a prolonged prostration sufficiently
for it to be hoped that he would be able to attend the
meeting of the British Association in Australia in
1914, and he was elected president of Section A for
that meeting. He prepared his presidential address,
but was unable to travel, as an early operation was
advised. It was held to be partly successful, but he
never walked again. When he resigned his pro-
fessorship at University College he received the title
of emeritus professor.
The investigation of newly discovered or of neglected
phenomena had a great fascination for Trouton ; he
was always breaking fresh ground, and had little
inclination for working over subjects on which many
investigations had been carried out—‘‘ pouring water
on a drowned rat,” as he characteristically expressed
it. In daily life he was a man of great charm and
sincerity ; his wit, his buoyancy, and his whimsical
and incisive phrases were a constant delight. He never
lost an opportunity of helping a student or colleague,
and his kindliness was evident in all his actions, a
kindliness which had its roots in strength, and not
weakness, of character. When in the prime of life
he was struck down by a cruel and lingering illness he
carried his cheerfulness to his couch, and would receive
visitors with something like the old twinkle in his eye.
Fate did not spare him ; he lost two hopeful and beloved
sons in the war, and saw all hope of recovery slowly
pass from him. He died peacefully at his house at
Downe on September 21, and, although his death was
not unexpected, it brought to his friends a distress no
less poignant for that.
EH. N- pa C. A.
WE regret to see announcements of the following
deaths :—Prof* Arthur Mayer, formerly director of the
Botanic Garden at Marburg, at the age of seventy-
two years; Dr. William Kellner, formerly chemist to
the War Department, aged eighty-two ; on September
25, Prof. J. P. Kuenen, of the University of Leyden,
aged fifty-five ; on September 27, Mr. C. Michie Smith,
late director of the Kodaikanal and Madras Observa-
tories; and on September 28, Major-General James
Waterhouse, from 1866 to 1897 Assistant Surveyor-
General in charge of photographic operations in the
Surveyor -General’s Office, Calcutta, at the age of
eighty years.
Current Topics and Events.
THE hundreth anniversary of the birth of Mendel
was celebrated in Briinn on September 23 last. The
Government of Czecho-Slovakia placed generous funds
at the disposal of a local committee, which arranged
the centenary celebrations with the liberality and
efficiency that we have learnt to expect from the new
Czecho-Slovakian state. Credit is especially due to
the committee for having made the centenary an
occasion for bringing together, for the first time since
the war, geneticists of all lands, the visitors comprising
representatives of America, Austria, Denmark,
England, Finland, Germany, Holland, India, Japan,
Jugoslavia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzer-
land. The official proceedings opened with a visit
to the monastery in which Mendel had lived, and to
the adjoining garden in which he made his experi-
ments. Wreaths were laid before the monument of
Mendel which was erected in 1910, and speeches were
made by the chairman of the local Naturwissen-
schaftlicher Verein, by the official representative of
the Government, by the Burgomeister, by Prof.
NO. 2762, VOL. I10]
Erwin Baur (Berlin), Prof. Chodat (Geneva), Prof.
Némec (Prague), Mr. S. Pease (Cambridge), and Prof.
Iltis (Briinn). At the luncheon which followed, the
principal speaker was Prof. Wettstein (Vienna), who
emphasised particularly the international significance
of the event. Prof. C. B. Davenport (Washington)
replied, and the official proceedings terminated with a
speech by Prof. Richard Hertwig (Munich). In the
evening, a special performance was given at the opera,
to which the guests were invited: it was the first
occasion in Briinn on which the works of Czech and
German composers had appeared on the same pro-
gramme, a matter locally of much comment and great
importance. The next day an expedition to recently
discovered and very remarkable caves in the Moravian
Karst was arranged. Itis to be hoped that the success
of this gathering will encourage others to organise
congresses that are international and not merely
inter-allied, in order that the friendships and inter-
course which the war destroyed may be once more
built up.
492
NATAL:
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
A KINDLY function was fulfilled at the London
School of Tropical Medicine on Monday evening of
last week, September 25, before a company of friends
of the School and the family, when the first mint of
the new medal instituted in memory of Sir Patrick
Manson was presented to his widow. Major-General
Sir William Leishman, who made the presentation,
explained that the medal was the sub-issue of a
project by friends of Sir Patrick Manson to present
to the School a portrait of its illustrious originator.
As the result of an appeal for this purpose, subscrip-
tions in excess of the actual requirements quickly
came in from many parts of the world, accompanied
by numerous very cordial tributes of approval. The
portrait had been presented, and when all expenses
had been met there still remained a balance which
the committee of subscribers thought would find its
most happily inspired application in a medal com-
memorative of Sir Patrick Manson’s unique position
in the history of tropical medicine: In a graceful
speech Sir William Leishman alluded to the many
ways whereby, outside the laboratory, quite as effect-
ively as within it, a wife can further her husband’s
work, and said that it was with a full appreciation of
the circumstances from this point of view, and not
as a mere compliment, that the committee desired to
offer the first-minted medal to Lady Manson.
M. Le TrocoueEr, Minister of Public Works, was
present at tests on September 26, in connexion with
the utilisation of tidal power at Aberwrach, near
Brest. The scheme is to comprise a barrage 150
metres in length, which will permit of the storage in
a tidal basin of from one to four million cubic metres
of water, depending on the tidal range. Four tur-
bines are to be installed, working both on the ebb
and flow of the tide and capable of delivering 750-1200
h.p. These are coupled to alternators delivering
current at 1500 volts. This station is to work in
conjunction with a water-power station developing
power from river-flow, and the latter is to be used to
regularise the intermittent output from the tidal-power
scheme. Should the results of this investigation prove
satisfactory it is intended to develop a much larger
scheme on the Rance, and, according to the Times of
September 28, the minister expressed the opinion that
this would enable electrical energy to be supplied to
the whole of Western France.
WE learn from the Chemical Age that the chairman
of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation of New
York has offered, through the American Chemical
Society, an annual prize of 25,000 dollars ‘‘ to reward
the chemist, residing in the United States, who in the
opinion of a properly constituted jury has contributed
most to the benefit of the science and of the world.”’
In communicating the offer, the chairman of the Cor-
poration writes: ‘‘ Realising, as we do, the enormous
influence which chemists working in all the fields of
that science will have on the welfare of the world,
we desire by this prize so to encourage the workers
that even larger benefits should accrue than those
which have already placed the world under such a
debt of gratitude to the profession.”’
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
ence was made in our columns (p. 466) to numerous
substantial gifts by industrial concerns in Germany
to German universities to assist in the teaching of
scientific subjects, particularly chemistry. Thus in
both the United States and in Germany, commercial
men and manufacturers are showing their apprecia-
tion of the value of what may be termed, research in
pure science.
ACCORDING to Science, the American Medical Associa-
tion has agreed to co-operate with the directors of
the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Pre-
ventive Medicine in establishing the institute, and
a committee of the Association has issued an appeal
for subscriptions. The committee is agreed that the
most suitable memorial to Major-General William C.
Gorgas would be such an institute, and considers that
no more appropriate place than Panama City, where
General Gorgas’s great work in stemming tropical
diseases was done, could have been selected. The
Government of Panama has given the Santo Tomas
Hospital, and also the land on which it is proposed
to build the laboratories and departments for research,
to constitute the memorial institute; Dr. R. P.
Strong has been appointed scientific director. It is
also intended that a Gorgas School of Sanitation shall
be established in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for training
public health workers and sanitary engineers especi-
ally for work in the Southern States of America. An
endowment of some 1,300,000/. will be necessary to
carry out in full the proposed memorial.
Pror. SANTIAGO RAMON y Cajat has retired from
the chair of histology and pathological anatomy in
the University of Madrid. This distinguished man
of science, who is a Foreign Member of the Royal
Society, has been the recipient of numerous honours
in Spain, including the Echegaray medal, presented to
him in the Royal Academy of Sciences by the King of
Spain. The Spanish Government has introduced a bill
for the construction of a building for the Cajal Institute,
constituted in 1920, which carries with it an appro-
priation of nearly 36,000/., divided into four sums to
be expended annually from 1922 to 1925 on the build-
ing designated as Cajal’s Biological Institute; in
addition, a grant of about 1700/. is to be provided for
maintenance. The work of the institute will be
directed by a board of trustees under the chairmanship
of Cajal himself.
ABout a year ago the Chemical Society issued an
appeal to its fellows to assist in the alleviation of
distress among chemists and other scientific workers
in Russia. Since then a sum of more than 21o/. has
been received, and about 170l. of it was devoted to
the purchase of clothing, which has been distributed
among men of science in Ekaterinburg, Moscow, and
Petrograd. In addition, three cases containing
clothing and books have been sent to the latter two
cities. It is now known definitely that the packages
have reached those for whom they were intended, so
that the possibility of gifts going astray need no
| longer deter possible subscribers. There is every
reason to fear that during the coming winter distress
Last week refer- | will be as acute as it was a year ago, and the Chemical
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
493
Society appeals to all British chemists to give assist-
ance. Gifts of money, clothing, books, and recent
chemical literature should be addressed to the Assist-
ant Secretary, The Chemical Society, Burlington
House, Piccadilly, W.1.
In his presidential address delivered before the
Royal Anthropological Institute (vol. lii. part i.) the
late Dr. Rivers laid special stress on the difficulties
which impede research by the excessive cost of print-
ing and book production, and the rise in rent and taxes
for accommodation used by scientific societies. He
pointed out how closely all the branches of anthropo-
logical work—physical, sociological, archeological,
psychological—are connected. Numerous societies,
like the Royal Asiatic, African, and Japan societies,
with the Hellenic and Roman societies and that
specially devoted to folk-lore, should become more
closely allied than is the case at present. The pro-
vision of acommon building with adequate accommoda-
tion for a lecture room, library, and secretarial quarters
would do much to reduce expenditure and promote
efficiency. The leading society, the Royal Anthropo-
logical Institute, is most inadequately housed, while
the Folk-lore Society has no headquarters of its own.
It is quite time that an earnest effort was made to
reorganise the work of these and similar societies.
Individual jealousies and prejudices must be en-
countered, but the spirit of conciliation, reinforced
by the difficulties of the present situation, should
succeed in framing a scheme of co-operation.
Tn accordance with arrangements followed for many
years past there is to be a series of meetings, generally
on alternate Mondays at 5 p.M., at the Meteorological
Office, South Kensington, for the informal discussion
of important contributions to meteorological literature,
especially in foreign and Colonial journals. The
meetings will commence on Monday, October 16,
when, as customary at the first meeting, the dis-
cussion will be opened by Sir Napier Shaw. The
subject is a paper by V. Bjerknes ‘“‘ On the dynamics
of the circular vortex with application to the atmo-
sphere and atmospheric vortex of wave motions.”
Tue third of the series of lectures, under the auspices
of the Institute of Physics, on physics and the physicist
in industry will be given by Mr. Clifford C. Paterson,
who will take as his subject, ‘‘ The Physicist in Electri-
cal Engineering.”” The lecture will be delivered on
Wednesday October 18 at 6 p.m. at the Institution
of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Embankment, W.C.2.
On the recommendation of the committee of
management of Science Abstracts, the council of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers has appointed
Mr. W. R. Cooper to be editor of the publication in
succession to the late Mr. L. H. Walter. Mr. Cooper
was acting editor of Science Abstracts in the first year
of its existence, 18908, and afterwards was editor from
1899 to TgoT.
THe Home Secretary gives notice that summer
time will cease this year at 3.0 A.M. (summer time) in
the morning of Sunday, October 8, when clocks will
be put back to 2 a.m. The shorter period of summer
time prescribed by the Summer Time Act, 1922, does
not operate this year.
Our Astronomical Column.
OcTOBER METEOR SHOWERS.—The month of October
is usually one of the best periods for observing meteors.
The moon will interfere this year in the early part of
the month, but during the last half, observations may
be satisfactorily made. The chief shower generally
visible falls in the third week of the month, and is
directed from a radiant point at 91° +15° on the
north-eastern borders of Orion. There is also a strong
shower which supplies slow and often brilliant meteors
at about the same time as the Orionids, but this
radiant in the eastern region of Aries at 42° +21°
appears to be visible for a long period, and is also
seen in the months of November and December.
The Taurids often form a conspicuous display to-
wards the end of October, but they are generally
more abundant in November than at any other
time of the year. The latter shower yields meteors
very similar to the Arietids, and fireballs are frequently
intermingled with the smaller members of the stream.
The chief radiant is at 64°+22°; it is difficult to
define the date of maximum, but it usually occurs
between November 20 and 23.
The meteoric activity of October is not confined
to a few systems, for a very large number, certainly
several hundreds, may be recognised. They are,
however, for the most part feeble, like the majority
of the systems which are distributed over the
firmament.
' PARALLAXES OF CEPHEIDS. — Dr. Harlow
Shapley’s estimates of the distances of the globular
clusters rest largely on the assumed absolute magni-
tudes of B stars and Cepheid variables. It is very
desirable to have as many independent determina-
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
22
tions as possible of the distances of the brighter
Cepheids, in order to check their assumed absolute
magnitudes. Dr. S. A. Mitchell has determined the
trigonometrical parallaxes of 22 of them, and publishes
the results in the Observatory for September. Perhaps
the most doubtful point is the mean parallax of the
comparison stars; they are of the roth magnitude,
assumed parallax o”’-005. The deduced absolute
parallaxes for the Cepheids range from +07:046
(ep Cassiopeiae) to —o”-018 (41 Cygni). There are
only 3 negative parallaxes. The mean parallax
agrees very closely with the mean of the spectro-
scopic values; rejecting p Cassiopeiae, the mean
difference, Mitchell minus spectroscopic, is only
0”-0003. It is concluded that the latter are very
accurate.
Nova T Coronat (1866).—This Nova is exceptional
in two ways. It is the only Nova that was a cata-
logued star before the outburst (BD +26° 2765), and
it is much farther from the Galaxy than other Novae.
Mr. K. Lundmark investigates its proper motion and
parallax in Publ. Ast. Soc. Pacific, August 1922.
The proper motion is given as 0”-or2 annually, towards
position angle 41°; from this the parallax is inferred
to be o”-oot0, while the spectroscopic parallax is
o”-oo14. Adopting o”-0013, its present absolute
magnitude is +0-2, while that at the outburst was
—7:4, in good agreement with the maximum value
for other Novae. The star is an M giant, and appar-
ently is now in the same condition as before the out-
burst. If the above parallax is near the truth, the
star is considerably more remote than Nova Persei
(1901) or Nova Aquilae (1918).
494
NATORE
[| OcTOBER 7, 1922
Research Items.
THE STATUE OF SOPHOCLES IN THE LATERAN
Museum.—tThe chief glory of the Lateran Museum
is the great statue usually supposed to be that of
the poet Sophocles. This identification is disputed
by Mr. Theodore Reinach (Journal of the Hellenic
Society, vol. xlii. Part 1), who, after a full discussion
of the evidence, identifies it with the famous statue
of Solon of Salamis, dating about 391 B.c., the work
of the artist Kephisodotus, whose son and pupil
seems to have been Praxiteles. This new work by
a great master thus stands out as the herald of a
new dawn of art, the real link between the divine
Phidias and the divine Praxiteles.
EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF BETHSHEAN.—The
town of Bethshean, afterwards, for some unexplained
reason, known as Scythopolis, lay between the Little
Hermon and Gilboa ranges, on a plain about three
miles west of the Jordan. Permission to excavate
the site by the University Museum, Philadelphia,
having been granted by the Archeological Depart-
ment of Palestine, the work was started in 1921 under
the superintendence of Mr. C. S. Fisher. Fortunately
no Mahomedan tombs or other buildings on the
mound interfere with the work of excavation. The
stratification shows a continuous occupation of the
site from Arab, Byzantine, and Classical times down
to the early Semitic period. The results of the ex-
cavations, so far as they have proceeded, are described
in the March issue of the Museum Journal. The
most important discovery made is that of a large
basalt stele with an Egyptian inscription of Sety I.
(1313-1292 B.c.). When the lowest stratum is
reached it is hoped that much light will be thrown
on early Semitic life and religion.
Bantu THROWING-STONES AND Brass.—In the
Report of the South African Museum for 1921, Dr.
Péringuey discusses some large rounded _ stones,
perforated in the manner of the Bush Awe, and
weighing about 18 lb. He does not think that they
could have been used to weight digging-sticks or as
rolling mill-stones. With them were some stones,
also perforated, but rather flat, with a sharp edge.
These, it is said, were carried on a stick by the Bantu,
and used for throwing at the legs of bucks. This
explains the use of some heavy brass rings found in
Swaziland, and the question arises whether the
brass was made in that country or was imported.
The Chief Regent of Sw aziland says that the former
was the case, and adds: “ The process of separating
was by melting the minerals and certain chemicals
known to our ancient blacksmiths and founders. In
the making of brass and other metals, copper, lead,
and zinc were used for the manufacture of bangles,
etc., which were worn only by Royalties. The
bangle in this form is known as Itusi; it is the form
in which brass is kept, instead of making it into bars
as the Europeans do.’’ Specimens in the museum
show that the Bantu had also a bronze industry, but
the rarity of such objects is rather remarkable, and !
Dr. Péringuey suggests as the reason the very early
supersession of bronze by iron in South Africa.
PuysicaAL NATURE OF VERSE.—A recent number
of the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift reports a
lecture at the University of Vienna by Prof. E. W.
Scripture, of London and Hamburg; on recent
researches in experimental phonetics. Speech is
registered by physical means on a recording drum,
and the resulting curves are analysed and measured
under a microscope. One of the latest problems is
NO. 2762, VOL, IIo]
that of the physical nature of verse. Verse is shown
to be a continuous vocal gesture. There are no
syllables, no feet, no measures, no possibility of such
notions as iambus or trochee. The entire system of
metre as taught in modern prosody is held to be a
fantastic construction that has not the slightest
relation to verse as actually spoken. Any attempt
to fit it to verse or fit verse to it results in such
monstrosities as some of the present corrections to the
text of Shakespeare, with apologies for the bad verse
he issupposed to have written. Verse, from a physical
point of view, is shown to be a flow of speech energy
with regularly recurring regions of greater density.
The total of this energy can be treated as if condensed
. at certain points—centroids or centres of gravity.
These centroids recur at regular intervals and give the
effect of beats. This regular recurrence of centroids
constitutes the whole of the system of verse. An-
other topic presented was the recent work on register-
ing speech in nervous diseases. Three diseases—
epilepsy, disseminated sclerosis, and general paralysis
—show specific peculiarities in the records. A
diagnosis thus becomes an automatic thing ; the speech
is registered, the curves are analysed and measured,
and the result appears of itself.
THE SITE AND GROWTH OF LonDoN.—The relation
of topography and underlying structure to the growth
of London are traced in some detail by Mr. C. E. M.
Bromehead in a paper in the Geographical Journal for
August. After describing the extent of alluvial and
river gravels and the course of the Thames tributaries
in the area now covered by London, Mr. Bromehead
points out that the narrowness of the river and the
approach by gravel banks from either side marked the
present site ‘of, London Bridge as the lowest ford.
Around this, especially on the better situated northern
bank, the original London grew. The essentials of
the site, in addition to the ford, were twin hills capped
by water-bearing gravels separated by the valley of
the Wall Brook, bounded on the west by the Fleet and
on the east by the low ground of the Thames marshes.
To the north was the forest area of the London clay,
but the river gravels were comparatively bare. The
; early Roman camp, which was the earliest historic
London, was on the east hill; on the west hill the
brick earth was worked until the city grew over it.
Mr. Bromehead traces the growth of London through
Saxon times and up to the Great Fire in 1666. After
that event London rapidly expanded. The limit of
the gravels for a long time set a limit to building
operations. Wells sunk through the gravel, seldom
more than 25 ft. in thickness, were sure to tap water,
but it was not realised till recent times that better
supplies could be obtained beneath the clay at depths
of 150 ft. and more. It was for this reason that the
areas of bare London clay remained unoccupied until
the advent of steam pumping and iron water mains.
Once these difficulties of water supply were overcome,
the clay areas were rapidly built over and outlying
hamlets became linked up with London.
MEDIAN PROLIFICATION OF FLOWERS OF HEMERO-
CALLIS. . J. C. Costerus, of Hil-
versum, Holland, that he has observed numerous
central floral prolifications in Hemerocallis fulva in
gardens at Hilversum, in the botanic gardens at
Amsterdam and Utrecht, and also at Twickenham in
this country, during the past summer. Apparently
the prolification resembled closely ;a ‘‘ doubled.”
flower. Median prolification of flowers of Hemero-
callis, although apparently rare, has been noted on
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
NATURE
495
several occasions and is referred to in ‘ Vegetable
Teratology,’’ by the late Dr. Maxwell T. Masters.
While it is difficult to suggest a reason for the pheno-
menon with any degree of certainty, it is probable
that the condition may have been more prevalent
than usual this year owing to the prolonged drought
of 1921 and the early months of 1922, placing a check
upon normal development, followed by a rush of
vigorous growth brought about by the wet summer
months. A check to growth followed by a sudden
change to first-rate growing conditions often brings
about fasciation, and the median prolification of
flowers of Hemerocallis may be regarded in a rather
similar light to fasciation.
LIFE-HISTORY OF THE NEUROPTEROUS INSECT
IrHoNE.—In the Bulletin of Entomological Research,
vol. xiii. pt. 2, August 1922, Dr. R. J. Tillyard gives
a very detailed account of the biology of Ithone fusca,
an Australian moth-lacewing. It appears that the
complete life-history occupies two years, and the
eggs are laid in soft or sandy ground, each being
rolled separately in the sand, which adheres to
its sticky surface, forming a protective covering.
The larve are very different from those of other
Neuroptera Plannipennia, being curved and more or
less scarabeiform in their general features. There
appear to be at least five instars instead of the usual
three or four present in other members of the sub-
order. The cocoon is spun from the anal end of
the body, and the pupa is armed with large jaws
for cutting a way out for the emergence of the imago.
The larval food appears to be mainly scarabzid
grubs, and Dr. Tillyard is so impressed with the
value of Ithone in reducing the numbers of these
organisms, that he has decided to test its capabilities
as an aid to agriculture in New Zealand. Some
7000 fertile eggs of Ithone fusca have been introduced,
and it remains to be seen whether the larve will
succeed in establishing themselves under the new
conditions, and serve as a help towards controlling
the ‘‘ grass-grubs.’’ The latter are serious pests with
but few natural enemies in New Zealand.
THE MAGNIFICENT SPIDER (Dicrostichus magnificus,
Rainbow).—In the Proceedings of the Royal Society
of Queensland (vol. xxxiil. 1921, pp. 91-98, pls. 7 and 8)
Mr. H. A. Longman gives an interesting account of
this very large and handsome spider. It appears that
the creature constructs egg-cocoons of a more or less
elongate-fusiform shape, each being suspended by
a pedicel attached to a bush. Their total length
measures from three to four inches with a maximum
diameter of about one inch. The cocoon is double,
one cocoon lying within the other, and between them
is a loose packing of delicate silk. Within the inner
cocoon are the eggs, which number more than 600,
and, taking five cocoons as an average, each spider
lays about 3000 eggs. After hatching, the young
spiders climb up the surrounding leaves and spin fine
threads. On the latter they are floated, or ballooned,
through the air to start life on their own account.
The author gives a detailed account of how this re-
markable cocoon is spun by the parent, which, although
skilful in this art, had neither the capacity nor inclina-
tion to mend a rent in it when it was torn by a cricket-
like insect. The spider constructs no web for en-
snaring prey, but shortly after sunset it hangs sus-
pended from a horizontal line near its cocoons. From
this slender bridge it spins a short filament which hangs
‘downwards and terminates in a globule of viscid matter
a little larger than the head of an ordinary pin. The
filament is held out by one of the front legs, and, on
the approach of an insect, the spider whirls it with
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
~as big as o-3 millibar.
surprising speed ; this is undoubtedly the way in which
it secures its prey. Mr. Longman has repeatedly
found the spider sucking a common species of Noctuid
moth which it captures in this manner.
IMPROVED RivER DiscHARGE MEASUREMENTS.—In
the measurement of river discharge special difficulties
are encountered in the case of sluggish streams such
as the Blue Nile at Soba during low water. In a
report on “Investigations into the Improvement of
River Discharge Measurement,”’ Pt. II. (Government
Press, Cairo), Mr. E. B. H. Wade gives the result of
his experiments with an improved current meter for
streams of this type. It is a helical current meter in
which the helix is driven not by the stream but by
an independent constant power. The effect of the
stream is merely to increase or diminish the rate of the
helix by an amount which serves as a measure of the
stream’s velocity. An instrument on these lines is
being constructed by Messrs. Kent and Co. The
distinctive feature of the model is that gear is dispensed
with, and instead of a weight with one or two kilo-
grammes falling about thirty centimetres, a weight of
25 to 50 grammes falls a distance of one metre. The
good results of this model are said to be due, in large
measure, to the directness of its action and the avoid-
ance of dissipation of energy in gear work. Experi-
ments made with instruments of this type gave
satisfactory results. The probable error for a single
determination was found to be +0:03 second, but Mr.
Wade believes that this will be reduced in the perfected
instrument.
TURBULENCE ON A LARGE SCALE.—To say that a
gas has viscosity, is a device to compensate in the
bulk for the motions which are ignored in detail.
Thus if the ignored motions are those within only
a cubic tenth of a millimetre the viscosity, for air, is
roughly o-o002 cm.-? grm. sec.-*. If, however, we
ignore the gusts in a wind, then we must attribute
to the smoothed wind a much greater viscosity,
ranging, in the same unit, from I to Ioo. In this
way the increase and veer of the mean wind in the
first, kilometre above ground have been explained
by Akerblom, Taylor, Hesselberg, Sverdrup, Schmidt,
etc. Recently Albert Defant of Innsbruck has gone
a stage further by asking what the viscosity must
be if we ignore even the cyclones and anticyclones,
so that we are left with a smooth general circulation
of the atmosphere proceeding along the paths com-
monly shown in maps of the globe. A review of
Defant’s first paper on this subject appeared in NATURE
of April 15 last, p. 469. In a second paper, * Die
Bestimmung der Turbulenzgréssen der atmosphar-
ischen Zirkulation aussertropischer Breiten ’’ (Wien,
Akad. Wiss., 1921), he re-examines, by other methods,
the viscosity to be attributed to this general cir-
culation, and finds, as before, values round about
ro® cm.-! grm. sec.~4, that is to say, a billion times as
great as that arising by ignoring molecular agitation
only. This large value, 10%, applies to friction
across vertical planes, but apparently the friction
across horizontal surfaces is an affair of gusts,
not of cyclones. When the viscosity is known the
conductivity for heat and for water vapour can
be found by the theories of G. I. Taylor and W.
Schmidt. The methods whereby Defant obtains
this viscosity include a computation of “ eddy-
stresses’? in accordance with Osborne Reynolds’
theory from the hourly values of the wind at various
heights. The direct eddy-stresses are in some cases
Defant also makes a deter-
mination by way of the scattering of air to north
and south of the mean-current after a passage of
3 days, using a formula due to L. F. Richardson.
496
NATAL
[OcToBER 7, 1922
A Florentine School of Physics and Optics.
By
] HE city of Florence, deservedly famous as a
place of pilgrimage for lovers of art, is no less
worthy of a visit on the part of students of science.
The famous Museo di Fisica, with its Tribuna di
Galilei and its collection of priceless instruments, will
always attract the lion’s share of attention, but a
visit to the charming southern suburb of Arcetri, with
the astronomical observatory and the newly erected
Institute of Physics and Optics, will amply repay the
time spent in making it.
On driving out from the city by the cypress avenue
of the Villa Poggio Imperiale, the observatory is seen
to the left crowning a lofty hill, on the side of which
the red roofs of the Institute can be seen among
the green of the surrounding gardens and vineyards.
A wide view over the peaceful countryside is obtained
on reaching the terrace.
The building is of the square form with centre
atten x
ti
Fic.
courtyard usual in Italy, and is only two stories high.
A cloister surrounds the courtyard on the ground
level, and above the cloister a wide closed corridor
affords interconnexion between the rooms on the
upper floor. It is commonly held that a similar
form of building is not suitable for the British Isles
on account of the colder climate, but it may be
doubted whether this view is correct ; the arrange-
ment has in the present case certainly proved most
successful from many points of view. The rooms
and corridors are light and airy, while the building
is extremely compact and its low height makes for
stability. There is little or no trouble from vibra-
tion, all machinery being housed in one side of the
square at the back of the building. Lastly, and not
least, a way has been found to combine beauty with
utility, and it was not thought.wasteful even in these
modern times to follow the charming traditions of
Florence by planting a garden to surround the well
in the courtyard. This is shown in Big. I.
The Institute was erected immediately after the
war to serve for post-graduate and research work in
physics and optics. The physical laboratories are
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
IByes Ls
sa rman atte en RON SH
1.—The Courtyard of the Physical Institute at Arcetri, Florence.
C. Martin.
under the direction of Prof. A. Garbasso, who, during
the last year, has served as Mayor of Florence. The
optical laboratory is directed by Prof. A. Occhialini,
the well-known editor of the Revista d’ Ottica. In the
coming year it is proposed to build an annexe devoted
entirely to technical optics. Up to the present the
teaching activity has been restricted to the physical
side, but courses on optical subjects are being arranged
and research and testing are already in progress.
Accommodation is provided for thirty to forty
students taking post-graduate courses in physics,
The present students are drawn largely from the
University of Pisa.
In the course of a short visit it is scarcely possible
to notice all the features deserving attention. The
arrangement of lecture theatre, class rooms, and
research rooms is generally excellent, and it is evident
that the needs of experimental work have been con-
sidered during design; for example,
in one corner of the building it is
possible to obtain the equivalent
of a vertical circular shaft by
removing the coverings of holes in
the roof and floors, an arrange-
ment which is of the greatest value
in optical testing.
The usual wiring and switch-
board for the distribution of electric
current is provided, and there is
also a separate high-tension circuit.
Another point which seems admir-
able is the construction of the
roomy apparatus cupboards in
which three sides are of glass;
they stand in the corridor on the
first floor and exhibit the appar-
atus to advantage, a matter of
importance in a teaching institu-
tion,
In the matter of equipment
the usual lines have been gener-
ously followed. For example, the
optical apparatus includes 40 and
20 plate echelons with appro-
priate spectroscopes, a Fabry
and Perot interferometer, and a
Nutting spectrophotometer, all by A. Hilger, Ltd.
There is also a large spectrometer (with four reading
microscopes for the circle) by the Société Genevoise.
Other branches of physics seem to be supplied in a
corresponding manner. Those who know something
of the present cost of equipment of this kind will ap-
preciate the intensity and vigour of the effort which
Italy is making in the founding of this Institute.
In Florence as in few other cities one loses that
sense of the remoteness of the past which oppresses
the mind in more modern surroundings, and the
splendour of bygone days seems still our own for
guidance and inspiration. Such thoughts find a fitting
expression in two frescoes which are seen on leaving
the Institute by the main staircase. On the one side
is seen Youth in the quietness and cool of the evening
drinking of the fountain of ancient wisdom, while
opposite we see Humanity in the glory of morning
sunlight pressing upwards with eagerness and hope
towards the hilltops.
I am indebted to Profs. Occhialini and Garbasso
for photographs and information for the purposes of
this article.
OCTOBER 7, 1922
NALORE
Fruit-Growing
ee application of scientific methods and prin-
ciples is steadily gaining ground in fruit culture
as in other branches of agriculture, and the numerous
publications on the subject provide evidence of a
widening interest in the matter, both as regards the
scientific and the practical worker.
The earlier work of Spencer Pickering and the
Duke of Bedford stimulated interest in the root
systems of fruit trees, and at Long Ashton * the matter
of root development under various conditions is being
followed up. It appears that the method of treat-
ment at the time of planting has little effect on the
type of root produced, a new root system being
derived from the collar region of the tree and little
growth occurring elsewhere; aeration is considered
to be a dominant factor in determining the actual
point of origin of the new roots. Root formation
and growth are most active at the beginning and
towards the end of the season, the greatest increase
in root length occurring during the latter period, at
the time when shoot growth is rapidly decreasing.
Other experiments deal with the extension of the root
system throughout the soil, a matter which has a
direct bearing on the degree of overlapping of roots
when too close planting is practised.
On the pathological side special attention has been
directed to leaf-scorch on fruit trees, and the trouble
has been found to be due to various causative agents.
Among the chief of these are unfavourable soil con-
ditions, due to deficient food or water supply or to
defective aeration owing to the mechanical character
of the soil. Scorching is also attributed to the direct
action of wind, to excessive heat falling on the leaf,
or to injury to the vascular system of the plant, such
as may be caused by ringing or by the presence of a
fungus which penetrates the vascular tissue and
interferes with the water supply to the leaves.
The importance of spraying to combat disease is
now widely recognised, and at East Malling * direct
1 Annual Report of the Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station,
Long Ashton, 1921.
2 Grubb, N. H. (1921), Journal of Pomology, I1., No. 2.
and Research.
experimental work is being carried out with fungi-
cides on apple trees. Every fungicide tested reduces
apple scab (Venturia inequalis), though the degree ot
effectiveness varies, Bordeaux mixture usually proving
the best. Generally speaking, the crop and the size
of the fruit are improved by spraying, with certain
exceptions, and there are indications that summer
spraying may improve the keeping quality of the
fruit by reducing attacks of brown-rot (Sclerotinia
fructigens). An interesting point is that the effects
of spraying are cumulative, sprayed trees being less
heavily affected in the succeeding years.
A critical examination of the stocks used for stone
fruits * shows that little or no attempt has hitherto
been made to group them as has been done for those
used for apples and pears, rapidity of growth and
general availability being usually the deciding factors
in the selection of stocks in any particular instance.
The descriptions worked out at East Malling are the
beginnings of an attempt to set up a permanent
standard of classification and identification with the
view of the ultimate improvement of stone fruit
cultivation.
In an interesting survey on progress in methods
of practical fruit- growing in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England,* the whole
business, from the selection of a holding to the final
packing of the fruit, is traced. Laying out and
planting the fruit farm, raising and selecting trees,
pruning, manuring, diseases, and pests are all brought
under consideration in a way that provides suggestive
reading for all interested in the subject, and its value
is enhanced by a useful bibliography. In this con-
nexion also attention may be directed to the collected
leaflets ° on fruit recently reissued by the Ministry of
Agriculture, in which various problems the practical
fruit-grower encounters in his work receive detailed
consideration.
3 Hatton, H. G. (1921), Journal of Pomology, II., No. 4.
4 Hatton, H. G., 1921, Journ, Roy. Agric. Soc., England.
5 Collected Leaflets on Fruit, 1921. Sectional volumes, No. 4.
of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Ministry
Volcanic Activity in Nigeria.
N Nature of July 15, p. 97, an account was given
of volcanic activity in Nigeria during March-
May last. The following extracts, from the reports
of Mr. H.S. Cameron, acting Supervisor of Plantations
in Nigeria, furnish some later information. They
are placed at our disposal through the courtesy of
the Colonial Office :—
On June 17 the manager of Bibundi informed
me by telephone that lava streams had commenced
to flow again; also that heavy damage was being
done by floods. On June 18 I went to Bibundi,
and going by trolley to Dollmanshdhe I found the
roadway of the bridge entirely swept away by floods
and also one of the four piers gone. I went up the
river, and after about a mile reached the first flow
of lava, which had been advancing the day before
but had now cooled and was stationary. Crossing
from there to Wernerfelde, progress was shortly
prevented by advancing lava; the stream here was
molten, but its advance, which was more “ creeping”
than “ flowing,’ was over a very wide area and on a
gentle slope, and it seemed probable that eventually
it would cool and turn the main lava stream down
the old course of the Njonge river and extend into
the sea, as part of the flow was then doing.
NO. 2762, VOL. I10]
The flooding damage was considerable and I think
unpreventable; the amount of water is so great
that itis impossible to direct it. More than fifty inches
of rain fell in the first seventeen days of June, and
the water from an area which formerly fed three
rivers and part of a fourth has now no channel:
not only is an exit lacking, but rain falling on lava
does not sink in and percolate through but rushes
at once to the lowest level, so free drainage is more
necessary than ever.
On June 22 I received a letter stating that the
lava had broken through near Dollmanshéhe bungalow,
followed the course of the stream, and was threatening
the hospital, which had been abandoned. Onreaching
the bridge-end at Dollmanshéhe on June 25, I found
that the whole of that division above the iron road
had been covered with lava, and cascades of molten
lava were flowing down the banks of the ravine.
It was really a wonderful sight. The river bed was
full of detached flows of lava fed from the Dollman-
shéhe plateau, where it had been massing during
the past week. I inspected the whole length from
near the Thormahlenfelde bungalow to the director’s
house, finding flowing lava everywhere. By afternoon
the ravine was filled, and by 11 P.M. the lava had
crossed the rail where the Government road turns
498
NATURE
[OcToBER 7, 1922
off and was advancing down the latter and towards
it from various points along the river course on the
left.
Owing to the steady progress between June 18
and 25, and the rapid flow on the latter date, I
considered it advisable to order the removal of all
the machinery and the salving so far as possible of
all building materials worth removing from machine
house, cacao house, hospital, and director’s house.
On July 11 I again visited Bibundi. The lava had
advanced considerably since June 25, but its activity
is gradually dying out, though the lava streams from
the crater, so far as can be seen in this very misty
weather, continue as strong as ever. Probably there
will be another period of rest and banking up to be
followed by a further advance, and everything points
to this following the line of the iron road and Govern-
ment road to the cacao store and machine house,
and possibly breaking through the main portion of
Thormahlenfelde to the Ninonne River higher up.
On July 15 the manager of Bibundi reported :
“The main lava stream is quiet ; but for the last
three nights I have seen a large new stream coming
down the mountain. It is very bright and much
closer to this side than before.’’
The Royal Photographic Society’s
Exhibition.
Gime Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic
Society at 35 Russell Square remains open until
October 28. Admission is free. The natural history
section of the scientific and technical division has
improved considerably in recent years. There are
still a good many single photographs of an animal,
a flower, or an insect that have no particular interest,
or if they have it is not indicated; but there are
many series showing progressive changes, such as
Dr. S. Hastings’s nine illustrations of soil formation
in the Alps, in which he shows the bare rock covered
at first with crustaceous lichens, and traces the stages
of vegetation until an alpine meadow is produced.
Other series show many varieties of the same kind of
thing, as Mr. C. H. Caffyn’s thirty sections of cal-
careous, arenaceous, and igneous rocks, and Dr.
Rodman’s animal and vegetable hairs. With scarcely
any exception the photography in this section is
excellent.
Among the “ Technical Applications of Photo-
graphy’ Dr. J. S. Plaskett shows four photographs
taken at the focus of the 72-inch reflecting telescope
at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria,
B.C., which also give evidence of the accuracy of
figure of the mirror. The Mount Wilson Observatory,
Carnegie Institution of Washington, contributes
specimens of the work of the roo-inch Hooker reflector
and of the 60-inch reflector, as well as photographs
of the unusual spectra of seven stars, made with these
instruments. Enlarged negative prints of a latitude
variation plate and a wave-length plate are among
the exhibits of the Astronomer Royal, Greenwich.
The production of accurate comparative scales by
photographic means is fully described and illustrated
by Mr. A. E. Bawtree, and Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb
shows how, by chemical and photographic means, a
Russian internal passport was made to yield deleted
details which showed that the document had done
duty on four separate occasions for as many different
persons.
Mr. G. A. Clarke illustrates upper cloud formations
which support the theory of Prof. Bjerknes that
depressions have their origin in the meeting of a
NO. 2762, VOL. TIO]
warm, moist, equatorial current and a cold, dry,
polar current. Cloud formation and structure is
shown from the upper side by Mr. F. W. Baker.
There are many exhibits that deal with the techni-
calities of gelatine plate manufacture and the statisti-
cal properties of plates by workers in America, as
well as in this country. We may refer specially to
the beautiful photomicrographs of silver bromide
crystals, at 3000 diameters, by Mr. A. P. H. Trivelli,
and the characteristic curves of modern high-speed
dry plates with photomicrographs of the grains that
constitute the sensitive material by Mr. J. W. Grundy.
Mr. Grundy also contributes a fine series of photo-
graphs taken under various conditions from a height
of about 14,000 feet.
Among numerous radiographs by several workers
the effect of the Potter-Bucky diaphragm is shown
by Mr. R. B. Wilsey. This diaphragm consists of a
grid made of parallel strips of lead foil, the planes of
which are in line with the direction of the radiation
from the tube. It is placed between the patient and
the film, and moved during the exposure so that it
may not show on the radiograph; it absorbs a large
proportion of the scattered rays.
There is a large collection of colour transparencies,
and-among them some of scientific interest, but the
most remarkable are the stereoscopic slides made on
autochrome plates by Mr. S. Pegler. The successful
reproduction of the colour and the brilliancy of silver
plate, various articles of jewellery, and coloured
stones, together with the realistic appearance,
demonstrates possibilities of this method that are
little known.
University and Educational Intelligence.
Lonpon.—Thé senate of the university includes
sixteen members elected by registered members of
convocation and sixteen by the faculties. Of the
former, six are elected by the registered graduates in
science; and of the latter, the faculty of science
appoints four. There are two vacant seats in science,
and five candidates have presented themselves as
candidates for them. The candidates are: Dr.
George Senter, principal of Birkbeck College, and
author of a number of papers and other works on
chemistry (Dr. Senter is a member of the faculty of
science, and is therefore eligible for election as a
representative of the faculty in the senate); Mr.
T. Ll. Humberstone, an old student and associate of
the Royal College of Science, weli known to be
particularly familiar with the work of the University
and educational problems generally; Dr. Jessie
White, who is especially interested in methods of
teaching science; Dr. J. S. Bridges, director of
education, Willesden; and Mr. C. W. Crook, head-
master, Central Secondary School, Wood Green. The
poll closes on Tuesday next, Oct. to, and it is hoped
that graduates will not fail to send in their voting
papers before that date.
St. ANDREWs.—The honorary degree of LL.D. was
conferred upon the Prince of Wales on September 28.
In an address to his Royal Highness after the pre-
sentation, Dr. J. C. Irvine, principal of the university,
reminded him that St. Andrews was not only a place
of beauty and the home of a noble game, but also
a centre from which great movements had sprung
and powerful influences had spread far and wide. The
ancient university was ever ready to enlarge its
activities, blending the wisdom of the past with the
spirit of progress.
OcTOBER 7, 1922]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
October 8, 1862. James Walker died.—An eminent
civil engineer, Walker constructed many works of the
greatest magnitude, and as engineer to the board of
the Trinity House built the Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse
and the Smalls Lighthouse. In 1834 he succeeded
Telford as president of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, and held that position for eleven years.
October 9, 1902. George Wigktwick Rendel died.
—Born in 1833, Rendel was the second son of James
Meadows Rendel. Trained under his father, he gained
experience in bridge building in India, and in 1858
became a partner with Armstrong at Elswick, where,
with Andrew Noble, he directed the ordnance works
for twenty-four years. He was intimately associated
with the development of the hydraulic system of gun
mountings—the first mounting being fitted in H.M.S.
Thunderer in 1877—and he was also a pioneer in the
application of forced draught to warships. From
1882 to 1885 he was a civil lord of the Admiralty.
October 10, 1854. John Augustus Lloyd died.—
At an early age Lloyd left England for South America,
where he became an officer in the army of Bolivar.
In 1827 he made a survey of the Isthmus of Panama.
From 1831 to 1849 he was colonial engineer and
surveyer of Mauritius, where he constructed many
roads and bridges, a patent slip for ships, a break-
water, and the colonial observatory. Among his
writings was a paper read to the Institution of Civil
Engineers on “ Facilities for a Ship Canal between
the Atlantic and Pacific.’’ He died in the Crimea
while on a Government Commission.
October 11, 1705. Guillaume Amontons died.—
Employed for many years on public works in France,
Amontons was a member of the Paris Academy of
Sciences, and was known for his improvements in
barometers and other instruments. In 1684 he
suggested a means of signalling long distances by
a type of semaphore telegraph.
October 12, 1859. Robert Stephenson died.—The
only son of George Stephenson, whom he assisted in
the construction of the Livérpool and Manchester
Railway, which was opened in 1830, Robert Stephen-
son became engineer to many of the early railways.
Among his most famous works were the High Level
Bridge at Newcastle, the Tubular Bridge over the
Menai Straits, and the Victoria Bridge at Montreal.
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1849,
and during 1856-57 served as president of the
Institution of Civil Engineers. He was buried beside
Telford in the nave of Westminster Abbey.
October 13, 1902. Peter Brotherhood died.—After
studying at King’s College, London, Brotherhood
worked as a mechanical engineer at Swindon and
at Maudslay’s, Lambeth; in 1867 he set up in
business for himself in London. In 1872 he intro-
duced the three-cylinder engine adopted extensively
for torpedoes, and in 1875 built the first steam
engine coupled direct to a dynamo—this being fitted
in the French battleship Richelieu. He also made
many improvements in air-compressing machinery. _
October 14, 1906. Sir Richard Tangye died.—One
of the five brothers who built up one of the most
important engineering works in Birmingham, Tangye
and his brothers migrated to that city from Redruth.
Setting up as tool and machine makers, they made a
reputation by the construction of the hydraulic jacks
by means of which Brunel launched the Great Eastern,
and they afterwards became known all over the world
as the makers of steam engines and pumping
machinery. eaCaSe
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
NATURE
499
Societies and Academies.
SWANSEA.
Institute of Metals, September 21.—J. E. Clennell :
Experiments on the oxide method of determining
aluminium (Report to the Aluminium Corrosion Re-
search Sub-Committee of the Corrosion Research Com-
mittee of the Institute). It was desired to find a direct
method of determining aluminium in presence of iron
and other impurities. Precipitating aluminium as
hydroxide by alkali thiosulphates was fairly satisfac-
tory, but the weight of precipitate generally exceeded
the theoretical amount calculated from the aluminium
known to be present. This excess was traced to small
quantities of absorbed substances, notably salts of
iron and sulphates, probably of aluminium. A better
method is as follows: Pass sulphur dioxide through the
slightly ammoniacal solution, precipitating in dilute,
faintly acid, boiling solution with sodium thiosulphate
with addition of dilute acetic acid, washing by
decantation with hot 1 per cent. ammonium chloride,
filtering and washing with hot water. Iron, zinc,
manganese, and magnesium in ordinary amounts do
not interfere, but when the first two are present in
large quantity a double precipitation is necessary.—
Marie L. V. Gayler: The constitution and age-
hardening of alloys of aluminium with copper,
magnesium, and silicon in the solid state. Comstitu-
tion.—These alloys have been regarded as a ternary
system since magnesium and silicon are added in
the proportions of the compound magnesium silicide,
which is very stable at all temperatures. Micro-
scopic examination shows that the solubility of
copper is reduced from 4-5 per cent. to 2 per cent.
at 500° C. by the presence of 0-7 per cent. magnesium
silicide ; while 2 per cent. of copper reduces the
solubility of magnesium silicide from 1-2 per cent.
to 0-7 per cent. at 500° C. At 250° C. both con-
stituents are turned out of solution when only 0-5
per cent. of each are present. Age- Hardening.—
Brinell hardness measurements were made on alloys
in which the percentage content of one constituent
only was varied ; they were quenched from 500° C.
and allowed to age-harden at room temperature.
Age-hardening is due to the difference in solubility
at high and low temperatures of both copper and
magnesium silicide, and the solubility in aluminium
of both in the presence of each other. Heat treat-
ment of age-hardened alloys caused a preliminary
softening before an increase in hardness; this is
probably due to the process by which both compounds
tend to come out of solution. Derived differential
curves of alloys which had been quenched, but not
aged, show three critical points ; the lowest is at a
constant temperature ; the temperature of the two
upper critical points is lowered with increasing
copper content; the intensity of the uppermost
varies with the copper content. Probably this point
is due to the precipitation of the copper compound
and the second to the precipitation of magnesium
silicide.—D. Stockdale: The copper-rich aluminium-
copper alloys. Alloys of copper with aluminium up
to 20 per cent. of aluminium have been investigated.
Thermal data from the cooling-curves and from
quenching experiments in conjunction with micro-
scopic examination were used to obtain equilibrium
diagrams. The minimum in the liquidus curve at
1031° C. with 8-3 per cent. of aluminium is a true
eutectic point; a small arrest point at 1017 with
alloys containing between 16-5 and 18 per cent. of
aluminium has been discovered. Copper at 1000 C.
can hold only 7-4 per cent. of aluminium in solid
solution; at 500° C. and at lower temperatures,
9-8 per cent., although to obtain such an alloy a
500
long annealing is required. —R. Seligman and P.
Williams; Cleaning aluminium utensils. Aluminium
is not attacked by water-glass solutions or by hot
soda solution containing a little sodium silicate.
Attack by a 5 per cent. soda solution is immediately
arrested by the addition of an amount of sodium
silicate equal to 1/roo of the soda. Satisfactory
detergents consisting of a mixture of soda and sodium
silicate are articles of commerce; among them are
‘Carbosil,’’ “ Pearl Dust,” and “ Aquamol.”—W.
Rosenhain and J. D. Grogan: The effects of over-
heating and melting on aluminium. Exposure to an
unduly high temperature during melting, and re-
peated re-melting even at ordinary melting tem-
peratures, are thought to cause deterioration ap-
proximating to the condition generally described as
“burnt”? aluminium. High-grade aluminium was
poured at temperatures up to 1000° C. and also at
the usual pouring temperature after heating for some
hours at rooo° C. The castings rolled and tested
in the annealed state showed no deterioration.
High-grade aluminium and also aluminium containing
3 per cent. each of iron and silicon were cast to j-in.
slabs and rolled to o-or in. sheet; the sheet was
re-melted and the process repeated ten times. Test
pieces from each melt showed no systematic change.
SYDNEY.
Linnean Society of New South Wales, July 26.—
Mr. G. A. Waterhouse, president, in the chair.—A.
E. Shaw: Description of new Australasian Blattidae,
with a note on the blattid coxa. Nine cockroaches
are described as new, three belonging to Platyzosteria,
five to Cutilia, and one doubtfully to Zonioploca.
H. H. Karny: A remarkable new gall-thrips from
Australia. These thrips infest the branchlets of the
“ Belah ’ (Casuarina Cambagei) and cause rounded
galls of aborted tissue to form, in which large colonies
of thrips develop.—G. F. Hill: A new Australian
termite. The new species of Calotermes from near
Condon, W.A., is distinct from amy described
Australian species and easily distinguished in the
soldier caste by the long narrow head, large mandibles,
dentition, third joint of antennae, and enlarged
femora.—E. W. Ferguson and G. F. Hill: Notes on
Australian Tabanide, part ii. Eight mew species,
including 1 species of Silvius and 7 of Tabanus, and
two varieties of species of Tabanus are described.—
J. McLuckie: Studies in symbiosis, part ii. The
apogeotropic roots of Macrozamia spiralis and their
physiological significance. Root-tubercles occur upon
many of the seedlings and older plants of Macrozamia
spiralis, particularly about the soil-level. They are
seldom present on the more deeply situated secondary
roots, but may be induced to develop by artificial
inoculation. The root-tubercles are due to infection
by soil bacteria, the presence of which stimulates the
development of the cortex and sheath, so that the
tubercles are more massive than ordinary roots.
Official Publications Received.
Proceedings of the South London
History Society 1921-22. Pp. xvii + 83.
Chambers, London Bridge.) 5s.
t Venturers’ Technical College.
Sess 5 . Pp. 54. (Bristol.) 6d.
Ministe Agricultura, Industria e Commercio: Directoria de
Meteorologia. Boletim Meteorologico: Anno de 1912. Pp. 110.
Boletim Meteorologico : Anno de 1913. Pp. 130. (Rio de Janeiro.)
Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University. Vol. 8, No. 3: The Turner Group
of Earthworks, Hamilton County, Ohio. By Charles C. Willoughby ;
with Notes on the Skeletal Remains, by Earnest A. Hooton Pp.
viili+132+27 plates. (Cambridge, Mass.)
Smithsonian Institution: United States National Museum, _Con-
tributions from the United States National Herbarium. Vol. 23,
Part 2: Trees and Shrubs of Mexico (Fagacee—Fabacee). By Paul C.
Standley. Pp. xxxvii+171-515. (Washington: Government Printing
Office.)
NO. 2762, VOL. 110]
Entomologizal and -Natural
(London: Hibernia
Calendar for the 67th
NATORE
[OcTOBER 7, 1922
Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Entomological
Series, Vol. 7, No. 7: New and Rare Indian Odonata in the Pusa
Collection. By Major F. C. Fraser. Pp. 39-81. (Calcutta : Thacker,
Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker and Co.) 1.4 rupees; 1s. 9d.
_ Annual Report of the Meteorological Observatory of the Government-
General of Chosen for the Year 1918. (Results of Observations.)
Pp. iv-+134. For the Year 1919. (Results of Observations. Pp.
iv+143. (Jinsen.)
Sixth Annual Report of the National Research Council. Pp, 72.
(Washington : Government Printing Office.)
Diary of Societies.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9.
INSTITUTE OF BREWING.—S. K. Thorpe, and others: Discussion on
ae eee incurred in connection with the Shipment of Foreign
arleys.
ROYAL SocreTy OF MEDICINE (War Section) (at, Royal Army Medical
College, Millbank), at 5.—Lt.-Gen. Sir John Goodwin: Presidential
Address.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Therapeutics and Pharmacology Section),
at 4.30.—Dr. W. Langdon Brown: The Problems of Asthma
(Presidential Address).—Dr. T. Izod Bennett: The Modification
of Gastric Function by means of Drugs.
INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS (at Chemical Society),
at 5.30.—Dr. A. E. Dunstan: The Work of the Standardization
Committee.
INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERS, INC., at 6.30.—A. Keenes : Condi-
tions to get High Economy from Oil Fuel.
QUEKETT MIrcROscOPICAL CLUB, at 7.30.—F. Martin Duncan:
Crustacea.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—Dr. R. 5.
Clay: The Development of the Photographic Lens from the Historical
Point of View (the Twenty-fifth Annual Traill-Taylor Memorial
Lecture).
INSTITUTION OF HEATING AND VENTILATING ENGINEERS, INC. (at
Caxton Hall), at 8.15.—R. Fortune: Some Points in the Law ot
Heating Engineers’ Contracts.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11.
INSTITUTION OF HEATING AND VENTILATING ENGINEERS, INC. (at
Caxton Hall), at 3.—J. L. Musgrave: Heating and Ventilating of
Passenger Ships.
ROYAL MIcROSCOPICAL SocrETY (at Examination Hall, 8-11 Queen
Square, W.C.1), at 7.30,—A Conversazione.
INSTITUTION OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERS (at Royal Automobile Club),
at 8.—Lt.-Col. D. J. Smith: Presidential Address.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12.
OpTicaL Society (at Imperial College of Science and Technology),
at 7.30.—Dr. L. C. Martin: A Physical Study of Coma.—F. W.
Preston: The Structure of Sand-blasted and Ground Glass Surfaces.
INSTITUTE OF METALS (London Section) (at Institute of Marine
Engineers), at 8.—Dr. D. Hanson: Chairman's Address.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Neurology Section), at 8.30.—Dr. W.
Harris : Toxic Polyneuritis (Presidential Address).
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13.
ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC BroLoGistTs (in Botanical Lecture Theatre’
Imperial College of Science), at 2.30.—Dr. E. J. Butler: Virus
ree in Plants.—Dr. J. A. Arkwright: Virus Diseases in Animals
and Man.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Clinical Section), at 5.30.
— (Ophthalmology Section), at 8.30.—N. Bishop Harman: A
Visual Standard for School Teachers.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30.—E. C. West: Artificial
Ice Making.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—Dr. C. A.
Swan: Carcassonne and the Pyrenees.
PUBLIC LECTURES.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5.—Prof. G. Elliot Smith: The Beginnings
of Science.
Kina’s COLLEGE, at 5.30.—Prof. G. B. Jeffery: Einstein’s Theory of
Relativity. 4
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5,—Prof. C. Spearman :
Intelligence.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5.30,—Miss A. S. Cooke, Col, J. M. Mitchell,
and Capt. R. Wright: Discussion on Recent Developments in
Rural Library Work.—Miss Lilias Armstrong : The Use of Phonetics
in the Class Room. (As applied to the teaching of French.)
BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, at 5.30.—Prof. E. A. Gardner:
Delphi and Delos.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 7.—A. H. Barker: Standard Ratings for
Radiators, Boilers, and Complete Heating Installations. r
The Nature of
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12.
City of LONDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir Arthur E.
Shipley : Fleas, Flies, and Mosquitoes.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—H. Shaw: Flight in all
Ages.
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF | SCIENCE.
“< To the solid ground A AAS
Of Ni ature trusts the mind which butlds for aye. ”—WoRDSWoR’ TH.
No. 2763, VOL. 110]
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1 1922
_[PRICE ONE SHILLING _
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NWEGRETTI-A-ZAMBRA.
WAU OOH ee
CXXil
BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC.
Principal—* Roperr H. PicKarp, D.Sc., F.R.S,
ity Courses, day and evening, under Recognised Teachers of
iversity of London are provided in Science, Engineering and Music.
CHEMISTRY.—*J. Kenyon, D.Sc., F.I.C. J. L. Waite, D.Sc.
PHY SLES: —A5 Mar SH, B.Sc., Ph.D. j * A. E. Evans, B.Sc.; * J. F.
Puituts, B B.Sc.
MATHE ‘ICS. —* F. M. Saxetsy, M.Sc., B.A.; * F. W. Harvey,
B.Sc., M. a *W. G. BICKLEY
“ENGINEERING.—*W. E. M.
ng.; *J. B. SHaw, A.R.G.S., Wh.Ex.; *H. M.
C. Daviess, B.Sc., A.M.I.Mech.E.
GINEERING.—*A. T. Dover, M.1.E.E.,
, F.R.C.O.
* Denotes rec ognised teacher of U niversity of London,
There are also :—
Day Technical College in Engineering and Science. Day Training
College of Domestic Science. Day Department of Hygiene and
Physiology. Day School of Art and Crafts.
Evening Courses in Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics,
Bac teriology, Chemical Engineering, Hygiene and Physiology, Art,
Matriculation Subjects, Domestic conomy Music, Physical Training.
Hostels for Women Students. Large playing fields at Merton.
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
BLACKWELL PRIZE ESSAY.
The BLACKWELL PRIZE of THIRTY GUINEAS, Open to Unre-
stricted Competition, will be awarded in 1923 for the Best Essay on ‘‘ The
Sculptured and Inscribed Stones of the North-east and North of Scotland.”
Essavs must be lodged with the Secretary of the UNIVERSITY on or
before January 1, 1923.
Each Essay must bear a Motto, and be accompanied by a Sealed
Envelope bearing the same Motto, and enclosing the Name and Address of
the writer.
H. J. BUTCHART, Secretary.
Marischal College, Aberdeen.
LEEDS GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The GOVERNORS invite applications for the Post of HEADMASTER
of this School.
The School is a Day School. Present Numbers, 600.
ed Courses in Classics, and in Mathematics and Science.
Applicants must hold Honours Degrees of a University in the United
Kingdom or the British Dominions.
Salary £1200, rising by annual increments of £50 a year to £1500.
House free of rent, rates, and external repairs provided,
Duties to begin as from January 1, 1923
Applications, with references and 2 pies of not more than 3 recent
testimonials, to be sent in so as to be received not later than October 31,
1922, to the CLERK 10 THE GoveRNoRS, 6 Butts Court, Leeds.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
LECTURER IN PHYSIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
GRADE III.
The Council invites applications for the
stipend £300 per annum.
Applications, with testimonials, should be sent to the undersigned not
later than October 16. No special form of application is required.
The Candidate elected will be required to enter upon the duties at once.
The conditions of appointment for Grade III. and for promotion to
Grade II. on the University Staff may be obtained from
GEO. H. MORLEY, Secretary.
above post. Commencing
BACTERIOLOGICAL INCUBATOR,
HEARSON’S, in good working condition, with patent Gas Regulator,
FOR SALE, inside measurement 15” X15” 18”, supplied by Messrs.
Baird & Tatlock. Inspection and offers invited. PRopaGANDA
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LABORATORIES available up to4000 square
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Within seven minutes of Bank. Box 20, c/o Nature Office.
SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS MAKERS
Wanted. First-grade men with electrical knowledge. Apply, stating
experience, age, and wages required, to REyNotps & Branson, Ltd.,
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WANTED TO PURCHASE: Messenger
of Mathematics, Vols. 31 to 49; Quarterly Journal of Mathematics,
1gio-21. Priced offers to W. Mutter, 26 Hart Street, London, W.C.1.
PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS, French
1 British. Sets of five, one guinea. Approval.
Or!rEL, 28 Glenlyon Road, S.E.o9.
State requirements.
INA TEC
[OcToBER 14, 1922
CHELSEA POLYTECHNIC,
CHELSEA, S$.W.3.
Day and Evening Courses in Science under Recognised Teachers
of London University.
I. INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT.
Technical Courses in Analytical and Manufacturing Chemistry,
Pharmacy, Food and Drugs, A.I.C. Courses, Metallurgy, Assaying,
Foundry Work, Research.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1922
CONTENTS. aie
Landowners and the State : EES OL
Bergson and Einstein. By Prof. H. Wildon Gan - 503
The Molecular Scattering of Light. By H.S. A. . 505
Technical Electricity . : : 5 : : - 506
Modern Metallurgy. By W. H. M.. é ‘ S07;
The British Association Addresses of 1922. a § Sey
Our Bookshelf. 5 : : é ¢ 5 - 508
Letters to the Editor :—
Periodicities.—Dr. Gilbert T. Walker, F.R.S.
Sir W. H. Beveridge, K.C.B. c 511
One Possible Cause for Atmospheric Electric rate
mena.—A Query.—Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. . 512
School Instruction in Botany.—Dr. Lilian J. Clarke 512
Transcription of Russian Names.—J. G. F. Druce
and A. Glazunov : 512
Colour Vision and Soon: > De Ee W. Edridge-
Green . : 513
The Green Ray at Since: ond Suntieel prof Alfred
W. Porter, F.R.S. . : : oR)
Photography of Bullets in Flight. (Wilustpated ) By
Philip P. Quayle. o : : . . o bye
The Study of Man. By H. J. E. Peake . é 2 516
Obituary :—
Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S. By H.S. . 2 e520
Dr. William Kellner. . . : 5 e522
Current Topics and Events . : : ° : 6 BR
Our Astronomical Column . : : : : 4 Se
Research Items . 2 526
The Fauna of the Se Rotton: a Dr C. G. _ Joh
Petersen . : e527
Adhesives. By Emil Hacscheie = : : : . 528
The Decomposition of Tungsten 5 ; : a Ge)
The Belt of Political Change in Europe . : m5 20
University and Educational Intelligence . : 580
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . : : : me 5Br
Societies and Academies . oe ; : s) Ben
Diary of Societies 0 : : i : £ soe
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
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Advertisements and business letters should be
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Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
Landowners and the State.
ORD BLEDISLOE, as president of the Agricul-
tural Section of the British Association at Hull
this year, struck a new note in his address. Put very
briefly, his text was a demand for more leadership, and
in particular for educated leadership by landowners in
the business of farming. British farming has for the
last two centuries in the main been carried on by
tenants possessed of considerable capital, which is
employed in the business and not in the land itself nor
in its permanent equipment. The result, at any rate
until fifty years ago, was successful. Complicated as
the question of tenure was in detail, by custom it
worked well on the whole ; a sufficiency of capital was
attracted to the land to permit of cultivation on a
comparatively large scale with sufficient continuity to
emcourage experiment and improvement, until British
farming, whether as regards operations of cultivation,
productivity of crops grown or quality of stock bred,
stood easily foremost in the whole world.
British agriculture no longer enjoys the same un-
disputed position. We can still point with pride to
its technical excellence, but it has not succeeded in so
adapting itself to the changed economic conditions as
to continue to be regarded as a prosperous industry
or to attract the confidence of capitalists. Farmers,
despite some protestations, can still make a living out
of it, because they can always adjust their style of
farming to any range of prices, but the position of the
other two parties to the occupation of the land is far
from satisfactory. Landowners’ rents do not repre-
sent a reasonable rate of interest on the money that
has been expended on the buildings, etc. necessary to
the working of the farm. A piece of average English
land in prairie condition could not to-day be equipped
as a farm and then let at a rent which would pay
market interest on the capital expended in equipping
it, even though no charge were made for the land
itself. Landowners who sold their farms during the
last few years were able after reinvestment to double
and treble the income they had derived from them,
and at the same time to relieve themselves of many
of the calls upon the landlord’s purse. Agricultural
labourers, again, though they effected some improve-
ment in their position during the war, are still the worst
paid industrial class of any magnitude in the community.
In the villages it is well recognised that a boy is likely
to be better off if he can get on the railway, into the
police, or any of the other occupations more or less
available, rather than go upon the land.
The tenant-farming system, for all its advantages,
appears to be breaking down, and Lord Bledisloe
regards the landowners of the last generation or two
502
as in part responsible. From an abstract point of
view the ordinary English tenant farm of 200 to 500
acres 1s no longer the economic init it once was. At
its inception it represented wholesale large scale pro-
duction as compared with the generality of European
farming, and as such it provided the food needed for
the early industrial development of the country.
But with the enormous extension of wheat growing
and meat production in the newer countries, the effect
of which upon our markets began to become so apparent
from the ’seventies of last century onwards, and with
modern organisation of the import trade in food pro-
ducts from countries with a low wage standard, the
English farmer no longer controls prices, and when he
stands alone, he is selling as a retailer in a market
dominated by much larger interests. It has become
a terribly difficult market because Great Britain is
now the one absolutely free emporium to which the
surplus food products from every other food-producing
country in the world are directed. With one or two
minor exceptions (Denmark and Belgium are prac-
tically free-trade countries, but they are normally food
exporters rather than buyers), the British farmer is
met by a tariff wall whenever he has a surplus to export
or a speciality to develop, and these difficulties are, at
the moment, accentuated by the break in the Con-
tinental exchanges, which diverts to Britain even the
limited quantities of food-stuffs the foreign industrialist
had begun to purchase.
Some of these difficulties may be overcome by co-
operation, never an easy matter to organise in a con-
servative community such as our farmers form, bred
as they have been in an individualist organisation of
business and imbued with the characteristic British
tradition of standing alone. In any case, co-operation
may be only a palliative ; the economic flaw in the
tenant-farming system probably is that the unit of
management is too small. There is not work for a
master in controlling the five to ten men employed on
the ordinary English farm; as a managing head one
man should be able to supervise the working of tooo
to 2000 acres, according to the class of land. Economic
pressure would thus appear to be tending to move
away from the present type of British farm in two
directions, either towards the single-man holding, un-
economic as an instrument of production but in which
compensation is found in the extra labour the occupier
will give in exchange for his independence, or on the
other hand, towards the really large farm which can
take advantage of machinery and organisation.
Lord Bledisloe’s main contention is that the land-
owner must either take the latter option and become the
instructed business head of his estate treated as a single
farm, or if he prefers not to take over the actual manage-
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcTroBER 14, 1922
ment, he must at least be the leader and entrepreneur of
the associated businesses of his tenants. Not only is the
holding of land a bad investment, but ina modern State
the mere rent receiver will eventually be eliminated.
Landlords must give service or perish as such, and
Lord Bledisloe appeals to a class which has a long and
honourable tradition behind it of service to the State
to return to the land and so render a necessary service
to a State that is becoming overweighted on the in-
dustrial side. He points out the two directions in
which the landowner can lead his tenants and benefit
both his estate and the course of agriculture. In the
first place, the farmer to-day is not getting his fair
share of the prices the consumer pays for food. While
all the producing interests connected with the land are
unprosperous and are being forced to contract their
activities, the trading organisations which deal in the
produce of land are paying handsome dividends and
individual middlemen are growing rich. The con-
sumer reviles the farmer because of the scarcity of
food ; the farmer knows he must restrict his production
in order to make it pay at present prices, while the
slightest production above the normal demand cuts
away not merely profits but often cash returns, as may
be seen over plums and potatoes at the moment. The
distributing trade has entrenched itself in order to retain
its war scale of margin, and the building famine in the
country hinders the growth of competition. Lord
Bledisloe gives a series of tables to show the discrepancy
between retail and farmers’ prices and the increase of
that discrepancy since the war; in most cases the
distributing trades take more than half the price the
public pays. Coarse ‘ middlings ’ cost more than wheat,
and readers of the Tzmes a few days ago may have
noticed that on the same day the price of London flour
was put up while wheat was, in another column,
reported as cheaper.
It is to this state of things Lord Bledisloe recom-
mends landowners to turn their attention ; can they
not organise the businesses of their farmers into some-
thing capable of keeping the middlemen in check ?
They should be able to see further than the farmer,
who has to look after his own business of production,
Co-operation has made but little headway among
farmers themselves ; would it not be in a very different
position if it had been whole-heartedly and intelligently
backed by the landowners ? Here is one opening for
intelligence and leadership on the part of owners of
land.
The other great opening is in connexion with educa-
tion and research. The old race of landlords numbered
among them great improvers of farming, such as
Weston, Townshend, Coke, and Lawes. Even the
much-abused farming covenants represented, to begin
OcTOBER 14, 1922]
NATURE
593
with, better systems imposed upon their tenants by
landlords. To-day, if English farming practice is in
many respects still ahead of its competitors, it has
become, comparatively speaking, not so alive to the
applications of science. Farmers themselves are not
quite what they were; the great industrial develop-
ment of the last sixty years has been drawing away the
brains from the more slowly moving pursuit of agricul-
ture, and, speaking broadly, the present race of farmers
are not educated up to their needs or their oppor-
tunities. ;
Here again the landowners have not been, but can
be, leaders ; they can become intelligence centres, they
can stimulate the education of their tenants and of
their tenants’ sons, they can even insist on education
in selecting their tenants. It is the lack of apprecia-
tion of science among landowners that has made it a
plant of slow growth among their tenants.
The address is really a powerfully worded appeal
from Lord Bledisloe to the landowning class to treat
landowning as a vocation and to educate themselves
for it. It is a far-sighted call for service, and coming
from one who has so notably put into practice what he
preaches, carries with it an authority which no ordinary
admonition to progress can possess.
Bergson and Einstein.
Durée et Simultanéité: A propos de la théorte d’Ein-
Par Henri Bergson. Pp. vilit+245. (Paris:
Félix Alcan, 1922.) 8 francs net.
stein.
INSTEIN in his theory of relativity may be said
to have thrown down a challenge in the scientific
world of the same kind as that which Bergson in his
theory of duration has thrown down in the philosophic
world. Both theories are primarily concerned with a
certain fundamental character in the experience of
time. Both recognise a difference of nature, that is,
a qualitative difference, between the time which enters
into our equations of measurement and the time which
is lived. At one point, however, Bergson seems to
come into direct conflict with the Minkowski-Einstein
scheme of a space-time continuum. This is in his
conception of creative evolution. Creation means
that the reality of the physical universe is of the nature
of life or consciousness, a conception which implies
the continued existence of the past in the present, and
a universal moving forward into an open future. How
is this consistent with the view that there is not one
single universal time but as many different times as
there are systems, and that there is no absolute simul-
taneity between events which take place at any two
points if they are separate from one another in space ?
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
Bergson has evidently been of opinion that for his
own sake he must clear up his position on this crucial
point. To do so has been no slight undertaking, for
he has not been content to accept the principle of
relativity from the physicists or to assume that its
mathematics is correct. He has, therefore, deferred
the resumption of his own philosophical work, inter-
rupted by the war, and has set himself to study at
first hand the mathematical equations of Lorentz and
Einstein. It may interest readers of NATURE to know
that Bergson specialised in mathematics in his student
days to the extent of hesitating between it and philo-
sophy when he had to choose a profession. The argu-
ment in his new work deals almost exclusively with the
restricted theory, for it is that which affects directly
the question of the reality of time. The relevance of
the generalised theory is only touched upon. It is
the subject of a “ Final Remark,” in which the nature
of its importance for philosophy is indicated, but
general relativity does not seem to Bergson to challenge,
as the restricted relativity does, his theory that time
as a universal flux or change is an intuited reality,
while successive states are a spatialised time due to
the intellectual mode of apprehending it.
Descartes in the Principles (ii. 29) declares that in
movement there is complete reciprocity ; either of two
objects changing their relative position may be con-
sidered as having moved or as having remained at rest.
To this Sir Henry More replied (March 5, 1649) : “ When
I am sitting still, and someone moving away a mile
from me is red with fatigue, it is he who moves and I
who am still.”” Nothing science can affirm concerning
the relativity of perceived movement, measured by foot-
rules and clocks, can disturb the inward feeling we have
that we ourselves can effect movements and that the
efforts we put forth in doing so are under our control.
Here we have, then, in the most striking manner, the
contrast between the intuitive mode and the intellectual
mode of apprehending reality. Is there anything in
the principle of relativity which conflicts with the con-
ception of reality as fundamentally a duration which is
intuited or lived? Prima facie, yes. The denial of
absolute simultaneity seems completely inconsistent
with it. This comes out most clearly in Einstein’s
paradox. ‘“‘ Suppose a traveller to be enclosed in a
cannon-ball and projected from the earth with a
velocity amounting to a twenty-thousandth of the
--velocity-of light ; suppose him to meet a star and be
returned to earth; he will find when he leaves the
cannon-ball that if he has been absent two years, the
world in his absence has aged two hundred years.”
Any one who applies the mathematics of relativity
and makes the simple calculation for the two systems,
earth and cannon-ball, will find that the conclusion
504
NATURE
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
follows with the same logical necessity as in Zeno’s
paradox that Achilles cannot overtake the tortoise.
There is, however, a limitation even for the relativist
which, although it falls short of establishing an ab-
solute, is important to keep in mind. There is no
system of reference which a traveller can choose, by
entering which he might depart and return to find the
world younger, so that his journey would have been
backward in time. The reason is not the inconceiv-
ability of such a system, but the fact that it would
bring us into conflict with the law of causality. The
reversibility of causality which would require the
effect to come into existence before the cause, is un-
thinkable. Such then is the paradox. Relativity
requires that as we pass into a new system of reference
the relative movement of the new system shall be com-
pensated by changes in the spatio-temporal axes of
co-ordination in order to keep constant the velocity of
light. This means in the case supposed that two
years of the one system is the equivalent of two hundred
of the other.
Bergson’s solution of Einstein’s paradox follows the
same line as his solution of the paradoxes of Zeno, but
the special application of his principle has a particular
interest. In the case of Zeno the essential point was
the insistence on the continuity, in the meaning of
absolute indivisibility, of true duration, the duration
which is lived and intuited, as distinct from the in-
finitely divisible continuity, mathematically defined,
of the schematised trajectory of the movement. The
mathematical time which we measure is really space.
In the case of Einstein’s paradox Bergson argues that
the two systems, which are discordant as to their
simultaneity when taken as integral systems, must be
considered as continuously related, and this is possible
only so long as we do not abstract from the observer
who is attached to each. If, he says, we consider the
two observers in their different systems to be con-
tinuously in communication it is clear that each, while
regarding the other as a physicist co-ordinating a
system, will regard that co-ordinated system from the
standpoint of his own, and therefore, however different
the system may be, in so far as the two observers are
physicists and in so far as they are related observers,
the duration intuited is one and the same for both. But
here we shall ask, if the explanation is so simple, how
does the paradox arise? Quite naturally, Bergson
replies, and this is the striking part of his argument,
because what the philosopher can do the physicist
The philosopher’s concern is with reality
perceived or perceptible ; he, therefore, can never lose
sight of the interchangeability of the two systems.
He keeps them together by a kind of continual coming
and going between them. The physicist, on the other
NO. 2763, VOL. I10]
cannot.
hand, whose only business is to co-ordinate the system
as a whole, must choose one and stand by his choice.
He cannot relate all the events of the universe to two
systems of different axes of co-ordination at one and
the same time. He must therefore regard the whole
system as concordant or discordant with the whole of
the other system, each taken as one and integral. For
the physicist is not concerned with time intuited but
only with time as a measurable dimension.
We may see, then, how Einstein is able to affirm
that there are multiple times. We can place an
imaginary physicist at every point of space and his
time-system will necessarily be different from every
other time-system; and our own time-system, so far
as we are physicists, has no privilege over the imaginary
time-systems. But, Bergson replies, into whichever
of these imaginary time-systems we project ourselves,
it becomes thereby time lived or intuited, and as we
can conceive ourselves to pass into any of them, there
is a real duration to which all the imaginary time-
systems belong. Thus is restored to us the unique
time, one and universal.
Such is Bergson’s solution. Does it dispose of the
problem? The argument is certainly calculated to
reassure those who have been disturbed by the prin-
ciple of relativity, and to comfort those who are made
unhappy, rather than stimulated to activity, by
paradox. Yet there are many indications in his book
that Bergson himself does not feel he has said or is now
saying the last word. In the final remark, to which
we have already referred, he regards the generalised
theory as an extension of the argument of the restricted
theory with the difference that the emphasis is on
space rather than on time. He suggests that the
treatment of space on the same lines as those on which
he has dealt with time would show that the multiple
geometries are imaginary physicists’ geometries ab-
stracted from their relation to and transformability
into the one and universal space-system which is the
intuition of the living individual.
To a certain extent he is undoubtedly right, for we
may say truly that the restricted relativity is a case in
point of the generalised relativity. But there is a
problem which Bergson has left untouched while
giving indications that he is aware of it. This is the
relativity of magnitudes. Even Einstein has not, so
far, dealt with it specifically. Weyl, in his endeavour
to make the generalised theory include the whole
realm of electro-magnetic phenomena, has _fore-
shadowed a relativity even more fundamental and
more universal than Einstein’s, although so far he has
found no means, such as Einstein found, of submitting
the principle to experimental tests. In philosophy it
is of the deepest significance. Not only is there no
OCTOBER 14, 1922]
absolute criterion of magnitude, but systems of refer-
ence are not even relatively in relations of magnitude
to one another. It is only for the observer in a system
of reference that there is a relation of magnitude within
the system and that the system itself has relations of
magnitude to other systems. Into whatever system
an observer passes he carries into it his own constant
norm of magnitude and he does not have to submit to
the dimensions which the new system imposes on him.
It is this aspect of the principle of relativity which has
seemed to the present writer to require a philosophical
principle like that of the Leibnizian monad to give it
full expression. It is not enough to return to the
mathematical principle of Descartes’s mechanism.
Mathematics and physics alike rest ultimately on the
experience of active subjects, and this is why experi-
mental tests are relevant. The monadic conception
derives new meaning from the theory of reality as
psychical duration, the concept which Bergson has
made a new possession of human thought.
H. WrLpon Carr.
The Molecular Scattering of Light.
Molecular Diffraction of Light. By Prof. C. V. Raman.
Pp. x+103. (Calcutta: University of Calcutta,
1922.)
EADERS of Nature are already familiar with
TX the important work which Prof. C. V. Raman
has been carrying out in connexion with the scattering
of light by small particles, for many of his results have
been announced in these columns. In a small volume
published by the University of Calcutta he has reviewed
the present position of the subject of molecular diffrac-
tion of light, and has discussed the theory in a com-
prehensive survey which includes the case of gases,
vapours, liquids, crystals, and amorphous solids.
Lord Rayleigh was the first to dicate the principles
on which the problem may be handled, and he obtained
a relation between the scattering power of the molecules
of a gas, their number per unit volume, and the refrac-
tivity of the medium. As the energy scattered must
be derived from the primary beam, the intensity of the
latter must suffer an attenuation as it passes through
the medium, and an expression can be derived for the
attenuation coefficient. Prof. Raman discusses some
criticisms of the theory and concludes that the principle
of random phase which is assumed in the argument is
justified, provided there exists the random distribution
of the molecules which is required by Boyle’s law. The }
ultimate justification of the principle rests on the com-
plete non-uniformity in the spatial distribution of the
molecules in so far as very small volume elements are
concerned.
The first successful attempt to observe the scattering
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
NATURE
995
of light by dust-free air in the laboratory was made by
Cabannes in 1915. Experimental work of great
interest has been carried out by Prof. R. J. Strutt (the
present Lord Rayleigh), who obtained the remarkable
result that, in many gases, the scattered light is only
partially polarised. This may be explained as due to
the lack of symmetry of the molecules, and may furnish
valuable information with regard to molecular con-~
figuration.
To the late Lord Rayleigh we owe the brilliant
suggestion that the scattering of light by the molecules
of air accounted in large measure both for the blue light
of the sky and the observed degree of transparency of
the atmosphere. Recent observations, principally at
the Observatory on Mount Wilson, have confirmed the
theory and have furnished a value for Avogadro’s
constant which is practically identical with that deduced
from Millikan’s measurements of the electronic charge.
Prof. Raman has made observations on the polarisation
of skylight on Mount Dodabetta (8750 feet above sea
level) in the Nilgiris. As is well known, dust and haze
are largely confined to the lower levels of the atmo-
sphere. The influence of secondary scattering may be
reduced very considerably by using a deep red filter,
and allowance can be made for the effect of earthshine.
The weaker component of polarisation was found to
have 13 per cent. of the intensity of the stronger com-
ponent. Only 4 per cent., however, was ascribable to
molecular anisotropy, a result in good agreement with
the latest laboratory measurements.
The principle of random phase on which Rayleigh’s
theory depends is not applicable in the case of highly
condensed media such as dense vapours, liquids, and
solids. In liquids, we may apply the theory developed
by Einstein and Smoluchowski, in which scattering is
considered not as due to individual particles but to
small local variations of density arising from the heat
A formula is obtained
showing how the scattering power of a fluid is related
to its refractivity. It is worthy of notice that the
movéments of the molecules.
scattering power is proportional to the absolute
temperature and to the compressibility of the liquid.
When corrected for the effect of molecular anisotropy,
the formula gives results in fair agreement with observa-
tions in non-fluorescent liquids, and it reduces auto-
matically to the Rayleigh formula in the case of gaseous
media. But, surprisingly enough, the law seems to
break down in the case of gases under high pressure.
Prof. Raman makes the interesting suggestion that this
failure may mean that the continuous wave theory of
light does not strictly represent the facts, and that we
may perhaps find here experimental support for
Einstein’s conception that light itself consists of
quantum units.
OnE
506
INAS Oi ae
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
The colour and polarisation of the light scattered in
the sea is discussed by Prof. Raman in a chapter which
must interest biologists as well as physicists. The
colour of the deep sea is not mainly due to reflected sky-
light, as has sometimes been suggested, but to light
molecularly diffused from within the water. The re-
flecting power of water at normal incidence is quite
smail (only 2 per cent.), and consequently to an observer
flying at a great height above the surface of the water
the luminosity of the sea would be determined almost
entirely by internal scattering.
In crystals such as quartz and rock-salt the scattering
of light can be observed visually, the Tyndall cone
being of a blue colour. The effect may be attributed
to the thermal movement of the atoms in the crystal
introducing local fluctuations of optical density. Thus
there is a close connexion between this phenomenon
and the well-known influence of temperature (“‘ Debye
effect”) on the intensity of X-ray reflection as illus-
trated, for example, in the experiments of Sir W. H.
Bragg on rock-salt. It may be suggested that further
study of the scattering of light in amorphous solids like
glass would yield information of value regarding the
molecular structure of such bodies.
TELS, va
Technical Electricity.
(1) Principles of Electrical Engineering. By Prof.
W. H. Timbie and Prof. Vannevar Bush. Pp. viii+
513. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London:
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.)
(2) High
Taylor.
20s. net.
Voltage Power Transformers. By W. T.
Pp. x+117. (London: Sir I. Pitman and
Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
(3) Electric Power Systems. By W. T. Taylor. Pp.
xii+107. (London: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd.,
1922.) 2s. 6d, net.
(1) HIS book is intended for students of electrical
engineering. Although much of the ground
has been covered in a similar way before, yet there
are several novel features. The magnetic circuit—the
importance of the theory of which in electrical engineer-
ing can scarcely be over-estimated—is allotted the space
The electron theory, which is admirably
adapted for giving easily intelligible explanations, is
freely used. Thermionic emission, conduction through
gases, and electrolytic conduction are all discussed.
There are also about 500 practical problems, some of
which give interesting engineering data.
The authors divide electrical engineers into three
classes. The first class comprises the men who apply
scientific laws to electrical development. This includes
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
it deserves.
the research engineer and the designer. The second
class includes the distributing engineer who plans,
constructs, and operates power-transmission lines,
telephone and telegraph circuits, and electric railway
systems. There is, finally, the engineer who acts as
liaison officer between electrical engineering and civil
and mechanical engineering, including all industrial
applications. The consulting engineer and the pro-
moting or ‘‘commercial’’ engineer belong to this
This type of engineer must be well grounded
in economics, and well versed in business, law, and
‘
class.
procedure.
The authors state that the terminology they use is
that recommended by the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers. It differs in several important
respects from that recommended by the International
Electrical Commission. The Gauss is defined as the
unit of magnetic induction density. In I.E.C. nomen-
clature the unit of magnetic induction density is one
Maxwell per square centimetre. In Europe the Gauss
is defined practically always as the unit of magnetic
The authors take as the unit of magnetic force
“one Gilbert per cm.,” and the unit of reluctance is
called the “Oersted.” We do not think that the
Gilbert and the Oersted will be accepted internationally.
In our opinion also a case has not been made out for
the use of such words as “‘ abohm,” “ abvolt,” “‘ stat-
volt,” ete. Abohm is the unit of resistance in the
absolute system of units and “ statvolt” is the unit
of electric pressure in the electrostatic system of
force.
units.
In discussing sparking voltages between spherical —
electrodes (p. 417), It 1s stated that ‘“‘ small balls with
a given separation break down at a smaller potential
than large balls.” This is not true in all cases. Russell
(Journ. I.E.E., vol. 57, p. 228), for example, states
that for half a centimetre spark at 25° C. and 76 cm.
the disruptive voltages for spheres of 1 cm., 5 cm., and
25 cm. radius are 17°7, 16:3, and 15-0 kilovolts respec-
tively. It will be seen that the voltages required for
a break-down in this case are appreciably higher for
the small electrodes. For still smaller-sized electrodes
for the same air-gap the disruptive voltages get smaller.
Similarly when the air-gap is 1 ¢m. it can be shown
that the sparking voltage has its maximum value of
32 kilovolts when the diameters of the electrodes are
each equal to 2 inches very approximately.
(2) Mr. Taylor’s book willbe of interest to the electrical
engineer, as it discusses problems in which he takes
great interest. The rating of a transformer, and con-
sequently its price per kilowatt, depends on the “ hottest
spot ” temperature after a full-load run. Considerable
space is therefore devoted to methods of keeping trans-
formers cool. It is stated that a cast-iron case will
OcTOBER 14, 1922]
NATURE
507
radiate more heat than one made of boiler-plate, since
the roughness increases the surface exposed to the air
and to the oil in which the transformer is immersed.
This is true so far as the heat conducted from the oil is
concerned, but as the great bulk of the heat is carried
away by convection currents in the air, it is of import-
ance to increase these currents as much as possible,
and so a rough surface may be a disadvantage.
(3) The principles that have to be taken into con-
sideration when designing power systems are discussed.
The advantages and disadvantages of the various
systems are clearly stated, and will bea help to young
engineers. Specimen record forms are given. These
are apparently American in origin, as the lineman is
warned not to “throw on the current” until he
receives the signal. The consumer also gets his lamps
free.
Modern Metallurgy.
The Metallurgy of Ivon and Steel. Based mainly on the
Work and Papers of Sir Robert A. Hadfield. Com-
piled by the Editor of Pitman’s Technical Primers.
(Pitman’s Technical Primer Series.) Pp. xv+122.
(London: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.)
2s. 6d. net.
HIS small volume, which is written in a very
interesting manner, gives the reader a clear
idea of the developments made in the metallurgy of
iron and steel in recent times. The work contains
seven chapters, the first of which deals with the possi-
bilities of an approaching exhaustion of the supplies of
both iron ore and coal at some future date ; the author,
however, points out that, as regards coal, substitution
may be arranged by employing the energies of water-
falls, tides, solar radiation, plant life, winds, and finally
the enormous power contained in the atoms may some
day be released for useful work. Reference is made to
the anxiety of the German industrial leaders and others
during the Great War of r91r4—1918 for the retention
of the iron-fields of Northern France, thereby indicating
the value that was placed on the commercial prosperity
due to iron and steel manufactures.
Chapter 2 contains a brief account of the work of
the pioneers in scientific metallurgy. Details are given
of the Delhi Pillar, a solid column of nearly pure iron
24 ft. in length and weighing 64 tons, which was
erected about sixteen centuries ago. The author points
out that “the finest armour and swords made during
the Middle Ages cannot be excelled to-day without
using special alloys.’ Nevertheless, these fine results
were obtained empirically, and it was not until recent’
times that any exact knowledge of the reasons for
the various methods of treatment were understood.
NO. 2763, VOL. I10]|
| Tribute is paid in an appendix to the early British
workers who have done so much to elucidate these
matters, and in more recent years to Faraday, Heath,
Percy, Bessemer, Gilchrist, Thomas, Able, Sorby,
Lothian Bell, Roberts-Austen, Stead, Arnold, Hadfield,
and many others.
Chapter 3 deals with iron ores and the manufacture
of iron and steel, while chapter 4 is devoted to
hardening, heat treatment, and microstructure. In
chapter 5 alloy steels are considered, and here the
work of Sir Robert Hadfield is frequently referred to,
especially in connexion with nickel and manganese
steels. It has been stated by the well-known German
writer Mars in “‘ Die Spezialstahle ” that: ‘“ The most
extensive experimental researches, which may be said
to have laid the foundation of our entire knowledge
of steel alloys, were carried out by Hadfield in the
eighties of the last century.’’ Reference is also made
to the direct and indirect saving effected by alloy steels
of low hysteresis discovered by Sir Robert Hadfield
about twenty years ago. Mr. T. W. Yensen, of the
American Westinghouse Electric Company, estimates
that the total saving effected to the world by the
use of this material amounts to about 340,000,000
dollars.
Fuel economy and research are dealt
chapters 6 and 7 respectively, and the work is con-
cluded with two appendices, one containing a list of
early workers in scientific metallurgy, and the other
a list of research papers and scientific addresses by
Sir Robert Hadfield from 1888 to rg2t.
The little book is both interesting and useful, and
should certainly find a place in every metallurgical
W. H. M.
with in
library.
The British Association Addresses of 1922.
The Advancement of Science: 7922. Addresses de-
livered at the goth Annual Meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, Hull,
September 1922. Pp. 15+9+24+30+15+12+27
+27+14+15+14+11+15+34. (London: John
Murray, 1922.) 6s. net.
NDER the title of “The Advancement of
Science,” the British Association now issues
in collected form, and as a separate volume of a con-
venient size, even before the conclusion of the annual
meeting, all the addresses, presidential and sectional,
which have been delivered at that meeting. Although,
perhaps, some exception might be taken to the appro-
priateness of the main title, as not sufficiently indi-
cative of the actual contents of the volume, any
ambiguity is removed by the subsidiary title, which
508
NATURE
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
states explicitly of what these contents consist. This
issue is, of in anticipation of the annual
volume, which gives a complete record of the Associa-
tion’s proceedings at the particular meeting, but
in the nature of things, make its
appearance until some time after its conclusion.
This practice of the Association, which is of com-
paratively recent origin, is altogether to be commended,
and as a business proposition is to the credit of the
management. Experience has shown that it meets a
pubhe demand. Members who attend a meeting are
ready to purchase, at the comparatively low price of
issue, a collected edition of the addresses, as are those
who are unable to be present. The fact is significant
of the increasing appreciation in which these addresses
are held by the public. In the early days of the
Association it was not considered obligatory on the
part of a president of a section to prepare a special
address by way of opening its proceedings, and he
contented general
remarks before calling upon a member charged with
the preparation of a report on the progress of the par-
ticular department of science with which the section
course,
which cannot,
occasionally himself with a few
concerned itself, either to read the report or to give an
abstract of its contents. Failing the report he would
call upon a member to present the first communication
on the list, and in some such manner the business of the
section would be Gradually the present
custom has been evolved, and the presidential addresses
have become a valuable and most important feature
indeed,
begun.
of the work of the section—some people,
would say the most valuable and important.
The presidents of sections nowadays are invariably
representative men or women
recognised authorities
on the special subjects with which the section deals.
They are usually active workers in the development of
knowledge on these subjects—persons with experience
of research and of matured iudgment, with a message
of advice, counsel, or warning to communicate, or they
may even promulgate a wholly new departure in
scientific thought. Hence the eagerness and expect-
ancy with which these utterances are awaited, not only
by the professional members of the section but also by
such portion of the general public as shows its interest
in the progress of science either by attending the
meetings of the Association, or following its proceedings
in the The appreciation in which these
sectional addresses are now held is further shown by
the measures which the executive have been required
to take in deference to public demand.
press.
Formerly the
addresses were all given on the same day, and as a rule
at the same hour, and they initiated the work of their
respective sections. Nowadays special arrangements
are made, so that members may have an opportunity
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
of hearing as many as possible during the week over
which the meeting extends. Their publication in
collected form during the week of the meeting will be of
service to those who for various reasons are unable to
take advantage of such opportunity, and will be wel-
comed by others who may wish to study them in
detail and at leisure. There are, of course, some, and
they are particularly common among those of the
student habit, upon whom the printed word makes a
more effective impression than that spoken.
It is unnecessary on the present occasion to say
anything at length concerning the contents of the
volume before us. Any detailed examination or
criticism is the more uncalled for, as most of the
addresses themselves, slightly abridged in some cases,
have been, or are being, reproduced in these columns.
It is sufficient to say that the 1922 book worthily
sustains the reputation which British Association
addresses now enjoy, as well-written, scholarly pro-
ductions, pregnant with thought, replete with fact
and suggestion, stimulating and full of interest and
inspiration to the contemplative kind. In an age
which is pre-eminently scientific these books deserve
the widest possible circulation, and in the interests of
knowledge it is to be hoped that they will attain it.
Our Bookshelf.
Der fossile Mensch: Grundstige einer Paldanthropologie.
Von Prof. Dr. E. Werth. Erster Teil. Pp. iv+336.
(Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger, 1921.) 20s.
ENGLISH students who wish to know what their German
colleagues think of recent discoveries of fossil man will
be somewhat disappointed when they consult this work.
Its author, Prof. Werth, who has published several
books on the Ice-age and allied geological subjects, has
either never heard of the fossil remains discovered at
Piltdown and fully described by Dr. Smith Woodward,
or refuses to believe in their authenticity ; at least no
mention is made of them. Nor is any allusion made
to the remains found at Boskop, South Africa, the fossil
skull found at ‘Talgai, Queensland, nor those found by
Prof. Eugene Dubois at Wadjak-Java. On the other
hand, full and welcome accounts are given of two im-
portant finds made in Germany during war-time. One
of these was made at Ehringsdor!, near Weimar, where
two fossil lower jaws were found. ‘These are attributed
—and nightly so—to Neanderthal man, whose distribu-
tion is thus carried beyond the watershed of the Rhine.
The other discovery, which was made at Obercassel,
near Bonn, has revealed the remains of a man and of a
woman belonging to the last phase of the Ice-age, and
regarded by their discoverers as members of the so-
called Cromagnon race. The skull of the man serves
very well as the prototype of many a specimen found in
neolithic graves in Scandinavia and Britain, but has
such outstanding cheek-bones, zygomatic arches and
angles of the jaw (or jowls) as have never been seen in
OcTOBER 14, 1922}
NATURE
509
European skulls hitherto. The width of the face in
front of the ears is 153 mm., at the angles of the lower
jaw 127 mm., betokening an extraordinary develop-
ment of the masseter muscles. Notwithstanding these
features, the skull is that of a strong, handsome, and
big-headed man.
The opening chapters of this work are devoted to an
orthodox and clearly worded description of Europe in
the Ice-age. In dealing with human remains, Prof.
Werth depends very largely on the methods and con-
clusions of Schwalbe and of Klaatsch. Prof. Werth
accepts Schwalbe’s verdict that Neanderthal man was
not the precursor of modern man, but was extinguished
by the arrival of the Aurignacian race in Europe. He
is inclined to think the Cromagnon type represents a
later invader of Europe, and accepts this type as the
precursor of the long-headed modern Europeans—both
of the dark Mediterranean and of the fair Scandinavian
type. The work, of which this is Part 1, is well
illustrated.
Studien an Infusorien tiber Flimmerbewegung, Loko-
motion und Reizbeantwortung. Von Dr. Friedrich
Alverdes. (Arbeiten aus dem Gebeit der experi-
mentellen Biologie, Heft 3.) Pp. iv+130. (Berlin:
Gebriider Borntraeger, 1922.) 12s.
Tue little book under notice is a record of careful work,
chiefly upon the behaviour of Paramecium caudatum,
although the three other species of Paramcecium,
Stentor polymorphus,and other Infusoria, figure in some
ofthe experiments. The author has made an especially
detailed study of the movements of Paramcecium and
of the action of its cilia, and his observations on its
morphology are not without interest. He discusses the
behaviour of these organisms when operated upon,
and also their reactions to narcotics and other chemical
stimuli and to the galvanic current.
While the author admits the merit of Jennings’s work
in this field of study, he is, nevertheless, frequently in
conflict with this worker, both in his observations of
behaviour and his interpretations of them ; but it is
not certain that he thoroughly grasps Jennings’s views,
and it is noteworthy that the latest edition of “ The
Behaviour of the Lower Organisms ” (Columbia Univ.
Press, 1915) is not in Dr. Alverdes’s Bibliography. Dr.
Alverdes ranges himself energetically against all those
who see in the Infusoria nothing but “ small automata,”
and vigorously opposes the mechanistic interpretation
of their behaviour. Like Jennings, he denies that the
local action theory of tropisms can explain completely
the behaviour of these organisms. He would sub-
stitute for it another view to which his researches have
led him, but it is impossible, in the short space at our
disposal, adequately to present this view or to criticise
it. Undoubtedly Dr. Alverdes’s work is careful, and
is marked throughout by independence of mind. He
insists, with admirable emphasis, that little progress
can come from the study of the Protista in unusual
media or in media which are artificially prepared upon
physico-chemical principles alone. The same argu-
ment might be applied with profit to all other work on
the Protista.
In spite of a rather difficult and discursive style, the
book should not be neglected by those who are interested
in the problems with which it deals.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
An Introduction to Electrodynamics ; From the Stand-
poin: of the Electron Theory. By Prof. Leigh Page.
Pp. vi+134. (Boston and London: Ginn and Co.,
1922.) os. net.
HirHERTO the mathematical equations of electro-
dynamics have been based on the experimental con-
clusions of Coulomb, Ampére, and Faraday. Even
books which discuss relativity go no further than
showing that these equations are co-variant for the
Lorentz-Einstein transformation. In Prof. Page’s
book, however, the equations are derived directly from
the principle of relativity. The mathematician will
appreciate this procedure as it is more logical, but we
think that the average reader will find the older
methods more convincing. The units chosen are those
advocated by Heaviside and Lorentz. The value of
the charge at any point is equal to the number of tubes
of force diverging from the point ; all matter is assumed
to be made up of positive and negative electrons ;
electromagnetic force is defined in terms of the electric
intensity of lines of force, and gravitational attraction
between two electrons is supposed to be negligibly
small. The electrons carrying a current are all of the
same sign, and their masses are positive. Hence
the ‘‘mass of the current” is greater than the sum
of the masses of the individual electrons compos-
ing it.
The author’s methods of calculating the radiation
from electrons are to be commended, and he also gives
a good account of Laue’s theory of the diffraction of
X-rays. The formule deduced for specific mductive
capacity, magnetic permeability, and metallic con-
ductivity agree fairly well with experimental results.
The theories of Faraday’s experiment showing the
rotation of the plane of polarisation of light by a
magnetic field and of the Zeeman effect are given
briefly, but in a convincing way. We can commend
this book to the electrician who has an advanced
knowledge of mathematics and is interested in the latest
theories.
Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden. eraus-
gegeben von Prof. Dr. E. Abderhalden. Lieferung
55. Abt. V: Methoden zuin Studium der Funktionen
der einzelnen Organe des tierischen Organismus. Teil 6,
Heft 3. Sinnesorgane: Lichtsinn und Auge. Pp.
365-462. (Berlin und Wien: Urban und Schwarzen-
berg, 1922.) 117 marks.
Tuis portion of the work, Abderhalden’s “ Handbuch,”
is the direct continuation of parts 3 and 4r which dealt
with the biophysical methods used in investigating the
living eye and its’sensitivity to light. The first section,
| by Dr. Vogt of Basel, is devoted to the method of
examining the eye with light from which the red rays
have been absorbed by passage through a concentrated
solution of copper sulphate and a weak solution of
erioviridine. With such light, investigations of the
yellow spot are rendered much easier and more accurate.
Thesecond section of 76 pages, by Dr. Baslerof Tubingen,
deals with methods which in the main are intended to
investigate the functions of the retina and its various
parts. Sharpness of vision, irradiation, and detection
of movement are some of the subjects dealt with. The
concluding section, by Dr. Struycken of Breda, describes
the photographic method he uses for studying the
510
J
NATURE
[OcTroBER 14, 1922
movement of the eyeball from side to side. The treat-
ment is in general more wordy than is desirable, but
the work brings together in an accessible form a large
amount of information hitherto buried in memoirs,
published in most cases abroad.
Our Homeland Prehistoric Antiquities, and How to
Study Them. By W. G. Clarke. (The Homeland
Pocket Books, No. 13.) Pp.139+plates. (London:
The Homeland Association, Ltd., 37-38 Maiden Lane,
1922.) 45. 6d. net.
Mr. CiarKe’s little handbook on the prehistoric
antiquities of Britain covers the whole subject from
Eoliths to the Iron Age. One of its main objects, how-
ever, is to help the novice to discriminate between stones
shaped by natural forces and those chipped by man.
In so far as this is possible by means of the printed
word, Mr. Clarke is a good guide, while his practical
hints on where and how to look for implements will be
of great assistance to those taking up field work for
the first time. As it covers so wide a field the treat-
ment is necessarily summary, while in dealing with
controversial points conclusions are stated dogmatic-
ally, which, in a more ambitious work, would require
extended discussion. For this reason, Mr. Clarke
must be forgiven some over-hasty statements. The
amount of information which he has succeeded in con-
densing into so small a compass is remarkable. There
are few subjects connected with prehistoric peoples of
these islands, whether it be their implements, their
dwellings, or their modes of life, about which the
beginner will not find sufficient information here to
open a path to further study, and this, in a book of
this type, is in itself a great achievement.
Homo (Os Modernos Estudos sobre a Origem do Homem.)
By Prof. A. A. Mendes Corréa. Pp. 318. (Lisboa ;
Porto; Coimbra: Lumen Empresa Internacional
Editora, 1921.) n.p.
In this country the work of Portuguese anthropologists
Is not too widely known ; yet it is deserving of more
attention than it receives. In prehistoric archeology
and somatology, investigations are being carried on
which, if not considerable in bulk, are of some
importance for students of European ethnology. We
therefore welcome.. the opportunity of directing
attention to this book by Prof. Mendes Corréa, in
which the most recent discoveries and hypotheses
relating to the origin and descent of man are critically
discussed. Each chapter deals with some one aspect
of the problem, beginning with “ the animal origin of
man,” and passing on to “evolution,” the evidence
of paleontology, Pithecanthropus erectus, the skeletal
remains of prehistoric man, anthropogenesis, and a
detailed expositionyof the neo-monogenistic point of
view. It is interestmg to note that the author, in the
case of the Trinil and Piltdown remains, adheres to
the view in the former that the fragment of skull
is simian and the femur human, and in the latter that
the cranium is human and the jaw simian. A final
chapter summarises the author’s views, published else-
where, on the influence of environment in the formation
of races,and reviews the problems which await elucida-
tion by further discoveries.
NO. 2763, VOL. TIO]
Sound: An Elementary Text-book for Schools and
Colleges. By Dr. J. W. Capstick. (Cambridge
Physical Series.) Second edition. Pp. viii+ 303.
(Cambridge : At the University Press, 1922.) 7s. 6d.
In the second edition of Dr. Capstick’s text-book of
sound, a chapter has been added giving an outline of
some of the more important applications of acoustics
to military operations during the war of 1914-18.
The author is not very successful in conveying in the
fewest possible words a clear idea of the apparatus
“employed, and his descriptions would have been im-
proved by the use of diagrams. It must, however,
be pointed out that some of the diagrams in the earlier
chapters are by no means perfect. In Fig. 95 the
pendulum would quickly damage the mercury cup,
and it is doubtful whether the Bell telephone in Fig.
99 would have been recognised by its inventor. The
granular transmitter, inadequately illustrated on page
222, does not serve in this primitive form as a suitable
microphone for use in a hydrophone. The author has
obviously made a slip when he says that in signalling
under water the sound is received by a submerged
microphone similar to a receiving telephone. In spite
of some defects the volume will serve a useful purpose
as a class-book for schools.
Sewerage and Sewage Disposal: A Textbook. By L.
Metcalf and H. P. Eddy. Pp. xiv+598. (New
York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.,
1922.) 25s. net.
Tue volume before us is the work of the authors of a
three-volume treatise on ‘“ American Sewerage Prac-
tice,” and is the result of a demand for a shorter book
suitable for students who have not a great deal of time
to devote to this subject. The early sections of the
book deal with the main outlines of the problem of
sewerage—the quantity of sewage to be expected,
storm water, hydraulics, etc. Methods of surveying
and excavating are then treated, together with the
details of carrying out the work. The later sections
deal with the chemical and biological characteristics of
sewage and with disposal methods. There is a chapter
on cost-estimating at the end of the volume. The
authors are engineers whose practice brings them into
intimate contact with the matters treated; this is
reflected in their book, which cannot fail to be of
service to students, British as well as American. The
volume is profusely illustrated and is thoroughly up-
to-date. There are some useful graphs, among which
we note one giving the discharge of egg-shaped sewers
running full depth, which is based on Kutter’s formula.
Manuel de tournage du bois. Par Hippolyte Gaschet.
(Bibliothéque Professionnelle.) Pp. 248. (Paris:
J.-B. Bailliére et Fils, 1922.) ro francs net.
A very good account of the tools used and the methods
employed in wood-turning is given in this little
volume, which will be found to be supplementary, in
some respects, to English works on the same subject.
The language difficulty will probably prevent the book
from reaching the hands of many young workers in
this country, but manual instructors should find it
useful, especially in view of the graduated series of
exercises which is included at the end of the volume.
7 eEeeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEee——eee—e
a oe ee Ty
——— ee eee
ee
OcTOBER 14, 1922|
INGA TAS Se) oh
Ba
Letters to the Editor.
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripis intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Wo notice is
taken of anonymous communications. ]
Periodicities.
THE recent paper by Sir William Beveridge on
“Wheat Prices and Rainfall” (Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society, vol. 85, pp. 412-478, 1922) raises
a rather important question of principle which is
involved not only in discussions over the existence
of periodicities, but also over relationships between
different variables.
Before Schuster’s papers on the periodogram it was
customary for a period to be accepted as real provided
that it had an amplitude comparable with that of the
original figures under analysis ; and he revolutionised
the treatment of the subject by showing that if the
squares of the intensities of the various periodic terms
are plotted in a periodogram, and if the data are those
of an entirely chance distribution, then the average
value of an ordinate being a, the probability that a
particular ordinate will equal or exceed ka is e-*. Sir
William Beveridge is accordingly perfectly justified
in taking Schuster’s sunspot period of 11-125 years,
or Briickner’s 34:8 year period, and deciding that
these periods probably occur in his wheat prices if
the corresponding intensities are three or four times
the average. But he, like many other investigators,
goes a stage further, and after picking out the largest
from a large number of intensities he applies the same
criterion as if no selection had occurred. It is, how-
ever, clear that if we have a hundred intensities the
average of which, a, is derived from a number of random
figures, then the probable value of the largest of these
chance intensities will not be a but will be considerably
greater, and it is only when the largest amplitude
actually derived materially exceeds the theoretical
chance value thus obtained that reality can be in-
ferred.
Taking the periodicities of wheat prices on pp.
457-459 between 5 years and 40 years,’ I estimate
that the “‘ width of a line”’ ranges from o-1 year for
a 5 years’ period, through 0-5 at 12 years to 4 years at
33 years; and accordingly that the number of inde-
pendent periods between 5 years and 40 is in this
case about 51. The value of a, the average intensity,
being 5:898, it is easily seen that the change of
all the 51 random intensities being less than 3a is
(x —e-%)*, or 0-074, so that the chance of at least one
intensity greater than 3a is 0-926, not e~* or 0-050, as
is habitually assumed. Instead of the chance of an
occurrence of 3a ‘“making a prima facie case for
enquiry’ (p. 424), the odds are 12 to 1 im favour of
its production by mere chance. The chance of at
least two intensities above 3a is 0-728, of three it is
0-470, of four 0-248, of five 0-109, of six 0-0403, of
seven 0-:0127, of nine 0-00085, and of eleven 0-00003.
Thus it is not until six intensities over 3a are found
that the chance of production by pure luck is less
than 1 in 20. It is also easily found that if the chance
of all the 51 intensities being less than na is to be
19/20, n is 6-9; i.e. the greatest intensity for wheat
price fluctuations must be 41, not 18, before the
probability of its being due to luck is reduced to 1/20 ;
1 Sir William Beveridge points out on pp. 423-424 that amplitudes for
periods of less than 5 years are inevitably diminished, while those above 31
are diminished by the process employed for eliminating secular trend: I
calculate that the intensity at 35 years should be multiplied by (0-87)-* or 1-3,
and that at 54 by 3:8.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
and if the likelihood is to be 1/100 we must have 7 =8:5,
the corresponding wheat-price, intensity being 50.
Of intensities greater than 41 Sir William Beveridge
found four, and greater than 50 only two.
At first sight it might seem that the agreement
between Sir William Beveridge’s forecasted synthesis
rainfall curve and the actual rainfall was too great
to be explained by a few harmonic terms; but the
correlation co-efficient of 0-38 (see p. 475) indicates
that while 0-38 of the rainfall variations are accounted
for, only (0-38), or about a seventh, of the independ-
ent factors which control these variations have been
ascertained.
As pointed out in a paper “‘ On the Criterion for
the Reality of Relationships or Periodicities,’’ in the
Indian Meteorological Memoirs (vol. 21, No. 9, 1914},
the same principle is valid when discussing relation-
ships. If we are examining the effect of rainfall on
temperature and ascertain that the correlation co-
efficient between the rainfall and temperature of the
same month in a particular English county is four
times the probable error, we may infer that the effect
is highly probable. But if we work out the co-
efficients of that temperature with a hundred factors
taken at random, e.g. with the monthly rainfall of
' Tashkend 5-8 years previously, and pick out the
largest co-efficient, it would be wrong to compare it
with the average co-efficient produced by mere
chance ; as shown .in the paper referred ‘to, the
probable value of the largest of 100 co-efficients is
4:01 times as great as the probable value of one taken
at random. GILBERT T. WALKER.
Meteorological Office, Simla, August 24.
Dr. WALKER’s note contains, I think, a valid and
valuable criticism of the procedure commonly
adopted hitherto in comparing individual intensities
with the average intensity in harmonic analysis. It
would lead me now to modify in several ways my
general discussion of the “ test of intensity ’’ (pp.
422-424 of my paper in the Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society. I was particularly careful, how-
ever, in that paper to avoid laying stress on intensity
as such. The net result of Dr. Walker’s calculations
is not to weaken but to confirm my main thesis:
that a number of real periodicities exist in European
wheat prices from 1550 to 1850.
According to these calculations, the chance of my
getting by pure luck between five and forty years
one intensity as great as 3a is 0-926, but the chance
of my getting seven such intensities is 0-0127, and
that of getting eleven is 0:00003. Actually I have,
between five and forty years, fifteen intensities above
3a (=17-69); the odds are therefore 80 to 1 that at
least nine of these intensities, and 33,000 to 1 that at
least five of them, are not due to luck. Obviously
every such intensity does, in the circumstances,
present a prima facie case for further inquiry, the
object of the inquiry being to determine which. of
the 15 intensities have the strongest probabilities of
being due to real periods.
In that inquiry the actual height of the intensity
in any case (the “ test of intensity ’’) is only one and
not necessarily the most important point for con-
sideration. As Dr. Walker shows, an intensity in my
periodogram of nearly seven times the average might
well be due to pure luck (the odds being only 20 to
I against it).. On the other hand, a much lower
intensity might represent a true and _ perfectly
regular but weak periodicity, just as a quite small
correlation co-efficient may prove a real though weak
connexion, if the number of cases compared is very
large. Indication of the same period in each half of
a sequence when analysed separately (the “ test of
Fle
NAR OTE
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
continuity ’’) and in independent sequences (the
“test of agreement with other records ’’) are often
more important criteria of reality than is the height
of the intensity itself. The former test, at least,
should never be neglected ; it has led me to relegate
to my fourth class as merely “ possible,’ several
periods, such as those near II, 17, and 24 years,
indicated by high intensities in the whole sequence,
but failing in either the first or the second half.
Ultimately, of my fifteen intensities between 5
and 4o years, I have treated only nine (at 5-100,
5°671, 5:960, 8-050, 9°750, 12:840, 15:225, 19-900,
and 35:500 years respectively) as certainly or prob-
ably due to real periodicities, because they show in
all cases perfect or fair continuity and in most an
agreement with other records. The smallest of these
fifteen intensities (21-72 at 7-417 years) in fact equals
not 3a but 3-683a. If with this revised figure, the
probabilities are calculated in the way suggested by
Dr. Walker, the odds that at least nine of the fifteen
intensities are not due to luck work out at more than
2000 to 1, while the odds in favour of seven at least
are 14,000 to I. :
This remarkable result, which seems to establish
beyond all reasonable doubt the reign of periodicities
in wheat prices, is not affected by the fact that of the
fifteen intensities only four are so high that any one of
the four, if it occurred alone and had to be judged by
height alone, would have odds of more than 20 to 1 in
itsfavour. Each intensity does not occuralone. Every
period, moreover, to which I attach importance rests
on more evidence than mere height in my periodo-
gram.
With reference to the last paragraph but one of Dr.
Walker’s note, on the relation of my synthetic curve
and the rainfall, I should like to emphasise the point
made in my paper (pp. 449-450) that the synthetic
curve as now drawn represents only a first approxima-
tion of the roughest possible character ; the correla-
tion co-efficient of 0-38 between it and the rainfall from
1850 to 1921 is sufficient to demonstrate some con-
nexion between the wheat price cycles and the rain-
fall, but is in no sense to be treated as a measure of
the degree of connexion. In constructing the syn-
thetic curve, for instance, the periodicities have all
been treated as of equal importance; inspection
shows that weighting according to the intensities
would almost certainly give a better fit and so a
higher co-efficient of correlation. In many other
Ways a more accurate determination of the cycles is
required. How high a correlation might ultimately
be obtained as the result of this, it is impossible now
to say, but it might easily prove to be very high
indeed. Unfortunately, I have no resources for
carrying my own investigations further for the
present ; I can only hope that others may be better
placed. W. H. BEVERIDGE.
One Possible Cause for Atmospheric Electric
Phenomena.—A Query.
May I ask Sir Arthur Schuster or Dr. Chree or
some other authority whether there is any serious
objection to an idea like the following : y
The sun being radio-active emits not only gamma
rays, which ionise the atmosphere, but also alpha
and beta particles. The alpha particles will be
stopped by the upper layers of atmosphere, charging
them positively, while the beta particles will be more
penetrating, and might even reach the ground,
charging it negatively; though I admit that thirty
inches of mercury is a serious obstruction. But, as
Arrhenius showed, the beta particles would be
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
magnetically inveigled towards the poles, where they
might descend with down currents: whereas the
alpha particles—most numerous near the tropics—
would be sustained by up currents; and thereafter
the separated charges would reunite with familiar
dielectric disruption. OLIVER LODGE.
Normanton, Lake, Salisbury, Sept. 29.
School Instruction in Botany.
In the article on ‘‘ School Instruction in Botany ”’
in Nature of September 2, p. 329, the report on the
botany gardens of the James Allen’s Girls’ School,
recently published by the Board of Education, was
reviewed. As I am not only the author of the report
but also the initiator and organiser of the botany
gardens at Dulwich, I shall be glad if space can
be afforded me to reply to the following comment
at the end of the article: ‘‘ No mention is made in
the Report of the utilisation of the botany gardens
for the observation of animal life.’’ The omission
is due to the fact that the report was written in 1915
(see prefatory note) when some of the “ gardens,”
which are now of great help in studying animal life,
were in an undeveloped condition.
For example, in 1915 the oak trees in the new
wood were only from three to four years old and
looked somewhat like sticks, as shown in Plate 1o.
Since 1915 the trees have grown so much that black-
birds, hedge sparrows, and a thrush have built nests,
laid their eggs and in all cases but one reared their
young in our wood. Advantage of this has been
taken and many girls have visited the nests. During
outdoor lessons, girls have learned to recognise birds
which frequent the school garden, and have become
familiar with their calls and songs.
In the spring term the awakening of the numerous
frogs which hibernate in the school pond is eagerly
awaited. For a short period the pond is densely
populated by hundreds of croaking frogs. Later,
the development of the tadpoles through all the
stages is watched with the keenest interest by girls
of all ages. Observation of animal life in the pond
includes the study of the life-histories of china mark
moths, dragon flies, newts, great water beetles, water
boatmen, and water snails. On one occasion last
term many girls watched the various stages in the
emergence of a china mark moth from its chrysalis.
In these and in other ways the botany gardens at
the James Allen’s Girls’ School are utilised for the
observation of animal life. LILIAN J. CLARKE.
James Allen’s Girls’ School,
East Dulwich Grove, S.E.22, September 28.
Transcription of Russian Names.
In his further letter (NATURE, July 15, p. 78)
Lord Gleichen refers to the Royal Geographical
Society’s System (II.) for the transcription of foreign
alphabets into English. A copy of this system has
just reached us and impresses us with its completeness
and utility, especially for rendering place-names into
English.
With regard to the transcription of Russian names
we agree with Lord Gleichen that French, German,
and hybrid transcriptions are unsatisfactory, but
we would advocate, with Prof. Brauner, an inter-
national system, and for this purpose the Czech
transcriptions have much to recommend them. j
In the first place, the Serbian alphabet contains
fewer letters than the Russian, and is thus inadequate
to allow of accurate transcription from Russian by
OcToBER 14, 1922]
NATURE
913
the Serbo-Croatian rules. Czech transcription has
the advantage of being complete. ;
The following examples may serve to make this
clear. Russian a has only one sound, as in “‘ master.”’
It has the same sound in Czech, but the English a
has several sounds. If * is rendered by 7 it is
liable to mispronunciation; if transcribed to the
Czech Z this liability does not arise. Russian y is
always pronounced like the Czech w (like oo in the
English word “hook’’). Russian x can be correctly
rendered by the Czech ch.
“Hard mute’’ and “soft mute” (s and 5) can
only be transcribed into Czech, using the hook ” after
the consonant. Russian 1 has no other European
sound except the Czech y. The different pronuncia-
tion of the Russian e, %, » cannot be easily ex-
pressed in English, but this becomes easy by using the
Czech é for the first two, especially the second.
It may be pointed out that the Czech transcription
is already employed in the International Catalogue
of Scientific Literature, and for some years German
journals (e.g. Zeitschr. f. anorg. Chem.) have employed
letters with diacritical marks in their transcription
of Russian names (e.g. ‘© Zemczuznyj,’’ which in Czech
is ‘“‘ Zeméuzny ”’).
The objection, urged by Lord Gleichen, to the use
of diacritical marks exists, but is relatively small.
Most scientific journals already have such type,
which is indeed necessary if Czech names are to be
printed correctly. Newspapers naturally lag behind
such a journal as Nature in matters of this kind,
but in time these too will doubtless find it neces-
sary to have letters with diacritical marks in their
founts.
Lord Gleichen also asks how many English people
can correctly pronounce Czech letters like ¢. It is
regrettable, but nevertheless true, that the correct
pronunciation of foreign words is not a great char-
acteristic of the British people, but it is as easy to
learn how to pronounce Czech words as it is those
of other languages. The example which was chosen
by Lord Gleichen is poor, because the sound “é”
exactly corresponds to the English sound ‘ ch”
(Ao Melaae del al )e
J. G. F. Druce.
Bled, Carniola, Jougo-Slavia.
A. GLAZUNOV
(formerly docent at
Petrograd Polytechnic).
Prague, Kral. Vinohrady, Wenzigova 21,
Czecho-Slovakia,
August 5.
Colour Vision and Syntony.
In Nature of September 9, p. 357, Prof. E. H.
Barton has shown how a syntonic hypothesis of colour
‘vision may be made to represent the trichromatic
theory of colour vision. There are numerous facts
which are quite inconsistent with any form of the
trichromatic theory. These are given in detail in
my recent book on the “ Physiology of Vision’ and
subsequent papers, and no attempt has been made
to answer any one of them. Every fact points to
the visual purple being the visual substance which,
sensitising the liquid surrounding the cones, sets up
a visual impulse in the cones when decomposed by
light. Houstoun’s explanation of the physical pro-
cesses is in complete accordance with the facts, and
so far as I am aware no valid objection to it has
been found.
Any theory of vision must explain the movement
of the positive after-image in the retina. For example,
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
if the positive after-image of a small white triangle on
black velvet be obtained with one eye, on moving
the head with a jerk, both eyes being covered, an
irregular white figure will be seen some little distance
away from the clearly cut black triangle, the negative.
after-image in the original position which is seen when
a small amount of light is allowed to enter the eye.
through the lids. Another very simple method of
seeing this movement of the positive after-image is to.
look at three windows on awaking, which are separated
by walls ; on closing and covering the eyes, well defined
positive after-images of the windows separated by
black spaces corresponding to the walls are seen.
On covering the eyes and moving the head from side
to side the after-images all blend into one, the black
spaces being obliterated.
Let us compare the model given by Prof. Barton
with the known facts of vision. For any particular
light the three vibrators acting together should give
the luminosity curve for that light. Barton has
placed the red vibrator at about A760 wu; here the red
has very little luminosity, whereas a driver of the
length of the vibrator at this point will produce
most effect. Again, drivers corresponding to the
infra-red or ultra-violet will affect the red or violet
vibrators respectively, whereas these regions are
invisible.
When we come to colour blindness the trichromatic
theory fails completely. How on this theory can the
fact that more than fifty per cent. of dangerously colour
blind people can pass the wool test be explained ?. The
fact that a dichromic may have a luminosity curve
similar to the normal, that the trichromic have only
three colour sensations and designate the yellow
region as red-green, and the other degrees of colour
and light perception, has to be explained.
F. W. EprrtpGE-GREEN.
London, September 19.
The Green Ray at Sunset and Sunrise.
THE review by Sir Arthur Schuster of Mulder’s
book on the green ray or green flash at rising and
setting of the sun, in NATURE of September 16, p. 370,
leads me to make the following remarks :
There are, in reality, two distinct phenomena which
go under the name of the green flash. The first,
probably the one most usually seen and the only one
to which the epithet properly applies, is certainly an
after-image in an eye fatigued by the red light of the
sun. Ihave seen it many times, only at sunset, and in
many localities—on the Red Sea (twice in one evening
owing to the sun being occluded by a narrow bank of
cloud prior to its actual setting), in Devonshire, and
even in London as the sun set behind University
College Hospital.
This phenomenon can be reproduced quite easily
in the laboratory by means of an artificial red sun, as
I demonstrated a few years ago at a meeting of the
Physical Society of London.
The second phenomenon, which I have never been
successful in seeing and of which I can say little, is
evidently due to atmospheric dispersion ; and, from
the published accounts, I should judge that it should
be called the blue sun or multicoloured sun or spectrum
flash. It would seem to be much more rare, as I
gather from Sir Arthur Schuster’s previously made
descriptions that it requires rather special conditions.
If this subject should get into elementary text-
books, as recommended, at least let the account of
it be complete. ALFRED W. Porter.
University College,
London.
OR,
514
NATURE
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
Photography of Bullets in Flight.
By Puitte P. QUAYLE,
STANTANEOUS photography by means of an
electric spark provides the investigator of high-
speed phenomena with a most valuable source of data.
Such photographs are of the shadow variety, the bullet
shadow being projected upon a photographic plate by
a spark of great intensity and short duration. If the
bullet is moving with a speed equal to or greater than
that of sound, it propagates from both its nose and base
tion of
—Automatic pistol in posi
not yet
xtreme reco
ed.
T=trigger; R=receiver; A=arm operating trigger.
a compressional wave. Light from the photographing
spark in passing through the denser atmosphere of the
compressional wave is refracted as by a lens, so that the
wave front is also projected upon the photographic
plate with the bullet. The method lends itself readily
to the investigation of a projectile’s stability at various
points along its trajectory and to many allied problems
of exterior ballistics. Instructive photographs of the
recoil and shell ejection of automatic rifles, pistols, and
machine guns may also be obtained in this manner.
Among the most important of the early contributions
in this field of ane are the admirable spark photo-
graphs by Prof. . Boys (Nature, Vol. 47, pp. 415
and 440), who ae simplified the elaborate apparatus
of Prof. E. Mach. In Prof. Boys’s apparatus the bullet
was eae to close the spark circuit, and this
method has been followed in experiments which have
been carried on since that time, so far as the present
writer is aware.
In the method described in this article the setting-off
or triggering of the electric spark by which the photo-
graphs are taken is controlled by the compressional
wave produced by the flight of the bullet, so that no
wires or other portions of the apparatus need appear on
the plates. Since the sound wave is used to trigger
the photographing spark, the position of the rifle firing
the bullet may be varied at will without affecting the
functioning of the apparatus, the only requirement
being that the bullet shall have a speed greater than
that of sound. When the speed of the bullet is less than
that of sound the muzzle blast may be used to trigger
the spark. In such cases the rifle must not be moved.
In Prof. Boys’s type of apparatus the photographing
spark is set off by the closing of a secondary gap by the
bullet itself. In the present apparatus a much more
powerful spark may be used than would otherwise be
110]
NO. 273
3, VOL.
nil, empty cartridge case |
Assistant Physicist, National Bureau of Standards,
U.S.A.
possible, because the potential available for the photo-
graphing spark is not limited by the ile strength
of some trigger gap of fixed and small dimensions.
The regulation of the potential of the spark is essential,
however, since great irregularities in time occur when
the apparatus is not operated at the same potential,
the spark occurring earlier or later than the transit of
the bullet across the plate. This, of course, precludes
satisfactory records ee working with modern high-
speed bullets. When the proper potential has been
es a signal light is automatically turned on.
No lens system is employed in the apparatus. An
arrangement which has been found very satisfactory
places all of the photographic apparatus, except the
trigger, inside a small light-tight house.
The trigger itself is located outside the house and
near the trajectory. This trigger is an interrupter of
the type used by the French in connexion with the
Joly chronograph. The use of this instrument and the
type of springs used in the photographing-spark-switch
were suggested by Dr. D. C. Miller, of the Case School
of Applied Science, where the apparatus was developed.
The trigger consists of a metal diaphragm about 2
inches in diameter enclosed in a civeulae metal box.
The diaphragm forms one side of an air-tight enclosure,
and on the inside face of the diaphragm is attached
a circuit-breaking mechanism. This circuit-breaker
functions when the crack wave emanating from the
bullet strikes the diaphragm, which in turn throws back
a small hammer, thus interrupting the circuit and
Fic.
2.—Automatic pistol ; empty cartridge case just emerging from the
receiver.
tripping the photographing-spark-switch, with which it
is connected in series.
The essential parts of the photographic apparatus
consist of a large aden jar battery charged by a static
machine which is motor driven, the control switch for
the motor being mounted on the table with the rifle.
A potential regulator which is connected across the
battery functions when the proper potential has been
reached, and trips a switch which disconnects the
battery from the charging machine and short-circuits
the terminals of the latter. The switch when tripped
turns on a signal light located outside the apparatus
house as a signal to the rifle operator to fire.
When operating the apparatus the general sequence
of events is as follows :
OcToBER 14, 1922]
NA TORE,
515
The photographing-spark-switch and battery-switch
inside the apparatus house are set, the lights turned out,
and the slide of the plateholder drawn. The operator
then leaves the apparatus house by means of a light-
tight passage and starts the static-machine motor by
He then makes any necessary
closing the table switch.
Fic. 3.—Automatic pistol ; empty cartridge case ejected from receiver.
correction to the aiming and fires when the signal light
appears. The bullet leaves the rifle and on its way to
the apparatus house passes the trigger upon the dia-
phragm of which the sound wave impinges. This
immediately trips the photographing-spark-switch and
it starts to close the trigger gap in the spark circuit.
The bullet continues on past the trigger, entering the
apparatus house through a sheet of thin paper, used
to shut out the light, and arrives in front of the photo-
graphic plate, upon which it is then projected by the
photographing spark. The motor switch is then
opened and the slide replaced in the
plateholder, which may then be taken
to the dark room and developed.
In case the speed of the bullets to
be photographed is not known, a
piece of paper or wire screen is placed
in the path of the bullet in front of
the photographic plate, and if a
puncture in the screen is shown when
the plate is developed, evidently the
bullet had gone past the plate before
the spark occurred. The trigger
must then be moved back from the
plate and the process repeated. Con-
tinuing in this manner the position
of the bullet when the spark occurs
will soon be bracketed within limits
sufficiently small, so that an observer
inside the apparatus house may see
the bullet as the spark illuminates it.
Visual adjustment only is then used
until most of the bullets are seen in
the desired locality when the spark
occurs.
The apparatus is provided with two light gaps, one
horizontal and the other vertical. This arrangement
facilitates the taking of two photographs of the same
bullet, a plan and elevation view. This is particularly
useful in investigating a projectile of an unstable char-
acter having a tendency to tumble, since from the two
views its actual position in space may be constructed.
The two coaxial waves which the bullet propagates
NOL-2703, VOL.-1 10]
Pic. 4.—30 Calibre boat-tailed bullet, approximate speed 2600 feet per
from its nose and base appear on the photograph
(Fig. 4) to have different slopes. This arises from the
projection, for while the axis of the wave is parallel to the
photographic plate, and therefore projected in propor-
tion to its length, the radius of the projected wave is
somewhat inclined to the plate and causes the distortion.
The true angle of the conical sound wave in air may,
however, be readily computed, from which the speed of
the bullet producing the wave may be determined.!
In obtaining the photographs of ae Colt automatic
25-calibre pistol, reproduced in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the
interrupter trigger was removed for the circuit and
a timing device substituted, which consists of two
electromagnets connected in series and adjustable in
height, their function being to drop two steel balls at
the same time when the key opening their circuit was
depressed. One of these balls fell on a lever which
pulled the trigger T of the automatic pistol by exerting
tension on the arm A (see Fig. 1). The other ball,
released from a greater height at the same time as the
first, impinged on a device setting off the photographing
spark. By this means any reasonable lag or lead in
the firing of the pistol with respect to the occurrence of
the photographing spark could be obtained. The firing
apparatus is obviously not a precision instrument and
could, of course, be replaced by an accurate timing
device should the investigator require information of
such a character.
The turbulent gases of the propelling oheee are
clearly shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. All these photo-
graphs of the automatic pistol represent a stage in the
recoil relatively long after the ejection of the bullet
from the muzzle, since it will be seen that the receiver
R has reached the position of extreme recoil and the
empty cartridge case is being ejected in Figs. 2 and 3
second.
If the height of the ball which triggers the spark is
changed progressively by some small known amount, a
series of photographs of such an automatic pistol at
slightly different calculable time intervals could be
secured. From the data obtainable from such photo-
graphs a pressure time curve could be computed.
1 Journal of the Franklin Institute, May 1922.
516
NAD ORE.
[OcToBER 14, 1922
The Study of Man.!
By H. J. E. PEAke.
A CHANGE has been creeping over our science.
Twelve years ago anthropologists were devoting
their energies to the tracing out of the evolution of
customs and material culture, assuming that, where
similarities were found in different parts of the world,
they were due to independent origins. It was assumed
that the workings of the human mind were everywhere
similar, and that, given similar conditions, similar
customs would originate. The evolution of civilisation
was looked upon asa single line of advance, conditioned
by the unalterable nature of the human mind, and that
barbarian and savage cultures were but forms of arrested
development, and indicated very closely past stages of
civilised communities.
But a fresh school of thought has come into promi-
nence. According to this new view discoveries are
made but once, and when resemblances are found
between the cultures of different communities, even
though widely separated, this is due to some connexion
between them. According to the new school, the
development of civilisation has been proceeding by many
different paths, in response to as many types of environ-
ment, but these various advances have frequently met,
and from the clash of two cultures has arisen another,
often different, more complex, and usually more highly
developed than either of its parents.
The old school looked upon the advance of culture as
a single highway, along which different groups had been
wandering at varying Uae so that, while some had
traversed long distances, others had ‘progressed but a
short way. The new school, on the other hand, con-
ceives of each group as traversing its own particular
way, but that the paths frequently meet, cross, or
coalesce, and that where the greatest number of paths
have joined, there the pace has been quickest.
The older school, basing its views of the development
of civilisation upon the doctrine of Evolution, has called
itself the Evolutionary School. The newer, while
believing no less in Evolution, feels it a duty to trace
the various stages through which each type of civilisa-
tion has passed, rather than to assume that these stages
have followed the succession observable elsewhere ; thus,
as historical factors form a large part of its inquiry,
it has been termed the Historical School.”
The first note announcing the coming change was
sounded from this chair eleven years ago,3 and ‘during
the interval which has elapsed the new school has gained
many adherents. All will not subscribe to the dictum
that no discovery has been made twice ; nevertheless
there is a tendency not to assume an independent origin
for any custom until it has been proved that such could
not have been introduced from some other area.
These tendencies have led the anthropologist to
inquire into the history of the peoples whose civilisation
he is studying, and to note, too, minute points in their
environment. At the same time geography began to
take ae note of man and his doings. This anthropo-
geography concerned itself with inquiring into the re-
1 From the presidential address delivered to Section H (Anthropology) of
the British Association at Hull on September 7.
? Rivers, W. H. R., “ History and Ethnology,’
(1920),
3 Rivers, W. H. R., ‘‘ The Ethnological Analysis of Culture,”
Brit, Assoc., 1911, 490-2.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
’ History, v. 65-7, London
Report of
actions between man and his environment, and though
at first the environment was the main object of the
geographer’s attention, he is now inclined to pay more
attention to its effect upon man. Thus anthropology
and geography have been drawing closer, and as the tae
is a recognised subject in our schools, no small amount
of anthropological knowledge has been instilled into the
minds of our boys and girls.
It might have been. expected that the historians
before the geographers would have been attracted to
the anthropological approach, but recent events have
up to now engrossed their attention. Signs have not
been lacking, however, that the study of peoples and
their customs, rather than of kings and politicians, is
gaining ground, and we may look with confidence
towards closer relations between the studies of history
and anthropology.
Again, we may notice an increasing interest in our
subject among sociologists and economists. These have
focussed their attention upon the social organisation and
economic well-being of civilised communities, with the
view of presenting an orderly array of facts and ‘principles
before the political leaders. There has, however, been
a tendency to trace these modern conditions back into
the past, and to use for comparison examples drawn
from the social organisation or economic conditions of
communities living under simpler conditions. While
these studies overlap those of the anthropologist, the
methods used are different. We are working from the
simple to the complex; they begin with highly developed
conditions and thence work back to the primitive.
Lastly, we must not forget the students of the classical
languages. In spite of many advantages which they
possess at schools and universities, they have been losing
in popularity, and the reason is not far to seek. So long
as there were fresh works to be studied and imperfect
texts to be emended, there was no lack of devotees to
classical literature. Later, comparative philology gave
fresh life to such studies, and certain views current
among mid-nineteenth-century philologists gave also
an impetus to the re-study of Greek mythology. But
about 1890 such studies became unfashionable, and
many classical scholars turned to anthropology with
great advantage both to themselves and to us.
It is doubtless as a result of these converging move-
ments that the general public is taking an interest in
anthropological studies, and that works of a general
nature, summing up the state of knowledge in its
different branches, are in great request. The educated
public wish to know more of the science of man, yet I
fear they are too often perplexed by the discordant
utterances of anthropologists, many of whom seem to be
far from certain as to the message they have to deliver.
In their turn not a few anthropologists feel a like
uncertainty as to the ultimate purpose of their studies,
and are not clear as to how the results of their investiga-
tions can be of any benefit to humanity. These are
points well worthy of consideration ; for, as we were
reminded from this chair two years ago,* anthropology,
if it is to do its duty, must be useful to the State,
4 Karl Pearson: Address to the Anthropological Section, Brit. Assoc,
Report, 1920, 140-1.
OcTOBER 14, 1922]
NATURE
317
or to humanity in general. Even the scope of the
science 1s by no means clear to all, and would be
differently defined by various students. It may not be
out of place, therefore, to consider in detail the scope
and content of anthropology, then its aims and the
services it may render to mankind.
To the outside world anthropology seems to consist
of the study of flint implements, skeletons, and the ways
of savage men, and to many students of the subject its
boundaries are scarcely more extensive. Yet civilised
people also are men, and anthropology should include
these within its survey. That other scientific workers,
historians, geographers, sociologists, and economists,
study civilised man is no reason why the anthropologist
should fail to take him into account, for his point of
view differs in many respects from theirs. I would
suggest, therefore, that all types of men, from the most
civilised to the most primitive, in all times and in all
places, come within the scope of anthropology.
Anthropology is the study of man, but we need a
more accurate definition. A former occupant of this
chair has declared that ‘“‘ anthropology is the whole
history of man as fired by the idea of evolution. Man
in evolution—that is the subject in its full reach.” He
adds: “ Anthropology studies man as he occurs at all
known times. It studies him as he occurs in all known
parts of the world. It studies him body and soul
together.” ®
Anthropology may, therefore, be defined as the study
of the origin and evolution of man and his works.
What, then, separates anthropology from the other
studies which are concerned with man is, that the
anthropologist studies him from all points of view—
that his is a synthetic study ; above all, that evolution
is his watchword ; that his study is, in fact, not static
but dynamic.
If, then, we grant that anthropology is the synthetic
study of the evolution of man and his manifold activi-
ties, we are dealing with a subject so vast that some
subdivision becomes necessary if we are to realise what
the study involves. Such divisions or classification
must be arbitrary, but we may consider the subject as
divided primarily into two main categories: ‘“‘ man ”
and “ his works.”
But man himself cannot be considered from one
aspect only, and it seems fitting that the anthropologist
should consider that man consists of body and mind ;
the study of these is the special province of the anatom-
ist, the physical anthropologist, and the psychologist.
Here, again, it may be asserted that anatomy and
psychology are distinct sciences, but anatomy, in so
far as it helps us to understand the evolution of man,
and again as it helps us to trace the variations in the
human frame, is and always has been reckoned a branch
of anthropology. Again, in the case of psychology,
there is much which is not, strictly speaking, anthropo-
logical. On the other hand, in so far as psychology
enables us to trace the dev elopment of the human mind
from that of the animal, and in so far, too, as it can
interpret the causes which have led to various forms
of human activity, it is a branch of our science. If,
too, it can help us to ascertain whether certain funda-
mental mental traits are normally associated with
certain physical types, psychology will provide anthro-
® Marett, R. R., “Anthropology,” p. 1.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
pologists with a means of interpreting many of the
phenomena which they have noted but cannot fully
explain.
The works of man are so varied that it is no easy
task to classify them. We may, however, first dis-
tinguish the work of man’s hands, his material culture,
from his other activities. Under this heading we
should include his tools, weapons, pottery, and textiles ;
his dwellings, tombs, and temples ; his architecture
and his art.
Next, we have the problems concerned with language,
which we may consider as dealing with the means
whereby men hold intercourse with one another. This
heading might well include gesture at one end and
writing at the other. Hitherto anthropologists have
confined their attention too exclusively to the tongues
of backward tribes, and left the speech of more ad-
vanced peoples to the philologists. I would plead,
however, that language is such an essential element in
human culture that comparative philologists might
well consider themselves as anthropologists.
Lastly, we have social organisation and all that may
be included under the terms “‘ customs ”’ and “ institu-
tions,” a varied group, leading to the study of law and
religion. Here, again, we come in contact with other
studies—those of the lawyer, political economist, and
theologian ; but though the anthropologist is studying
the same facts, his range is wider and his outlook more
dynamic.
Thus it will be seen that in the three divisions of
man’s work, as well as in the two aspects of man him-
self, the anthropologist finds other workers in the field.
But whereas these other sciences are concerned only
with some part of man and his works, and are limited
frequently to recent times and civilised communities,
it is the province of the anthropologist to review them
as a whole, in all times and in all places, and to
trace their evolution from the simplest to the most
complex.
If we accept the views of the historical school,
anthropology becomes a new method of treating
historical material. It is, in fact, the history of man
and his civilisation, drawn not so much from written
documents as from actual remains, whether of material
objects or of customs and beliefs. It is concerned with
wars only so far as these have produced a change in
the population or language of a region. It is interested
in kings only when these functionaries have retained
customs indicative either of priesthood or divinity. It
is interested less in legal enactments than in customary
institutions, less in official theology than in the beliefs
of the people ; the acts of politicians concern it not so
much as do the habits of humbler folk.
From some points of view anthropology may be
considered as a department of zoology. A century ago
zoologists were engaged in studying the higher animals,
and for a time neglected the “ radiate mob.” Then all
interest was focussed upon lowly forms, and the protozoa.
occupied a disproportionate part of their attention.
Lately, again, their work has been more ev enly dis-
tributed over the whole field. This choice of groups
for special study was not due to mere caprice. The
more obvious forms of life were first studied ; then
attention was focussed upon the simpler organisms ; for,
from the study of these, the zoologist was able to grasp
518
MAT ORL:
[OcToBER 14, 1922
the underlying principles of life. These lessons learnt,
he was able to attack the problems affecting the welfare
of mankind.
So with the student of man. For many centuries
historians, philosophers, and theologians have been
studying the ways of civilised humanity, though not
by the methods of the anthropologist. For, just as
they were attracted by the higher groups of men, so
were they fascinated by the more conspicuous indi-
viduals. During the nineteenth century, students
were attracted towards the backward types of human-
ity, partly because of their very unlikeness to our-
selves, and of recent years because they felt that the
customs of these peoples were fast disappearing. But
from a scientific point of view, the paramount reason
was because it was felt that in such simple societies we
should find the germ from which human civilisation
had begun.
Much of the force of this last argument is disappearing
as the evolutionary school gives plac e to the historical.
We are bec oming aware that the civilisation of back-
ward peoples is more complex than was at first believed.
We are giving up the belief that such people have pre-
served our ancestral types alive to the present day, for
we are realising that they represent not so much our
ancestors as our poor relations.
Though we must abandon the ancestral view, and
cease to believe that these backward communities
represent to-day the conditions under which we dwelt
in the past, the institutions of these folk are in many
respects less complex than our own, and it is possible
to study them from every aspect with far greater ease
than we could do in the case of one of the higher
civilisations. Since it 1s the function of anthropology
to study man synthetically, this is a great advantage.
evolve a method and a discipline to be applied in more
complicated cases. Again, the backward peoples have
no written history, and we are forced in this case to
restore their past by other means. This has led to the
development of fresh methods of attackmg the prob-
lems of the past, which may prove of value in the case
of more advanced communities.
For these reasons the study of backward peoples still
has great value for the anthropologist. He has not yet
solved all the problems concerned with the dawn of |
civilisation, nor has he yet perfected his methods and
discipline. More workers and expert workers are
needed in this field, and so it is that our universities
devote the greater part of their energies to training
students for this purpose. There are many students,
however, who cannot visit wild lands to study the ways
of their inhabitants. Some of these, it is true, may sift
the material collected by their colleagues, though they
will be at considerable disadvantage if they have had
no personal experience of the people with which their
material deals.
The time seems to have arrived when anthropologists
should not concentrate so exclusively upon these lowly
cultures, but might carry on their researches into those
civilisations which have advanced further in their
evolution. Not that I wish to deprecate in any way
the study of backward peoples, or to discourage students
from researches in that direction ; but I would suggest
that some anthropologists might initiate a closer
No. 2763, VOL. 110]
inquiry into the conditions of more civilised peoples in
addition to the studies already described.
We have in the Old World three great centres of
culture, each of which has been in the van of progress,
and each of which has contributed to the advance
of the others. These are the civilisations of China,
Hindustan, and what I will call the European Region.
Though our relations with China and Japan have
been intimate for several generations, and many of our
compatriots are familiar with both countries, it is sur-
prising how little we know of either of these people
from the anthropological point of view. This is the more
to be regretted since for more than half a century Japan
has been adopting features from Western civilisation,
while there are signs that the same movement is begin:
ning in China. So far those who have made them-
selves familiar with the languages of the Far East have
studied the art, literature, philosophy, and religion of
these regions, rather than those aspects which more
properly belong to our subject.
What concerns us more nearly in this country is the
Indian Region. Here we have a well-defined province,
peopled by successive waves of different races, speaking
different languages, and with different customs and
beliefs—an apparently inextricable tangle of diverse
elements in various stages of cultural evolution. A
vast amount of material has been gathered in the past,
though such collecting has not been proceeding so fast
during the last generation; but basic problems are
still unsolved, and seem at times well-nigh insoluble.
Perhaps it is this superabundance of material, or it may
be the apparent hopelessness of the task, which has
diminished the interest taken in these studies during
the past few years. This attitude is regrettable, and
. the only redeeming feature is the extremely active and
When dealing with these simpler problems we can |
intelligent interest in these problems now taken by
various groups of Indian students, especially in the
University of Calcutta.
I have suggested that perhaps the lack of interest
in such matters among Anglo-Indians, and especially
among members of the Indian Civil Service, may be
due to the apparent hopelessness of reaching a solution
of any of the problems involved. It may also be due
to the fact that they are sent out from this country to
govern a population with different cultures and beliefs,
and traditions wholly unlike those of this continent,
without haying received in most cases any preparation
which will enable them to study, appreciate, or under-
stand an alien civilisation. Thus they misunderstand
those among whom they are sent, and are in turn mis-
understood. Guiltless of any ev il intent, they offend
the susceptibilities of those among whom their lot is
cast, and acts are put down to indifference which are
only the product of ignorance. After making their
initial mistakes the more intelligent set to work to study
the people committed to their charge, but faced with
problems of extreme intricacy, and without any previ-
ous training, more often than not they give up the
attempt as hopeless
That candidates for the Indian Civil Service should
receive a full training in anthropology before leaving this
country has been pleaded time after time by this Section
and by the Anthropological Institute, and though I
repeat the plea, which will probably be as useless as its
predecessors, I would add more. _The problems con-
OcToBER 14, 1922]
INGA TARE.
9» WS)
fronting the anthropologist and the administrator in
India are of such extreme complexity that it needs a
very considerable amount of combined action and
research even to lay down the method and the lines
along which future inquiries should be made. Such a
school of thought, such a nucleus around which further
research may be grouped, does not yet exist ;_ the
materials out of which it can be formed can scarcely
yet be found. Yet until such a nucleus has been
created, and has gathered around it a devoted band of
researchers, no true understanding will be found of the
problems which daily confront both peoples, and the
East and the West will remain apart, subject to mutual
recriminations, the natural outcome of mutual mis-
understanding.
One solution only do I see to this dilemma. For
many years past there have been institutions at Athens
and Rome, where carefully chosen students have spent
several years studying the ancient and modern con-
ditions of those cities and their people. By this means
a group of Englishmen have returned to this country
well informed, not only as to the ancient but the
modern conditions of Greece and Italy. Besides this
we have had in each of the capitals of those two States
an institution which has acted as a centre or focus of
research into the civilisation of those countries. Al-
though the main objects in both cases have been the
true ‘understanding of the cultures of the distant past,
the constant intercourse ot students of both nation-
alities working for a common end has resulted in a
better understanding on the part of each of the aims
and ideals of the other. I have no hesitation in saying
that the existence of the British Schools at Athens and
Rome has been of enormous value in: bringing about
and preserving friendly relations between the people of
this country and those of Greece and Italy.
I cannot help feeling that a similar institution in
India, served by a sympathetic and weil-trained staff,
to which carefully selected university men might go
for a few years of post-graduate study, would go far
towards removing many of the misunderstandings
which are causing friction between the British and
Indian peoples. Such a British School in India, if it
is to be a success, should not be a Government institu-
tion, but should be founded and endowed by private
benefactors of both nationalities. It would be a centre
around which would gather all anthropological work
in the peninsula, while it would enable the British
students to arrive at a truer understanding of Indian
ideals and help Indians to grasp more fully the relations
subsisting between the Indian and European civilisa-
tions.
Lastly, we come to the European Region, extending
southward to the Sahara, and eastwards to Meso-
potamia. Throughout this region the racial basis of
the population is similar, though the proportion of the
elements varies. Also throughout the region there has
been, from the earliest days, free communication and
no great barriers to trade and migration.
Until the last fifteen hundred years the civilisation
of this area was fairly uniform, though its highest and
earliest developments were in the south-east, while the
northern zones lagged behind and were on the outer
fringe. Nevertheless it formed from paleolithic times
one cultural region, and this became more marked and
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
homogeneous during the days of the Roman Empire.
Two forces from without destroyed that mighty empire
and divided the region into two halves ; and as each
of these forces adopted different religious views, the
European cultural region became divided into two.
We have, therefore, to treat the European cultural
region as two, the civilisations of Islam and Christen-
dom.
Though the separation of these two halves is relatively
recent, their ideals have grown divergent, while the
inhabitants of both zones are no nearer to a true under-
standing of one another. Political difficulties in the
Near East are the natural result of such misunder-
standings, and the remedy here is to achieve a truer
appreciation of other points of view. A more thorough
knowledge of the anthropological factors of the case
seems to be a necessary preliminary to such mutual
understanding, and since the League of Nations and
the Versailles Treaty have seen fit to add to our responsi-
bilities in this area, it is an urgent necessity that some
of our anthropologists should pay closer attention to
the problems of the Near East.
And now with regard to Christendom. Are we to
consider that our duties as anthropologists end with
alien cultures? Is Christendom so united that mis-
understandings cannot arise within its borders? At
the close of a great war we can scarcely claim that there
is no room for our studies.
There has been a tendency hitherto to regard anthro-
pology as a science dealing with backward peoples, and
it has been felt that to apply its principles to neighbour-
ing peoples might be looked upon as an insult. If,
however, we agree that all mankind are fit material
for the anthropologist’s investigations, we need have
no hesitation in studying their material culture, social
organisation, and religious beliefs, just as already, for
practical purposes, we study their langu uages. There
is not a country in Europe in which we may not find
features of an anthropological nature which separate
its population from the inhabitants of other areas. It
is these differences which come to the front when trouble
is brewing, and these are the factors which we need to
understand if we are to avoid giving offence in moments
of national irritation. Constant travel by people alive
to the importance of such inquiries will in time so
influence the public opinion of many of the nations of
Europe that misunderstandings will be less frequent,
and national sensitiveness less prone to take offence at
words and actions which are not intended to provoke.
But it is not only foreign countries and their in-
habitants which the anthropologist needs to study. In
every country there are different strata in the popula-
tion which have different customs and a different out-
look. The British Isles are no exception to this rule ;
history records the successive arrivals of Romans,
Saxons, Danes, and Normans, and the study of pre-
historic remains shows us that these invasions have been
preceded by a greater number in earlier days. Just as
the physical type of the Briton is far from uniform, so are
his mental outlook and his ideals and beliefs. Quite
apart from the differences observable in the different
countries which compose our group of islands, we find
also that the population insensibly divides itself into
classes, differing but slightly except in name from what
we know in India as castes. These classes in the British
520
NATURE
[OcroBER 14, 1922
Isles have had their origin in the successive waves of
conquest which these islands have suffered. Individuals
have freely passed from one class to another, but though
the individuals have changed the classes have remained.
Owing to the constant interchange in blood the physical
characters of the different classes are much alike, as are
their fundamental mental traits, but in material cul-
ture, language, social organisation, and to some extent
religious beliefs, they differ widely. Here then again,
in our own country, there is work for the anthropologist
who never leaves these shores.
Turning now to the aims of anthropology and to the
means whereby it may become of service to the State
and to mankind in general, we see that it is of the utmost
importance that those who are sent to govern or ad-
minister areas and districts mainly occupied by back-
ward peoples should have received sufficient training in
the science to enable them, in the shortest possible space
of time, and consequently with the fewest possible initial
mistakes, to govern a people whose customs, traditions,
and beliefs are very different from their own, without
offending the susceptibilities of their subjects.
We are an Imperial people, and during the last few
centuries we have taken upon ourselves a lion’s share of
the white man’s self-imposed burden, and the lives and
well-being of millions of our backward brethren have
been entrusted to our charge. Recent events have,
by means of mandates, added largely to our responsi-
bilities in this respect. We, of all nations, cannot
disregard this fundamental duty of despatching our
proconsuls fitted to undertake these great responsi-
bilities.
But the burden we have undertaken extends not only
to backward peoples ; we have been called upon to
govern or to advise the governments of peoples who
have a civilisation little, if at all, inferior to our own,
and to whom at one time we have been indebted for
much of the culture that we now enjoy. The civilisa-
tions of these regions are infinitely more complex, and
the people are not homogeneous, but are divided into
numerous sections, differing in language, religion, and
social customs. In these regions we meet with anthro-
pological problems of infinite difficulty and complexity,
on the solution of which depend the peace and well-
being of the population. Yet our representatives go to
take up their duties in these lands with little or no
previous training, and it is only a marvel that errors of
tact, due to ignorance, are not more common.
In these civilised regions race consciousness has been
growing fast during the last half-century, and errors of
tact and manners, which were submitted to in former
times, though not with a good grace, are now actively
resented, and the old methods of government are dis-
credited. It may not yet be too late to remedy this
evil, if no time is lost in giving a full anthropological
training to those who are sent to administer these
regions.
But we are not only an Imperial people, governing
and administering regions with alien populations ; we
are also a wandering and adventurous people. The
nomadic spirit of our ancestors is still alive within us ;
our ships, like those of the Vikings of old, are to be seen
in every sea. So it comes that our people will be found
in all lands and all climates from the Arctic circle to the
Equator.
NO. 2763, VOL. IIo]
All these wandering Britons come in contact with the
inhabitants of the lands they visit, creating various
impressions, sometimes good, more often bad. Had
they a fuller knowledge of the customs and opinions of
the people they visit, or even a truer appreciation of the
fact that diverse customs and opinions exist and should
be respected, we should not have to record the creation
of so many bad impressions. Luckily our people, as a
rule, have much common sense, and often a desire to
please, so this trouble is thus to some extent mitigated ;
but the difficulties that have arisen from ignorance of
the ways of others, from too insular an outlook, in fact,
from a lack of appreciation of the anthropological stand-
point, are making us and our government heartily
disliked in nearly every quarter of the globe. It is to
remedy these difficulties, and the danger to the peace of
the world which is threatened thereby, that I would
advocate an increased study of anthropology by all
sections of the community. Herein lies one of the chief
means by which our science may become of service to
mankind.
It is not my business to draft a scheme for the
furtherance of anthropological studies. Two of our
universities offer degrees in this subject, and others a
diploma ; courses of instruction on some sections of the
subject are given there and elsewhere. Many teachers
of geography are introducing much anthropological
matter into their curricula, and there are signs that
some historical teachers may follow suit, so that the
subject-matter, if not the name, is not unknown in some
of our schools. But we have much lost time to make
up and the matter is urgent.
We cannot, of course, expect all our people to be
trained anthropologists and to understand fully all the
ways of the people they may chance to meet in their
wanderings. What matters far more is that they
should appreciate the fact that different peoples have
had different pasts and so act differently in response to
the same stimuli. Further, that all this diversity has
its value ; that we cannot be sure that one culture is in
all respects superior to another, still less that ours is the
best and the only one which is of consequence. It is
not so much the facts that matter as the spirit of anthro-
pology ; we need not so much that our people should
have anthropological knowledge as that they should
learn to think anthropologically.
It is needless for me to remind you that the world is
in a state of very unstable equilibrium—that the crust
is, so to speak, cracked in many places, and that the
fissures are becoming wider and deeper, and that fresh
fissures are constantly appearing, not only in distant
lands but nearer home. Again, this crust, if I may
continue the geological metaphor, 1s stratified, and there
are horizontal as well as vertical cleavages, which are
daily becoming more marked. It is to the interest of
humanity that these breaches should be healed and the
cracks stopped, or we may find the civilisation of the
world, which has grown up through long millennia at
the cost of enormous struggles, break up into a thousand
fragments. Sucha break in the culture of the European
Region followed the dissolution of the Roman Empire,
and more than a thousand years were needed to heal it ;
nay, some of the cracks then made have never yet been
closed.
Anything that may help to avert such a disaster is
OcTOBER 14, 1922]
NCA TROT,
521
important to the human race, and there is no greater
danger at present than the alienation of the peoples of
Asia and the Near East. Much of the ill-teeling en-
gendered in India, Egypt, and elsewhere is the product
of misunderstandings, due to a lack of appreciation on
both sides of the opinions ana views of the other party,
and there seems to be no better method of removing
such misunderstandings than a sympathetic study of
one another’s culture ; to this end anthropology offers
the most hopeful approach.
Obituary.
Dr. David SHarpP, F.R.S.
R. DAVID SHARP, whose name, it has been well
said, is a household word wherever the science
of entomology is pursued, died on August 27 at his
home at Brockenhurst. His love of entomology,
the great and continuing enthusiasm of his life, dated
from his early childhood. Born in 1840 at Towcester,
Northamptonshire, his early years were passed at
Whittlebury, Northants, and at Stony Stratford. His
parents later moved to London, and it was at Loudoun
Road, St. John’s Wood, that Herbert Spencer was an
inmate of Sharp’s father’s house, as Spencer himself
has related in his autobiography. Sharp himself said
that his youthful intimacy with Spencer had influenced
him considerably, and throughout his life he retained
in Spencer’s work an interest which found expression in
the publication in 1904 of an article on “ the place of
Herbert Spencer in biology.”
Sharp was destined by his father for a business
career, but, finding this uncongenial, he studied
medicine in London and afterwards at Edinburgh
University, where he graduated in 1866 with the degrees
M.B.and C.M. Specialising in the treatment of mental
illnesses, he resided for some years at Thornhill in
Dumfriesshire. He left Scotland in 1884 and lived at
Shirley Warren, Southampton, and afterwards at
Wilmington, near Dartford, Kent. Early in 1890 he
was appointed curator of the insect collections of the
University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, a post
which he resigned early in t909. He then retired to
Brockenhurst, where he passed the rest of his days.
Most of his multitudinous writings are system-
atic works on the Coleoptera, to which he devoted the
greater part of his life, but many deal with other insects
or with life-histories, or have a still wider bearing, for
his learning extended to a wonderful degree over the
whole field of entomology. He had an unrivalled
knowledge of the British Coleoptera, and already in
1869 had published a monograph of nearly 200 pages
on the obscure genus Homalota. His list of the
Coleoptera of Scotland appeared in the early volumes
of the Scottish Naturalist, and he published two cata-
logues of the Coleopterous fauna of Britain, the second
in collaboration with Canon W. W. Fowler. His
numerous other studies of British beetles form a series
of papers continuing to the last years of his life.
Sharp’s biggest works on foreign Coleoptera are the
monograph of water-beetles (Dytiscidae) published by
the Royal Dublin Society in 1882, and his contributions
to the “ Biologia Centrali-Americana.” In the latter
he wrote the whole of the volume on Adephaga and
Staphylinidae, more than 800 pages, the greater part of
the volume on Clavicorns, and three other important
sections. He also published in 1876 a paper of nearly
400 pages on the Staphylinidae of the Amazons. On
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
New Zealand beetles, a fauna in which he was specially
interested, he produced a long series of memoirs. One
can barely allude to his papers on the beetles of Japan,
an important series, and to others on those of Ceylon,
Southern India, the White Nile, etc., with many more,
far too numerous to mention. Systematists, knowing
the work required for the production of a single careful
description, will appreciate the immense amount of toil
needed to achieve these results. Special mention must
be made of Sharp’s work on the faunas of islands. A
series of earlier papers on Hawaiian beetles was but
the prelude to his labours as secretary of the committee
appointed in 1890 to investigate that fauna, and as
editor of the three large volumes of the “ Fauna
Hawaiiensis,” of which he himself wrote several con-
siderable parts. He was moreover a member of the
committee appointed in 1888 to examine the flora and
fauna of the West Indies.
Of his more general writings undoubtedly the best
known are the two volumes on insects in the “ Cam-
bridge Natural History,” published in 1895 and
1899 respectively, which at once became standard
works. His memoir (1912) written in collaboration
with Mr. F. Muir on “‘ the comparative anatomy of the
male genital tube in Coleoptera ” is a masterly treatise,
on the production of which the breadth of his learning
was brought to bear. In 1873 appeared his pamphlet
on “ the object and method of zoological nomenclature,”
in which he elaborated the view that nomenclature
requires, for the maintenance of continuity of know-
ledge, fixed names for the species of animals, while
changing ideas as to classification need shifting names
for their expression. He advocated that the two
names, generic and trivial, originally given to an animal
should always be preserved intact, even though it may
subsequently be placed in several different genera at
different periods. He held also that the analytic
system of Linnaeus, in which species are treated as
fractions of genera, broke down almost at once, and
that only by a synthetic system could progress be made ;
that species must first be rightly understood, and then
grouped into genera. These ideas he carried into
practice in his monograph of the water-beetles, but in
his later works he did not adhere strictly to the system
of naming there used. In the introduction to that
monograph he also expressed some of his views on the
origin of species, an example of his cautiousness with
regard to accepted ideas. He also discussed the phylo-
geny of insects in the proceedings of the Congress of
Zoology held at Cambridge in 1898; and the senses,
especially the sight, of insects in his retiring presi-
dential address to the Entomological Society (1888).
To him are due the articles on ‘“ Termites” and
“Tnsects”” in the volumes of the ‘“ Encyclopzdia
Britannica ”’ issued in 1902, as is also (in part) that on
“ Hexapoda” in the later edition (1910).
Kee
NWA TORE
[OcToBER 14, 1922
Perhaps Dr. Sharp’s greatest service to zoology was | Woolwich and joined the staff of the War Department
in connexion with the “ Zoological Record.” Of this he
became general editor in 1892, and he only laid the
work down a few weeks before his death. Throughout
this period he was also recorder of all the literature on
insects. He improved the volumes immensely, and
raised the classified subject-index to a wonderful degree
of efficiency.
So far allusion has been made only to his writ-
ings, but he also excelled as a field-worker and col-
lector. Ever laying great stress on the importance
of the collection and permanent preservation of
material, he published several articles on these points.
His collection of British Coleoptera is as fine as any,
and he also made a very large foreign beetle collection,
the greater part of which, consisting of some 150,000
specimens, was acquired by the British Museum in
1905. During his time at Cambridge he amassed a
large amount of material for that Museum. His fine
library was recently purchased by the Cawthron
Institute at Nelson, New Zealand.
Dr. Sharp was a wide reader, and though of rather
slight bodily frame he had, even to an advanced age,
great powers of endurance as a field-worker, and an
almost unlimited capacity for mental work. No time
was ever lost in picking up the threads of his work, so
that even short intervals were used to the full. He
was Hon. M.A. of Cambridge ; elected F.R.S. in 1890 ;
fellow, and former councillor of the Zoological Society.
He joined the Entomological Society in 1862 and was
president in 1887 and 1888, besides holding lesser offices
on several occasions. He was also an honorary or corre-
sponding member of the New Zealand Institute and of
the principal entomological societies of the world.
Ilo (S)p
Dr. WILLIAM KELLNER.
Dr. WitLIAM KELLNER, who died at Charlton, on
September 12, in his eighty-third year, was born at
Frankfort in 1839, and received his scientific training
under Prof. Wohler at Géttingen, finally obtaining his
Ph.D. degree in that university. He became a Fellow
of the Institute of Chemistry in 1878 and served on
the Council from 1895 to 1898. In 1862 he came to
England as assistant to Sir Henry Roscoe, at Owens
College, Manchester, whence, in 1864, he went to
chemist (Sir Frederick Abel). In his early years at
Woolwich Dr. Kellner was engaged in the varied
general work of the chemical department. Later his
main work became investigatory and experimental,
both in connexion with explosives, as also to meet
the requirements of the various Commissions and
Committees on which the War Department chemist
was a prominent member; of these the “ Royal
Commission on Accidents in Mines” and “ The
Explosives Committee ” (appointed in 1889 to produce
a smokeless powder for the Service) may be men-
tioned.
Dr. Kellner also devoted much work to the produc-
tion of an apparatus for determination of the flashing
point in oils, and was largely responsible for the Abel
flash point apparatus, eventually perfected; in
collaboration with Sir Boverton Redwood he carried
out an exhaustive series of tests with this apparatus.
As a scientific worker Dr. Kellner was painstaking and
methodical, displaying much skill in devising experi-
ments to assist in elucidating the various problems
confronting him in the course of his work. As regards
practical results his most important work was in
connexion with the evolution of cordite, much of the
more difficult research and experimental work leading
to the production of this explosive being carried out
by him in the chemical department at Woolwich
Arsenal ; in spite of the numerous smokeless powders
which have been brought into use since, the fact
that, after a period of thirty years, cordite still remains
the British Service propellant for army and navy use,
is perhaps the best testimonial to the thoroughness
of his work in this direction.
In 1892 Dr. Kellner succeeded Sir Frederick Abel
as chemist to the War Department, and in addition
to the duties of this office, served as an associate
member of the Ordnance Board and as consulting
chemist to the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham
Abbey ; he retired from the service in 1904.
We much regret to announce the death on October 2,
at fifty-eight years of age, of Col. E. H. Grove-Hills,
F.R.S., formerly head of the Topographical Depart-
ment of the War Office and the author of a number
of papers on astronomical subjects.
Current Topics and Events.
H.R.H. THE Prince oF WALES has’ graciously
accepted an invitation to be present at a joint dinner
of the Institution of Mining Engineers (representing
coal-mining engineering) and the Institution of
Mining and Metallurgy (representing the mining of
minerals other than coal) to be held on Thursday,
November 16. The dinner will be held at the
Guildhall by permission of the Corporation of the
City of London.
In his presidential address to the British Associa-
tion at Edinburgh last year, Sir Edward Thorpe
referred to the difficulty which is encountered by
many workers in science of being unable to obtain
all the scientific books they require owing to lack of
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
means. Sir Robert Hadfield has now generously
offered to contribute a sum of 50/. per annum for
three years, to be expended in supplies of books to
those who are engaged in scientific pursuits and are
unable to purchase for themselves. The council of
the British Association has at present under con-
sideration the best means of allocating this gift.
AMONG many important accessions of manuscripts
to the Library of Congress (Washington) noted in
the librarian’s report for 1921, we observe the
papers and correspondence of the late Major-General
W. C. Gorgas, and the diaries and note-books of Jean
Nicholas Nicollet, the explorer of the upper Missis-
sippi, Missouri, Red, and Arkansas rivers in the first
tiene satin
ee ee ee
OcToBER 14, 1922]
INS CATO I
28
on
half of the nineteenth century. The division of maps
has received many rarities. An increase of receipts
from the Central Powers is noted. ‘‘ A large number
of these were theses of German universities and
institutes of technology, which goes to show that the
work of these institutions was carried on during the
war without interruption.”
ACCORDING to letters received by the last mail,
the International Congress of Americanists at Rio
de Janeiro has been a very great success. An
enormous mass of papers was presented, all of
which the Government proposes to print in full. At
the close of the meeting the majority of the members
took advantage of the delightful excursions which
had been arranged for their benefit. After some
- discussion it was decided to hold the twenty-first
séssion of the congress in 1924 in Holland by invitation
of the Dutch Government, and in 1925 at Gothenburg,
Sweden, by invitation of that town, where the museum
is in charge of Mr. Erland Nordenskiéld, the well-
known authority on South America. In 1926 the
congress will meet in Philadelphia.
THERE are welcome indications that the work of
. investigating our national antiquities, interrupted
by the outbreak of the war, is now being revived.
The Congress of Archeological Societies, in union
with the Society of Antiquaries, London, has just
issued the first number, for 1921, of “‘ The Year’s
Work in Archeology.’’ This useful publication
gives lists, arranged in the three kingdoms and their
counties, of the progress of exploration. In a
valuable supplement we have a list of the more
important papers on the subject published by the
local societies, and though a large number of these
societies are affiliated to the Congress, there is still
room for the association of local workers in this
important enterprise. The Congress makes an
appeal for contributions in order to effect the purchase
of Cissbury Ring, near Worthing. As this pamphlet
shows, there are still considerable vandalism and
destruction of important monuments; the Congress
protests specially against the destruction of a portion
of the Middlesex Grim’s Dyke at Pinner Green, and |
other examples are quoted in the Report. Much
important work is being done in connexion with the
Archeological Survey, and the president, Sir Hercules
Read, remarks that there are many signs that we
_are at last becoming a civilised nation, as is shown
by the Ancient Monuments Act and the appoint-
ment of the Congress Secretary, Mr. Crawford, to
the newly created post of Archeology Officer at the
Ordnance Survey.
THE Toronto Stay of July 6 last has a note on
a method of marking trails leading to springs of
water which is practised by Indians of Western
Texas. Two heaps of rock roughly heaped to-
gether, one about three feet high, the second a little
lower, are placed beside the track, usually on an
elevation commanding a view of the country for
some five miles or more. A sight is taken from
behind the larger heap, over the smaller, to some
object on the horizon, such as a tree or clump of |
NO. 2763, VOL. II1O|
bushes. Near this object will be found a second
pair of heaps of rock sighting on a second objective.
This process is continued until the spring is reached.
This primitive method of sighting a trail is of interest
in connexion with the suggestions put forward by
Mr. Alfred Watkins in his ‘‘ Ancient British Track-
ways,” recently noticed in these columns. He
argued that many of the older roads in this country
could be assigned to pre-Roman times on the evidence
of what it was presumed were sighting marks, which
must have been used in much the same way as the
Indians are said to make use of these heaps of rocks.
Mr. Watkin’s theory, as was pointed out when it
was under notice, undoubtedly holds good in many
cases, especially in connexion with natural objects ;
in others, particularly in the case of mounds, moats,
churches, etc., it appears more open to criticism.
Tue Fifth Annual Report of the Imperial War
Museum has recently been issued by H.M. Stationery
Office, price 9d. (post free 10}d.). It is typewritten
on 8 folio pages and reproduced by a multicopier.
This at any rate shows a desire for economy, calculated
to appease the public. The work of the museum
during the year 1921-22 consisted in a complete
survey of the whole collection, elimination of items of
no technical value or historical interest, and the
compression and concentration of the more valuable
exhibits under definite headings and groupings. This
was particularly the case with the Munitions and Air
Force exhibits. Stress is laid in this report on the
technical value of the collections and on the fact that
many objects of our everyday life during the War
have been preserved in this museum while they have
disappeared elsewhere. Allusion is made to the pro-
posal to utilise two galleries at present occupied by
the Science Museum and certain galleries now occupied
by the Imperial Institute. These proposals have, it
will be remembered, evoked a great deal of opposition.
The committee appointed to investigate on them has
reported to the Cabinet, but no decision has yet been
reached.
?
Dr. Davip STARR JORDAN proposes that the Inter-
national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
should reject the following works from consideration
! under the Law of Priority :—Gronow, 1763, ‘‘ Museum
(as
”
Ichthyologicum”’; Commerson footnotes in
Lacépéde, “‘ Hist. nat. des poissons,’’ mostly 1803) ;
“ Gesellschaft Schauplatz,” 1775-1781, an anonymous
dictionary accepting the pre-Linnaean genera of
Klein ; Catesby, 1771, ‘‘ Natural History of Carolina,
Florida, and the Bahamas” (1731-1750), revised
reprint by Edwards; Browne, 1789, revised reprint
of “‘ Civiland Natural History of Jamaica’ ; Valmont
de Bomare, 1768-1775, “ Dict. raisonnée universelle
@hist. nat.’’ (several names accidentally binomial).
By this all systematic names published as new in
those works will be rejected as of the dates in question,
but will remain available as of the dates when they
were adopted by later authors of unquestioned status.
It is hoped that the proposed action will extricate
zoologists from an impasse into which they have been
led by a divergence of views respecting the terms
524
“binary ’’ and “ binomial.’’ Zoologists who may
have opinions on this proposal, which they desire to
lay before the Commission, are invited to communicate
them in writing to any member of it, so that they
may reach the Secretary at Washington, D.C., U.S.A.,
before September 1, 1923. They would do well first
to consult Opinions Nos. 13, 20, 21, 23, and 24 issued
by the Commission.
Tuose who are familiar with the history of the
elements will know, and those who are not familiar
can easily inform themselves of the fact, that La-
voisier included among the elements both light and
heat, which he classified along with oxygen, nitrogen,
and hydrogen. A more detailed study of his ‘‘ Traité
élémentaire de chimie’’ will show that before dis-
cussing the compounds of oxygen, nitrogen, etc.,
with other elements, he devoted a brief chapter to
observations on the compounds of light and heat
with different substances. The rapid development
of chemistry soon led to the abandonment of these
imponderable elements, which came to be regarded
as different manifestations of energy. It is, there-
fore, of interest to read in the Phaymaceutical Journal
of August 12 a letter in which Mr. Carol A. Cofman
Nicoresti, B. és Sc. et Lettr., announces, as a final
conclusion of his investigation of gaseous volume
and pressure, “ that heat and light are both material
substances, that they enter into chemical combination
with other elements, and that they are thrown out by
chemical reaction.’ It is perhaps a compliment to
Lavoisier that even, his untenable hypotheses should
thus undergo resurrection ; but that they should be
put forward as original can only be taken as a sign
of imperfect chemical education, In one other respect
Mr. Nicoresti’s growth as a student of chemistry
appears to have been arrested at a period more than
a century earlier than Lavoisier, since he asserts
that after careful consideration he is driven to the
conclusion “‘ that there are no such things as gases,
but that there is only one gas in nature. That
explains why the gaseous laws ave so uniform.” In
this respect he apparently adopts the views of Boyle
and Mayow, and his chemical education appears to
have been carried forward but little further than the
period of Agricola, who “hinted that the gases in mines
were manifestations of malignant imps.”
In the will of Prince Albert of Monaco, who died
on June 26 last, there are noteworthy gifts for
scientific purposes, His farm at Sainte Suzanne is
left to the French Academy of Agriculture, and the
wish is expressed that the estate should remain a
place for agricultural experiments, to demonstrate
what and determination can obtain from
sterile lands. Dr, Jules Richard will receive 600,000
francs to enable him to complete literary and scientific
works in including the results of the
oceanographic cruises and the preparation of the
Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. The proceeds of
the sale of the yacht ivondelle, all books and publica.
tions of a scientific nature, as well as certain personal
effects, will go to the Oceanographic Institute at
Paris and Monaco, while the Institute of Human
NO. 2763, VOL, 110]
science
progress,
NATURE ;
[OcToBER 14, 1922
Paleontology in Paris is to receive any personal
effects relating to the work carried on there. The
Paris Academy of Sciences will receive a million
franes, the income of which is to provide a prize to
be awarded every two years, the nature of the prize
to be indicated by the Academy, according to the
needs of the moment; a like sum is bequeathed to
the Academy of Medicine for a similar prize.
WE learn from the British Medical Journal that
the Carnegie Hero Fund trustees have awarded a
medallion and an annuity of 130/. to Dr. John Spence
of Edinburgh, in recognition of his valuable and
heroic work in radiology. Dr. Spence was among
the first in Scotland to take up research in X-rays
and medical electricity, and as a result of radiological
experiments he sustained serious damage to both
hands, necessitating amputation of the right forearm.
Dr. Spence is still carrying on his work as radiologist
at Leith Hospital and Craigleith Hospital, Edinburgh.
H.R.H. tor DuKkE oF CoNnNAUGHT has consented
to unveil the roll of honour which has been erected
at the Institution of Civil Engineers to the memory
of its members and students who lost their lives in
the war. The ceremony will take place at 4 P.M.
on Friday, October 27.
Ar the next ordinary scientific meeting of the
Chemical Society on October 19, Prof. T. M. Lowry
will read a paper entitled ‘‘ The Polarity of Double
Bonds. An Extension of the Theories of Lapworth
and Robinson,” and it is hoped that a general
discussion will take place. On Thursday, October
26, at 8 p.m., a lecture entitled ““ The Significance
of Crystal Structure’ will be delivered by Sir
William H. Bragg, in conjunction with Prof. W. L.
Bragg. This meeting will be held in the lecture
hall of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,
Storey’s Gate, S.W.1.
WEATHER reports from Captain Amundsen’s arctic
expedition will be sent from the ship Maud and
included in the collective message broadcasted by
wireless from the Eiffel Tower daily at 11 h. 30 m.
G.M.T. These observations, according to the Meteoro-
logical Magazine, will commence on October 15.
Ir was announced at a meeting of the Chemical
Society on October 5 that Prof. J. F. Thorpe had
been nominated to fill, until the next Annual General
Meeting, the office of treasurer, rendered vacant by
the resignation of Dr. M. O. Forster, recently ap-
pointed Director of the Indian Institute of Science at
Bangalore. Dr. J. T. Hewitt was nominated to fill
the vacancy in the list of vice-presidents caused by
Prof. Thorpe’s appointment.
From the Report of the Castle Museum Committee
to the Town Council of Norwich for 1921, just received,
we learn that the Norwich Education Committee has
appointed a special demonstrator to conduct round
the museum organised parties of about 25 pupils
accompanied by teachers. During the year 19,801
attendances were recorded, each class attending the
complete series of demonstrations in sixteen weekly
ata cee spina aig sia aa i itn hn a Tag ig a Nal A AD
OcToBER 14, 1922}
NATURE
975
visits. The first lecture dealt with the purpose and
methods of a museum, the next thirteen with various
forms of animal life, the fifteenth with the early
history of man, and the last with the story of the
rocks and fossils. We understand that other Educa-
tion Committees think of following this excellent
example.
Mr. H. E. Stone, of Sidcup, Kent, has forwarded
to us a photograph of a specimen of Datura Stva-
monium which has attained a height of 28 inches with
a foliage span of 58x24 inches, and bears 25 well-
developed seed-pods. The plant is undoubtedly a
fine specimen, although not unusually large. The
largest plants are often found on rubbish-heaps made
up of garden refuse, and also as weeds in cultivated
ground. Such plants benefit by their isolation as
much as by rich food material. Cultivated plants
are often allowed to stand too close together to be
able to develop to their full extent, while they usually
lack the rich food material available in the case of
isolated plants, and particularly those that have sprung
up as weeds.
Tuer London agency of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, Washington, which, since 1871, has been carried
on by Messrs. William Wesley and Son, 28 Essex
Street, Strand, London, has been removed to the
premises of the new firm of Messrs. Wheldon and
Wesley, Ltd. (incorporating William Wesley and
Son), at 2, 3, and 4 Arthur Street, New Oxford Street,
W.C.2. The large number of societies, museums,
and institutions which forward their publications
for transmission to their American correspondents
through the International Exchange System of the
Smithsonian Institution are requested to forward
their consignments in the future to 2, 3, 4 Arthur
Street, New Oxford Street, W.C.2.
Our Astronomical Column.
Tur Sunspor Perropiciry.—Many attempts have
been made to correlate the 11 year period of spot
variation with the 11-86 year period of Jupiter’s
revolution. The latter, as it stands, differs too
widely, and it is necessary to combine it with some
other period. Prof. T. J. J. See, in a special number
of Asty. Nachr., vol. 216, attempts to combine it
with 9:93 years, which is the period in which Jupiter
gains a semi-revolution upon Saturn. He weights
these two periods in the ratio 1-828 to 1, this ratio
being the square root of that of Jupiter’s mass to
Saturn’s mass. ‘The result is 11-18 years, which is
close to the sunspot period. But it is to be noted
that while the 11-86 year period depends wholly on
Jupiter, that of 9:93 years depends on both planets,
so that the appropriateness of the above ratio is
far from clear; apart from this the resulting period
of two wave motions does not depend on the ratio
of their amplitudes, but on the time that one takes
to gain a revolution on the other. For example, the
period from spring tides to spring tides is a semi-
lunation, and this would not be altered by an alteration
in the relative heights of solar and lunar tides.
It will be remembered that Prof. E. W. Brown
also endeavoured to get the sunspot period from
Jupiter and Saturn, though in a different manner.
He was successful in predicting that the 1907 maximum
would be a late one. Mr. Ek. W. Maunder directed
attention to the cyclical shift of the spots in solar
latitude synchronously with the variation in activity,
which seems to indicate an internal rather than an
external origin.
FLAMSTEED’S Letrers To RicHarp TowNELEY.—
This very interesting packet of letters was recently
found at the Royal Society. Dr. Dreyer contributes
a long article to the Observatory for September
describing their principal contents. A few points
may be mentioned here. Flamsteed was prompt in
accepting Roemer’s explanation of the annual in-
equality of Jupiter's satellites, due to the finite
velocity of light. He studied refraction at low
altitudes by measuring the change in the apparent
vertical diameter of the sun.
We find from his notes on the great comet of 1680
that he was at that time still a believer in the vortices
of Descartes, though he makes a note on Newton’s
different opinion. By 1686 Flamsteed had apparently
become convinced of the overthrow of the system
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
of vortices; after alluding to the progress in the
printing of the ‘‘ Principia’’ he expresses his satis-
faction in the immense gain that the new system will
afford in the study of the planetary motions, ‘' so that
in the room of mourning I congratulate my own
happiness.”’ :
It is rather melancholy to note how his opinion
of Halley gradually changed from admiration to
jealousy and suspicion. This seems to have been
largely due to the association of Halley with Hooke,
whom Flamsteed considered an enemy.
We share Dr. Dreyer’s hope that the letters will
be published in full.
PERTURBATIONS OF WOLr’s Comet.—Allusion was
lately made in these notes to the work of M. Kamensky
on this comet from its discovery in 1884 to the present
time, and to the large changes in its orbit likely to
arise from the very near approach to Jupiter this
year. He has now calculated these changes, and
gives the results in Asty. Journ. No. 807. The least
distance occurred on September 26, when it was
one-eighth of a unit, so that Jupiter’s direct action
was 14 times that of the sun, and the assumption of
elliptical motion ceases to be the smallest approxima-
tion to the truth. On the other hand, a remarkable
approximation may be obtained by assuming the
motion to be in a hyperbola about Jupiter, which is
equivalent to treating the action of the sun on the
two bodies as identical during the time of near
approach. Incidentally this gives an opportunity
for using the equations for hyperbolic motion, which
are given in the text-books but very seldom employed.
The results obtained by this simple method are quite
close to those of the more rigorous investigation. A
curious point is that the present perturbations are
about equal in size but opposite in direction to those
at the approach of 1875, so that the comet now returns
very nearly to its 1875 orbit. The period is increased
from 6# to 8} years, and the perihelion distance from
1°53 to 2-40. It fortunately happens that at the
next perihelion passage, 1925, Oct. 28.4, the comet
will be almost in opposition, so that the distance
from the earth will attain its minimum value, I-40.
Prof. Kamensky hopes that it may not be beyond
visual or photographic reach with large instruments :
if it should be found, most of the credit will belong
to him; if not seen then it will almost certainly be
permanently lost.
526 NATL. [OcToBER 14, 1922
Research Items.
THE RomAN BALANCE IN SOUTH AMERICA.—Mr. Mosouiro INVESTIGATIONS.—Since the statement
Erland Nordenskiéld has reprinted from the journal
of the Société des Américanistes de Paris (N.S. vol.
article sub-entitled
Xili., 1921) an “Emploi de la
balance romaine en Amérique du Sud avant la
conquéte.’’ He produces evidence, with a full
bibliography of authorities, to show that this invention
was not confined to the Old World, but was found in
the New World before the discovery of America.
ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE CHILTERN HiLis.—In the
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (vol.
li. Part 1), Mr. W. Bradbrooks and Prof. F. G. Parsons
publish an elaborate memoir, with a long series of
measurements of skull form, on the population of
the Chiltern Hills, in which they arrive at the following
conclusions: in this comparatively isolated area
about half the working-class male people can trace
their ancestry back to three generations in some part
of the area; the hair colour is rather darker than
Beddoe found in the Eastern and East Midland
Counties, and the proportion is higher than in any
other part of Great Britain, except the South-western
Counties and Wales ; the eye colour is identical with
that of London and the East Midlands ; the average
cephalic index, 777, is practically that of the modern
working man in London, and the average height,
5) ft. 7
Thus, the present-day inhabitants of the North
Chiltern area, who are not recent immigrants, are
distinctly darker haired than those surrounding them,
and this darkness appears to be due to the survival
of a great proportion of Neolithic or Mediterranean
blood in the district.
DISTRIBUTION OF FUTURE WHITE SETTLEMENT.—
The problem of the potentiality of the world for white
settlement is attacked quantitatively by Dr. Griffith
Taylor in the Geographical Review for July. The
world is divided into economic regions which coincide
in the main with Herbertson’s natural regions. The
areas of these regions are determined by planimeter
measurements. The factors influencing human settle-
ment are grouped under four headings which comprise
the dominant controls—temperature, rainfall, location,
and coal reserves. Fisheries have local rather than
general importance and are ignored. From the values
of each of these four controls a quadrilateral graph,
the econograph, is constructed for each region, and the
area of the graph is found to represent approximately
the habitability of the region concerned. The econo-
graph is a rectangular figure formed on four axes
which represent, respectively, the average annual
temperature, the average annual rainfall, the average
elevation, and the estimated total coal reserve of the
region. In what Dr. Taylor believes to be the ideal
region these values would be 55° F.; 50 in., sea-level,
and 200 x 104 tons per Square mile: | The comparative
value of these controls was apparently reached by
assuming various values and testing them against the
actual population map of Europe. By this means
Dr. Taylor decided to give the temperature control
double the weight of the rainfall and allow the coal
factor, if large, to have equal weight with optimum
temperature and rainfall combined. The ideal econo-
graph represents 1000 units. All the seventy-four
regions of the world have values below this ideal.
The last step was to plot on a map of the world the
numbers representing the areas and draw lines of
habitability, called isoiketes. This map is of great
interest as a partially successful attempt to forecast
the future growth of white settlement.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
in., is that of the black-haired individuals. !
| the
was made by Messrs. Carter and Blacklock that
Anopheles plumbeus is a potential carrier of malaria
in this country, it having been experimentally in-
fected by them, considerable interest has been taken
in the habits and distribution of the species in Britain.
Following studies made by these authors in the Liver-
pool district and in the Isle of Man, an inquiry was
instituted by the mosquito investigation committee
of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies,
acting on behalf of the Ministry of Health. The
| committee now announces that this special inquiry is
concluded, and that A. plumbeus has been shown to
be exclusively sylvan in habits, and to be widely
distributed in England, occurring, when searched for,
in almost any area in which are found beech, syca-
more, chestnut, or other trees with water-containing
rot-holes. The committee is now turning its atten-
tion to the mating and egg-laying habits of dA.
plumbeus and other species, which are still imper-
fectly known, and invites co-operation from observers
in all parts of the country in elucidating these
matters.
MuscarRInrk.—In the Journal of the Chemical
Society for September, Dr. Harold King, of the
National Institute for Medical Research, records the
isolation of muscarine, the highly potent and toxic
principle of Amanita muscaria, the Fly Agaric, a
common fungus of our birch woods. Muscarine has
been the fertile subject of controversy among chemists
and pharmacologists for more than fifty years, and it
is now shown that the pure material differs essentially
from the original claims as to its properties and
constitution made by Harnack, upon whose work
whole of the subsequent edifice has been
erected. There is no evidence that muscarine is
related to choline or is a quaternary base. More
than ordinary interest is attached to muscarine owing
to its extreme specificity of localisation in the
mammalian body and its complete antagonism by
atropine.
A NEw SPECTRO-POLARIMETER.—Messtrs. L. Belling-
ham and F. Stanley, Ltd., of 71 Hornsey Rise, have
designed and provisionally protected a polarising prism
which can be used either in the visible or ultra-violet
region of thespectrum. The prism is constructed from
one solid piece of Iceland spar cut in such a manner
with respect to the crystallographic axis, and of such a
length of side, that the extraordinary ray only is
transmitted while the ordinary ray is absorbed at
the sides. Two such prisms are placed side by side
in a suitable mounting. Before being placed in
contact the sides of each prism are ground away
to give the required length of dividing line between
the halves and also to produce the necessary half
To provide a sharp face edge one of —
the prisms 1s allowed to project im front’ of the other,
shadow angle.
and the two are then bound together. It is claimed
that such an arrangement is absolutely permanent
and that the extinction is perfect. The entire
absence of cement relieves the prism of all strain,
and eliminates the possibility of light being diffused
from particles in the cement or from scratches on
the cemented surface. By employing sucha polarising
prism Messrs. Bellingham and Stanley have been able
to construct a polarimeter which can be used either
for visual observation, in conjunction with a mercury
lamp, or for photographing the entire spectrum
between wave-lengths 23042 and 800 at one
exposure.
OCTOBER 14, 1922]
NATO R LE
The Fauna of the Sea-Bottom.!
By Dr. C. G. Jou. PErersEN, Director of the Biological Station, Copenhagen.
Sgipane of the fauna of the sea-bottom are of
-? essential zoological significance, and many
scientific questions as well as important fishery
interests depend upon them. The subject, however,
is so extensive that I must confine myself mainly
to the different methods adopted for the investigation
of the fauna of the sea-bottom.
Since 1883 I have investigated Danish waters by
means of the dredge; it was my task then to give
on charts the distribution, especially in the Kattegat,
of every single species ot marine animal, to under-
stand the laws ruling the distribution of the animals
on the sea-bottom (the cruises of the gunboat Hauch).
Different specialists had each a group of animals
to work out, and a great number of charts were
printed, but I did not feel quite content with my
first publication, although something was cleared off
by that method. The method was, and is still, the
usual one for such investigations.
Many years later the question was put before me :
Why does the plaice in the western Limfjord grow
very slowly, but very quickly in the middle of the
Limfjord ? The answer required first of all a
quantitative investigation of the amount of plaice-
food in both places. A small bottom-sampler on a
pole, long enough to reach the bottom in the shallow
fjord was made in the ‘nineties of last century and
proved that much food was to be found in both
places: the difference in growth-rate of the plaice
was found later on to depend not only upon the
amount of food on the bottom, but also upon the
different number of plaice living there on each square
mile. The idea of overcrowding for sea-fishes was
introduced for the first time. :
Many years later I constructed a new bottom-
sampler fastened to a wire; this I have used every-
where in Scandinavian waters down to a depth of
300 fathoms. It was my idea at first to compare
the amount of fish-food per sq. metre in the Limfjord
with the amount of fish-food per sq. metre in our
remaining waters by means of the bottom-sampler ;
but I soon found it difficult to compare the animals
from one water with those of another ; in some places
the animals were small and of great value for fishes,
in others the animals were bigger and built up of
carbonate of lime (chalk) mainly, and with a great
content of water; chalk and water being of course
of little importance as food in the sea for other animals,
I realised that I should compare, first of all, the
amount of food in places with the same kind of animal
population, and I had to map out these places.
The bottom-sampler taught me that we have
about eight such different animal communities in
Danish waters from o to 300 fathoms, character-
ised by numerous large and characteristic animals.
They may be echinoderms, bivalves, crustacea, etc.,
but-are all animals: living mainly on detritus, not
Tapacious animals. These last named are necessarily
always scarcer than the more peacefully living animals,
as the grass-feeding animals on the drv land are
more common than tigers and lions.
One thing puzzled me in the beginning very much ;
the bottom-sampler showed in many hauls the most
uniform content in the sieves in the same animal
community, then suddenly it came up filled with
quite different animals, Modiola modiolus, Trophonia,
_Ophiopholis aculeata, etc., without any corresponding
difference in the depth or in the nature of the bottom.
How is this to be explained ?
™ Opening of a discussion held in Section D (Zoology) of the British
Association at Hull on Sept. 7.
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
All these new organisms were animals living not
in the bottom like ordinary animals, but above the
bottom, originally fixed to a small stone or a shell,
as on a heath we may find lichens on stones, not
heather, or as in a beech-wood, on stones we find
mosses, not flowers; strong currents may help to
nourish such an epi-fauna with its often enormously
rich animal life. Every object on the sea-bottom,
a stone, a shell, a wreck, living plants, may give
rise to such epi-faunas ; within the same community
on the level sea-bottom there is the same epi-
fauna, but in different communities different epi-
faunas may be found. The epi-fauna is, as a rule,
scattered over the bottom in spots, and it is not
always easy, in single cases, to say what is the reason
for its existence; it is therefore not possible to
give its distribution on a chart; you may give it
on the spots where you have found it, but you never
will be able to give all the spots existing on the
bottom. On rocky coasts the epi-faunas are dominat-
ing ; the coral reefs are a kind of epi-fauna, built up
mainly of chalk and water; they are of very little
importance as fish-food. y
In contradistinction to the distribution of the epi-
faunas the communities of the level sea-bottom are of
a very uniform distribution, in such localities as in
Danish waters and in the North Sea. Their distribu-
tion may be easily mapped out, and their content
of fish-food and other animals quantitatively deter-
mined. We have taken thousands of samples, each
of 7; sq. metre, with the bottom-sampler in Denmark,
and they have nearly always shown several animals,
worms, bivalves, Ophiuride, etc., in each ; only one
or two samples of them have shown no animal content.
By means of the bottom-sampler we may, there-
fore, using the most frequently occurring organisms,
easily map out the communities of the level sea-
bottom, and determine its content of fish-food.
The theory of probability will indicate the degree
of accuracy ; many samples will give, as a rule, more
and more exactitude. We may determine how the
number of organisms varies at different seasons and
in different years. If we examine what the fishes
eat of these organisms we may determine whether
they are good or bad areas for this or that species of
fish, and may get a fair idea of the productivity of
the sea-bottom as a whole, not forgetting that all
the small, fast-growing, short-living animals are
often to be reckoned as yearly production, whereas
the bigger, longer living animals must be reckoned
by means of another method. We may get an idea
of the whole metabolism of the sea—but I must not
go too far in mentioning these problems.
With a good steamer I could in one month map
out the whole of the North Sea as. to. its. animal
communities, - L, would ;take between 500 and 1000
samples spread over the whole of the North Sea, out to
the 100-fathom line, about one or two perhour. Using
a bottom-sampler of 0-2 sq. m. I should then have
taken up only the animals of an area at 100-200
sq. m., but I am sure that I should get all the species
of the common uniformly-distributed animals of the
whole area, and I should be able to give a rough-
sketched map of the animal communities. If we
used a bottom-sampler on a heath only once, we
should catch heather, and so in the sea, I should not
catch many rare animals, but I do not care for
rare animals ; the main thing is to know the animals
that make up the great bulk of the bottom popula-
tion, to know their distribution and their weight per
square mile. If you wish for greater exactitude than
528
NATURE
[OcToBER 14, 1922
this first trip could give, you may take more stations
and investigate smaller areas more carefully.
Tam glad to be able to say that in 1921 Dr. Russell,
on the English steamer John Bligh, made the first
trip across the North Sea with my bottom-sampler,
guided by my assistant, Dr. H. Blegvad ; they found
some of the same communities between Lowestoft
and Esbjerg as we know from the Kattegat.
Thanks to the bottom-sampler we can now speak
about areas with a Venus mussel community, an
Amphiura filiformis community, a Byissopsis Am-
phiura chiajet community, and so on, as we on land
speak about a heath, a beech-wood, a meadow, etc. ;
we are also able to get a quantitative idea of the
amount of animals on the sea-bottom, and are able
to follow seasonal or other variations therein.
A dredge will sometimes give us, when well used,
a bagful of animals, belonging to the epi-fauna as
well as to the ordinary communities, and taken up
from all the communities it has been towed over.
The dredge is inclined, moreover, to take all animals
on, not in, the bottom, and its content is therefore
not a true illustration of what is living im or on the
bottom, but a mixture mostly of epi-fauna from
different communities, without giving the slightest idea
of quantity persquare metre. The content ofa dredge
and a bottom-sampler used on the same station will
very often give quite different collections of animals.
The dredge has given excellent information to
zoologists wishing to collect rare animals for preserva-
tion in alcohol, and for dredging oysters, and so on,
but a true illustration of the fauna on the sea bottom
it never has given and never will give.
I admit one thing: it is easy for me to speak and
write about the bottom-sampler work, but it never
will be well understood without seeing the work going
on on board ship ; many men of science from Europe
have seen how quickly the sampler may be used,
like an ordinary sounding machine, and how well it
works. I should be glad to welcome many more
visitors at the Danish Biological Station, not only
to see the bottom-sampler working, but also to be
able to discuss with them the problems which have
arisen in my mind while using this method during
the last 10 to 12 years.
It was a Dane, O. Fr. Miller, who first introduced
the dredge in northern Europe for scientific use, and
it will always be used by zoologists and for special
purposes, but only the bottom-sampler is able to give
a true and quantitative representative illustration of
the bottom fauna.
Finally, I wish to say that to have a bottom-
sampler and to use it is not enough to become a
great marine biologist ; it depends much upon the
possession of working ideas. The bottom-sampler is
not able to solve every question ; it cannot, e.g., take
animals living very deep in a hard bottom, and the
apparatus must be modified for special work, accord-
ing to the size of the ship used, the depth at which
you are working, etc., and it is necessary to supple-
ment the investigation by means of other apparatus,
fishing-gear, dredges, etc. But withcut quantitative
work it is not possible to understand the principal
features of the fauna of the sea-bottom.
It would be a matter of great scientific interest to
have a bottom-sampler used down the slope of the
continent at all depths, out on the very ocean floor,
to determine all the communities living here, and to
prove how barren the ocean floor really is. It would
also be of great interest to follow our European
communities from the North Pole down to Cape
Town, to study their geographical distribution, to
determine the perfectly unknown Arctic communities,
and the unknown tropical communities, I have
given a hypothetical chart in my Report No. 22, but
it has to be verified. I am too old to do that, and
my steamer too small. I hope other men will do it.
I am sure the geologists would be glad to know
something about these communities, based upon the
common animals. I am certain that, ike me, they
care much more for common characteristic species
and their distribution than for “ rare ’’ animals.
The productivity of the bottom fauna in European
waters is by no means unlimited ; it is, therefore, a
matter of the greatest importance for some of the
greatest fishery questions to know as much as possible
about this productivity. The English fishermen are,
as I often have heard, the backbone of the English
navy ; they depend upon the fishes, and these in turn
depend upon the fish-food. Careful investigation of
the latter is, therefore, a matter of great importance—
particularly for Great Britain,
Adhesives.
By Emit HaAtTScHEEK.
HE treatise of Theophilus Presbyter, entitled
“Diversarum Artium Schedula,’ and well
known to all students of the history of painting, gives
directions for the preparation and use of glues from
leather and deers’ antlers, of plum- and cherry-gums,
and of mixtures of cheese and lime described as
“cheese glues.’’ This list of adhesives familiar to
craftsmen at the end of the eleventh century covers
practically all the types in use at the beginning of the
twentieth century. A similar degree of old empirical
perfection is shown by many arts employing colloidal
material, and the student of colloid chemistry anxious
to magnify his office is perpetually confronted with
the task of explaining the rationale of traditional
procedure and of suggesting improvements based on
theoretical grounds.
The difficulties of this task are well illustrated by
the first report of the Adhesives Research Committee.?
Towards the end of the war a shortage of glue and of
the chief substitute, casein, threatened to limit the
output of aircraft, and the labours of the committee
* Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
the Adhesives Research Committee,” pp. iv+129.
NO, 2763, VOL. 110]
“First Report of
Price 4s.
were accordingly directed, on one hand, to a close
study of glue, and, on the other, to the discovery of
possible substitutes other than casein. The report
contains much interesting and novel matter under
both heads.
The difficulties in the way of a rational study of —
glue seem to be twofold. The first is that the only
criterion of its value as adhesive is a mechanical test
of a glued joint between wooden test pieces of specified
nature and size. The report describes the conditions
of such a test, as finally adopted, and sets forth the
possible sources of error. Both on theoretical and
on practical grounds (about five days have to elapse
from the soaking of the glue to’ the actual breaking
test), it is desirable to find some easily measured
constant which shows a simple quantitative relation
with the breaking strength. No such constant is
yet known, although empirically the setting time of
the glue sol, the melting point of the gel and its
“strength,’’ 7.e. roughly speaking, its modulus of
elasticity, furnish some indication of its quality.
The second difficulty is of a more fundamental
nature. It is known that pure gelatin is not a good
92 a ak. panne =
et nal Me lr i a ae na ll
eth SN
SS ee Se a gs eR
OcTOBER 14, 1922]
adhesive, so that the superiority of glue must be due,
directly or indirectly, to the presence of other sub-
stances of which, so far, little is known. Investiga-
tions on this point are proceeding ; in the meantime
the committee have evolved a novel and highly
promising test, that for “ diffusible nitrogen.”’ A
gel of standard composition is immersed in a known
volume of water, and after a fixed time the nitrogen
content of the latter is determined by Kjeldahl’s |
method. This is, of course, due to compounds of |
much lower molecular weight or aggregation than
gelatin, and—apart from some
amount of diffusible nitrogen is roughly inversely
proportional to the tensile strength. While this |
result is of great interest, it can scarcely be said to
simplify the problem stated above, namely, what
exceptions—the |
NATURE
factors cause the difference between pure gelatin and |
| questions which are none the less curious for being
glue. Speaking, however, quite generally, we know
of no connexion between constitution and adhesive
properties; the striking fact is how sparingly the
latter are distributed between a very few materials
even among highly hydrated colloids.
Lack of space forbids detailed reference to the very
interesting investigations on the extraction of gelatin
from various raw materials, but the committee’s
successful attempt to find a strong vegetable adhesive
529
must be mentioned. A protein was prepared from
castor bean residues—which are poisonous and there-
fore useless as cattle food—and this protein forms a
strong adhesive with calcium hydroxide and alkaline
salts in various proportions. From the data given
regarding the solubility of this protein, it appears
to be related to casein, and the mechanical properties
of the adhesive prepared from it are not much inferior
to those of casein glues.
The report is supplemented by an appendix—
which greatly exceeds in length the report itself—
giving a “ Descriptive Bibliography of “Gelatin.”
This is a very complete, lucid, and impartial summary
of the vast literature, in which no paper of any
interest seems to have been overlooked. Those from
English sources—though important—are remarkably
few in number, and this state of things suggests
familiar. One is whether the development of a very
promising discipline is going to be left to workers of
other nations as completely as was (to take an un-
hackneyed instance) that of the theory of functions ;
| the other, whether such cases of neglect arise from
deep-seated national tastes or idiosyncrasies in
research, or merely from inadequate opportunities
for tuition and experimental work.
The Decomposition of Tungsten.
Tee September issue of the Journal of the
American Chemical Society contains an account
of the preliminary experiments made by Drs. Wendt
and Irion on the decomposition of tungsten at extreme
temperatures, with the production of helium, a report
of which appeared in the daily press, to which reference
has already been made in Nature (April 1, 1922,
vol. 109, p. 418). The authors regret the exaggerated
early report, given wide publicity by the press after
its oral presentation, and emphasise the preliminary
character of the work. They describe fully the
apparatus used for attaining temperatures above
20,000° by passing heavy currents through metal
wires, and state that when tungsten wires are exploded
in a vacuum at such temperatures the spectrum of
helium appears in the gases produced. When the
explosion is conducted in carbon dioxide, 0-713 milli-
gram of tungsten gave rise to I-o1 c.c. of gas not
absorbed by potash solution. The authors remark
that their method ‘“‘ includes factors, both of cause
and of error, analogous to those operative in the
voluminous and inconclusive controversy on the evolu-
tion of helium in various types of low pressure elec-
trical discharge tubes, extending from 1905 to 1915.”
The electrical apparatus provided for currents of
40 amperes at 100,000 volts during the brief period
necessary to charge the condenser, which was then
discharged through a tungsten wire 0036 mm.
diameter and 4 cm. long. The wires were stretched
between heavy copper terminals in a special spherical
glass bulb of 300 c.c. capacity, which was capable of
withstanding momentarily an enormous outward
pressure, and had a small discharge tube sealed on for
examination of the spectrum of any gas produced.
The wire was heated to well above 2000° for 15 hours
in a high vacuum before the explosion was made, and
the tube before explosion showed no spectrum or
fluorescence when connected with a 50,000-volt coil.
No dust, smoke, or solid residue was left after the
explosion. Gas was present, which showed the faint
presence of the strongest green line of mercury, prob-
ably from back diffusion of the pumps, and the only
other line uniformly present and positively identified
was the strong yellow line of helium. It would seem
that both hydrogen and neon were absent. The
absence of hydrogen is of interest, since the atomic
weight of tungsten is exactly 46 times that of helium,
and this element would therefore not be expected
to give hydrogen on disruption of its atom.
The explosion in carbon dioxide seems to have been
less conclusive, as the authors do not seem to have
been quite sure of the absence of unabsorbable im-
purities. They point out that if the entire weight of
0-713 milligram of tungsten had been converted into
helium, 4 c.c. of this gas should have been obtained.
The much smaller volume found would point to the
production of heavier gases. Altogether the work is
of very great interest, although the authors emphasise
the necessity of complete analysis of the gas obtained
before anything conclusive can be stated. This
chemical test is to be made in the continuation of the
work.
The Belt of Political Change in Europe.
[N a paper contributed to Section E (Geography)
of the British Association at Hull, Prof. J. F.
Unstead commented on the striking fact that the new
states of Europe, or those which have gained or re-
gained independent existence during recent years, lie
ina relatively narrow belt of country extending across
the whole of Europe from the Arctic Sea in the
north to the Mediterranean in the south. West of
this belt changes have been slight, while east of it
a final settlement has not been reached. Of this
NO? 2703, VOL. 110]
belt no part has been exempt from change. It con-
tains about 100 millions of people or about one-fifth
of the inhabitants of Europe, and covers about one-
fifth of the total area of the continent. The new
states have been formed mainly by the break-up of
three great empires, the disintegration of which was
one of the results of the world war.
Prof. Unstead pointed out that the belt of change
is a region caught between east-and west, marginal
to each and influenced by each, and he showed how
p30
NATURE
[OcTOBER 14, 1922
this idea applies both to physical and human con-
ditions. Western Europe, with inland seas and
intricate structure and relief, provides varied resources,
maritime, agricultural, and mineral. Into this region
spread the civilisation of the Mediterranean region,
and here communities found the physical conditions
which enabled them to develop. Physical barriers
and relatively small productive areas gave distinctive-
ness and led eventually to the growth of separate
nationalities. These nations became self-governing
and, broadly speaking, democratic.
Eastern Europe, on the other hand, is characterised
by uniformity of structure and relief, with great
belts of similar climatic conditions and natural vegeta-
tion extending through it into Asia and so facilitating
human migrations and military movements, mainly
east and west. From the human as well as the
physical point of view this region was for many
centuries an extension of Asia and had but a scanty
population. The Slav languages became character-
istic and the authority of the Czar dominated the
greater part of the region. The Asiatic incursions
which in earlier centuries swept across the eastern
plains were as a rule checked when they reached
the belt of change. Here they found varied condi-
tions of life, but different from those to which they
had been accustomed. Traditions and names of
invading tribes have been preserved, differences of
language remain, and not infrequently feelings of
hostility and memories of conquest are rife. Sufficient
time has not yet elapsed for a complete fusion of
races in the several regions of the belt. The Asiatic
elements still assert themselves: Finns, Ests, Magyars,
Bulgars, and Turks stand out, contrasted in one way
or another with Swedes, Germans, Slavs, Albanians,
and Greeks of European descent. Moreover, two
small Nordic groups, Letts and Lithuanians, have
preserved their identity from early times and remain
distinct from other Nordic people in language and
nationality. On the other hand, the occurrence of
minerals has led to the partial penetration of Western
influences.
Prof. Unstead went on to show the diversity of
religion and political conditions in this belt of change.
The problem of minorities exists in one form or
another throughout the belt, and is perhaps the
greatest menace to future peace. The present
political units are by no means self-sufficing, and
their frontiers are frequently barriers to trade and
hindrances to production. Furthermore, the attain-
ment of political freedom has often been accompanied
by a check to production, commerce, and prosperity.
University and Educational Intelligence.
ABERDEEN.—Applications are invited for the
Blackwell Prize, value 30 guineas, for an essay on
“The Sculptured and Inscribed Stones of the North-
East and North of Scotland.’’ The essays, bearing
a motto and accompanied by a sealed envelope
bearing the same motto and giving the name and
address of the writer, must reach the secretary of
the university on or before January 1 next.
CAMBRIDGE.—Mr. J. Walton, St. John’s College,
has been appointed junior demonstrator of botany.
Mr. F. A. Potts, Trinity Hall, has been reappointed
demonstrator of comparative anatomy. Dr. A. B.
Appleton, Downing College, Mr. D. G. Reid, Trinity
College, Mr. A. Hopkinson, Emmanuel College, and
Mr. V. C. Pennell, Pembroke College, have been re-
appointed demonstrators in anatomy. Dr. Ff.
Roberts, Clare College, Mr. T. R. Parsons, Sidney
Sussex College, have been reappointed demonstrators
in physiology. Mr. G. V. Carey, Clare College, has
NO. 2763, VOL. 110]
been appointed educational secretary to the Cam-
bridge University Press.
A. J. Smith, Downing College, has been appointed
University Frank Smart Student in Botany. The
John Winbolt prize has been awarded to F. E. Smith,
Sidney Sussex College.
LrEps.—Mr. Lascelles Abercrombie, lecturer in
poetry at Liverpool University, has been elected by
the council of the University professor of English
language and literature, in succession to Prof. Gordon,
who was recently appointed to the Merton professor-
ship of English literature at Oxford.
Lonpon.—It was announced in Nature of July
29, p. 166, that Mr. H. G. Wells had consented to
offer himself as Parliamentary candidate for the
University, at the invitation of the executive of the
University Labour Party, upon the retirement of
Sir Philip Magnus at the end of the present session
of Parliament. At a general meeting of the party
held on Friday, October 6, Mr. Wells was adopted
as Parliamentary candidate as recommended by the
executive.
Ir is announced that Mr. H. M. McCreath, head
of the Agricultural Department, Seale-Hayne College,
Devon, has been elected principal of the East Anglian
Institute of Agriculture, Chelmsford.
A SITE consisting of nearly 20 acres has been
presented by Mr. T. R. Ferens at a cost of about
10,000/. to the education authorities of Hull for the
immediate purpose of providing accommodation for
advanced technical departments. It is anticipated that
a university college will be developed later on the site.
Tue distribution of geographical teaching in the
universities of Europe is illustrated in a map which
accompanies a paper by Mr. W. L. G. Joerg, in the
Geographical Review for July, on “ Recent Geo-
graphical Work in Europe.’”’ From this map it
appears that more than 120 universities in Europe
(excluding Russia and allied Soviet states) have
provision for geography. Germany, Switzerland, and
France are perhaps the best provided, but Great
Britain does not fall far behind. In Balkan lands,
geography is fairly well represented in Bulgaria and
Yugo Slavia; Rumania has four universities offering
geography, while Hungary and Czecho-Slovakia also
have centres of instruction. On the whole, the new
or reconstructed states of Europe show every indica-
tion of realising the importance of the subject. The
only states in Europe which would appear to offer
no university geography are Latvia, Lithuania,
Albania, Greece, and Ireland.
DurRHAM University has recently published a
calendar for the year 1922—23 (price 3s. 6d. net),
a useful compilation which serves as a guide to
affairs in the University. The first half of the volume
deals with the University as a whole; its officers,
the regulations affecting conduct and degrees, as
well as the subjects required for the latter and for
various diplomas are given. per annum.
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[OcTOBER 21, 1922
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NATURE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1922.
CONTENTS. BS id
By Barbara Wootton . 533
(Zllustrated.) By Peary
Sex Economics.
Fishing and Fishing Lore.
Balfour. 534
The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel. By Prof. C. H.
Desch a o- Sey
The Snakes of Ceylon: By B, G. B. ; : 6 RS
Japanese Social and Economic Life . : é - 538
Hull and the East Riding. 2 W.E. C. : a S39)
Our Bookshelf. : S E 5 5 Bio)
Letters to the Editor :—
Mersenne’s Numbers.—Prof. G. H. Hardy, F.R.S. 542
Animal Mechanism.—H. S. Rowell. - 542
Vegetable Rennet.—Prof. R. Hedger Wallace S43
A Question of Nomenclature.—F. H. Masters e543
Capillarity.—R. M. Deeley . 543
Lead and Animal Life.— Miss K. Garpenees of OG}
Polar and Non-Polar Valency in Organic Com-
pounds.—W. E. Garner . S43:
The X-ray Structure of Potassium Gyan itp A.
Cooper 3 544
Sex Change in Mllteca’ Bp rat Ue Bronte Gatenby 544
The Galactic System.—I. By Dr. Harlow Shapley . 545
Transport of Organic Substances in Plants. By
ProfeH. He Dizon, sc.D., F-R:s.. 5 : pes 47)
Obituary :-—
Colonel E. H. Grove-Hills, C.B.E., C.M.G.,
ok: SaeeBy EH. GL, : 9 5 : eS 5L
Major-General J. Waterhouse . ‘ : ees 52
Current Topics and Events. a 3 9 : o SE
Our Astronomical Column . : : é : a ASS
Research Items . a é : . c 5 G39
Tendencies of Modern Bayeies 2 6 5 P - 558
The Isothermal Frontier of Ancient Cities O > Refs
The Mechanism of the Cochlea . : : ; 559
British Association Research Committees . 4 - 560
University and Educational Intelligence. : m5 OL
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . : . ; . 562
Societies and Academies. : ; : : - 563
Official Publications Received . : : : 5
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NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
PHUSIS, LONDON.
GERRARD 8830.
Sex Economics.
N his presidential address to the Section of Economics
of the British Association at the recent meeting
at Hull, Prof. F. Y. Edgeworth did not hesitate to
plunge into the midst of a raging current controversy.
“Should men and women receive equal pay for equal
work ?”’ were his opening words, and his conclusion
is that they should “with some reservations and
adjustments.”
This conclusion is reached in two stages as follows.
In a first approximation Prof. Edgeworth relegates
dependants to limbo, and shows—we think conclusively
—that, granted that freedom of competition for jobs
is generally conducive to the best possible distribution
of labour, then there is no reason why such competition
should be confined to one sex; though it must be a
regulated competition, controlled by collective bargain-
ing, In which “the oppressive action of male Trade
Unions” is “counteracted by pressure on the part
of women acting in concert.” The overcrowding of
women into those occupations which are open to them,
which has resulted from restrictions upon their freedom
to compete on equal terms with men in all spheres,
is In fact socially uneconomic as well as unfortunate
in its effect upon the women’s own wages. Prof.
Edgeworth goes on to surmise that given substantial
freedom of competition we shall find (a) occupations
; almost wholly male, (b) occupations into which both
men and women enter freely, and (c) occupations
almost wholly female. He submits that the average
of weekly earnings in (a) will continue to be above
while in (8),
though the rate ef pay for a unit of work will be the
same for both sexes, the average weekly earnings of
the average of weekly earnings in (c),
the male will continue to be above the average weekly
earnings of the female.
Prof. Edgeworth does not offer any particular
evidence of these suggestions, which rest upon an
assumption that at present, or rather “for a short
period in the immediate future,” the industrial efficiency
of women must be generally inferior to that of men.
In point of fact, practically no scientific investigation
has yet been made of the relative efficiency of men
Nor,
of the close and long-standing restrictions upon the
and women in different occupations. in view
field of women’s labour, does the actual distribution
of the sexes between different occupations throw much
light upon the problem. In quoting the usual examples
of telephony, typewriting, textiles, and nursery duties
Edgeworth seems to be
science to be his
as the female fortes, Prof.
allowing convention rather than
guide.
Wise advocates of women’s rights will, however,
534
NATURE
[OcTroBER 21, 1922
agree with Prof. Edgeworth when he points out where
other things are equal an employer is likely to have
a preference for the male owing to the “ secondary ”
drawbacks of the female. Prejudice and restricted
opportunities may be responsible for what truth there
is in the charge that “a woman is not so useful in
the case of a breakdown or a runaway.” But it is
quite indisputable that the probability of her early
marriage is a real drawback to a woman’s industrial
efficiency. These secondary differences, however, are
so difficult to measure accurately that the reduction
on their account of the woman’s rate per unit of work
below that of the man is not a wise or scientific policy.
It is better to allow them to make their influence felt
upon the occupational distribution of the sexes rather
than upon their pay. Of the “ tertiary ’”’ differences
also (of which the illustration given is “ the presence
and influence of a master—as contrasted with a
mistress—in dealing with the bigger boys ’’) the same
is true; but there is no evidence to show whether
these tertiary differences predominantly favour the
male rather than the female.
We now restore the abstracted circumstances of
family life. A man normally has, or expects to have,
a family to support; a woman normally has not.
While the average number of dependants supported
by a woman from her earnings has often been greatly
underestimated, there is certainly no disputing the
general result of Messrs. Rowntree and Stuart’s figures,
which show that this average is much higher for a
The candid will admit that
here is the real obstacle to equal pay for equal work ;
the logical will consider the possibilities of endowment
of motherhood as a way out of the difficulty. Prof.
Edgeworth summarises the pros and cons of State
endowment of motherhood as follows. The proposal
is attractive because (x) it would for the first time
make competition between the sexes both free and
fair; and (2) it would make possible the distribution
of resources in such a way as to meet the requirements
of the larger family better than is done at present,
when the wage paid to a man tends to be adjusted
to the presumption that he maintains a family of
approximately 4:4 persons, which he quite certainly
does not. Against these advantages Prof. Edgeworth
sets the following: (x) the scheme is socialistic and
bureaucratic, (2) it would almost certainly involve a
transference of resources from the rich to the poor
and would therefore probably check saving, (3) the
effect on the contributor would be “ depressing,’ and
there would be (4) a great stimulus to population,
and (5) no security for the improvement of the race,
but only a prospect of “the ruin of the great middle
class to which England owes so much.”
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
man than for a woman.
We gather that Prof. Edgeworth regards these dis-
advantages as conclusive. He turns from the State
endowment of motherhood to consider one or two
other suggestions, the principal of which is his own
proposal that the members of Trade Unions might
themselves contribute a quota of their earnings to a
fund to be distributed among the wives of members
in accordance with the size of their families. In regard
to this proposal Prof. Edgeworth does not commit
himself beyond the canny statement that it would
be much less open to objections than the endowment
of motherhood by the State.
Prof. Edgeworth’s address is open to little criticism
from those who grant his premises. All will applaud
his careful analysis of his subject. It is, however, at
least open to question whether his whole treatment
of the matter does not suffer immensely from the
limitations which he has imposed upon himself. In
his first approximation the assumption that “ regulated
competition ” (a very vague concept) is a royal road
to ideal distribution is open to serious criticism.
Secondly, any discussion of endowment of motherhood
which assumes outright that (a) transferences of
resources from rich to poor would be entailed, and
that (b) these are objectionable, rests on questionable
ground. To the present writer this double assumption
appears fatal to Prof. Edgeworth’s conclusions regard-
ing the right relation of the basis of payment to family
circumstances. BARBARA WOOTTON.
Fishing and Fishing Lore.
Fishing from the Earliest Times. By W. Radcliffe.
Pp. xvii+478. (London: J. Murray, 1921.) 28s. net.
“| Gem literature connected with fishing is already
so extensive that a new volume is liable to be
subjected to scrutiny to see whether it can justify its
birth by furnishing new matter or new ideas. As the
more obvious gaps in the literature of the subject
become fewer, the tests will necessarily become more
searching. Mr. Radcliffe’s book, fortunately, can claim
a definite raison d’étre, and may receive an enthusiastic
welcome as filling a decided gap, one which it is curious
should have so long remained void. His aim has been
to provide a history of the fishing art and craft from
the earliest times down to about a.p. 500. The title
scarcely does justice to the contents of this versatile
volume, which is far from being restricted to the
consideration of actual fishing practices. These,
indeed, probably occupy but a third of the book. The
remainder is very largely concerned with what may
be classed as the folk-lore associated with fish, fishing,
fishermen, and fish-consumers, and with other details
EE << <=
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
Sieh)
which are by-products of the industry. Mr. Radcliffe
has been at great pains to bring together a great mass
of material which he has collated and coaxed into a
very readable form. ‘The illustrations are both good
and numerous. The result is an important work which
is both entertaining reading, and of considerable value
as a comprehensive book of reference. In the main, it
consists of classified quotations which are analysed and
evaluated by the author. One would gather that the
author has thoroughly enjoyed his self-imposed task.
He revels in argument, and while now and then he may,
perhaps, be suspected of “‘ special pleading,” his inter-
pretations of doubtful or obscure passages are always
interesting and suggestive, even when he fails to be
entirely convincing.
The introduction extends over sixty pages and deals
SSS
with a number of points of general
interest and with early prehistoric
fishing. For our knowledge of fish-
ing practices during the Stone and
Bronze Ages we are dependent upon
evidence which is, unfortunately,
meagre in amount, and requires
much speculation for the comple-
tion of the picture. Mr. Radcliffe
has not made an intensive study of
fishing as practised by recent Stone-
age peoples, and he makes but slight
use of the evidence which they can
afford, valuable though it may be
for the light which it can throw
upon the archeological record.
Ethnological data must be brought
to bear upon archeological research
if an adequate diagnosis of early
customs and appliances is to be
achieved. A comprehensive work dealing with
fishing pursuits and methods among the recent “ un-
risen ” peoples, the progress of whose more or less
primitive culture has been arrested or retarded at
various stages of advancement, still remains to be
written. When such a work, based upon comparative
study, is available, archeological commentarists will
find a valuable ally which will assist materially in their
interpretations of ancient data.
The present volume would have gained by a wider
reference to evidence derived from ethnological sources,
and some of the problems with which Mr. Radcliffe
deals so interestingly might have been more con-
vincingly attacked or solved. Mr. Radcliffe takes
especial delight in tracing the earliest references to
various fishing-appliances. [See Figs. r and 2 here
reproduced by the courtesy of the publishers. ]
Martial he assigns the first mention of the joint
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
K
wt
at
oh
BS
\:
Za
we {| “3%
Fic. 1.—The earliest representation of angling, c. 2000 B.C,
(crescens harundo), and of fishing with a fly; but to
Aglian the first definite reference to the use of an
artificial fly. In dealing with the latter, he appears
to be convinced that the artificial fly of those days
was an imitation, as close as possible, of a natural
fly ; but this view does not seem to be borne out by
/Llian’s description, which rather suggests the reverse,
t.e. a type of lure which was a novelty to the fish,
which attracted
Aristotle is given credit as the first “‘ scale-reader ” in
estimating the age of fishes. There seems to be a
zoological confusion when Mr. Radcliffe uses evidence
from two passages, one of which refers to the scales of
fish which afforded an indication of age, while the other
relates to the growth indications upon the shell of a
Murex (a mollusc). But zoological differentiation is
were by its unusual gaudiness.
ss
Ke
From ‘ Fishing trom the Earliest Times.”
scarcely Mr. Radcliffe’s strong point, and he apparently
is convinced that dolphins are to be classed with the
fishes (pp. 91, 92, 95, 165, 450, etc.), and this in spite
of the fact that Aristotle, whom he quotes, recognised
essential differences and
mammals. The plate opposite p. 180 is described as
illustrating a “ pattern of Torpedo fish” ; but the three
fishes represented clearly belong to three distinct
varieties, all of them bony fishes, whereas the Torpedo
fish (a kind of ray) belongs to the group of cartilaginous
fishes. Again, on p. 414, he includes shell-fish among the
fishes prohibited by Moses, without any covering com-
ment. These “ termino-zoological inexactitudes”’ tend
somewhat to obscure the scientific status of the book.
A time-honoured controversy is revived and reviewed
in detail in chapter 2, where the author deals with the
“various imterpretations of the function of the ox-horn
between fish cetacean
z (xépas | Bods/dypussdovo) referred to in the “ Odyssey”
536
(xii. 251 ff.) and “Ihad” (xxiv. 80 ff.) in connexion
with similes derived from fishing processes. The very
varied theories are quoted and evaluated with skill, and
the author himself inclines toward the suggestion of
C. E. Haskins, namely, that the xepas was an artificial
bait of horn. This controversy has been carried on
in the pages of the Tzmes Literary Supplement, in
reviews of the book, and in letters arising therefrom.
The whole discussion, however, leaves one unconvinced
still wondering. Since the controversy still
“ fluid,’ I am tempted to offer yet another
and
remains
Fic. 2.—The happy fisherman, attributed to the artist Chac
From ‘ Fishing from the Earliest Times.”
possible solution, to take its chance with those previ-
ously offered. Line-fishers on the coast of Western
Ireland employ a very simple and ingenious contrivance
to overcome the difficulty which arises from their hooks
becoming entangled in seaweed, when fishing is pursued
in rock-studded waters. It is desired to sink the baited
hook below the level of the weed layer, and the problem
is to pass it through the tangled and entangling mass.
To achieve this, at a short distance above the hook
there is attached to the line a crab’s claw, which serves
asa stop. Still farther up the line a weight (or sinker)
of lead or stone is fastened, and between the stop and
the weight an empty carapace of a crab is loosely
NATURE
threaded upon the line, so that it can slide along the
latter between the sinker and the stop. When the line
is cast out by the fisherman, the weight descends first,
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
[ OcTOBER 21, 1922
dragging after it the line; the water-resistance causes
the bell-like carapace to slip along the line as far as the
stop, so that it covers and protects the baited hook as
it is carried downward through the weed stratum.
Since the carapace is very light it probably floats away
from and uncovers the bait when the line becomes
stationary at the desired depth. Similarly, as the line
is drawn in the resistance of the water drives the bell
down over the hook and again protects it on the up-
ward journey. Now, substitute a selected bell-shaped
ox-horn for the crab’s carapace and a slightly more
efficient form of this apparatus is
devised, which should serve the same
purpose admirably.
The merit, if any, of my sugges-
tion is derived from the following
facts, (1) that the apparatus which
affords a seeming clue to the function
of the xépas is an actual one still in
practical use locally, and is very
possibly a survival from an ancient
type formerly far more widely em-
ployed ; (2) that the much-debated
“resounding splash” (cf. crovayyce
dé Acuvy in the Iliad passage) is
plausible as a description of the
effect produced by casting such an
apparatus into the sea; (3) that it
is consistent with fishing from a head-
land ona rocky and weedy coast such
as, I believe, is characteristic of
southern Italy and of the region
lying between Samos and Imbros,
the areas to which Homer’s two
similes are applied ; (4) that it con-
forms with the picturesque descrip-
tion of the dive of Iris when she
rylion,
“sped to the bottom like a weight
of lead, that mounted on the horn of a field-ox
goeth down, bearing death to the ravening fishes”
(5) that the képas Bods aypavAo.o which some com-
mentators. aver must imply the whole horn, and not
merely an object made of horn, would, for the purpose
I have suggested, have been practically entire, so that
the hook could be withdrawn into its protecting cavity.
A small hole drilled in the apex (through which to pass
the line) would be the only essential modification
required. The expression “mounted on the horn ”
alone offers some difficulty ; ‘‘ near” or “ with ” instead
of “on” would certainly have added weight to my
suggestion.
The problems suggested by or dealt with in this book
are numerous, and Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian,
Jewish, and Chinese fishing methods and fishing lore
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
S)e¥4
all receive detailed and careful treatment. The author
has brought to bear upon his task the experience of a
practical and enthusiastic angler, and the zest of a keen
student. While he realises the more serious aspects of
his theme, he has dealt kindly by the general reader
and writes in a light-hearted, attractive, and un-
pedantic manner. In this way he should be instru-
mental in developing a wider interest in and stimulating
further research into the history of one of the oldest
industries, and has given us the story of progress from
a humble and despised craft to a popular and respected
art. Henry BaLrour.
The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel.
(x) Engineering Steels. By Dr. L. Aitchison. (Re-
constructive Technical Series.) Pp. xxxi+348+48
plates. (London: Macdonald and Evans, 1921.)
255. net.
(2) The Case-Hardening of Steel: An Illustrated Ex-
position of the Changes in Structure and Properties
induced in Steels by Cementation and Allied Processes.
By H. Brearley. Second edition. Pp. xi+207.
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1921.) 16s.
net.
(3) Iron-Founding. By B. Whiteley. (Pitman’s
Common Commodities and Industries.) Pp. 131.
(London : Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd.,1921.) 3s. net.
(1) HE advance of metallurgy in recent years has
placed at the disposal of the engineer a wide
range of new materials, including alloy steels which
so far surpass the older, plain carbon steels in strength
and toughness as to constitute a new class of metals.
_In the face of such diversity the engineer finds difficulty
in selecting the most suitable material for a given
purpose, and is not in a position to judge between the
products offered by manufacturers, or recommended by
specialists. There are in existence many excellent
memoirs and a few books on the subject, but they are
written for the metallurgist, and assume a technical
knowledge that lies outside the usual field of study of
the engineer. It is highly desirable that the user of a
metal should understand its properties as well as the
maker, and Dr. Aitchison has made the attempt,
largely successful, to describe the steels now available
for engineering purposes, without assuming a knowledge
of chemistry or metallurgy.
The title of Dr. Aitchison’s book must be interpreted
in a rather restricted sense. The engineer is interested
in such steels as those used for ship and boiler plates,
rails, and girders, but he will find little in reference to
them, the work being mainly concerned with steels
required by the automobile and aircraft industries.
It is these steels of high tensile strength, often required
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
|
to withstand severe alternating stresses, that present
the greatest difficulties of specification and testing,
and it is very necessary that the information regarding
them should be collected and placed clearly before
the engineering user, as has been done here. There is
a very brief account of methods of manufacture, suffic-
ing to indicate the distinction between various classes
of steel, and a discussion of ingot structure, so far as is
required to explain the possible sources of defects in
forgings.
It is probably on account of the limitation mentioned
above that only piping steel is described, and the
subject of blowholes is not mentioned. Steel castings
are omitted entirely, although of great interest to the
engineer who uses high tensile steel forgings for other
parts of his machine. The desire to avoid chemical
and metallurgical difficulties leads to a somewhat
excessive simplification of the chapter on heat treat-
ment, and the author’s account of hardening and his
explanation of the critical points is rather misleading,
although not likely to cause misunderstanding of the
practical instructions. It should be said that the style
is easy and readable throughout.
The subject of mechanical testing is well treated,
proper attention being given to the determination of
the fatigue range and its relation to the other measure-
ments usually made in the testing laboratory. Much
of the experimental material in this chapter is taken
from the author’s reports to the Aeronautical Research
Committee. His conclusions may not always be
accepted, but the importance of the subject is rightly
emphasised, and the descriptions of fatigue tests and
the short accounts of other special methods of testing
are valuable. There are very few references to original
sources, but a full bibhography of papers relating to
the determination of hardness is given.
The alloy steels are considered in detail, the pro-
perties of each steel, as modified by different heat
treatments, being shown by means of diagrams similar
to those published by the Automobile Steel Research
Committee ; these diagrams provide a useful guide to
the characteristics of the various classes of steels.
Case-hardening and cold-working are other subjects
dealt with.
The book is very well printed and illustrated, many
of the best plates being selected from Mr. Brearley’s
works, while others show special types of testing
machines. The whole subject of the relative value of
tests for steels of this class is in a state of flux, and an
authoritative statement is not yet to be expected, but
Dr. Aitchison has made a good beginning, and his
efforts will be welcomed by engineers.
(2) The first edition of Mr. Brearley’s book on case-
hardening was published in 1914, and it is an indication
RI
538
NATURE
[OcTOBER 21, 1922
of its trustworthy character that scarcely any statement
contained in it has had to be withdrawn in the prepara-
tion of the new edition. The subject-matter has been
widened by the inclusion of further particulars con-
cerning alloy steels of the class frequently employed
in automobile construction, and by the addition of
sections on specifications, in regard to which the author
expresses decided opinions, based on a wide experience.
The treatise is of more general interest to the metallur-
gist than might be assumed from its title, since the
description of the materials and processes of case-
hardening and of the defects that may occur in case-
hardened objects, involves the discussion of many
other points of importance in the treatment and use of
steel. On all these subjects, the advice given is sound
and admirably clear in its expression. Only two minor
points have been noted for criticism. There is no
mention of nichrome carburising boxes, although these
are now frequently used, and justify by their long life
the increased cost. Plating with copper, as a means
of local protection against carburisation, is still spoken
of as unsatisfactory, although it has been practised
with great success in the construction of aero-engine
parts.
(3) The third work on our list is an elementary hand-
book on iron-founding. It contains a simple descrip-
tion of foundry methods, and the illustrations include
a series of photographs of the mould for a gas-engine
cylinder at various stages. Moulding is considered
much more fully than melting, and the book is well
adapted to give a general idea of the processes used in
preparing moulds, and of the organisation of a foundry.
The theoretical side is weak, and some very erroneous
statements as to fuel and thermochemistry would have
been better omitted. The printing and illustrations
are good. C. H. Drscu.
The Snakes of Ceylon.
Ophidia Toprobanica, or The Snakes of Ceylon. By
Col. Frank Wall. Pp. xxii+58r1+1 map. (Col-
ombo : Colombo Museum, 1921.)
GOOD deal has been written on the subject of
the snakes of Ceylon. Thus Giinther’s “ Rep-
tiles of British India” (1864),and Boulenger’s “ Fauna
of British India—Reptiles and Batrachians ”’ (1890),
both include descriptions, and in the case of the former
work, remarks on the habits of many of the snakes
inhabiting Ceylon. There “Snakes of
by Abercromby, a small popular treatise
Except for the last-named
work, which is very incomplete, there is, however,
no book which deals solely with the snakes of Ceylon,
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
is also the
Ceylon ”
which appeared in rgro.
apart from those inhabiting India, and Col. Wall, an
enthusiastic naturalist and specialist on Indian snakes,
in producing the volume under review has succeeded
in filling a long-felt want.
The author in his work gives an account of the
marine snakes which may be met with around the ©
shores, as well as the terrestrial forms.
tion is given of every snake, and the determination
of the genera and species is often facilitated by
useful, if somewhat unscientific, keys. Except when
dealing with the sea-snakes, Col. Wall has in most
cases adopted the nomenclature used in Boulenger’s
Catalogue of the British Museum. Sometimes the
generic and specific namcs have been altered. It is
impossible without going thoroughly into the various
contested points to say whether the author is in every
case justified in departing from Boulenger’s classifica-
tion, although he occasionally appears to have good
reasons for so doing. We are not, however, always
inspired with confidence in Col. Wall’s judgment.
Thus “until I am satisfied of their specific unity I~
prefer to regard them as distinct species” is the
dogmatic reason he gives when advocating specific
distinction for certain forms of Kraits, held by Boulenger,
in spite of their distinctive coloration, to be only
geographical varieties of the same species.
A feature of the book is the very full account given of
the habits of the snakes. The author has had practical
experience of the reptiles in their native haunts, and his
descriptions of their feeding and breeding habits add
greatly to the value of the work. There are also some
interesting remarks on the subject of distribution.
Many snakes inhabiting upland regions have a very
restricted habitat, neither ascending nor descending
beyond certain limits. The elevated ranges and peaks,
where tl.e lower slopes merge into the low country, are
just as effectually isolated as if they were surrounded
by the sea.
Much space is devoted to the subject of snake-bite,
for the benefit of the medical practitioner, and a
number of illustrative cases from the records of various
doctors are given. Ei: (Gee
Japanese Social and Economic Life.
The Foundations of Japan : Notes made during Journeys
of 6000 Miles in the Rural Districts as a Basis for
a Sounder Knowledge of the Japanese People. By
J. W. Robertson Scott. Pp. xxv+446+plates.
(London: J. Murray, 1922.) 24s. net.
HIS is an eminently readable book, giving not
only the familiar glimpses into superficial
Japanese life, but also treating of the economic life of
A full descrip- f
ao oe
EN ar TN
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
INCBETO OG Salen
OY)
the nation in a really profound manner. The author
spent four and a half years travelling through the
country, studying the habits and thoughts of the men
and women of the countryside, who were traimed under
rural schoolmasters and village elders and are living
their life under the potent sway of long-established tradi-
tion. The modern industrial developments of factory
life are also depicted with a sure hand, and where there
is much to praise there is also much to condemn. For
example, the conditions under which silk-factory girls
work are little short of slavery, and would be impossible
in English-speaking countries. On these and other
deeper aspects of Japanese life the author evidently
speaks with knowledge. With real sympathy and
honesty he describes the present-day sociological con-
ditions which rule among the great majority of Japanese.
As he himself says, he went to Japan to see the country-
men.
“The Japanese whom most of the world knows are
townified, sometimes Americanised or Europeanised,
and, as often as not, elaborately educated. They are
frequently remarkable men. They stand for a great
dealin modern Japan. But their untownified country-
men... What is their health of mind and body? By
what social and moral principles are they swayed ?
To what extent are they adequate to the demand that
is made and is likely to be made upon them ? ”
Such are some of the questions which Mr. Scott sets
himself to answer. This he does by describing his
wanderings in various provinces, touching upon all
kinds of Japanese customs as they come before him.
The result is in many cases a curious mosaic of random
thoughts, greatly satisfying to one who has lived in
Japan, but probably not a little confusing to one who
has never been there and is reading for enlighten-
ment. In other chapters, however, there is a sustained
and serious discussion of some broad aspect of Japanese
life. In all cases the author writes with a freshness
and accuracy which bespeak a full knowledge and a
discriminating judgment.
Dealing as it does with the facts at the basis of
human life, the book is aptly called the “ Foundations
of Japan.” From this point of view the book is a real
addition to ethnological literature, and is worthy
of commendation in the pages of Nature. For the
more serious student of industrial economy there are
some interesting appendices with instructive statistics ;
and well-chosen drawings and photographs elucidate
many of the questions discussed. Among the subjects
treated at considerable length are the cultivation of
rice, the whole process of sericulture, the problem of
labour, and the education of boys and girls. In con-
clusion it may be said that Mr. Scott has the gift of a
true teller of stories, many of which show forth in
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
a graphic way some characteristic traits of our Eastern
Alhes.
Hull and the East Riding.
Handbook to Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire :
Prepared for the Members of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science on the Occasion of
theiy Visit to Hull, in September 1922. Edited by
T. Sheppard. Pp. viii+532. (London and Hull:
A. Brown and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 5s.
HE ideal handbook in connexion with the annual
visits of the British Association has yet to be
written, but it would be unfair if we withheld the full
meed to the editor and sub-committee who have
produced this interesting publication. It approaches
nearer to our ideal than that issued at any previous
meeting ; so far as possible technicalities have been
avoided, for the work is not intended for the expert,
who already knows the special works and articles
relating to the different subjects treated of. It is
essentially a guide for the average member who
wishes to learn something of the history, archeology,
antiquities, folk-lore, geology, natural history, and
economics of the town and district im which the
parliament of science has recently been held.
After a brief account of the evolution and growth
of Hull, we pass on to short accounts of its past history
and antiquity, its rise and progress, places of interest,
Hull coins and tokens, its charters, etc. The various
prehistoric remains of East Yorkshire are briefly
described and illustrated, and interesting chapters are
devoted to the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Danes in
this division of the county. The Rev. Canon A. N,.
Cooper contributes a well-illustrated chapter on East
Riding churches, and Mr. John Nicholson one on
East Riding place-names. There are further sections
treating of the charities, engineering and shipbuilding,
education, agriculture in the East Riding, while the
geology and lost towns of the Humber receive very
full treatment at the hands of the editor.
Nearly three hundred pages are devoted to the
description of the fauna and flora, and in spite of the
fact that some of the writers have not been able to
depart from the useless local list method of treatment,
the various contributors have handled their sections
most ably. An outstanding feature is Mr. John W.
Taylor’s excellent account of the land and freshwater
mollusca. The weakest section is undoubtedly that
on the crustacea, which is unfortunate, as much good
work has been done on the non-marine forms.
Apart from its value and usefulness to the visitor
to Hull, this work will fulfil a double service if it serves
540
to show the citizens of Hull the many points of interest
their city possesses, and of which they are the trustees.
The wealth of illustrations considerably adds. to
the interest of this work. Future compilers of the
British Association local handbook will do well to
study carefully the Hull model. W. EC.
Our Bookshelf.
The Biology of the Seashore. By F. W. Flattely and
C. L. Walton. Pp. xvi+336+16 plates. (London:
Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., 1922.) 16s. net.
THE study of zoology from the ecological standpoint
has made rapid strides in America under the energetic
leadership of Dr. Adams and Dr. Shelford, and there
has been a steady output of text-books and popular
books on Nature study written from this point of view.
In this country, zoological ecology has received very
little attention, and we welcome, therefore, if only on
these grounds, this excellent work on the biology of the
seashore. As the authors point out, their book is not
intended to supersede but to supplement previous
works which have been written on classificatory and
morphological lines. In fact, they demand a previous
knowledge of classification and external morphology
in those who use their work. Given this the authors
have directed special attention to functional biology
and to the adaptations which organisms present to
marine life in all its phases.
The book is an exhaustive summary of the known
facts of marine biology from the ecological point of
view, and reveals a wide knowledge of the literature
of the subject. The illustrations are good and adequate,
and the advice given on the methods of ecological
research should be most useful to students. The
authors, however, have not been content merely to
summarise known facts. The book bristles with
suggestions for research-and further inquiry, and in
this respect is most stimulating. It should be in the
hands of all students of marine biology. With its help
more real knowledge of life in the sea will be obtained
than from any other text-book we know. It is not
enough to know the mere population of the sea ; some
knowledge of the laws governing life there, and of the
actions and interactions of organism and environment
is vastly more interesting and stimulating, and the
work under notice supplies the right kind of guidance
in this inspiring field of study.
Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Drawings
in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 6.
Supplement: A-I. Pp. iv+511+48. (London:
British Museum (Natural History), 1922.) 2. x5s.
Tue Library of the British Museum of Natural History
is probably one of the most complete, and certainly one
of the most important, libraries of works on natural
history in the world. The publication of a catalogue
of its contents has been of immense service to scientific
workers, who find in it a valuable guide to the literature
of their subject and a wealth of bibliographical detail
which is of the greatest value in settling vexed questions
of priority and ensuring accuracy of reference. The
first half of the supplement to the main catalogue has
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcTroBER 21, 1922
now been issued and serves to give some idea of the
natural growth of this splendid library. Like the pre-
ceding volumes, it has been prepared by Mr. B. B.
Woodward with the same meticulous care and accuracy,
and includes as before the results of much _biblio-
graphical research by the author and Mr. C. D. Sher-
born. The 48 pages of ‘‘ Addenda and Corrigenda ” to
the main catalogue consist almost entirely of additional
bibhographical information which has accumulated
since the catalogue was published.
The expenditure of public money on the publication
of a catalogue of this kind is more than justified by its
extreme value and usefulness, though it is a pity that
so valuable a work as this supplement should have
been sent out in a paper cover. For its own value and
for the sake of uniformity it is worth a binding similar
to its predecessors. Scientific workers are grateful to
Mr. Woodward and to the trustees of the British
Museum for having made the resources of their library
known in this readily accessible form.
Obras completas y correspondencia cientifica de Floren-
tino Ameghino. Volumen 3. La Antigtiedad del
Hombre en el Plata. Dirigida por Alfredo J.
Torcelli. Pp. 821. (La Plata: Taller de Im-
presiones Oficiales, 1915.) n.p.
Tue third volume of the handsome collected edition
of the late Florentino Ameghino’s geological and
paleontological works now being issued by the govern-
ment of the province of Buenos Aires, is a reprint of his
treatise on the antiquity of man in La Plata originally
published in 1880. Francisco Moreno had then
just founded the Anthropological and Archeological
Museum at Buenos Aires (afterwards removed to
La Plata), and Ameghino himself was studying with
Henri Gervais in Paris, where he exhibited part of his
collection at the Universal Exposition. The author
was thus well furnished with materials, and had un-
usual opportunities of making himself acquainted with
the latest advances in the subject of the antiquity of
man. While describing the results of his own re-
searches, he therefore took the opportunity of making
many references to European and North American
work which were illuminating. His volume is a most
exhaustive discussion of the remains of the handiwork
of prehistoric man discovered in Argentina, illustrated
by twenty-five large plates. Of the skeleton of man
himself no important fragments had at that time been
found. The geological observations are particularly
valuable and interesting, and Ameghino seems to make
it quite clear for the first time that the man of the
pampas was a contemporary of the extinct glyptodonts
or giant armadillos, and actually used their large bony
carapaces as roofs for his lowly habitations. Although
naturally out-of-date, the whole treatise is a valuable
record of facts and observations, in which the reprint
will stimulate renewed interest. A.S. W.
Le Péle Sud ; Histoire des voyages antarctiques. Par J.
Rouch. Pp. 249. (Paris: Ernest Flammarion,
1921.) 7 francs net.
M. Roucu was one of the officers of the Pourquoi Pas ?
in Dr. Charcot’s second Antarctic expedition, and
familiarity with the conditions of navigation and the
privations of wintering in the Far South has given him
|
|
|
OcToBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
541
a great advantage in dealing with the history of
exploration in the South Polar regions. With the
space at his disposal no one could have done better
than M. Rouch in setting forth with equal detail all the
outstanding Antarctic voyages from that of Cook in
the Resolution to that of Shackleton in the Endurance.
Except for a very few slips in the spelling of names
(Thun instead of Chun on the Valdivia is the only
serious one) the accuracy of the work is quite remark-
able, and the facts regarding the various expeditions
have obviously been selected from the original
narratives.
The style is lively and sympathetic but concise and
sailorly. M. Rouch holds all explorers as his brothers
and there is a delightful air of cameraderie in his treat-
ment of the aspirations and achievements of British,
French, Russian, American, Swedish, Norwegian, and
German explorers. It is refreshing to find this fine
French sailor giving credit impartially to his German
rivals and his French colleagues, and with an almost
British self-criticism touching more frankly on the
little shortcomings of his fellow-countrymen than on
those of foreigners.
Perhaps the author’s imagination has assisted a little
in describing the details of Scott’s last expedition ;
but if he here allows dramatic truth to prevail over
verbal accuracy it is in excess of sympathy.
The numerous illustrations are excellent as showing
Antarctic conditions, but they obviously refer only to
the author’s own section of the region. H. R. M.
Mineral Land Surveying. By Dr. J. Underhill. Third
edition, revised. Pp. vilit237+3 plates. (New
York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London; Chap-
man and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 17s. 6d. net.
Dr. UNDERHILL’s book describes the methods in use
for the survey of the mineral lands in the western
portion of the United States. It should certainly be
in the possession of all surveyors who intend to proceed
there ; but only the first three chapters are likely to
be of much service to mine surveyors in England.
In chapter 1, on direct solar observation, the method
of obtaining the true meridian by single observations
on the sun is clearly and fully explained, with the aid
of several worked examples, after the derivation of the
formula employed has been given. The method of
obtaining latitude by solar observation is also briefly
described. Chapter 2 describes the Shattuck Solar
Attachment, the Burt Solar Attachment, and the Berger
and Saegmuller Solars and their use for finding true
meridian and latitude. Of these, the Shattuck Solar
Attachment appears to find most favour with the
author, who states that he has obtained perfect checks
on this instrument by direct observation of the sun.
Chapter 3 is a useful account of traversing and measure-
ments, including stadia measurements. Other chapters
deal with location surveys, including calculation of
areas by the double meridian distance method, patent
surveys, patent field notes, Land Office and Records,
and the examination for commissions as United States
Mineral Surveyor with typical questions and solutions.
The appendix includes extracts from the Manual of
Instructions for the Survey of the Mineral Lands of
the United States.
NO. 2764, VOL. I10]
L’Océanographie™ Par Prof. J. Thoulet. (Sczence et
Civilisation: Collection dexposés synthétiques du
savoir humain.) Pp. ix+287. (Paris: Gauthier-
Villars et Cie, 1922.) 9 francs.
Tuis book is one of a series which offers a general
account of modern scientific research in its relations
to civilisation : it is written in a pleasant, continuous
manner and, on the whole, is a very good exposition
of the main results of physical oceanography. It
follows the line of treatment which appears now to
have become classical since the publication of
Krimmell’s big book in 1go07-11: an account of
the bottom of the ocean and its deposits ; the physics
and chemistry of sea water ; waves and tides ; and the
formation of ice. The ocean in its relation to life and
the development of the foreshore and coasi-line are
scarcely touched. The theory of the tides is dealt with
very slightly, and the statement is made that all tidal
problems have been elucidated by Airy’s “‘ théorie des
ondulations ”: quite lately, of course, the dynamical
theory of the tides has been almost transformed.
There is no account of the methods of prediction.
In such a work as this figures and charts are in-
dispensable, yet the book under review only contains
eight text-figures and these are rather difficult diagrams.
It can be read with advantage and by the non-
professional reader only with constant reference to a
good atlas of physical geography, and there is no such
work in existence which includes all the recent in-
vestigations of marine currents and drifts. de J
The Misuse of Mind: A Study of Bergson’s Attack on
Intellectualism. By Karin Stephen. (International
Library. of Psychology, Philosophy, and Scientific
Method.) Pp. 1o7. (London: Kegan Paul and
Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.,
Inc., 1922.) 6s. 6d. net.
THIS important study of Bergson’s philosophy is not
an attempt to epitomise or expound the principle,
the method, or the particular content. It concentrates
on an attempt to understand what is generally rejected
as unintelligible—the attack on intellectualism. In
Bergson’s view the tradition of philosophy 1s all wrong
and must be broken with; philosophical knowledge
can be obtained only by “a reversal of the usual
work of the intellect.” The author gives us in three
chapters first a criticism of “explanation,” then a
criticism of “ fact,’ both with reference to Bergson’s
theory of change, and in a final chapter shows how
light is thrown on the problem by his theory of the
relation of matter to memory.
Par J.-H. Rosny, ainé.
iv+ 219.
Les Sciences et le Pluralisme.
(Nouvelle Collection Scientifique.) Pp.
(Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922.) 8 francs net.
M. Rosny’s thesis is that “‘ pour retrouver luniforme
nous sommes contraints de nous rabattre sur des
substances ou des énergies hypothétiques. En fin de
compte, l’homogéne que nous trouvons est subi ou
créé par le moi, mais non strictement donné par
les choses.’ The volume contains a lucid discussion
of the most recent theories in mathematics and
| physics.
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts tntended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Vo notice is
taken of anonymous communications.]
Mersenne’s Numbers.
In my presidential address to Section A of the
British Association, reprinted in NATURE (September
16), I stated that 137 was the least value of for
which the prime or composite character of 2"-T1
was still undecided. Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball has
pointed out to me that this is incorrect, as 217-1
has been shown to be composite by M. A. Gérardin
(Comptes vendus du Congrés des Sociétés Savantes,
1920, pp. 53-55). The result is quoted in The
American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 28, 1921, p. 380.
The number 139 should therefore be substituted for
137 wherever it occurs in my address.
The authorities on which I relied were Prof. L. E.
Dickson’s “‘ History of the Theory of Numbers”
(vol. 1, Washington, t919) and the seventh edition
of Mr. Rouse Ball’s ‘‘ Mathematical Recreations ”’
(1917, now superseded by the tenth). My quotation
from Mr. Rouse Ball was taken, as I stated, from a
pamphlet written thirty years ago, and is, of course,
not to be interpreted as an expression of his present
view. G. H. Harpy.
New College, Oxford, October 4.
Animal Mechanism.
THE notion that the legs of animals behave as
pendulums is ascribed to the brothers Weber. I can
find no indication that the notion was more than a
general one, and, in the general sense, when pointed
out, it is obvious to a student of dynamics, for legs
have inertia and weight and dynamics is reasonably
near to the truth.
A better view may arise from the supposition that
animals may be regarded as dynamical systems with
many natural modes and frequencies, and that animals
adapt their methods of locomotion and other actions
to suit these fundamental characteristics. As
examples, we have the lounging gait of very tall men
and the apparently energetic step of short men. The
tripping, half running step of women and children is
also in point. Apart from mere legs the moment of
inertia about the feet must be important, as may be
seen in the stately carriage of quite short women in
the East when carrying water vessels on the head.
Sir George Greenhill has given several examples of
this in his notes on dynamics, among them being
interesting examples of the carrying of soldiers’ kit.
A further point of interest arises in regarding legs
a little closely, for they are not simple but multiple
pendulums with more than one natural mode. When
a horse or man is walking the leg appears to vibrate
in the slowest mode of the pendulum and the joints
are or appear to be on one side of the vertical. In the
running gait, however, the thigh points forward while
the lower parts point backwards. Probably the
“reason ’’ why a horse’s forelegs are more flexible
than the hind legs is to make him nimble in balance
and steering; a horse could not stumble with his
stiff hind legs.
The dynamics of locomotion is of interest to the
student of engine balancing, for in the natural gaits of
NO. 2764, VOL. T10]
NATURE
[OcTroBER 21, 1922
man and horse there is a utilisation of balancing
principles. In man the right leg moves forward
while the right arm moves backward, in the horse the
right legs are always moving in opposition and
similarly the left legs, of course. This holds for the
walk, the trot, and the gallop, all natural modes. In
the amble, an artificial stride due to the trainer, the
legs on either side are in phase and an ungainly motion
results, though it is comfortable for the rider. This
amble stride is natural to the giraffe, but the latter
has a long neck to give it poise. The balancing view
of animal locomotion may be realised at once by
any one who will try to run with stiff arms or will
try to walk with his arms tucked up in the running
posture. The runner is compelled by dynamics to
move his legs in a quicker mode than when walking.
His arms are so jointed that he cannot alter their
type of vibration, and he is therefore compelled to
reduce their inertia in order that they may oscillate
in time with his legs. The balance from the engineer’s
point of view is imperfect, and thus stresses are imposed
in the trunk. Hence sprinters are well-bodied men
and horses need girth for speed. As a final example
of these facts, let any one try to run to the station
with a heavy suit-case in his hand. Porters usually
carry such things on their shoulders and _ stride
rather slowly.
There is a further point of interest in connexion
with the viscera. If dynamics is true, the various
internal organs have inertia and their attachments
have elasticity; thus they must possess natural
frequencies. This being so, they must be subject more
or less to the phenomena of resonance. Is sea-
sickness, subjective agencies apart, to be explained in
this way ? Some people before embarking have a
copious meal, others pin their faith and hope to a
single bottle of stout, while yet others proceed fasting.
Is this a phase of dynamical tuning? In 1914 I read
a short paper on the dynamics of the human foot at
the British Medical Association’s summer meeting.
The outcome of the discussion was that tonicity was
more potent than mechanics, or, in other words, living
tissue may vary in its properties on account of tone
or debility to a degree which will exceed the influence
of configuration. The contention would be that
while astringents or food may alter the effects of a
sea voyage, the action is due to dynamical effects ;
the inertia of the stomach or the stiffness of its
suspension is varied—opiates and such like are here
excluded.
A medical writer of some eminence recently advo-
cated walking because ‘‘ Nature has ordained that the
finest exercise of all is that which she bestows.”
While this is reminiscent of Heine’s “‘ Harzreise,’’ the
greenness of grass and the length of a donkey’s ears,
there is in it matter for reflection. Motor car designers,
led by Dr. Lanchester, have found that the most
comfortable predominant natural frequency of a
motor car is between 80 and roo per minute; it is a
curious coincidence that this is also the frequency of
the ordinary walking step. Has the human system,
enforced by dynamics to walk in a certain rhythm,
acquired an internal system and a nervous organisa-
tion to meet this rhythm ? It is worthy of note that
in certain cars several dogs and children have been
actually and violently sick and in other cars sprung to
vibrate with a different natural period they are immune.
Shall we, disagreeing with Shylock, say, “It is not
their humour, but their natural frequency ”’ ?
H. S. RowELL,
Director of Research,
Research Association of British Motor
and Allied Manufacturers.
15 Bolton Road, W.4, September 20.
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
Vegetable Rennet.
I HAVE been endeavouring to make a list of plants—
leaves, flowers, seeds, etc.—used in various countries
for coagulating milk in place of rennet, obtained from
the stomachs of young animals; and I shall be glad
to learn of any additions that might be made to the
following list :—Galium verum, Withania coagulans,
Ficus Carica, Cynara cardunculus, Cynava scolymus,
Carduus nutans, Cnicus benedictus, Drosera peltata,
Datura Stramonium, Pisum sativum, Lupinus hirsutus,
Ricinus hirsutus, Pinguicula vulgaris, Leucas cepha-
lotes, Crotalaria’ Burhia, Rhazya stricta and Streblus
asper.
With regard to some of the plants named above,
I would note that the references are not very clear as
to their use for milk coagulation. Any information
as to plants used in former days or at the present
time would be welcome and useful. A Hindu, also
an orthodox Jew, cannot touch, I understand, a milk
product that has been coagulated by rennet obtained
from a calf’s stomach, and must therefore use a
vegetable coagulant; and I believe that there are
other races in other parts of the world which use
vegetable coagulants. So far as I am aware, an
approximately complete list of plants used in various
parts of the world for coagulating milk does not exist,
and where a reference is found, details given are
scanty as to part of plant used, its preparation, and
method of use. R. HEDGER WALLACE.
4 East Grove, Cardiff, September 20.
‘
A Question of Nomenclature.
In his notice of Mr. S. Q. Hayes’s “ Switching
Equipment for Power Control’? in Nature of
September 16, p. 374, your reviewer, commenting on
current Americanese, says: ‘ Electrical engineers
talked about ‘ omnibus bars ’ thirty years ago, it then
became ‘ bus bars,’ and now apparently it has become
“busses.’’’? Webster, who may be considered as
an authority on the language of that great nation,
defines a buss as “a kiss; a rude or playful kiss; a
smack,’’ and quotes Herrick to the effect that :
Kissing and bussing differ both in this,
We buss our wantons, but our wives we kiss.
So that although in both “ bus bars ”’ and “ busses ”’
there is intimate contact and at times electricity
passes, it can scarcely be said that the two terms are
synonymous. Nor canit be said that the introduction
of such terms into electrical engineering is to be
commended. FP. H. Masters.
Capillarity.
Ty a letter on capillarity in Nature for September
16, p. 377, Mr. Wilson Taylor shows how difficult it is
to account on physical grounds for the phenomena
exhibited by liquid films.
It may not be out of place in the circumstances
to refer to Irving Langmuir’s views on this subject,
given by him in a paper on “ The Constitution and
Fundamental Properties of Solids and Liquids. II.
Liquids’ (Am. Chem. Soc., vol. xxxix., September 1917,
p. 1852). Langmuir cites a few of the cases in which
the forces between the molecules have been considered
to be radial forces which vary solely as a function of
the distance between molecules. In all these cases
the investigator has considered the phenomena to
be physical in nature. He then goes on to remark :
“The chemist, on the other hand, in studying the
properties of matter, usually employs totally different
methods.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
543
tive aspects of the problem, and the quantitative
relationships are usually limited to those deducible
from the law of multiple combining proportions, the
law of mass action, or the principles of thermo-
dynamics. When the chemist does consider the
forces acting between atoms and molecules, he does
not look upon these as forces of attraction between
the centres of the molecules, but he thinks rather of
the specific nature of the atoms forming the molecules
and the manner in which these atoms are already
combined with each other. He thinks of molecules
as complex structures, the different portions of which
can act entirely differently towards any given reagent.
Furthermore, he considers that the forces involved
in chemical changes have a range of action which is
usually much less than the diameter of a molecule,
and perhaps even less than that of an atom.”
What has been termed the Classical Theory of
surface forces has proved useful in its day; but it
unfortunately ignores chemical affinity.
R. M. DEELEY.
Tintagil, Kew Gardens Road, Kew, Surrey,
September 15.
Lead and Animal Life.
Dr. GARRETY’S communication in NATURE of
September 16, p. 380, on the effect of a lead salt on
Lepidopterous larve, is particularly interesting to one
who has been working on an allied subject. Recent
investigations of my own on the fauna of lead-polluted
streams in North Cardiganshire, as reported at the
Hull meeting of the British Association, point to the
presence of dissolved lead-salts in these rivers as
distinctly inimical to the aquatic population, in
particular to the larve of certain insect-groups, such
as Trichoptera, which are normally non-existent in
these streams, though well represented in their
neighbours.
The case of fattening of Weardale sheep on lead-
polluted pastures may perhaps provide a parallel ;
while it is quite possible that small doses of lead may
have a tonic effect, cases of lead-poisoning proper
among farm live-stock in general are common in
certain districts (see a paper on “ Plumbism in N.
Cards.” by E. Morgan, Journal of U.C.W. Agricultural
Dept., 1915), and usually the poisoning is of the type
known as “ chronic,”’ the effect being slow and cumu-
lative, as is also established in the case of lead-
poisoning as an industrial disease. It would be
interesting to know whether Dr. Garrett’s experiments
have extended over more than one generation of
Lepidoptera, and whether the reproductive faculties
were in any way affected. K. CARPENTER.
Department of Zoology, University College
of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Polar and Non-Polar Valency in Organic
Compounds.
THERE is an increasing tendency on the part of
organic chemists to apply the Berzelius dualistic
theory, in a modified form, to organic compounds.
In many theories of valency, individual groups are
considered to be more or less electropositive or
electronegative, and it is possible to arrange these
groups, approximately, in a table of descending
electropositive character. A difficulty which arises
in examining this conception is to visualise the
transference of anything less than one electron
between the group and the remainder of the molecule.
There appear to be at least two kinds of forces
He is often most interested in the qualita- | operating between atoms in a molecule, which can
544
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
be designated as polar and non-polar. The polar
character of the valency in the majority of salts is
definite; there is experimental evidence for the
transference of electrons in these substances. The
non-polar forces are particularly in evidence in the
linkings of organic compounds, and it is extremely
unlikely that transference takes place to an appreci-
able extent here. Without entering into a discussion
of the nature of the non-polar forces, which may be
electromagnetic, there are two explanations which
may be given of the undoubted positive and negative
relationships of groups in organic compounds. In
the first place, there may be a partial transference of
an electron between the group and the residue of
the molecule, or alternately there may be a varying
concentration of polar molecules in the typically
non-polar substance.
I venture to put forward a plea for the considera-
tion of this second possibility. An equilibrium may
be imagined to exist between the polar and non-polar
substances which will be affected by the temperature,
solvent in which it is dissolved, etc. Thus, in an
organic substance AX the equation,
es Pee
AX=AX=AX
may represent this kind of equilibrium, and the
more electronegative the group X the more will
this reaction proceed to the right. In those substances
where the stability of the non-polar arrangement is
—+
very great, the occurrence of both forms, AX and
nye
AX, will be possible, and in the presence of a suitable
solvent these may give rise to the respective ions.
This view is in agreement with the occurrence of a
group in some compounds with an electropositive,
and in others with an electronegative tendency.
The ease of replacement of the group X by another
group will be determined by the concentrations of
the polar body, the polar state being the active form
of the substance. These concentrations may be so
small as to escape the ordinary methods of measure-
ment, and yet be sufficiently great to explain the
velocity of the chemical action.
W. E. GARNER.
University College, Gower Street, W.C.1,
October 4.
The X-ray Structure of Potassium Cyanide.
WRITING in a contemporary (J.A.C.S., Feb. 1922),
Richard M. Bozorth gives details of X-ray investiga-
tions into the crystalline structure of KCN, and
corroborates the view expressed in a letter to this
journal (NaTuRE, Aug. II, 1921, vol. 107, p. 745)
that the underlying structure is the face-centred cube.
He gives 6-55 A as the length of its edge, which agrees
very well with the 6-54 A furnished by my measure-
ments. He goes further in that he assigns definite
positions to the carbon and nitrogen atoms and
questions the opinion, expressed by Langmuir, that
these constituent atoms of the CN radicle have a
common outer electron shell.
Bozorth’s conclusions are, to a certain extent,
based on the assumption that the relative intensities
of the spectra would fall off in a normal manner if
the structure were quite like that of NaCl, that is, if
the carbon and nitrogen atoms formed a single cluster
of electrons which occupied the same position in the
KCN structure as the chlorine atom does in NaCl.
He publishes no numbers representing the observed
intensities, but gives 100 : 10 : 3 as the relative values
of the [100], [200], and [300] reflections that would
be required to satisfy the requirements of his par-
ticular structure. My own measurements gave 16-17
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
as the relative value to be assigned to the [200]
reflection, and the corresponding figure for NaCl is
20. Now the fact that KCN has a lower fusing-
point than NaCl suggests that even at ordinary
temperatures the heat vibrations are of unusual
amplitude, and this in itself affords a ready explana-
tion of the fact that the intensities of the spectra die
away more rapidly than is normally the case. The
probable electron distribution in a composite CN
radicle is another important factor which would
cause the normal sequence to fall off rapidly.
Bozorth gives 1-15 as the distance between
the centres of the carbon and nitrogen atoms, and
3:0 A as the distance between either of these and
the potassium atom. He treats the carbon and
nitrogen atoms as though they were of the same size,
but he does not state whether or not the inter-
nuclei distance’ is to be taken also as the effective
diameter. In one case his figures would give 4:85 A
as the diameter of the potassium atom compared
with 4:15 A, which represents, probably to within
0-03 A, its value in the other ionised salts in which
it occurs (W. L. Bragg, Phil. Mag., Aug. 1920).
If, on the other hand, 4:15 A be accepted as its
diameter in KCN—and measurements on NaCN
justify this procedure—then Bozorth’s figures would
give 1°85 A as the effective diameters of both carbon -
and nitrogen; W. L. Bragg’s values are 1-54 A and
1-30 A respectively.
Fortunately, there is outside evidence which bears
directly on this question. From viscosity measure-
ments A. O. Rankine has found (Proc. Roy. Soc.,
July 1921) that the C,N, molecule behaves in collision
like two overlapping hard spheres, each having the
size of a bromine atom. The diameter of the bromine
atom is 2:38 A, and that of a Langmuir CN radicle,
as provided by X-ray measurements, is 2:39 A.
P. A. COOPER.
Research Dept., Royal Arsenal, Woolwich,
September 20.
Sex Change in Mollusca.
WirTH reference to Dr. R. Sparck’s statement
(NATURE, October 7, p. 480) that the male stage in
the oyster is due to the coldness of the temperature,
it should be pointed out that in various hermaphrodite
mollusca, such as Helix and Arion, the reason for the
passage of the indifferent epithelial cell, either to
oogonium or spermatogonium, is at present unknown.
Older authors considered that those cells near yolk,
or near a superior nutrimental radius became eggs, and
that those less exposed to steady streams of nourish-
ment became spermatocytes.
More recent work has shown that the matter is very
deep-seated, and such a conclusion as the above
cannot be taken as representing the real state of affairs.
I have found that oocytes appear in regions of the
ovotestis which are scantily provided with yolk, and
that sperm cells appear in regions rich in nutriment.
Whether temperature has anything to do with this
has not yet been ascertained, but experiments are now
in progress, which should settle the question.
In the case of Saccocirrus it has been shown that
spermatocytes caught up and enclosed in yolk cells
have their metabolism so altered that they assume the
appearance of oocytes, together with nucleolar ex-
trusions characteristic of the typical oocyte.
But in Helix two epithelial cells side by side often
metamorphose, one into an oogonium, another into a
spermatogonium, and one seems obliged to believe
that factors other than temperature or abundance of
nutriment are concerned. J. BrRontE GATENBY.
Trinity College, Dublin University,
October 7.
til lets
OcroBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
545
The Galactic System.!
By Dr. Harrow SHAPLEY.
Ie
HROUGHOUT the known sidereal universe there
is, among material bodies, an obvious associative
tendency, which we see well illustrated in meteor
showers, in satellite and planetary systems, in binary
stars, and in larger stellar groups such as the Pleiades.
These various products of gravitational ordering are
clearly but parts of still greater systems, and one of the
most fascinating of astronomical studies is to attempt
to seek out the structure of an all-inclusive sidereal
organisation.
It is proposed in this communication to discuss the
structure and extent of the sidereal system as indicated
by recent studies of stellar clusters and variable stars.
My own observational investigations of these objects,
and the deductions based upon them, have been mainly
published in Contributions and Communications of
the Mount Wilson Observatory ! from r9rq to 1918.
The present discussion is made in the light of criticisms
and numerous tests to which the conclusions have been
subjected during the past four or five years.
It appears that we have three principal types of
celestial objects to consider—the diffuse nebule, the
stars, and the nebulz of the spiral family. The first
two are generally thought to be related as parent and
offspring. The stars, having formed, as we think,
out of nebulous pre-stellar states, are, apparently,
largely organised into groups, a common, possibly
prevailing form being the globular cluster. It is from
combinations of these clusters that I believe our galactic
system has developed.2 From the work on clusters
there can be little doubt of the enormous mass and
dimensions of the galactic system as compared with
clusters and nebuli. Its flat form and heterogeneity,
its content of numerous fragmentary systems (open
clusters, wide binaries, spectrally-similar groups) of
apparently different ages and separate origins, and
its control over the motions of the clusters and near-by
spirals, have led me for some years to advocate the
hypothesis that the Galaxy is a growing composite of
disintegrating minor systems. The Galaxy appears to
include all the common sidereal types, with the probable
exception of most nebule of the spiral family. But
the latter are apparently not stellar in composition,
nor galactic in size. I think present evidence favours
but does not establish the hypothesis that typical
spiral nebulz represent a sidereal evolution not directly
connected with that of stars.
The foregoing paragraph may serve as a_ brief
outline. Some of the details may now be considered,
but, before proceeding with the discussion, I should
like to point out that the proposed interpretations
involve the following somewhat fundamental assump-
tions, if we choose to call them assumptions : (r) that
gravitation directs the organisation and motions of
celestial bodies ; (2) that the physical laws we know
are equally valid in all parts of the space with which
we are familiar ; (3) that the Russell-Eddington theory
of stellar evolution is correct in its general features.
1 Adapted from an Address given before the British Astronomical
Association on May 31.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
Certainly these three are not serious restrictions.
On the first I need make no comment here. The second
is the basis of our belief in the general uniformity of
conditions throughout the stellar system. It insists
that our stellar neighbourhood is not operated by local
laws. It isa highly reasonable but necessary assump-
tion before we can safely compare the luminosities
and other properties of stars near the sun with those
of stars in distant parts of the galactic system. The
third assumption, the Russell-Eddington theory, is
not necessary for my conclusions concerning the
dimensions of the galactic system, but is essential in
putting together the general scheme, and also in trying
to interpret some anomalies of the spiral nebulz.
We might call the evolutionary scheme the Lane-
Lockyer - Ritter - Sampson - Emden - Schwarzschild -
Hertzsprung - Russell - Eddington - Jeans - Eggert
theory, but Russell and Eddington have been the most
important contributors to the theory in its present
form.
CONCERNING STAR CLUSTERS.
Clusters of stars can be placed in two fairly distinct
categories, the globular cluster, of which nearly ninety
are now known, and the open or loose cluster, of which
there are several hundred.
Most globular clusters (but not quite all) appear to
be remarkably alike in general structure. Compared
with naked-eye objects they are extremely remote ;
hence their stars, though apparently very faint, are
actually of high intrinsic luminosity. Few stars in
g globular clusters are brighter than the eleventh apparent
magnitude. Each globular cluster contains some tens
of thousands of these intrinsically bright stars, and
possibly a far greater number of dwarfs, w hich at present
are beyond the reach of our telescopes. Of high
importance is the fact that the cluster stars appear
to be remarkably similar to the stars in the solar
neighbourhood in spectral type, colour, variability,
and other properties, notwithstanding the much higher
stellar density near the centres of globular clusters.
Open clusters are of great variety. They range in
brightness from naked-eye systems, such as the Hyades,
to small, dim groupings that may be nothing more
than chance aggregations of faint Milky Way stars.
Open clusters vary also in richness, in apparent and
real dimensions, in stellar content. One property
they have in common: they are all near the plane of
the Milky Way. The distance of the average open
cluster is smaller than that of globular clusters, but
the determination of distances for the former is gener-
ally subject to much uncertainty. This fact is due to
variety of form and content, and to the absence from
open clusters of peculiar types of highly luminous stars,
which for globular clusters serve to determine positions
in space.
The estimation of the distances of globular clusters,
which has been the most important part of the work
on the scale of the sidereal universe, must be based
on the newer methods of measuring space. The various
trigonometrical methods, when applied to globular
clusters, so far give negative results, indicating only
| that the distances are very great. The various photo-
R2
540
WAAR E
[OcTOBER 21, 1922
metric methods that had to be developed for this problem
involve a considerable amount of photometric, spectro-
scopic, and statistical detail when put on a quantitative
basis, and cannot be fully described in this article.
The qualitative application of the photometric
methods, however, is simple. For example, we need
only assume that the brightest stars in a globular
cluster have the same actual luminosity as the brightest
stars in the solar neighbourhood, and we can readily
compute the distance necessary to give them the
apparent brightness that is measured.
If we admit the similarity of globular clusters, it is
obvious that either the apparent magnitude or the
apparent diameter can give us the distances of them
all when once we have determined the distances of
those nearer the earth. In practice the distances of
the nearest clusters have been determined from studies
of their variable stars, of their blue stars (spectral
type B), and of their red giant stars ; and checked by
spectroscopically-determined absolute magnitudes and
by means of the relative diameters. All the methods
agree in giving distances of the same order of magnitude.
We thus find that the globular clusters range in distance
from seven thousand parsecs to values nearly ten times
as great. Their diameters are of the order of a hundred
parsecs. Their brightest stars are a thousand times
as bright as the sun.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE GALAXY.
The result of most interest that comes out of this
photometric investigation is the enormous dimensions
of the super-system of globular clusters and of the
Galaxy. Once the positions in space are determined,
it becomes clear, as had already been suspected from
an inspection of the apparent distribution of clusters
in the sky, that globular clusters are a part of the
Milky Way system. They are associated physically
with the system of stars, nebule, and open clusters
which is more or less symmetrically arranged with
respect to the equatorial plane of the Galaxy. In
measuring the distances of the remotest globular
clusters, therefore, we are but measuring the depth
of our own galactic system. That the Milky Way
itself extends to distances as great as those indicated
by the clusters is shown by the presence within it of
highly luminous types of stars with apparent magnitude
15 and fainter.
It has been known for many years that globular
clusters are not uniformly distributed in galactic
longitude. They are most numerous along the edges
of the southern Milky Way. That one-sided distribu-
tion is now recognised as an indication of the sun’s
very eccentric position in the galactic system. In this
same southern part of the sky we find the densest
galactic star-clouds and the greatest frequency of
faint nove and of other types of distant objects,
which is but further evidence of the greater depth of
the galactic system in the direction of Sagittarius.
Also in that general direction are some obstructing
dark nebule, which may be wholly responsible for a
peculiar phenomenon in the distribution of distant
globular clusters, that is, in their seeming absence from
regions very close to the galactic plane. If the ob-
structing material were removed, we might see, near
the galactic plane, clouds of faint Milky Way stars
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
still more dazzling than those observed, and globular
clusters still more distant than those now known, and
hence find that the greatest diameter of the galactic
system is even larger than the value now assigned—
approximately 100,000 parsecs.
The observable dynamical relations within and
without the Milky Way are suggestive of its origin.
No open clusters have yet been found outside the Milky
Way region, but hundreds are known within. North
and south of the galactic plane the globular clusters —
are equal in number, and their distances from the plane
are much smaller than the greatest diameter of the
system. Their velocities, so far as now known, are
high. Many are approaching the galactic plane with
speeds that soon must bring them to it. Their present
positions and motions make orbital motion around the
Milky Way improbable. From the present evidence
as to mass, velocity, and distribution, there can be
httle doubt but that the known globular clusters pass
to and fro through the star fields of the galactic system,
notwithstanding their observed avoidance, apparent
or temporary, at the present time. Every passage
must reduce the velocity and alter the form. The
hypothesis that these globular clusters are being
diverted by degrees into galactic regions, and gradually
robbed of their stars, is upheld by observation and is
not opposed by present dynamical theory. Although
we see few intermediates between the globular and
the more typical open clusters, many of the character-
istics of the open groups strongly support the suggestion
that they are the remnants of globular clusters or of
other systems that have been assimilated by the
incomparably more massive galactic assemblage.
Nearly a dozen “‘ moving” clusters, comprising thou-
sands of members, are recognised among the stars
within seven hundred light-years of the sun.
Two important theoretical researches by Jeans are
of much significance in this view of galactic structure :
(i.) the form resulting from the interpenetration of two
clusters,® and (i1.) the necessity, in accounting for the
present orbits of long-period binaries, of assuming
their former existence in a much more compact stellar
field than now exists in the solar neighbourhood.
The high stellar frequency near the centre of a globular
cluster would certainly supply conditions favourable
for modifying orbits, and it also might aid in explaining
the origin of long-period binaries which is not other-
wise accounted for satisfactorily.
The determination, with the aid of clusters, of dimen-
sions for the galactic system much larger than had been
clearly indicated by studies of the nearer galactic stars,
led to a further examination of the stellar distribution
in the solar neighbourhood. The hypothesis that the
galactic system, as we now know it, has developed
from the combination of minor groups, suggests that
the brighter stars near the sun may to a large extent
be members of a local system that is imbedded in
and moving through the general star fields of the Milky
Way. This condition actually appears to be the case,
and hence the results on galactic dimensions, from
clusters and from the nearer stars, do not contradict.
Stars of spectral type B down to the sixth apparent
magnitude seem to be almost exclusively members of
a local cluster or cloud. Brighter stars of Class A are
also affihated with the same system.® Probably all
ee
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATUR
547
the other types are to some extent involved,® but
for them the disentanglement of local system and
galactic field is more difficult.
Quite analogous to the phenomenon of the Milky
Way, the projection on the sky of the faint stars along
the central plane of this local cloud gives rise to a sort
of secondary Galaxy,’ the brighter stars of which
coincide roughly with the Herschel-Gould belt. The
distribution of the B stars indicates that the dimensions
of the local system are large compared with those of a
globular cluster ; the local system is also more oblate.
I believe it can be better compared in dimensions, and
possibly in form, with the Magellanic Clouds or with
the distinctly delimited small star clouds of the Milky
Way. The various phenomena of star streaming are
undoubtedly connected with the motions of and within
the local system. Probably a number of our brighter
“moving ” clusters should be considered sub-systems
in the local cloud, rather than independent systems
which for the time being are near at hand.
(To be continued.)
REFERENCES.
1. Cf. Astroph. Jour., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., Pub. Ast. Soc. Pac., 1915-1921,
and Scientia, 1919-1920.
. Pub. Ast. Soc. Pac., February 1918 ; Mt. W. Contr., 157.
- Mon. Not. R.A.S., 76, p. 563.
. Scientia, January 1922.
Harv. Circ., 229.
. Wan de Linde, Thesis, Rotterdam, 1921.
. Scientia, March 1920.
nN
Nout w
Transport of Organic Substances in Plants.!
By Prof. H. H. Drxon, Sc.D., F.R:S.
PA MONG physiologists the usually accepted view is
that organic substances are distributed through-
out the plant by means of the bast. The wood also
acts as a channel of distribution for these substances
to opening buds and developing leaves, especially in
spring when root-pressure is active. The sap of
bleeding contains appreciable quantities of these sub-
stances, and their distribution to the developing buds
im spring by means of the wood was recognised by
Hartig and Sachs.
This upward transport of carbohydrates in the
trachez seems to be accompanied with smaller amounts
of proteins. Thus Schroeder showed that the quantity
of proteins in the bleeding sap rises and falls with the
quantity of sugar.
This view that the rising current in the trachee carries
organic substances in it and distributes them to the
growing regions has lately been impugned. It was
pointed out that in_many cases, ringing close below the
terminal bud prevents the development of that bud
because the wood is unable to transmit sufficient
supphes of organic substance. As Strasburger has
already shown, this mterpretation rests upon the
fallacy of supposing that the removal of the bark as
far as the cambium leaves the wood uninjured. As a
matter of fact, microscopic examination of the wood,
from which the outer tissues have been stripped, shows
that its trachee soon become blocked with air-bubbles
and with substances probably exuded into them and
their walls during morbid changes in the cells of
the cambium, in the cells of the medullary rays, and
in those of the wood-parenchyma. The blocking is
accompanied with discoloration, and is most apparent
in the outer layers of the wood. It is only reasonable
to suppose that the efficiency of the tracheze as channels
of transmission is seriously impaired even before there
is visible evidence of plugging.
It is evident that this clogging may act differentially
on the water and the substances carried init. In the
first place, the whole cross-section of the wood is avail-
able for the transport of water, while probably the outer
layers are mainly utilised by the organic substances.
Further, colloidal deposits in the walls, and especially
in the pit-membranes, would obstruct the passage
1 From the presidential address delivered to Section K (Botany) of the
British Association at Hull on Sept. 7.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
of organic substances much more than they would
the water which carries them. These considerations
readily explain how it is that, while the water-supply
to the buds of ringed branches is adequate, the supply
of organic substance may be deficient.
Apart, then, from the very slow movement of organic
substances from cell to cell, there is very cogent evidence
that their upward motion is effected in the trachez
of the wood. There is no reason to believe that during
this transport the walls or pit-membranes of these
tracheze oppose the passage of the dissolved carbo-
hydrates or of the simpler proteins any more than the
water which conveys them. Hence the velocity of
transport of these organic substances is that of the
transpiration current, and the amount conveyed in a
given time depends on the velocity and concentration
of the stream.
The transport of organic substances in an upward
direction in plants is secondary, for, as is well known,
carbohydrates certainly, and proteins most probably,
are manufactured only in the upper green parts of
plants—principally in the leaves, and must be trans-
ported in the first instance back from these to the stems
to be distributed to the growing regions and to the
storage organs.
This view that the channel for the backward and
downward movement of organic substances is afforded
by the bast received great support from Czapek’s work
published in 1897. By section of the conducting
tracts in one half of the petiole he showed that depletion
of the corresponding half of the blade was delayed.
He also showed that only where vertical bridges con-
nected the upper and lower portions of bark in ringed
stems were the effects of ringing nullified. Oblique
and zigzag bridges are ineffective. Thus transverse
conveyance in the stem is negligible. The parallel
and longitudinal arrangement of the elongated elements
in the bast seemed to him to provide adequately for
the observed longitudinal passage. Their narrowness
and large colloid content did not present themselves
as difficulties. Czapek also recorded the observation
that the blades of leaves, the petioles of which had been
killed by jacketing them with steam, did not become
emptied of starch. Similarly, when the petioles were
killed with chloroform-vapour, depletion was arrested.
Again, anzesthetisation of the petiole, by surrounding
548
it with a watery solution of chloroform, greatly delayed
the disappearance of starch.
Czapek formed no definite theory as to how organic
substances were moved in the bast. He was sure that
the transport depends on living protoplasm. He did
not consider that the streaming of protoplasm con-
tributed materially to the motion, seeing that streaming
does not occur in mature sieve-tubes. He regarded
the sieve-tubes as the most important elements in the
transmission of these substances, because the deposition
of callus in the sieve-plates synchronises with the
stoppage of transport. The transport, according to
him, is not simply due to diffusion. He supposed the
protoplasm to take up the organic substances and pass
them on. If diffusion does not account for the passage
from one particle of protoplasm to the next, it would
seem that we must suppose the organic substance to
be projected from one to the other.
These observations and their interpretation by
Czapek have strengthened the opinion that the bast is
the channel for the downward transport of organic
substances. It is remarkable how little weight has
been attached to the damaging criticism of Czapek’ s
views by Deleano, especially as those views are so
unsatisfactory from a physical point of view.
The latter author showed that it is inadmissible to
compare externally similar leaves, which often behave,
so far as depletion is concerned, very dissimilarly. He
also pointed out that without any export a leaf may
be depleted of all its starch within thirty-five hours,
and partially anticipated an extremely interesting
recent observation of Molisch—namely, that penee Te
leaves lose their carbohydrates much more rapidly than
those the transpiration from which is checked by being
surrounded with a saturated atmosphere. Neglect of
these facts led Czapek into error. Deleano also showed
that organic substances continue to leave the blades
even after the petioles have been killed by heat or by
chloroform-vapour. The rate of depletion is reduced
by the former agent to about one-third, and by the
latter to one-half. If this observation is substantiated
it would show that the intervention of living elements
is not essential for the transport. He further found
that the blades attached to petioles which were sur-
rounded by chloroform-water lost their starch more
quickly than those immersed in water.
The contradictory conclusions of Czapek and Deleano
urgently call for a reinvestigation of the points at issue.
If Czapek’s work holds good, we shall have to regard
the bast, and especially the sieve-tubes, as the channels
for the transport of organic substances back from the
leaf-blades where they are manufactured, and we must
look for some hitherto undreamed-of method of trans-
mission through these most unlikely-looking conduits.
On the other hand, if Deleano’s conclusions are borne
out, we should admit that protoplasm is not necessary
for the transport, and we would turn to a dead tissue
as furnishing this channel.
So far as I am aware none of the earlier investigators
made any estimate either of the actual quantities of
organic material which are transported or of the
velocities of flow in the channels which are necessary
to effect this transport.
We may appreacn this problem from two opposite
direc tions—(r) by dealing with the amount of organic
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
| substance accumulated in a given time in a storage
organ, or (2) by using the amount exported from an
assimilating organ. The cross-section of the supposed
channels of transport and the volume of the solution
containing the substances in each case will give us the
other necessary data.
For the first method a potato-tuber will furnish an
example. One weighing 210 g. was found attached
to the base of a plant bya slender branch about 0-16 cm.
in diameter. In this branch the bast had a total
cross-section of o-0042em.. This figure isa maximum ;
no allowance was made for the cross-section of the
cell-walls, or for any non-functional elements in the
bast. The cell-walls would occupy probably one-fifth
of the cross-section of the bast. Now if the bast
exclusively furnished the channel of downward trans-
port, all the organic substance in the potato must have
passed this cross-section during the time occupied in
the growth of the potato. One hundred days would
be a liberal allowance. According to analyses more
than 24 per cent. by weight of the potato is combustible.
Therefore we must assume that during this time more
than so g. of carbohydrate has passed down a conduit
having a cross-section of no more than o-0042 cm.”.
The average concentration of the solution carrying
this substance could scarcely have been as much as
10 per cent. (2°5-5 per cent. would be more probable ;
the concentration of sugar in bleeding sap is much
below this figure, and seems never to reach 4 per cent.).
Assuming, however, this concentration, the volume of
liquid conveying 50 g. must have been 500 cm.®, and
this quantity must have passed in too days. ‘There-
fore the average velocity of flow through this conduit,
having a cross-section of o-0042 cm.?, must have been
0°0042 X 100 X 24’
By the second method we arrive at a different figure.
Various investigators, from Sachs onwards, have
measured the rate of photo-synthesis per square metre
of leaf per hour. Under the most favourable conditions
the amount may approach 2 g., and it has been esti-
mated as low as o:5 g. Taking Brown and Morris’s
determination for Trop@olwm majus, namely, 1 g. per
square metre per hour, and assuming one-third of the
carbohydrate formed is used in respiration in the leaf,
we find that a leaf of 46 cm.? may form during ten hours’
sunshine 0-46 g.; during the twenty-four “hours one-
third of this will be respired, leaving 0-31 g. to be
transported from the leaf. The v olume of the solution
(again assuming a concentration of 10 per cent.) will
be 3.10 cm.3. The cross-section of the bast of the
bundles in the petiole was o-o009 cm.*; therefore the
velocity of flow, if the bast was used as ‘the channel of
3°10
0°0009 X 24
z.e. nearly 50 cm. per hour.
transport, must have been
hour.
Similar figures to these were derived using measure-
ments obtained from a number of potato-tubers and
from various leaves. The velocities indicated, even
assuming a concentration of ro per cent., lay in all
cases between 20 cm. and 140 cm. per hour. These
figures are in agreement with those arrived at by Luise
Birch-Hirschfeld, as to the weight of organic material
transported from leaves.
A flow of this rate through the bast seems quite
or 140 cm. per
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
impossible. The narrow transverse section of its
elements, the frequent occurrence of transverse walls,
and the lining of protoplasm and large protein contents
practically preclude the mass movement of liquid
through this tissue. If we imagine the flow restricted
to the sieve-tubes the velocity must be correspondingly
increased, and the excessively fine sieve-pores, more
or less completely occupied by colloidal proteins, must
be reckoned with. Simple diffusion, as Czapek recog-
nised, cannot account for the transport, and there is
no reason to suppose that adsorption on the surfaces of
the colloid contents of the sieve-tubes can increase
the velocity of diffusion, as Manghan suggests.
As soon as one realises the volume of the solution
which has to be transported, and the velocity of the
flow that this necessitates, one naturally turns to
consider if the open capillary tubes of the wood may
not be utilised as channels of transport. Deleano’s
results, indicating that the depletion of leaves continues
even after the living elements of their petioles have
been killed, support this conjecture.
The emphasis which has been laid on the function
of the wood as providing a channel for the upward
movement of water usually obscures its function as a
downward and backward channel also. Early experi-
menters, however, fully recognised that, under certain
conditions, the current in the wood may be reversed.
There is, of course, recent work also showing this
reversed current.
By means of an eosin solution this reversal of the
transpiration current may be very easily demonstrated.
If the tip of a leaf of a growing potato-plant is cut under
eosin solution, the coloured solution is very quickly
drawn back into the trachez of the conducting tracts
of the leaf; from there it passes into those of the
petiole, and makes its way not only into the upper
branches and leaves, but also passing down the sup-
porting stem may completely inject the trachez of the
tuber, and from thence pass up into the wood of the
remaining haulms of the plant. Its passage is entirely
in the trachez of the wood of the conducting tracts.
Another very striking experiment may be carried
out with the imparipinnate leaf of Sambucus nigra.
Its petiole is split longitudinally for a few centimetres
and half removed. The remaining half is set in a
solution of eosin, The solution is rapidly drawn up
the wood-capillaries of the intact half-petiole, and soon
appears in the veins of the pinne on the same side of
the leaf, beginning with the lowest, and gradually
working up into the upper ones. Finally it appears
in the terminal pinna. All this while the veins of the
pinne on the other side remain uncoloured. Now,
however, the eosin begins to debouch into the base of
the uppermost of these pinnz and spreads through its
veins ; finally it makes its way down the offside of the
rachis to the bases of the lower pinnz, and from thence
spreads into their veins. In this case we see very
clearly how transpiration actuates an upward current
on one side and a downward current on the other. It
is interesting to note that if the terminal pinna and its
stalk is removed the eosin does not appear in the pinne
of the second side, or only after a considerable time,
when the small anastomosing conducting tracts are
utilised.
Luise Birch-Hirschfeld also described recently many
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
549
experiments with herbaceous and woody plants, tracing
the path of the reversed current by means of lithium
nitrate and eosin.
In all these cases the tension of the sap determines
the flow from a source wherever situated, and transpira-
tion from the leaves, or parts of leaves, which are not
supplied with liquid water from without, draws the
water through the plant along the channels of least
resistance. Hence it is that if the cut vein of a lateral
pinna provides the point of entry, the solution may
pass backwards in some of the conducting trachez,
leaving others quite uncoloured, so that some of the
veins only of the pinna are injected. The injected
tracts bring the solution down the rachis and petiole
into the stem, while a few or many, as the case may be,
remain filled with colourless liquid, presumably the
sap drawn upward to supply the transpiring surfaces
of the leaf. Generally the coloured liquid descends
an appreciable distance in the trachez of the stem
before it begins to rise in the ascending current, mount-
ing to other transpiring leaves. As a rule after some
time—depending on the rate of transpiration and the
amount of water supplied by the roots—the presence
of the coloured liquid may be demonstrated in certain
continuous series, or filaments of tracheze in several
bundles of the lower parts of the stems. Similarly, if
tubers or rhizomes are present, examination of these
parts, after a suitable interval, will show that many
of their filaments of trachez are injected. Meanwhile
the parts above the supplying leaf become coloured,
and it will be seen that the distribution of coloured
trachee is decided by the anatomical connexions of
those filaments of trachez which convey the coloured
liquid directly from the point of supply through the
petiole to the stem. In tracing the path of the solution
one is impressed with the fact that the path of least
resistance is by no means always the shortest path in
the wood. Transverse motion across several tracheze
seldom occurs, and the separate linear series of con-
ducting trachez are practically isolated from each other
laterally. Here we may recall Strasburger’s experi-
ments showing the very great resistance offered to the
flow of water in a transverse direction in the wood
of trees. This isolation of the separate filaments of
trachez in the leaf and in the stem enables the tension
developed by the transpiring cells of the leaves, while
it raises a column of water in one series of trachez, to
draw down a solution in a neighbouring filament of
trachee terminating above in some local supply. If
the anatomical connexion of the two series is located
in a subterranean organ the trachez of the subterranean
organ may become filled from that supply.
So far the evidence of reversed flow in the water-
conducting tracts which we have been considering has
been derived from plants under artificial conditions—
plants the conducting tracts of which have been cut into
and otherwise interfered with. Is there any evidence
that reversal of the transpiration-current normally
occurs in uninjured plants ?
Some recent work on the transmission of stimuli
seems to me to indicate that these reversals are con-
tinually occurring in normally growing plants.
The first piece of work to which I would direct
attention is that of Ricca on Mimosa. It has long been
known that the stimulus which causes the folding of the
S3e
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
pinnules and the bending of the petioles of Mimosa
could traverse portions of the petioles or stems which
had been raised to such a temperature as would kill
the living elements in these organs. Notwithstanding
that observation, Haberlandt’s view, that the stimulus
is transmitted as a wave of pressure through certain
tubular elements of the bast, was generally accepted
as the least objectionable of any of the theories which
had been put forward to explain this transmission.
Ricca saw that, among other difficulties, the slowness
of transmission—never more than 15 mm. per second
—was a grave objection to this view. Accordingly,
working with a woody species of Mimosa—Mzmosa
Spegazzinii—he removed the whole bast and outer
tissues of the stem for as many as twenty-three centi-
metres and was able to show that the stimulus was still
transmitted. Similarly he found that the stimulus
was transmitted through narrow strips of the wood
from which even the pith had been removed. ‘These
experiments and others in which the transmitting organ
had been killed for a considerable length caused Ricca
to recognise that the stimulus is transmitted in the
wood and not in the bast, as had been previously held.
Thus he was led to assign the transmission to the
transpiration-current. He was able to confirm this
conjecture by showing that the transmission to the
various leaves of a plant is largely controlled by the
rate of the transpiration from the individual leaves.
Thus, other things being equal, a rapidly transpiring
leaf receives the stimulus sooner than a sluggishly
transpiring one equidistant from the point of stimula-
tion. He was able to show further that the stimulus
may be transmitted through a glass tube filled with
water, just as it is transmitted through a dead portion of
thestem. Evidently a hormone set free into the trans-
piration-stream is the long-sought-for mechanism by
which the stimulus is transmitted throughout Mimosa,
As the stimulus travels both in a basipetal and
acropetal direction we may assume that movement
of the transpiration-stream in a downward direction
is of normal occurrence in plants.
Contemporaneous with, and subsequent to, Ricca’s
important work on Mimosa, experimental evidence
has been accumulating to indicate that the trans-
mission of other stimuli— phototropic, trauma-
totropic, thigmotropic, and geotropic—is effected
by means of the passage of a dissolved substance.
Boysen-Jensen appears to have been the first to
announce that phototropic and geotropic stimuli may
be transmitted across protoplasmic discontinuities.
Padl emphasised this by showing that these stimuli
are able to pass a disc of the tissue of Avwndo donax
impregnated with gelatine, which is interposed between
the receptive and responding regions. These observa-
tions rendered the view that the stimulus is transmitted
in the form of a hormone extremely probable ; and
later Stark showed that this hormone is thermostable,
just as Ricca had done in the case of the hormone of
Mimosa. Another very interesting point discovered
by Stark—working with traumatic stimuli—is that the
hormones are to a certain extent specific. Thus if the
perceptive tip of a seedling is removed from one plant
and affixed in position on another, the certainty of the
response depends on the genetic affinity of the two
plants.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
In all these cases it seems certain that the perceptive
tissues are the point of origin, when stimulated, of a
dissolved substance, the hormone, which makes its
way to the motile tissues and releases the response.
In the case of Mimosa just alluded to, and of the
labellum of Masdevallia examined by Oliver, there is
direct evidence that the transmission of the hormone
is effected by the vascular bundles. In Mimosa the
channels are more precisely localised as being the
trachee of the wood. Furthermore, the rapidity of
transmission renders it certain that simple diffusion
through the tissues of the plant will not account for
the process. Some recorded velocities of transmission
are here enumerated for the sake of comparison :
Plant. Nature of Stimulus, Baan”
Mimosa Heat 0°07
Drosera Chemical 6:00
Seedling Light 180-300
u Gravity 300
Tendril Contact 107]
Diffusion in tissue . 2250-3600
There is thus every reason to believe that the trans-
mission of stimuli generally through the tissues of the
higher plants is effected by the conveyance of a hormone
in the wood of the vascular bundles from the receptive
to the motile regions, and whenever this transmission
is in a downward direction evidence is afforded of the
downward movement of water in the trachee. It is
reasonable to suppose that this downward current
is able to carry organic foodstuffs as well.as hormones.
Thus the evidence for the existence of a backward
flow of water in the trachez of wood, in addition to the
more obvious upward stream, is convincing. With
regard, however, to the mechanism by which the back-
ward stream is supplied we have but scant information.
The volume-changes of leaves which Thoday has
recorded are suggestive in this connexion. These
changes he found of various magnitudes, occurring
simultaneously in different or in the same leaves.
They may cause a linear contraction amounting to
2°5 per cent. in ten minutes, and may produce a volume
contraction of 7 per cent. in the same time. The water
corresponding to this volume-change in the cells of the
leaf if transmitted into the tracheze would produce a
considerable downward displacement, as may be seen
from the following figures :
Velatie of. | Cites oo ee!
Name of Plant. 2 Pe : area Movement
traction in in Petiole in Havana
mm?. mm*, hae
Aucuba japonica . 22°8 0°05 45°6
Solanum tuberosum 28°0 0°07 40°0
Syvinga vulgaris . 42°15 o'013 16°5
Acer macrophyllum 42°2 0°22 19°2
If these changes in volume are caused by, or accom-
panied with, a development of permeability of the
contracting cells, evidently a backward movement of
organic substance having a velocity of about 120 cm.
and more per hour would be produced.
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
551
It is possible that the tension which causes these
contractions of the leaf-cells at the same time acts as a
stimulus to increase the permeability of the plasmatic
membranes of the cells; and so one might imagine
that the development of a certain tension would auto-
matically release organic substances from the cells and
draw them through the trachee downwards. Direct
experiment on this point presents difficulties, but it
may be worth recording that when the internal osmotic
pressure of the leaf-cells was overbalanced by an
external gas-pressure, the water pressed from the cells
and forced out of the trachez of the supporting stem
was found to be practically pure, and if it contained
carbohydrates they were in such small quantities that
no reduction could be detected with Benedrct’s solution
either before or after inversion. This experiment was
repeated several times with branches of Sambucus mgra
and Tilia americana. The cut branch, well supplied
with water, was first exposed for several hours to
conditions favourable to photosynthesis, and then
either immediately or after a sojourn in darkness
subjected to the gas-pressure. A pressure of thirteen
atmospheres was found sufficient to drive water back
from the leaves out of the stem.
Of course the conditions of this experiment are not
those obtaining in the normal plant, where during
transpiration the volume of a leaf, or part of a leaf,
changes. In the transpiring plant we can also imagine
the accumulation of a substance or an ion which would
give rise to an alteration of the permeability of the
plasmatic membranes of the leaves.
When, in order to imitate these conditions, the cells
of the leaves in the foregoing experiment are rendered
permeable by the introduction of a little toluene into
the pressure-chamber, the application of a smaller
pressure is sufficient to press the cell-contents into the
water-channels and liquid emerges from the base of the
stem which readily reduces Benedict’s solution.
In the same way, if a pinna of Sambucus nigra is
surrounded with toluene vapour, transpiration from
the adjacent pinnz draws back the cell-contents of the
toluened pinna, and afterwards their track in the wood
of the vascular bundles of the rachis may be traced
by the browning of this tissue.
Another possibility presented itself, namely, that the
direction of the current might act as a stimulus regulat-
ing the permeability of the cells in contact with the
trachee. To test this, short lengths of stem set in their
normal position were supplied, first through their
lower and afterwards through their upper end, with
distilled water. In neither case could carbohydrates
be detected in the issuing stream.
The foregoing short consideration of some recent
physiological work leads us, then, to the following
conclusions :
The transport of the organic substances needed in the
distal growing regions is effected through the trachez
of the wood. ‘The substances travel dissolved in the
water filling these channels, which is moved by
transpiration, expansion of the growing cells, or root
pressure.
Physical considerations forbid us admitting that
sufficiently rapid transport can be afforded by the bast
either for the observed upward or downward distribu-
tion of organic substance.
The existence of downward as well as upward move-
ment of water in the trachee of the wood may be
demonstrated by suitable experimental means, and
may be inferred by the transport of hormones in the
wood.
The occurrence of local contractions in leaves suggests
that local increases of permeability supply dissolved
organic substances to the distal ends of certain of the
filaments of tracheze. The tension developed by the
transpiration of other regions draws these along
downward as well as upward channels in the wood.
In thus ruling out the participation of the bast in the
longitudinal transport of organic substances in plants
one naturally is forced to speculate on its probable
function. Its distribution and conformation are such
that, while it possesses a very small cross-section, it
appears with the other living elements of the vascular
bundles, medullary rays, wood-parenchyma, etc., to
present a maximum surface to the trachez.
This large surface may find explanation in the
necessity of interchange between the living cells and
dead conduits. The colloidal contents of the former
render this process slow, hence the necessity for the
large surface of interchange to enable sufficient quan-
tities of organic substances to be abstracted from and
introduced into the trachez to meet the needs of the
plant.
Before concluding I would like to add that the
experimental work carried out on this matter would
have been quite impossible for me were it not for the
assistance and ingenuity of Mr. N. G. Ball. He also
has contributed materially by his criticisms and
suggestions.
Obituary.
Cotoner E. H. Grove-Htrts, C.B.E., C.M.G., F.R.S.
OLONEL EDMOND HERBERT GROVE-HILLS,
whose death occurred on October 2 at his residence
at Campden Hill, W., was the son of Herbert A. Hills of
High Head Castle, Cumberland. Born on August 1,
1864, he was educated at Winchester, whence in 1882
he passed into the Royal Military Academy, Wool-
wich. There his abilities were recognised as giving
promise of a distinguished career, and he passed out
as the senior cadet of his term, receiving a com-
mission in the Royal Engineers in 1884.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
Scientific subjects specially interested him, and in
1893 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astro-
nomical Society; in the following year a paper by
him on the photographs of the spectrum of the eclipsed
sun taken at the solar eclipse of April 1893 was com-
municated to the Royal Society. The study of solar
physics strongly attracted him, and he also took part
in the eclipse expeditions of 1896 to Japan, of 1898 to
India, and in that of ror4 to Kieff, whence he was
recalled on the outbreak of war to military service. In
1898 he took up the appointment of instructor in
chemistry and photography at the School of Military
Doe
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
Engineering, but he had only held this for a year when
he was transferred to the Topographical Section of the
General Staff at the War Office. Here his scientific
inclinations found full scope in the organisation of
survey work in all parts of the world. During his
tenure of the post he raised the standard of this work
in a very notable degree, which was recognised by the
C.M.G. being conferred on him in 1902. His work here
brought him into contact with many problems in geodesy,
in which he took a keen and lasting interest. At this
time Sir David Gill was actively promoting the geodetic
triangulation in South Africa, and to this Grove-
Hills gave his whole-hearted support.
In 1905 he completed his period of service as head of
the topographical department of the War Office, and
then retired from the army. In the following year he
contested Portsmouth in the Conservative interest un-
successfully, and afterwards occupied himself mainly
with scientific investigations. At the British Associa-
tion in 1906 he raised the question whether the triangu-
lation of this country was of the accuracy required by
modern geodesy, and a few years later the Ordnance
Survey undertook the re-observation of certain triangles
in Scotland to determine this point. In the same year
he and Sir Joseph Larmor discussed the movement of
the pole in an important communication to the Royal
Astronomical Society.
Col. Grove-Hills was president of Section E at the
British Association meeting in 1908, where he discussed
the surveys of the British Empire in an important
address. He had before this been invited to report on
the Canadian surveys and wrote a valuable and instruc-
tive report on them. In rorz he was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society, and from 1913 to 1915 he was presi-
dent of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was also
latterly Secretary of the Royal Institution. Keenly
interested in astronomy, he designed the suspended
zenith instrument at Durham Observatory, of which
institution he was Honorary Director up to the time of
his death. While on his way to Kieff with the eclipse
expedition of 1914 he was recalled to take his part in the
Great War, and was appointed Assistant Chief Engineer
of the Eastern Command, being gazetted Brigadier-
General in 1918. His services in this responsible
post were recognised by the award of the C.B.E.
in 191g.
Endowed with very great natural ability, and a
keen interest in all scientific questions, Grove-Hills
combined with these great administrative ability and
sound common sense. He was always ready to assist
by his advice and active co-operation in any well-
planned scheme of scientific work, and in his death
astronomy and geodesy have suffered a severe loss.
el, (Gi IU
Major-GENERAL J. WATERHOUSE,
Major-GENERAL JAMES WATERHOUSE, who was
eighty years of age, died on September 28. As a youth
he joined the Royal Bengal Artillery, and after seven
years was made Assistant Surveyor-General in charge
of the photography section in the Surveyor-General’s
Office in Calcutta. He retired in 1897. His official
duties necessitated the study of photography and
NO. 2764, VOL, 110]
photo-mechanical methods of reproduction, and this
he did with a keen eye for any possible improvement,
and a skilful hand which enabled him to test the
practical value of any new introduction. He made
an extended continental tour during his term of office
that he might become acquainted with the methods
employed in foreign photographic laboratories. A
considerable number of improvements were intro-
duced by Waterhouse in photolithography and allied
processes, as well as in collotype, sometimes varying
methods in use elsewhere to render them suitable for a
tropical climate. His knowledge of these methods in
all their minutie was very extensive, and in 1882-1885
he contributed to the Photographic News a series of
fifty chapters on photolithography.
In 1873, when Vogel published his discovery that the
sensitiveness of plates to green and red could be
enhanced from a negligible to a practically useful
amount by the use of certain dyes, Waterhouse was one
of the very first to confirm the observation and to find
other effective dyes. In 1890 he found that by the
addition of thiourea to the developer the reversal of
the image was so much facilitated that a very little,
if any, increase of exposure was necessary. He took
part in the observation of the total eclipses of 1871 and
1875, and in the transit of Venus in 1874.
On his retirement, Waterhouse studied the early
history of the camera obscura, and of the action of
light on silver salts, correcting some false and incom-
plete ideas that were current. He was president
of the Royal Photographic Society from 1905 to 1907,
honorary secretary of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens
from 1894 to 1897, president of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal from r888 to 1890, and trustee and twice chair-
man of the Indian Museum at Calcutta. The value
of his scientific work in connexion with photography
was acknowledged by the award to him of the Progress
Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, and the
Voigtlinder Medal of the Vienna Photographic Society.
We regret to record the death of Prof. J. K. A.
Wertheim Salomonson. He was born in 1864, passed
his medical studies at the University of Leyden, and
in 1899 became professor in neurology and radiology
in the University of Amsterdam. His contributions
to these two subjects were of considerable importance,
for his range of knowledge of medicine and physics
was supplemented by a perfection of skill in instru-
mental design. He was a frequent visitor to this
country and only last year he demonstrated to the
Ophthalmological Section of the Royal Society of
Medicine a method for the photography of the structure
of the eye. He was responsible for improvements in
the electro-cardiograph and in many instruments
designed for radiological purposes. A man of engaging
personality, his loss will be felt over the wide circle
which his scientific interests served. He was a Knight
of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands and an
honorary member of the Réntgen Society. At the
time of his death he held the office of rector magnificus
at the University of Amsterdam.
OcTOBER 21, 1922}
NATURE 55
Go
Current Topics and Events.
AN announcement was made in the Press on October
to by the British Broadcasting Company concerning
the conditions which, in order to obtain Post Office
approval, must be fulfilled by receiving apparatus
intended for use in connexion with the broadcasting
services. The conditions have been framed with the
view of preventing the use, in such sets, of circuits
which may “ regenerate ”’ oscillations and thus cause
disturbances at receiving stations within their re-
radiation range. Experience has indicated the need,
in the case of receiving apparatus handled by an
unskilful user, for some form of control in the type
and design of the apparatus of the nature which is
aimed at in the specification in question; the
specification accordingly should serve a useful purpose.
Exception has been taken in some quarters to the
provisions contained in clause to of the conditions
above referred to, on the ground that these particular
conditions conflict with the promise made by the
Postmaster-General in the House of Commons on
July 27 last, to the effect that the owners of ‘‘ home-
made ”’ recetving apparatus and the existing licencees
of imported receiving sets would be allowed to use
their apparatus for listening-in to broadcasted news, j;
music, etc. This clause provides, inter alia, that
“ All sets sold under the broadcast licence shall bear
the registered trade mark of the broadcasting com-
pany and the Post Office registered number.”’ It
has consequently been assumed that the issue of
licences for receiving broadcasted matter will be
confined to those who procure listening sets from the
broadcasting company. It appears to have been
overlooked, however, that the announcement to
which attention is directed above has been issued by
the British Broadcasting Company and relates alone
to the conditions to be fulfilled by the receiving sets
which are to be offered for sale to the public by
members of that corporation. No declaration has
so far been made by the Post Office which in any
way indicates that the Postmaster-General con-
templates the adoption of a policy at variance with
that which he informed Parliament it was his intention
to pursue in this matter; nevertheless, it is distinctly
unfortunate that, in all the circumstances of the
case, an official statement has not been issued by
the Post Office setting out fully and frankly what
course it is intended to pursue in relation to the
grant of licences generally.
THE assignment to science of the proceeds of the
first performance of a great play by a leading
dramatist is an act which we record with much
satisfaction. The play was the remarkable tragedy
“ Judith,” by M. Henri Bernstein, produced at the
Gymnase Théatre, Paris, on October 12, before a
brilhant and distinguished assembly, which comprised
ministers of State and the chief social and intellectual
leaders of the city. The Paris correspondent of the
Daily Mail states that the receipts were for the
benefit of the French Confederation of Scientific
Societies, and the Times correspondent announces
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
that more than rooo/. was raised by the performance.
M. Bernstein gave his royalty as author, and Mme.
Simone, who took the title part and obtained the
greatest triumph of her career, devoted her fee to the
same beneficent purpose. We cannot recall any
like association of drama with science in Great Britain,
and it is difficult to conceive of the proceeds from a
first night being devoted to a scientific institution
in this country. If, however, Sir James Barrie,
Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mr. Oscar Asche, or any other of
our leading dramatists or theatre managers should
be inclined to follow the example which Paris has
given us, we commend to their attention as eminently
worthy of support such confederations as the British
Association, British Science Guild, and the Conjoint
Board of Scientific Societies.
Tue August number of the Journal of Indian
Industries and Labour contains two articles on State
control in the field of industrial enterprise. Mr.
C. Y. Chintamani, Minister of Education and In-
dustries in the United Provinces, deals with the
subject in an article entitled “‘ The Limits of State
Aid to Industry,’”’ with special reference to the work
of the department of which he is in charge, while
Mr. A. Y. G., Campbell contributes the first part of an
article on the functions of provincial departments
of industries in which the whole question of State
assistance is reviewed. Mr. Campbell speaks from
experience, as he himself held for some years the
post of Director of Industries in Madras. Another
feature is an extract from the presidential address
delivered to the Mining and Geological Institute of
India in January 1922 by Dr. Leigh Fermor, officiat-
ing director of the Geological Survey of India, in
which is described the practical utility of a State
geological department. Dr. Fermor declares that
in royalties alone the receipts accruing annually to
the Provincial Governments and other owners of
mineral rights in India in respect of the eight most
important minerals, excluding salt and saltpetre,
amount to at least 560,000/, The Jouynal also
contains the usual summarised accounts of the
activities of the Provincial Departments of Industries
during the preceding quarter.
Tue council of the Institution of Mining and Metal-
lurgy has awarded the Gold Medal of the Institu-
tion to Sir Alfred Keogh, “on the occasion of
his retirement from the Rectorship of the Imperial
College of Science and Technology, in recognition of
his great services in the advancement of techno-
logical education and as a mark of admiration and
respect.’”’ The council of the Institution of Mining
Engineers has awarded the Medal of the Institution
to Sir George Beilby, “ in recognition of his valuable
contributions to science, with special reference to his
researches on fuel.’’ The medals will be presented
at the combined dinner of the two institutions to be
held at Guildhall, London, on November 16, at which
the Prince of Wales and several ministers of State
will be present.
24"
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
Dr. M. O. Forster was entertained at dinner by a
number of his chemical friends on October 6 on the eve
of his departure to India to take up the duties of his
new appointment as director of the Indian Institute
of Science at Bangalore. He left England on October
13 by the P. and O. steamship Morea.
Ir is stated in the Chemiker Zeitung of September 14
that Prof. Wieland has been appointed to the editorial
board of Liebig’s Annalen in place of the late
Prof. Wislicenus. The board consists, in addition,
of Profs. Wallach, Graebe, Zincke, and Willstatter.
In the issue of September 26 it is announced that
Dr. Noddack has been appointed director of the
Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt.
Ar the inaugural meeting of the eighty-first session
of the Pharmaceutical Society’s School of Pharmacy,
Bloomsbury Square, on October 4, the Hanbury
medal, awarded every two years for the promotion
of research in the chemistry and natural history of
drugs, was presented to Prof. Emile Perrot, professor
of materia medica in the University of Paris.
THE fifth annual Streatfeild Memorial Lecture will
be delivered by Prof. C. H. Desch in the Chemical
Lecture Theatre of the Finsbury Technical College,
Leonard Street, E.C.2, on Thursday, November 2,
at 4 o'clock. The subject will be ‘‘ The Metallurgical
Chemist.”
Tue forty-fifth anniversary of the Institute of
Chemistry will be celebrated by a dinner to be held
at the Hotel Victoria, Northumberland Avenue,
W.C.2, on Friday, November 17.
On Tuesday, October to, members of the Circle of
Scientific, Technical, and Trade Journalists accepted
the invitation of Holophane Ltd. to visit the new
showrooms and laboratories, where an address was
delivered by Captain Stroud, and a demonstration of
the latest scientific devices for distributing artificial
light was arranged. In addition to standard types
of reflectors for use in streets, factories, shops, etc.,
several interesting novelties were shown, including
the new unit equipped with Chance’s daylight glass
to produce “ artificial daylight.’’ The appearance of
coloured surfaces under this light, as compared with
that of ordinary electric lamps, was demonstrated
in the laboratory, where apparatus for obtaining
polar curves of light distribution was also shown in
operation. Mr. Leon Gaster, in returning thanks on
behalf of the visitors, remarked that the scientific
application of light was a subject of general interest
to the technical press. Its importance was illustrated
by the appointment, in 1913, of a Home Office Com-
mittee on Lighting in Factories and Workshops. It
was hoped that in future each scientific advance
would be brought to the notice of the technical press,
which acted as an educational link between the expert
and the general public.
THE seventy-sixth annual meeting of the Birming-
ham and Edgbaston Debating Society was held on
October 4. The visitors included Alderman David
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
Davis (Lord Mayor of Birmingham), Dr. R. Wakefield
(Bishop of Birmingham), Dr. McIntyre (Archbishop
of Birmingham), Mr. C. Grant Robertson (principal
of Birmingham University), Mr. C. A. Vince (president
of Birmingham Central Literary Association), and
Mr. Arthur Brampton (president of Birmingham
Liberal Association). Mr. G. Austin Baker was
elected president for the ensuing session. Mr. Harry
Jackson, the retiring president, delivered an address
on “The Trend of Human Development.’ He
showed that whereas in the past the environment
and progress of man was limited to tangible things,
to-day it extends more and more to regions outside
the immediate perceptions of the senses. The views
of Einstein, as contrasted with those of Newton, are
a typical example and represent a great and intrinsic
mental advance. The individual with the super-
sensitive faculty in some particular direction must
be given the scope and opportunity for the full
expression of his genius. Humanity cannot afford
to let clever men wear out their genius in providing
themselves with the necessities of life. The most
advantageous application of national wealth will be
the maintenance of those who are able. to work in
the higher environment of the intellect.
Mr. A. RADCLIFFE Brown has sent us a long letter
complaining of the review of his book—‘ The Anda-
man Islanders ’’—in NaturRE of July 22, p. 106.
The gist of the reviewer’s criticism was that Mr.
Brown spoilt a good plan—namely, of stating his own
observations and where they differed from those of
his chief predecessor, Mr. E. H. Man—by so carrying
it out as to lead the reader to suppose that Mr. Man’s
work was not worth much. Mr. Brown’s defence is
that in adopting his plan of procedure he was obeying
the instructions of the Anthony Wilkins Studentship,
under whose auspices his work was undertaken. The
reviewer did not complain of the plan but of the
method of carrying it out. Next, with regard to the
reviewer's criticism of the unwisdom of adopting the
Anthropos Alphabet of Pater Schmidt for his work in
supersession of the long-established alphabet com-
piled by so competent an authority as Mr. A. J. Ellis,
Mr. Brown writes that he has “no hesitation in
accepting the Anthropos Alphabet as the nearest
approach possible at the present time to a scientific
universal alphabet.’’ But at the same time he quotes
the fact that Sir Richard Temple published a universal
grammar which has not been adopted to any extent
by other writers, ‘‘ doubtless because of the objection
they feel to giving up the system of grammar to which
they are accustomed.’’? Mr. Brown, having thus the
, fate of Sir Richard Temple’s grammar before him
and appreciating the reason for it, might have been
warned of the fate awaiting the Anthvopos Alphabet,
and that the only result in the circumstances of
partially adopting it in a work, which he himself
says ‘‘does not deal with the languages of the
Andamans,’’ would be to puzzle, and not enlighten,
the student. To the reviewer’s criticism of use
being made without acknowledgment of information
gathered by living predecessors, Mr. Brown raises the
defence that any passages bearing such an interpre-
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
tation must have occurred in the introduction “* which
was meant as such and nothing more.”’ It certainly
does not justify the “correction ’’ of the work of
highly experienced local officials with not only the
people and the country before them, but also the
possession of the official technical works and some
of the other general books, on which Mr. Brown relies
for his facts.
In a book entitled “ Science and Human Affairs,’’
which Messrs. George Bell and Sons, Ltd., will
shortly publish, the author, Dr. W. C. Curtis, will
recount how the conveniences of daily life and the
safeguards to health have been discovered, and the
possible bearing of science on human affairs in the
future.
Tue following catalogues, which should be useful
to readers of NATURE, have just reached us: No. 95
(of Botanical and Zoological Works) from Messrs.
Dulau and Co., Ltd., 34 Margaret Street, W.1;
No. 216 (of Periodicals, Collections, Transactions,
and Publications of Learned Societies, etc.) from
Messrs. W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge; and
No. 372 (miscellaneous, including Natural and Physical
Sciences) from Messrs. Bernard Quaritch, Ltd.,
11 Grafton Street, W.1.
WAT ORE
555
Messrs. LONGMANS AND Co. have in preparation,
in four volumes, ‘“‘ A Natural History of the Ducks,”
by Dr. J. C. Phillips, of the Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., which will aim
at giving an exact and detailed description of all
known species of ducks, mapping their breeding
and migration ranges. It will also contain full life-
histories of the European and American species.
The work will be illustrated in colour and in black
and white by F. W. Benson, A. Brooks, and
L. A. Fuertes. Vol. 1 is nearly ready for publica-
tion.
Sir RonaLtp Ross is bringing out, through Mr.
John Murray, a work entitled “The Great Malaria
Problem and its Solution: an Autobiographical
Account,’’ which will give a complete history of the
discovery of the relation between malaria and mos-
quitoes, showing how malaria is carried from man
to man. Another book in the same publisher’s
announcement list is “‘ Gardening for the XXth
Century,’ by C. Eley, in which attention is chiefly
directed to the more permanent features in gardens.
The work will contain a list of selected trees and
shrubs, with descriptive and cultural notes, and
brief chapters upon botany and nomenclature.
Our Astronomical Column.
MERcuURY VISIBLE AS A MORNING STaR.—Mercury }
will reach its greatest elongation, 18° 38’ west, in
the early morning of October 31, and will be visible
before sunrise during the period from about October
22 to November 10. The planet will rise about
13 hours before the sun, and should be easily visible
about an hour before the times of sunrise. Its
position will be near the horizon in E. by S., and it
will shine with a rosy, fluctuating ight about equal
to that of a first magnitude star.
The planet Saturn will be very near Mercury on
about October 23, when the distance separating the
two orbs will be a little more than 2°.
Telescopic observations of Mercury are much
required, the exact time of the planet’s rotation
being doubtful. It is a good plan for those observers
who do not possess equatorial telescopes to pick up
the planet when it is visible to the naked eye, and
to get and retain the disc in the field of view of the
instrument until some time after sunrise, when it
will have risen sufficiently high above the vapours
near the horizon to permit the image to be well
defined. Mercury certainly presents dusky markings
which are capable of being followed when clear
weather allows, and the planet offers a much better
prospect for successful scrutiny than Venus.
ComeEts.—Perrine’s periodic comet, 1896 VII. and
tg09 III., should now be looked for in the moon’s
absence. The following ephemerides are on two
assumptions of the time of perihelion :
Date. Assumed T., Oct. 3. Assumed T., Oct. rz.
Greenwich Noon, R.A. Decl. R.A. Decl.
h. m. haem:
Oct. 19.0 7 45 TGz:0) Ne 478 19 24°°0 N.
27.0 8 5 142-3 7 40 18°°7
Nov. 4.0 (oar 9°°6 7 56 13°°4
I2.0 8 33 GaN 8 9 8o:r N.
Search should be made near the line joining the
two positions for each date.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
Mr. Wood sends the following elliptical orbit of
comet 1922 a:
M Oe Pr
) a ¢ : 5 SBS 3700327
Q 6 27 Av O Se
u 5 : 32°) 300) 16"
loge. . 9°9953713
loga . é 2°1874524
Ga aaa egy 1-857
Period about 1900 years.
Mr. Wood is at work on a more exact orbit, using
photographic positions that extend to April 25 last.
THE Masses OF ViIsuAL Binary STars.—The
Astronomical Journal, No. 807, contains measures
of the parallaxes of several binary stars made photo-
graphically at the Sproul Observatory by Messrs.
J. A. Miller and J. H. Pitman. Investigation was
made as to how far the irregularity of the combined
image and the change in relative positions due to
orbital motion between the exposures might introduce
error. The probable errors seem to be quite as small
as for single stars. The parallaxes deduced by other
observers are tabulated as well as their own, and
masses are deduced and classified according to
spectral type with the following results for average
mass, Beig-on, Al 3-49; BP 3-92; G 1-775 Ko 1-575
M 0:65. Only two M stars were available.
In conclusion, the advisability is pointed out of
obtaining absolute parallaxes of as many binaries
as possible by the relative shift of spectral lines due
to different motion of the components in the line of
sight. The method has already been applied to
Alpha Centauri and to Castor, also to Sirius (bright
star only). A list is given of 18 stars to which the
method might be applied, with the amount of present
and maximum differential motion. It is necessary
either that both spectra should be visible or that
the relative masses should be known.
556
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
Research Items.
Gypsy FoLKLORE.—The new series of the Gypsy
Lore Society’s Journal is being actively conducted
by its energetic secretary, Mr. T. W. Thompson.
The last issue (Third Series, vol. i., part 3) contains
an excellent article by him on the Gypsy Grays as
tale-tellers, which describes the methods by which
the incidents of their stories are manipulated. This
has a much wider interest than is implied by its title,
and students of folk tales will find that it throws
much needed light on the construction of these
narratives.
Hockry IN ANCIENT GREECE.—An ancient Greek
sculptured relief recently discovered in Athens,
according to the Times, gives evidence that the
Greeks played ball games other than with the hand.
The relief represents six naked youths taking part ina
game bearing every resemblance to modern hockey.
The curved stick used may possibly supply an ex-
planation of the singular curved object carved in
relief on some of the votive offerings found at Sparta.
These have been called “ sickles.”’ It is difficult to
say why this implement should have been dedicated
to Artemis, but the word “ sickle’? may have been
the current slang for a boy’s hockey-stick.
_ Roman Remarns 1n Lonpon.—Recent excavations
in the City have led to important discoveries. It
seems to be proved that the ancient church of St.
Peter’s-upon-Cornhill was built inside of what was
once a Roman fortress, which future investigation
is expected to show was the first fortified camp of
the Romans. If so, it is possible that it was built
immediately after the re-establishment of order
subsequent to the revolt of Boadicea. Mr. W. C.
Edwards, the archeologist in charge of these in-
vestigations, believes that during the next ten years
more Roman discoveries will probably be made in the
City than have been made for centuries. The
excavation recently struck what is probably the
most ancient wall yet found in London. At one
point it is 5 feet thick, and above the footings were
courses of tiles, four abreast, each 13 inches broad.
Rooms were added to it with plastered walls which
appear to be of imitation alabaster, the wall being
overlaid with a layer of white cement, almost as
thin as paper, on which designs had been painted by
a very skilful artist. It is now clear that Gracechurch
Street was not Roman : it probably belongs to Saxon
times, and was the work of Alfred the Great.
_ ARCHEOLOGY IN PaLESTINE.—Among the obliga-
tions undertaken by Great Britain in connexion with
the control of Palestine is that of promoting archzo-
logical research. It was a condition of the scheme
that in the Advisory Board for Archeology other
nations should be represented. The first work which
- will now be undertaken is the excavation of the
ancient City of David on Mount Ophel, immediately
south of the existing walls of Jerusalem. Three
different attempts have been made to probe the
secrets of the hill, and though attended with some
measure of success, practically the whole of Jebus,
the original stronghold, the Palace and Millo of David,
and in all probability the tombs of the Kings of
Judah, await investigation. An area of ten acres
has been preserved by the Administration, and this
is now available for excavation. East of Jordan an
immense field remains practically untouched, and
many of these sites are of importance equal to that of
Palestine itself. Especially at Jerash, the ancient
Gerasa, there are wonderful remains of the Roman
city, which show that it was one of the most imposing
cities of the Roman period. The excavation of these
NO, 2764, VOL. 110]
Palestine sites is likely to throw welcome light not
only on the history of the Hebrews but on the obscure
annals of the nations who preceded them, and it may
be hoped that the Palestine Exploration Fund,
which counts among the names of its illustrious
servants that of Kitchener, will receive adequate
support in carrying out the well-arranged programme
of investigation which is now laid before the scientific
world.
UppER CRETACEOUS GASTROPODS OF NEW ZEALAND.
—Certain Upper Cretaceous gastropods of New
Zealand, originally referred to Mr. H. Woods for
description, were on his recommendation forwarded
to Dr. O. Wilckens, then at Strasbourg, to deal
with. The intervention of the war and consequent
removal of Dr. Wilckens to Bonn delayed the com-
pletion of the task, and the finished monograph as
rendered into English by the author himself has
recently been issued as Paleontological Bulletin
No. 9 by the Geological Survey Branch of the New
Zealand Department of Mines. The major portion
of the fossils studied are of Upper Senonian age.
While these include a few species peculiar to New
Zealand, resemblances can be traced in many ex-
amples to species from beds of equivalent age in
North Germany, Chili, Patagonia, the Antarctic
Regions, and South India. Of the indigenous forms
the most striking is the remarkable Conchothyva para-
sitica, and Dr. Wilckens gives a very careful account
of its strange growth and development. The plates
accompanying the monograph are deserving of much
praise, and there is a map showing the localities
whence the fossils were obtained.
MaRINE FossIts IN CENTRAL IND1A.—The General
Report of the Geological Survey of India for 1921
contains a confirmation, and some further particulars,
of the discovery of marine fossils in the lower
Gondwana series of Central India, which was reported
in some of the Indian newspapers about nine months
ago. The discovery, which was made by Mr. K. P.
Sinor, State Geologist to the Rewah Durbar, at
Umaria, situated almost centrally in the broadest
part of the Peninsula, consists of a shell band,
about 3 inches thick, composed almost entirely of
shells of the genus Productus. Below the shell
band are quartz grits which pass up, through the band,
conformably into sandstones of Lower Barakar age,
the bed itself lying not far from the junction of the
Gondwana rocks with the underlying gneiss, in beds
which are usually regarded as of Talchir age. The
discovery has been further investigated by Mr.
P. N. Mukherji, field collector of the Survey, who
added two specimens of Spiriferina to the fauna.
The Productus has not yet been identified, but it is
new to India; the Spiriferina is close to, and probably
identical with, S. cristata, var. octoplicata. The
fossils, therefore, are not of great assistance in deter-
mining the precise age of the band, but the discovery
of marine conditions in the centre of the Peninsula,
where no marine rocks of later than probably pre-
Cambrian age had previously been found, is of great
interest and importance. Dr. L. L. Fermor, the
officiating director, by whom the report is made,
discusses the question of whether the sea lay mainly
to the north, or the west, of the newly discovered
Productus locality. In either case the discovery,
though of interest as marking a greater extension
of the sea than had been previously suspected, does
not materially alter the conclusion that the Indian
Peninsula is a region which has been continuously
dry land throughout the whole period covered by
the sequence of fossiliferous rocks.
—
patina:
ee Oeerrrlrl OO ee eee e Pee
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
THE DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPERATURE IN SCANDI-
NAVIA.—The Meteorological Institute of Sweden has
published an important paper and series of charts
by Mr. H. E. Hamberg on thermosynchrones and
thermoisochrones in the Scandinavian peninsula
(Bihang till Meteorologiska lak ttagelser, Bd. 60,
1918 (1922)). In tables and charts, founded on
the observations of 232 Swedish and 83 Norwegian
stations, Mr. Hamberg gives the mean annual dates
at which certain temperatures reign. The tempera-
tures are reduced to sea-level for this purpose,
although Mr. Hamberg fully realises that for certain
geographical uses the value of the charts is thereby
lessened, and he gives two pairs of charts, spring and
autumn, one for 12° C. and the other for o° C.,
in which the actual temperatures are utilised. A
second series of charts indicates the average number
of days with a temperature above or below certain
figures. The curves on these charts Mr. Hamberg terms
thermoisochrones. The charts, which are small but
very clear, are most useful for geographical purposes.
SPELL OF WARM WINTERS IN EUROPE.—The
abnormal winter warmth recently experienced in
Central Europe, embracing England, is dealt with in
the Meteorological Magazine for September by Mr.
C. E. P. Brooks, of the Meteorological Office. A
chart is given showing the differences of the mean
temperatures for the winter, comprised by the
months December, January, and February, for the
years 1911 to 1920, and the long period averages for
the combined winter months, mostly covering the
years 1851 to 1910. At Budapest the winters of
the past ten years have on the average been more
than 4° F. warmer than the normal winter. At
Zurich the excess is 2°-6 F.; at Paris, 2°-1 F.; and
at Kew, 1°-8 F. On the Atlantic sea-board~ the
winters of the decade in question have been slightly
colder than the normal. There is no appreciable
difference of temperature for the rest of the year,
the summer months for the years 1911 to 1920 having
been, on the whole, somewhat cooler than the average.
The abnormal warmth of the winters was not confined
to low levels; the mean winter temperature for the
ten-year period at St. Gothard, 6877 feet above
sea-level, is 1°-9 F. above the normal. The author
suggests a tentative explanation connecting the ab-
normal warmth with the general decrease of sunspot
numbers since the nineteenth century. Taking the
mean winter temperature at Greenwich for the
ten-year period, 1911 to 1920, it is 1°-5 F. above the
60 years’ average, and the mean was above the normal
in 8 winters out of ro, the excess being more than
° F. in 4 winters. In the ten-year period from
1886 to 1895 the mean winter temperature at
Greenwich was 1°-9 F. below the normal for sixty
years, and in 8 winters out of ro the mean was below
the average, the deficiency amounting to 3° F. or more
in 3 winters; this is a different period from that
given by the author and with an opposite effect.
GLARE FROM Motor HeEapiicHts.—The descrip-
tions of motor headlights exhibited at the meeting
of the Optical Society on May 11 will be found in
part 4 of volume 23 of the Transactions of the Society,
together with a report of the discussion of the
conditions which a satisfactory headlight should fulfil.
In America these conditions are that 1oo feet ahead
of the car at a point 5 feet above the horizontal, the
illumination must not exceed that due to a lamp of
750 candle power. The conditions laid down in
this country by the Ministry of Transport relate to
the width and height of the beam and place no
restriction on its intensity. The reconciliation of the
requirements of the driver and the pedestrian or
driver he is approaching is difficult, but the general
opinion of those who took part in the discussion
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
D7,
appeared to be that the beam should have a candle
power of 3000 in a direction half a degree below
the horizontal and be reduced to 500 or 600 candle
power in a direction one degree above the horizontal.
As the glare effect is due to contrast, it was further
suggested that the car body and the road at the side
of the car should be illuminated to some extent as
well as the road in front.
A New THEORY oF Vision.—A_photo-electric
theory of vision has recently been put forward by
Dr. F. Schanz of Dresden and has been discussed in
the Zeitschrift fiiy Augenheilkunde. At present it is
incomplete, but according to a paper in vol. 54 of
the Zevtschrift fiir Sinnesphysiologie the author hopes
to fill in the gaps by work on which he is at present
engaged. In outline it is as follows: Light on enter-
ing the eye is absorbed by the visual purple, which
as a result emits electrons at speeds which depend
on the wave-length but not on the intensity of the
incident light; that is, the visual purple is photo-
electric. The electrons impinge on the rods and
cones and produce the sensation of light. If their
velocities do not differ widely they are equalised
during their passage to the rods and cones and
produce a single sensation corresponding to the
mean velocity; but if they differ materially the
interval between their emission and their arrival
at the rods and cones is not sufficient to equalise
them and they produce distinct sensations. Over
a range of wave-lengths of 1 x 10~* cm. equalisation
is produced, but if all wave-lengths over a range
double this are present, the sensation of white is pro-
duced, whether the range be e.g. from 4 to 6 or from
6 to 8 x 10-4 cm.
TESTING FOR VITAMINS.—Investigators are search-
ing actively for some chemical means of recognising
the presence of the vitamins in food materials, and
the discovery of such a test would enormously increase
the facility of research on these elusive substances.
So far all the suggestions made have failed to with-
stand a critical examination. In a recent paper in
the Analyst, Messrs. Drummond and Watson point
out the close relation which exists between the
presence of vitamin A in fats and the well-known
reaction given by liver oils, which consists in the
production of a purple coloration when the oil is
dissolved in an organic solvent and a drop of sulphuric
acid is added. All the liver oils of mammals, birds,
and fish examined by the authors gave the reaction,
but they also find that it is given, although less
strongly, by the body fat of some animals and by
butter. In striking agreement with the behaviour
of vitamin A, the power of producing the coloration
is lost when a current of air is passed through the
fat at 100° C. but not when the fat is heated at this
temperature in absence of air. Again, when the fat
is hydrolysed it remains, with the vitamin A, in the
unsaponifiable fraction. Moreover, the intensity of
the reaction was found to be roughly proportional
to the vitamin A content of a series of fish-liver oils,
The livers and fat of pigs and rats fed on diets deficient
in vitamin A did not give the reaction, but this
reappeared when the deficiency was made good. It
is obvious that there is a close parallel between the
two properties, and the authors, without claiming
that the test actually indicates the presence of the
vitamin, suggest “‘ that the association may be of
some significance.’ The necessity for this caution
is indicated by the facts that although the marine
diatom Nietzschia has been shown to be rich in
vitamin A the oil extracted from this organism did
not give the purple colour test with sulphuric acid.
A similar negative result was obtained with plankton oil,
although the reaction was given by certain marine alge.
558
NALOR
[OcToBER 21, 1922
Tendencies of Modern Physics.
HE Swiss Society of Natural Sciences met this
year at Berne on August 24 to 27. The
programme of the session comprised several discus-
sions on questions of general interest, and papers
of a more special character communicated to the
various sections. The work was divided between
the following sections: (1) Mathematics; (2) Physics ;
(3) Geophysics, Meteorology, and Astronomy; (4)
Chemistry ; (5) Geology, Mineralogy, and Petrography ;
(6) Botany ; (7) Zoology ; (8) Entomology ; (9) Paleon-
tology ; (10) Anthropology and Ethnology ; (11) Medical
and Biological Science ; (12) History of Medicine and
Natural Science; (13) Veterinary Science; (14) Phar-
macy ; (15) Engineering History.
We cannot give here a detailed account of this
annual event in Swiss science; we shall therefore
confine ourselves to a résumé of the address of Prof.
C. E. Guye, of Geneva, in opening the series of
general discussions.
Taking the title, “‘The Tendencies of Modern
Physics and the Conception of Matter,’’ Prof. Guye
first showed that modern physics was becoming
more and more electromagnetic, discontinuous, and
statistical. To these three characteristics, which have
been sufficiently disconcerting to minds accustomed
to the classical conceptions of the second half of the
nineteenth century, there has now been added a
fourth, of still more perplexing character, in the
introduction of the principle of relativity. In adopt-
ing this principle physics has displayed a distinctly
metaphysical tendency, which sometimes ventures to
introduce into scientific discussion a dogmatic method
of procedure. It is true that the difficulty is com-
pensated by important advantages, resulting from
the fact that the formule of relativity introduce more
simplicity in the dynamics of very great velocities,
and more unity between the various branches of
physics.
After having shown how physics, lke chemistry,
has moved steadily along the path of discontinuity
by the introduction of the atom of electricity and
the theory of quanta, Prof. Guye spoke of the con-
sequences of this discontinuity, which complicated
greatly the explanation of phenomena apparently of
the most simple character.
How, indeed, could one follow, by means of the
equations of mechanics, the reciprocal actions of a
nearly innumerable group of discontinuous elements
(molecules, atoms, electrons) ? This extreme compli-
cation which characterises the phenomenon, apparently
so simple, when it is desired to study it intimately,
led to the introduction of kinetic theories. The
calculus of probabilities then came to the aid of
physicists, powerless as they were to solve, by means
of the equations of mechanics, the inextricable
problems which were proposed to them. But the
consequence of these kinetic theories is to lead us
to conceive physico-chemical laws as statistical, so
that we must picture physico-chemical determinism
as a statistical determinism, to which the law of
great numbers imparts all the appearance of infinite
precision.
The progress of physics towards electromagnetism
is particularly striking. The first decisive step along
this path was made by Maxwell, to whom we owe
the electromagnetic theory of light, which, universally
accepted as it is to-day by physicists, unites in a
systematic whole the phenomena of light and of
electromagnetism. But this tendency to explain
physical phenomena by the laws of electromagnetism
has only served to make it still more accentuated.
It has even attacked the mechanics which seemed
to be the immutable basis of the old physics. To-day
the fundamental postulate of mechanics—inertia—
can be satisfactorily explained in terms of the pro-
perties of an electromagnetic field, and more and
more intermolecular forces appear to be of electro-
magnetic nature (Debye, Keesom).
But the main reason for this constant evolution
of physics towards electromagnetism is the work
carried out particularly in England (Rutherford’s
school), which has exhibited it in a most convincing
fashion. The material atom itself appears to be
constituted entirely of charges of electricity, positive
and negative (electrons), and all physical forces,
with the exception of the mysterious force of gravita-
tion, will thus be found, in the last resort, to be
electric and magnetic forces.
In the second part of his address, Prof. Guye
showed how the conception of matter, as defined by
inertia, had evolved from Lavoisier to Einstein, and
to the most recent work of Rutherford and Aston.
Without committing ourselves positively to Prout’s
hypothesis, which would make the atomic weights
of the elements integral multiples of that of a unique
constituent—the atom of hydrogen—new develop-
ments point to a duality of ultimate material, the
positive electron which is mainly responsible for the
inertia of the atom, and the negative electron.
In short, the startling progress realised in physics
during the last thirty years has reduced to naught
all those fluid phantoms which we knew—imponder-
able electric and magnetic fluids; only the most
tenacious among them—the aether—offers still a
partial resistance.
Physicists have thus been led, little by little, to
the idea of the materiality of electricity, and still
more the formule of relativity point to the parallelism
between inertia and energy; that is, to the fusion
into a single principle of the two principles which
govern all physical phenomena—the principle of the
conservation of mass and that of the conservation
of energy.
Such are the important results, not only from the
scientific point of view, but also from that of our
best philosophic culture, which modern research has
brought forward during the course of the last thirty
years.
The Isothermal Frontier of Ancient Cities.1
THE northern frontier of the Roman Empire is
shown in atlases of ancient geography, and that
of the Achemenian Empire of the Persians and of
the dynasties which succeeded in the Middle East.
The frontier of the ancient Chinese Empire has not
been made similarly familiar, and in place of it there
is the representation of the Empire of China as it
1 Abstract of a paper by Dr. Vaughan Cornish read before Section E
(Geography) of the British Association at Hull on Sept, 12.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
has been in medieval and modern times. From this
most of Manchuria, all Mongolia, and the Ili valley
must be shorn off in order to get the Chinese northern
frontier as it was under the Han dynasty in the
beginning of the second century after Christ, the
age of the Antonines in Europe. At this time, when
the ancient civilisation of Eurasia was at the height
of its culture and apparently at the maximum of
its power, the northern frontier once controlled by
te
ee
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATORE
399
the Persian Achemenidee was divided between the
Parthians, capitalled at Ctesiphon, and the Kushan
dynasty of the Yue-chi, capitalled at Peshawar.
These four northern frontiers, Roman, Parthian,
Kushan, and Chinese, were consecutive, forming an
unbroken line from the mouth of the Rhine near
the modern Katwyk in Holland, 52° N., to the east
coast of Korea in about 41° N. South of the line
a vast array of established cities stretched for seven
thousand miles across Eurasia, in some parts protected
by natural barriers, in others defended by lines of
masonry fortification. North of the line were the
tents of nomads, huts of forest dwellers, and stockaded
defences of earth and wood. In the northern part
of modern Germany there were territories north of
the line which the Romans had abandoned as unten-
able or unprofitable. South of the line in Eastern
Europe was the district of Dacia which Augustus
preferred not to touch, but Trajan was compelled
to occupy. In this country the native people had
in the interval begun to construct masonry fortifi-
cations.
In the course of an investigation of the geography
of capital cities, it was found that this northern
frontier of ancient cities, on the eve of the barbarian
irruption, has, within narrow limits of variation, the
same average temperature throughout. It is a true
annual isotherm, not an isotherm reduced to sea
level. Along the European part is a line of modern
cities with meteorological observatories. The annual
temperatures of eight of these, strung out along the
length, has an average of 48°-6 F. Asia is not well
off for meteorological records near the line on the
south, and the second table consists of a list of
towns mostly under Russian rule just north of the
line where proper records have been kept. It will
be observed, therefore, that their temperatures are
rather lower than that along the frontier of the
ancient cities. The average temperature of these
eight towns north of the line is 47°4 F. A very
long gap in these towns occurs between Kuldja and
Mukden, but the record for the Lukchun depression
in Chinese Turkestan, a little south of the frontier
yields a not inconsistent figure, if corrected for the
general height of the surrounding country, and that
of Peking is not discordant. Further east the
generalised isotherm of 48°-5 F. reaches the eastern
coast of Korea in about 41° N. (somewhat north of
The Mechanism
\ pees medical students have probably felt that
current physiological teaching provided them
with only a hazy conception of the mechanism for
hearing in the cochlea. Helmholtz put forward the
view that this organ contained a series of resonators,
which were differentiated like a set of piano strings,
so that each string vibrated only in response to one
particular note. It will be remembered that the
cochlea forms a spiral, which when unwound consists
of two chambers, placed one above the other, and
separated by the basilar membrane. At one end
(the base) of the cochlea, in the wall of the upper
chamber, is the window which is set in vibration by
the middle ear, while in the wall of the lower chamber
is a similar window whose function is to prevent the
pressure from changing inside the cochlea when the
upper window moves. Both chambers contain fluid,
and, at the other end (the apex) of the cochlea, the
chambers unite, for the basilar membrane ceases just
short of the apex.
The suggestion that the fibres of the basilar
membrane can act as a resonating system has been
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
the peninsula portion of the country) which cannot
be very far from the frontier of its ancient cities.
In the detached Roman possession of Britain the
inner and principal line of fortification had its western
terminal at Carlisle, where the temperature is 47°-8 F.
Eastwards of the continent of Eurasia the conquest
of the Japanese islands by their present masters
was only completed at a much later date than that
under consideration, but the Japanese derived their
culture from ancient China (mainly through Korea)
and it may therefore be significant that they were
content to conquer, without colonising, Yezo, the
northern island, and that what is reckoned by the
Japanese as Japan proper, and is called by them
“Old Japan” does not include Yezo but stops
short with Honshiu, the mainland, and that the
annual isotherm of 48°:5 F. traverses the strait of
Tsugaru which separates Old Japan from Yezo.
The fact that the annual temperature along this
immense line only varies within remarkably narrow
limits cannot be reasonably contested. If it be the
case that desiccation has occurred generally in Asia
along this line since the second century of our era
its probable effect would be to lessen the winter
and raise the summer temperature, leaving the
annual temperature much the same.
The coincidence of frontier and true isotherm is
not a mere consequence of east and west barriers
of mountains, inland seas, and rivers, for these had
to be supplemented by long lines of fortification.
Neither was it due to unsuitability of the southern
country to pastoral peoples, for in Asia there was
much coveted grazing land south of the settled
frontier. Precisely how far this coincidence is sig-
nificant it is yet difficult to say.
Annual Temperatures along Annual Temperatures north of
the Frontier in Europe. the Frontier in Asia.
2G = 1D
Carlisle 47°8| Stavropol . ne AT,
Utrecht 47°8 | Astrachan . - 50
Cologne 50°2 | Kazalinsk . «4075
Ratisbon 46°6 | Aulieata. Pe mesic
Vienna ° 48°8 | Narynsk . cralaz vt
Buda-Pesth . 49°8 | Vyerni 46°5
Debreczin 49°3 | Kuldja : - 4875
Odessa 48°5 | Mukden ; «45
Mean 48°6 | Mean 47°4
of the Cochlea.
current since it was pointed out that their length
(measured across the canal) varied continuously from
the base to the apex. Now the fibres of a resonating
system must obey the laws which govern vibrating
strings, so that n, the number of vibrations of a
, I t .
string per sec., =>) ye where / is the length of a
fibre, ¢ is the tension, and m is the mass per unit
length. Gray showed in 1900 that the tension of
the fibres of the basilar membrane also varied from
the base to the apex, for while the spiral hgament
which attached the membrane to the outer wall of
the cochlea was very dense near the base, it was,
on the contrary, very slender near the apex. We
know, therefore, that the fibres of the _ basilar
membrane are differentiated for tension and length,
so that the short fibres near the base are under high
tension, and the long ones near the apex are under
low tension. To complete the requirements of the
formula for vibrating strings, it is only necessary to
discover a system by which the fibres are differentiated
for mass, which differentiation must, as the formula
560
demands, be applied so that the load on the fibres is
small near the base, but large near the apex.
A great difficulty in supposing that the basilar
membrane represents a system of resonating strings
is the fact that it is immersed in fluid. It is precisely
this point which Dr. George Wilkinson, in a paper
read before the Section of Physiology of the British
Association at the recent Hull meeting, conceives to
be, not a difficulty, but the key of the whole problem.
He suggests that the differentiation of the fibres as
to mass, or the “ loading ”’ of the fibres, is brought
about by the fluid in the canals. When the fibres
at any point of the membrane vibrate in response to
an impulse from the middle ear, they will be loaded
by the weight of a column of fluid proportional to
the distance of the vibrating point from the fenestra
votunda, which is the window between the cochlea
and the middle ear. The column of fluid between
the window and the vibrating point will be least in
the case of a point on the membrane near the base
of the cochlea, and greatest in the case of a point
near the apex.
So much for Dr. Wilkinson’s theoretical conception.
He has provided a convincing proof of his views in
the shape of two very ingenious models. The first
is a brass box divided horizontally into two like
the cochlea unwound from its spiral. The partition
which represents the basilar membrane consists of a
series of parallel wires of phosphor-bronze soldered
firmly in position, and covered with formalised
gelatin. On this basilar membrane is scattered blue
enamel powder. There is a fenestva rotunda and
ovalis at one end of the box, respectively above and
below the basilar membrane, the windows being
formed in each case by a rubber disc. The box is
filled with water and is completely closed. In his
first model, Dr. Wilkinson has kept all his phosphor-
bronze wires at the same tension and of the same
NAB ORE
[OcTOBER 21, 1922
length. Yet he finds that when he applies a vibrating
tuning-fork to the rubber membrane, or fenestra
yotunda, the powder on the basilar membrane takes
up a definite position which varies with tuning-
forks of different rates of vibration. Thus a 200
D.V. fork produces a localised resonant response at
a distance 3-3 cm. from the proximal end of the scale,
while a 400 D.V. fork produces such a response at a
distance of o-g cm. If one makes use of the formula
for vibrating strings and supposes that the differentia-
tion in resonance is due to the different loading of
the wires by the fluid according to the above
hypothesis, then the point of resonance to the lower
tone should be 4 times the distance from the windows
compared with that for the upper tone. Actually
we see that it is not 4 times, but is 3-3/0-9= 3-6 times.
A very striking agreement !
Here then is proof of Dr. Wilkinson’s contention
that a system of transverse fibres, immersed in a
fluid as it is in the cochlea, is already, by reason of
the position of the fenesitve, differentiated for
resonance in regard to the effective mass of the
fibres.
In his second model, which is larger, he has carried
out a differentiation of his phosphor-bronze wires in
respect of tension and length. The differentiation
of tension is effected by attaching weights of different
sizes to the ends of the individual wires; while the
lighter weights are attached to the longer fibres near
the “‘ apex,”’ the heavier weights are attached to the
shorter fibres near the base. In this way he has
attained a model which gives a localised resonant
response over a range exceeding four octaves.
One may say in conclusion that Dr. Wilkinson
has made a very considerable contribution to our
knowledge of the mechanism of hearing, and has
presented the first clear conception of how the
cochlea can work.
British Association Research Committees.
) ESEARCH committees to deal with the following
subjects were appointed by the General Com-
mittee at the recent meeting of the British Association
at Hull. The names given are those of the chairmen
and secretaries of the committees.
SEcTIoN A (MATHEMATICS AND PHysics).—Seismo-
logical investigations : Prof. H. H. Turner, Mr. J. J.
Shaw. To assist work on the tides: Prof. H. Lamb,
Dr. A. T. Doodson. Annual tables of constants and
numerical data, chemical, physical, and technological :
Sir Ernest Rutherford, Prof. A. W. Porter. Calcula-
tion of mathematical tables: Prof. J. W. Nicholson,
Dr. J. R. Airey. Determination of gravity at sea:
Prof. A. E. H. Love, Prof. W. G. Duffield. Investiga-
tion of the upper atmosphere: Sir Napier Shaw,
Mr. C. J. P. Cave. To aid the work of establishing
a solar observatory in Australia: Prof. H. H. Turner,
Prof. W. G. Duffield.
SEcTION B (CHEMISTRY).—Colloid chemistry and
its industrial applications: Prof. F. G. Donnan, Dr.
W. Clayton. Absorption spectra and chemical con-
stitution of organic compounds : Prof. I. M. Heilbron,
Prof. E.'€. ©. Baly.
SEcTION C (GEOLOGY).—The Old Red Sandstone
rocks of Kiltorcan, Ireland: Prof. Grenville Cole,
Prof. T. Johnson. To excavate critical sections in
the palzozoic rocks of England and Wales: Prof.
W.W. Watts, Prof. W. G. Fearnsides. The collection,
preservation, and systematic registration of photo-
graphs of geological interest: Prof. E. J. Garwood,
Prof. S. H. Reynolds. To consider the preparation
of a list of characteristic fossils : Prof. P. F. Kendall,
Mr. H. C. Versey. To investigate the flora of lower
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
carboniferous times as exemplified at a newly dis-
covered locality at Gullane, Haddingtonshire: Dr.
R. Kidston, Prof. W. T. Gordon. To investigate
the stratigraphical sequence and paleontology of the
Old Red Sandstone of the Bristol district: Mr. H.
Bolton, Mr. F. S. Wallis.
SECTION D (ZooL_oGcy).—To aid competent investi-
gators selected by the committee to carry on definite
pieces of work at the Zoological Station at Naples:
Prof. E. S. Goodrich, Prof. J. H. Ashworth. To
summon meetings in London or elsewhere for the
consideration of matters affecting the interests of
zoology, and to obtain by correspondence the opinion
of zoologists on matters of a similar kind, with power
to raise by subscription from each zoologist a sum of
money for defraying current expenses of the organisa-
tion: Prof. S. J. Hickson, Dr. W. M. Tattersall.
Zoological bibliography and publication: Prof. E. B.
Poulton, Dr. F. A. Bather. Parthenogenesis: Prof.
A. Meek, Mr. A. D. Peacock. To nominate competent
naturalists to perform definite pieces of work at the
Marine Laboratory, Plymouth: Prof. A. Dendy
(Chaiyman and Secretary). Experiments in inherit-
ance in silkworms: Prof. W. Bateson, Mrs. Merritt
Hawkes. Experiments in inheritance of colour in
Lepidoptera: Prof. W. Bateson (Chaivman and
Secretary).
SECTION E (GEOGRAPHY).—To consider the ad-
visability of making a provisional population map
of the British Isles, and to make recommendations
as to the method of construction and reproduction :
Mr. H. O. Beckit, Mr. F. Debenham.
Sections E, L (GroGrapHy, EpucaTtion).—To
se
OcTOBER 21, 1922]
NATURE
561
formulate suggestions for a syllabus for the teaching
of geography both to matriculation standard and in
advanced courses ; to report upon the present position
of the geographical training of teachers, and to make
recommendations thereon ; and to report, as occasion
arises, to Council, through the Organising Committee
of Section E, upon the practical working of regulations
issued by the Board of Education affecting the position
of geography in training colleges and secondary schools:
Prof. T. P. Nunn, Mr. W. H. Barker.
SECTION G (ENGINEERING).—To report on certain
of the more complex stress distributions in engineering
materials: Prof. E. G. Coker (Chaiyman), Prof.
L. N. G. Filon, and Prof. A. Robertson (Secretaries).
SEcTION H (ANTHROPOLOGY).—To report on the
distribution of Bronze Age implements: Prof. J. L.
Myres, Mr. H. J. E. Peake. To conduct archzo-
logical investigations in Malta: Prof. J. L. Myres,
Sir Arthur Keith. To conduct explorations with the
object of ascertaining the age of Stone Circles: Sir
Hercules Read, Mr. H. Balfour. To excavate early
sites in Macedonia: Sir William Ridgeway, Mr. S.
Casson. To report on the classification and distribu-
tion of rude stone monuments: Dr. R. R. Marett,
Prof. H. J. Fleure. The collection, preservation, and
systematic registration of photographs of anthro-
pological interest: Sir Hercules Read, Mr. E. N.
Fallaize. To conduct archeological and ethnological
researches in Crete: Dr. D. G. Hogarth, Prof. J. L.
Myres. To co-operate with local committees in ex-
cavation on Roman sites in Britain: Sir William
Ridgeway, Mr. H. J. E. Peake. To report on the
present state of knowledge of the ethnography and
anthropology of the Near and Middle East: Dr. A. C.
Haddon, Mr. E.N. Fallaize. To report on the present
state of knowledge of the relation of early paleolithic
implements to glacial deposits: Mr. H. J. E. Peake,
Mr. E. N. Fallaize. To investigate the lake villages
in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury in connexion
with a committee of the Somerset Archeological and
Natural History Society : Sir William Boyd Dawkins,
Mr. Willoughby Gardner. To co-operate with a
committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute in
the exploration of caves in the Derbyshire district :
Sir William Boyd Dawkins, Mr. G. A. Garfitt. To
investigate processes of growth in children, with the
view of discovering differences due to race and sex,
and further to study racial differences in women :
Sir Arthur Keith, Prof. H. J. Fleure. To conduct
excavations and prepare a survey of the Coldrum
megalithic monument: Sir Arthur Keith, Prof. H.
J. Fleure. To report on the existence and distribution
of long-barrows in the Isle of Man: Prof. H. J. Fleure,
Dr. Cyril Fox. To report on proposals for an
anthropological and archeological bibliography, with
power to co-operate with other bodies: Dr. A. C.
Haddon, Mr. E. N. Fallaize. To report on the best
means of publishing a monograph by Dr. Fox on the
archeology of the Cambridge region: Dr. A. C.
Haddon, Mr. H. J. E. Peake.
SECTION I (PHystoLoGy).—Ffficiency of movement
in men equipped with artificial limbs: Prof. E. P.
Cathcart, Prof. A. V. Hill. Muscular stiffness in
relation to respiration: Prof. A. V. Hill, Dr. Ff.
Roberts.
SEctTIOoN J (PSycHoLoGy).—The place of psychology
in the medical curriculum: Prof. G. Robertson, Dr.
W. Brown. Vocational tests: Dr. C. S. Myers, Dr.
G. H. Miles.
SEcTion K (Borany).—To continue breeding ex-
periments on Ginothera and other genera: Dr. A. B.
Rendle, Dr. R. R. Gates. Primary botanical survey
in Wales: Dr. E. N, Miles Thomas, Prof. O. V.
Darbishire.
Section L (EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE).—Training in
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
citizenship : Rt. Rev. J. E. C. Welldon, Lady Shaw.
To inquire into the practicability of an international
auxiliary language: Dr. H. Foster Morley, Dr. E.
H. Tripp.
University and Educational Intelligence.
BIRMINGHAM.—The University War Memorial,
which was unveiled on Sunday, October 8, takes the
form of three large panels of marble, on the eastern
side of the entrance hall of the University, bearing
the names of members of the University who fell
in the war.
The Muirhead lectures in social philosophy are to
be delivered by Prof. J. H. Muirhead, who has chosen
as his subject ‘‘ The Idea of Progress.’’ The first
of the series of seven is to be given on October 16,
The lectures are free.
CAMBRIDGE.—The Vice-Chancellor announces a
legacy of r1ooo/., free of legacy duty, to the Agri-
cultural Department of the University by the will
of the late Charles Jewell; by the will of the late
Dr. Rivers books and pamphlets have been left to
the library of St. John’s College, and in addition 70
volumes have been selected for the library of the
Psychological Department and 295 volumes for that
of the Department of Ethnology.
Mr. W. H. Sprott, Clare College, has been
appointed demonstrator in experimental psychology.
Mr. J. C. Burkill and Mr. A. E. Ingham have been
elected Fellows of Trinity College.
It is proposed to confer an honorary M.A. degree
on Prof. H. R. Dean.
LrEps.—At a Congregation of the University held
on Tuesday, October 10, the Duke of Devonshire,
Chancellor of the University, presiding, the following
honorary degrees were conferred: Litt.D.: The
Lord Bishop of Ripon (The Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas
Banks Strong) and Mr. Bruce Richmond, Editor of
the Times Literary Supplement. D.Sc.: Sir Dugald
Clerk, Sir Frank Dyson, Astronomer Royal, and Sir
Richard Gregory, Editor of Nature, president of the
Educational Section of the British Association, 1922.
LL.D.: Mr. H. I. Bowring, Mr. B. Broadbent, Mr.
H. McLaren, and Mr. C. F. Tetley.
Sir Dugald Clerk was presented by Prof. Smithells,
who said, ‘‘In him we welcome one who came to
Leeds as a member of the first chemical staff of the
Yorkshire College of Science, and he returns to-day
a man eminent among his fellows as a great example
of the ideal on which this University has spent so
much of its early labours—the harmonious and
fruitful union of pure and applied science.”’
In presenting Sir Frank Dyson, Prof. Whiddington
referred to him as “‘ the most distinguished British
astronomer,’ who, they remembered with pride, is
also a great Yorkshireman, and in his chosen field
of work has been unvaryingly successful. “‘ Every
one knows him as the Astronomer Royal, a position
which in these days of astronomical discovery he has
filled with the highest distinction.”
Prof. Smithells, in presenting Sir Richard Gregory,
said: ‘‘ He stands as one of the most distinguished
of those who strive to interpret science to the
multitude, to obliterate the false antagonisms that
have arisen between the different realms of knowledge,
and to win for science her rightful place among the
potent influences that act for the true enlightenment
and progress of mankind.”’
Lonpon.—Dr. C. Da Fano will begin on Wednesday,
October 25, at King’s College, at 4.30, a course of
eight free public lectures on “‘ The Histology of the
562
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
Nervous System.’’ .The subsequent lectures will be
given on November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, and December 6
and 13. No tickets are required.
Dr. George Senter and Mr. C. W. Crook have
been elected by the science graduates to fill the two
vacant seats on the Senate.
SHEFFIELD.—-The Council has appointed Prof.
A. H. Leahy to be emeritus-professor of mathematics,
and Mr. R. Platt to be demonstrator in pathology
and bacteriology.
Dr. A. J. Surron Pipparp has been appointed
professor of engineering at the University College of
South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff.
THE Loughborough Technical College has since
1918 developed a well-equipped faculty of engineer-
ing with departments of mechanical and civil, of
electrical, and of automobile engineering. In its
calendar for 1922-23 (price 3s. 6d.) it claims that its
own workshops enable it to provide the student with
all necessary practical training concurrently with
his theoretical work, thus obviating the risk, in-
cidental to sandwich systems, of forgetting in the
works what was learned in the college and vice versa.
The college is said to have at present more than
1500 full-time day students in residence. The
governors include representatives of the universities
of Birmingham and Cambridge, as well as of Leicester-
shire County Council and Loughborough Town
Council.
THE Merchant Venturers’ Technical College of
Bristol, in which is provided and maintained the
Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bristol,
has issued for the session 1922~23 a calendar (price
6d.) with 18 full-page illustrations. Like the Royal
Technical College, Glasgow, it is in touch with a
number of engineering firms which co-operate with
it in regard to the training of apprentices, but,
whereas the former arranges its engineering courses
in such a way as to leave student-apprentices free to
spend in their firms’ works the summers intervening
between the winter sessions of the college, a special
feature of the Bristol ‘‘ sandwich scheme” is that
the student spends in the works 14 months between
the first and second college (10-months) sessions.
Among the free-tuition entrance scholarships of the
Merchant Venturers’ College is one “ for the son of
a citizen of Béthune who has passed either the B.-és-L.
or B.-és-Sc. examination.”
THE administration of schools in the smaller cities
of the United States of America is dealt with in an
interesting and stimulating way in Bulletin No. 2
of 1922 of the Bureau of Education (Govt. Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., price 10 cents), The
statistical basis consists of answers by 520 super-
intendents of education to a questionnaire. From
the section relating to teachers’ qualifications it
appears that the standard requirements as regards
training for teaching in elementary and in high
schools respectively are two years of normal-school
work for the former and four years of college work
with professional courses for the latter. The United
States Chamber of Commerce has lately, in a pamphlet
entitled “‘ Know and Help your Schools,” given
currency to the view that the work of the elementary
school in forming habits and ideals being as important
as the work of any other school division, the ele-
mentary school teachers should be as well trained
and well paid as those of the high school, but it does
not appear that many school boards have as yet
adopted this view.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
October 22, 1915. Sir Andrew Noble died.— Widely
known for his important researches on guns, projectiles
and explosives, Noble was born in Greenock on
September 13, 1831, and for some years served in the
Royal Artillery. Joining Armstrong in 1860, he was.
for many years director of the ordnance works at
Elswick and after Armstrong’s death became the
head of the great armament firm. His original
investigations cover a period of fifty years, many
of his memoirs being contributed to the Royal
Society.
October 24, 1903. Samson Fox died.—The founder
in 1874 of the Leeds Forge Company, Fox patented
in 1877 his well-known corrugated furnace for steam
boilers, the adoption of which led to the use of higher
steam pressures. He first made pressed steel frames
for railway wagons and was a pioneer of the acetylene
industry.
October 25, 1684. Dud Dudley was buried.—Born
in 1599, Dudley was a natural son of Edward Sutton,
fifth Baron Dudley. Educated at Balliol College,
Oxford, he was summoned home to superintend his
father’s iron works in Worcestershire, and in 1619
took out a patent for the use of pit coal instead of
charcoal for smelting iron ore, an improvement in
iron manufacture successfully used by Abraham
Darby at Coalbrookdale in 1735. Dudley served as
a colonel under Charles I. His work, ‘‘ Metallium
Martis,’’ was published in 1665.
October 25, 1903. Robert Henry Thurston died.—
A pioneer in engineering education in America,
Thurston was trained as an engineer under his father
and served in the navy during the Civil War. In
1870 he became professor of mechanical engineering
in Steven’s Institute, where he organised the first
engineering laboratory in the United States; in
1880 he became the first president of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers. Removing in 1887
to Sibley College, Cornell University, he greatly
extended the courses of instruction and by the time
of his death the number of students had increased
from 60 to 960. He was well known as a scientific
investigator, and for his contributions to thermo-
dynamics, steam engineering, and the strength of
materials.
October 28, 1899. Ottmar Mergenthaler died.—
The inventor of the linotype machine, Mergenthaler,
who was born in Wiirtemberg on May to, 1854,
emigrated to America at the age of eighteen and
worked as a watchmaker with his cousin in
Washington. At Baltimore Mergenthaler came into
contact with the reporter Clephane, and began work
on a type printing machine which, after ten years
and the expenditure of a million dollars, he at last
brought to a successful issue. His linotype machine
was first installed in 1886 in the composing room of
the New York Tribune.
October 28, 1792. John Smeaton died.—The first
“ Civil Engineer’ and the recognised father of his
profession, Smeaton, like Watt, began life under an
instrument maker in London, When in business
for himself he gained a reputation by his scientific
papers on wind power and other subjects. Though
he constructed bridges and harbours he is known
principally as the builder of the Eddystone light-
house, an original work of great importance and
utility which stood on the Eddystone rock from
1759 to 1882 and now forms a monument to Smeaton
on the Hoe at Plymouth. Smeaton was a fellow of
the Royal Society and in 1771 founded the Smeatonian
Club for engineers. 1Bs (Es 3),
OCTOBER 21, 1922]
NATURE 56
Gs
Societies and Academies.
LONDON.
British Mycological Society (Keswick meeting),
September 15-20.—F. T. Brooks: Some present-day
aspects of mycology (presidential address). It is
maintained that the fungi originated from protist
organisms without direct relationship with the alge,
and developed upon novel lines as an entirely separate
and characteristic group of plants. Arguments are
advanced against the view that the fungi are phylo-
genetically related to the green and red alge, or that
they have been evolved from transmigrant seaweeds
in ancient times. A monophyletic origin of the fungi
is favoured. Most plant diseases are caused by
fungi; hence there is need for closer co-operation
between systematic mycologists and plant path-
ologists. Attention was directed to the inadequacy
of the diagnosis of certain genera and species of
pathogenic importance, and to the great influence
of environmental conditions upon the growth of all
kinds of fungal organisms. It is considered that
mycologists and plant pathologists must be essentially
botanists with the necessary fundamental training
in chemistry and physics. For the plant pathologist
a sense of crop values and of the important phases
in the growth of crops should be inculcated.—
Somerville Hastings: Avnellavia sepavata growing in
the Alps. The characters of these plants are related
to the known conditions and compared with corre-
sponding characters in phanerogams.—A. H. R.
Buller: Luminosity in Panus stypticus. The my-
celium and fruit body are both luminous, and by
controlling the supply of oxygen the light can be
turned on and off instantaneously. The light is
given off even at or just below the freezing-point of
water. Mycelium grown on wood blocks remained
luminous for six months.—Miss E. M. Wakefield:
Fungus-hunting in the West Indies. Observations
were taken during six months spent in the Lesser
Antilles and Trinidad. The characteristics of the
fungus flora of these islands illustrate the distribution
of fungi as affected by climate and the differences
between tropical and temperate fungus floras in
general.—Carleton Rea: Edible fungi; qualities
from a gastronomic point of view of a number of the
larger fungi—M. C. Potter: Wart disease of potatoes.
Preliminary experiments appear to indicate that the
disease does not develop if the soil is rendered
sufficiently alkaline (approximately PH 10-5).
MANCHESTER.
Literary and Philosophical Society, October 3.—
Mr. T. A. Coward, president, in the chair.—T. A.
Coward: Manchester birds, 1822-1922 (presidential
address). One hundred years ago, 1822, John
Blackwall, famous for his monograph on “ British
Spiders,”” read before this society a paper on
“periodical ’’ birds observed in the neighbourhood
of Manchester. This list was enlarged by him in his
“ Researches in Zoology,’’ and the dates of observa-
tion extended from 1814 to 1828 inclusive. Blackwall
also published a list of singing-birds, and of rare
visitors, and contributed to various journals notes
on the habits of birds. His works prove that the
local avifauna has changed but little in spite of the
great increase of population and the extension of the
city boundaries. A few species have vanished,
others have appeared and colonised, and though few
birds can now be seen in Ardwick “‘ fields ” the same
species which used to occur may be met with in the
parks or on the outskirts of the populated areas.
The possession of open spaces, and the protection
afforded by the city authorities to birds in the parks,
have saved many birds from local extinction.
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
MELBOURNE.
Royal Society of Victoria, July 13.—Mr. Wisewould
in the chair—H. B. Williamson: Revision of the
genus Pultenza. Pt. III. Six new species are
described: P. Boormanii from N.S.W., P. Kenneyi
(Q.), P. teretifolia (S.A.), and three from Victoria—
P. D’Altonii, P. prolifera, and P. Readeriana. A
number of new varieties are discussed.—W. M.
Bale: Two new species of Bryozoa. Catenicella
Matthewsi : nearly allied to C. alata and C. carinata,
differs from all known species in having the ale
throughout uncalcified, perfectly hyaline, and ap-
parently structureless. Alz wide, fenestrae about
12-14, small, with converging fissures. Avicularia
minute, on long arm-like processes. According to
Levinsen’s system a Pterocella. Claviporella Gold-
steint : very close to C. aurita, but without the large
elliptic suboral pore. Fenestra 3, minute but dis-
tinct, with well-marked fissures. This character
distinguishes it from C. imperforata and C. aurita.
(The same as Catenicella McCoyi Goldstein, nomen
nudum, Jelly’s ‘“‘ Synonymic Catalogue’’)—E. F. J.
Love: Gravity determinations in Australia. By
comparison of all existing material, very precise
determinations of gravity for Melbourne and Sydney
observatories have been obtained. Helmert’s new
theory of the figure of the earth—according to which
the equator is slightly elliptical instead of truly
circular—reconciles in great measure the observed
and theoretical values of gravity at the Australian
stations; there is a possible correlation between
gravity at a station and the geological age of the
neighbouring strata.
WASHINGTON.
National Academy of Sciences (Proc., vol. 8, No. 9,
September 1922).—P. Franklin: The meaning of
rotation in the special theory of relativity. Newtonian
equations for rotation can be used to express first
approximations for points near the axis of rotation.
Making certain assumptions, it is shown that the
spacial geometry for the rotating system depends on
the time and space co-ordinates of the point con-
sidered, and that the curvature of the spatial cross-
section at any space-time point in its “‘ natural”
co-ordinates is the square of the angular velocity in
radians per light-second——J. A. Eldridge: Energy
losses accompanying ionisation and resonance in
mercury vapour. Electrons emitted from an oxide-
coated cathode traverse a region of constant potential
in the experimental tube, suffering collisions with
mercury vapour ; they pass through two diaphragms,
each pierced by a single hole, to the receiving electrode
in the lower end of the tube, which is freed from
mercury vapour by liquid air. A retarding potential
is applied to the receiving electrode. The current
is plotted against the retarding potential and it is
shown that, at voltages above the ionisation point,
the most important type of resonance collision
involves an energy loss of 6-7 volts and also that a
collision involving an energy loss of 5-7 volts occurs
in mercury. In an ionising collision, the impinging
electron apparently loses all its energy, and the
electron produced leaves the parent atom_ with
negligible energy.—L. W. McKeehan: Crystal
structure of beryllium and beryllium oxide. Beryl-
lium in the form of a loosely packed powder in a
pyrex glass tube was submitted to X-rays from a
molybdenum target. The oxide was treated similarly
to detect lines due to oxide present as impurity.
The fundamental space lattice for both element and
oxide was found to be hexagonal.—J. P. Minton:
Some cases of nerve-deafness and their bearing on
resonance theories of audition. Curves are plotted
564
showing the relative receiver current in the testing
apparatus necessary for the threshold of audition
at various pitches. It is found that unless the nerve
endings or the nerves are destroyed, hearing is
normal if the tones are sufficiently intense. The
internal ear mechanism lowers the threshold of
audition but mechanical resonance of this structure
is not responsible for tone perception.—C. Lundsgaard
and D. D. Van Slyke: The quantitative influences
of certain factors involved in the production of
cyanosis. Cyanosis depends on the mean concentra-
tion of reduced hemoglobin in the blood. It is shown
mathematically that 40 per cent. of venous blood
must be mixed with arterial blood to obtain the
necessary concentration of reduced hemoglobin.
Cyanosis usually becomes perceptible when this
concentration is 5 gms. per 100 c.c. of blood, but
various influences may cause it to vary from 4-6 gms.
per 100 c.c. of blood.
Official Publications Received.
Recueil de l'Institut Botanique Léo Errera.
Pp. 83-456. (Bruxelles: M. Lamertin.)
Canada. Department of Mines: Geological Survey. Summary
Report, 1921, Part A. Pp. 1214. Summary Report, 1921, Part D.
Pp. 110p. (Ottawa.)
Canada. Department of Mines: Geological Survey. Memoir 131,
No. 112 Geological Series: Kenogami, Round, and Larder Lake
Areas, Timiskaming District, Ontario. By H. C. Cooke. Pp. iv+64.
(Ottawa.)
Sixtieth Annual Report of the Government Cinchona Plantations
and Factory in Bengal for the Year 1921-22. Pp, 4+xii. (Calcutta :
Bengal Secretariat Book Depot.) 8 annas.
Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department. Vol. 23, Part 5:
On Cleaning and Refilling various Types of Barometer, together
with a Description of several usual Patterns. By Dr. E. P. Harrison.
Pp. 145-156+5 plates. (Calcutta: Government Printing Office.)
1:8 rupees ; 2s.
Memoirs of the Indian Museum.
Tome 10, fascicule 2.
Vol. 5: Fauna of the Chilka
Lake. No. 10: The Hydrography and Invertebrate Fauna of Rambha
Bay. By R. B. Seymour Sewell and Dr, N. Annandale. Pp. 679-710
+ plates 32-43. (Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India.) 5 rupees.
1822 G. J. Mendel 1922. Herdenkingsnummer van Genetica.
Nederlandsch ‘Tijdschrift voor Erfelijkheids- en Afstammingsleer.
Pp. 193-384. (’s Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff.) 8 gld.
Papers from the Geological Department, Glasgow University.
Vol. 5: Octavo papers from 1918 to 1921. 2
Quarto papers from 1915 to 1922. (15 papers.)
Jackson and Co.)
Report of the Danish Biological Station to the Board of Agriculture.
XXxviii., 1922. By Dr. C. G. Joh. Petersen. Pp. iv+103+5 Tables.
(Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad.)
Museums of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Report
upon the Condition and Progress of the Museums for the Year ending
(17 papers.) Vol. €
(Glasgow: Maclehose,
December 31, 1921. By William Henry Fox. Pp. 56. (Brooklyn,
NYA)
University of Bristol. Calendar, 1922-23. Pp. 374. (Bristol.)
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New Series. Vol. 22:
Containing the Papers read before the Society during the Forty-third
Session, 1921-1922. Pp. ii+ 242. (London: Williams and Norgate.)
net.
Year Book of the Michigan College of Mines
Michigan. Announcement of Courses, 1922-1923.
ton, Mich.)
Public Works Department, Government of India, Triennial Review
of Irrigation in India, 1918-1921. Pp. viii+ 222. (Calcutta: Govern-
ment Printing Office.) 5 rupees.
Records of the Survey of India. Vol. 15 (Supplementary to General
Report 1919-20). Annual Reports of Parties and Offices, 1919-20.
Prepared under the direction of Col, C. H. D. Ryder. Pp. 134+ 10
maps. (Calcutta: Survey General of India.) 4 rupees; 8s.
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. Memoir 54:
Horse Raising in Colonial New England. By Deane Phillips. Pp.
883-942. Bulletin 408: Production of new Strains of Corn for New
York. By C. H. Myers, H. H. Love, and F. P. Bussell. Pp. 205-268.
Bulletin 409 : An Economie Study of Dairying on 149 Farms in Broome
County, New York. By E. G. Misner. Pp. 269-444. Bulletin 410:
Studies on Insects affecting the Fruit of the Apple; with Particular
Reference to the Characteristics of the Resulting Sears. By Harry
Hazelton Knight. Pp. 445-498+ 42 plates. (Ithaca, N.Y.)
1921-1922, Houghton,
Pp. 127. (Hough-
Diary of Societies.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23.
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS (Graduates’ Section), at 7.—
Rk. D. Gauld: Some Factors in the Design of Steam Locomotives.
RoOyAL Society OF MEDICINE (Odontology Section), at 8.—W. R.
Aa ne : Some Considerations for Preventive Dentistry (Presidential
Address),
NO. 2764, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcToBER 21, 1922
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Medicine Section), at 5.30.—Dr. Newton
Pitt: Presidential Address——Major-Gen. Sir John Moore and
others : Glanders and Anthrax.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, at 5.30.—The Secretary : Report
on the Additions made to the Society’s Menagerie during the months
of June, July, August, and September 1922.—Exhibition of Photo-
graphs of Zebras and Oryx from Kenya.—E. T. Newton: Exhibition
of a Tanned Skin of a Frog.—R. H. Burne and Prof. J. P. Hill:
The Foetal Membranes of Chiromys. R. Kirkpatrick and Dr. J.
Metzelaar: An Instance of Commensalism between a Hermit-Crab
and a Polyzoon.
INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERS, INC., at 6.30.—Views Illustrating
Industrial Works : Messrs. Bruce Peebles.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—E. W.
Mellor : Some Landmarks of Ancient Egypt.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25.
NEWCOMEN Society (at 17 Fleet Street), at 5—E. A. Forward: Simon
Goodrich and his Work as an Engineer. Part I. 1796-1810.
FELLOWSHIP OF MEDICINE (at 1 Wimpole Street), at 8.30.—Dr. E.
Pritchard: The Feeding of Infants from Birth to the End of the
Second Year,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26.
CHEMICAL Society (at Institution of Mechanical Engineers), at 8.—
Sir W. H. Bragg and Prof. W. L. Bragg: The Significance of Crystal
Structure.
ROYAL Society OF MEDICINE (Urology Section), at 8.30.—Sir John
Thomson Walker: Relation of Calcified Abdominal Glands to
Urinary Surgery (Presidential Address).
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27.
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.—Geophysical Discussion on the
Maintenance of the Earth’s Electric Charge. Chairman: Sir W. H.
Bragg. Speakers: Dr. G. C. Simpson, C. T. R. Wilson, and Sir
A. Schuster.
RoyAL Society OF MEDICINE (Study of Disease in Children Section),
at 5—Dr. E. Pritchard; Rickets (Presidential Address).
PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, at 5.
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Adjourned Discussion
on paper by Prof. A. Rateau: The Use of the Turbo-Compressor
for attaining the greatest Speeds in Aviation.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30.—Question and General
Discussion Evening.
ROYAL Society OF MEDICINE (Epidemiology and State Medicine
Section), at 8—Dr. R. J. Ewart ; Economics and Tuberculosis.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—Dr. G. H,
Rodman: Familiar Flowers in Monochrome.
RoyAL SOcIBTY OF MEDICINE (Electro-Therapeutics Section), at 8.30.
—Dr. R. Knox: Cardiac Diagnosis: A Survey of the Development
of Physical Methods (Presidential Address).
PUBLIC LECTURES.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—Miss M. A. Murray: The
Nile in the Life and Religion of the Ancient Egyptians.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, at 5.—Prof. Shattock :
Specimens illustrating Carcinoma,
City OF LONDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir Walter
Morley Fletcher: Man’s Body and the Making of Athletic Records.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24.
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, at 5.—Prof. Alice Werner: Some
Bantu Tribes of the Tanganyika Territory. Succeeding Lectures
on November 7, 21, December 5, 19.
GRESHAM COLLEGE, at 6.—Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones: Physic.
Succeeding Lectures on October 25, 26, 27.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25.
KIN@’s COLLEGE, at 4.30.—Dr. C. Da Fano: The Histology of the
Neryous System. Succeeding Lectures on November 1, 8, 15, 22,
29, December 6 and 13.
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL StUDTHS, at 5.—Mrs. Rhys Davids:
find the Real Founder of Buddhism. _ II.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5.30.—A. Lloyd- Jones: The Phonetic
Structure of the Yoruba Language.—L. 8. Jast: The Organisation
of a Great Library,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26,
Ciry Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir C. Hercules Read:
The Ancient Briton as Artist and Craftsman.
How to
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, at 5.—Sir Arthur Keith:
Results following Resection of the Bowel, illustrated by Experimental
Work done by Mr. T. Gray on Cats.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (in Botany Department), at 5.—Prof. A. H. R.
Buller: Studies in the Morphology and Physiology of Fungi. Suc-
ceeding Lecture on November 3.—At 5.15.—Prof. J. Adams: The
New Individualism in Education.
BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, at 5.30.—J. M. M'‘Gregor:
Life in Athens, as illustrated by Plato,
Social
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28,
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—F. Balfour-Browne: The
Life and Habits of Mason Wasps.
AG VIE EK Y, Wee USiaeAdkED) JOURNAL, OF ~SElIENCE.
“To the solid ground
Of Nature trusts the mind which buzlds for aye. ”—WORDSWORTH,
INIO32765.. VOL. 110) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 1922 [PRICE ONE. SHILLING
Registered : asa Newspaper at the Genera al Post | Office. ] me ray iz All Rights Reserved. we
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CXXXVIII
FINSBURY TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
LEONARD STREET, CITY ROAD, E.C.2.
STREATFEILD MEMORIAL LECTURE.
delivered by Professor CECIL H.
F.1.C. (the University of Sheffield), in the
Chemical Lecture Theatre of the College, on Thursday, November 2, 1922,
Subject: “THe METALLURGICAL CuHemist.” A. CHASTON
x, Esq., F.R.S., President of the Institute of Chemistry, will
The fifth annual Lecture will be
DESCH, D.Sc., Ph.D.,
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
A Course of eig she Lectures i in Physiology on ‘SECRETION AND
n by Professor SwALE VINCENT,
wily D., c S.C. (Professor of Physiology in the
U niversity in “the Breck Lecture Theatre, MippLESEx Hosprrat
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NATURE
[OcToBER 28, 1922
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NAT ORL 565
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1922.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Acoustic Research : : : ; - 565
The Body Temperature of Birds. By Prof. Suther-
land Simoson . : : : - 566
Prof. Eddington’s Romanes ‘Lectirel By E.
Cunningham . ; : : 5 - 568
The Marketing of Whole Mille . 5 : : : a Sy)
Our Bookshelf . : : 5 : - F - 570
Letters to the Editor :—
Relativity and Physical Reality—Dr. Alfred A.
Robb, F.R.S. . a 572
The Miraculous Draught of F aieean epimers
—Prof. E. W. Gudger 5 3 meee 7.2
Arabic Chemistry.—E. J. Holmyard F 9 S73
On the Occurrence of the Archiannelids, Saccocirrus
and Protodrilus, on the South and West Coasts of
England.—Dr. J. H. Orton
Origin of the Name of the Genus Masanes _E W. or
Adair; F. A. B. : . 574
American Research on Acoustics. (nee By
Alan E. Munby % bi : - . 575
The Galactic System.—II. By Dr. Harlow Shapley 578
Current Topics and Events. y : 581
Our Astronomical Column . ; SaaS eee 554
Research Items . 3 . : 0 é ‘ 505
The Hydrogen Molecule. (Justvated.) 3 5877
Athletics and Oxygen Supply . 5 588
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Dutch Zoslogical
Society . : A ; ; - 3589
Processes of Rock- Fornation : , : : - 589
University and Educational Intelligence . 5 + 590
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . 5 : : » 591
Societies and Academies . : é A c - 591
Diary of Societies r ; : +: ‘ : a EP
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NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
Telegraphic Address:
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Acoustic Research.
HE work of men of science has laid the
foundation for a great many improvements in
the technique of building, and this is, perhaps, most
directly evident in the domain of physics. The utilisa-
tion of energy in the forms of heat and electricity form
striking examples, but little has been done in this
country in connexion with the control of sound. This
is somewhat curious since in the late Lord Rayleigh
we possessed one of the greatest exponents of acoustics
With the present-day congestion of our towns, which
seems to be an inevitable factor in the progress of
civilisation, the reduction of noise becomes of con-
stantly increasing importance, and the present financial
loss due to this cause must be very
probably impossible to estimate.
great, though
Need also exists
for investigation on the most efficient means of pro-
pagating sound in order to secure its most effective
transmission and reflection.
| ‘The production of an acoustically successful audi-
torium is frequently of paramount importance in
connexion with architectural design. Many of our
public buildings erected by eminent architects show
considerable faults in this direction, and as we may
assume that these faults are not due to professional
apathy, it would seem that the laws regulating the
production of a successful building for hearing and
speaking have yet to be worked out.
Unfortunately, the variations in the factors which
have to be considered are many, and no two designs
are wholly identical. Some opinions on this subject
have recently been stated in the public press in con-
nexion with the hall of the London County Council
building, and the views expressed suggest that men of
science are agreed that there is work to be done, and
also need for work already done to be reduced to a
form capable of absorption by the designer and con-
structor. Sir William Pope considers that quite a
small expenditure of time and money would suffice to
provide knowledge enough to enable an architect to
render every hall acoustically perfect, but this view is
evidently not shared by Sir Joseph Larmor; and
others will be found who regard the subject as less
easy of solution than might appear from the considera-
tion of simple cases only.
Nor is the acoustic efficiency of public halls by any
means the conclusion of the whole matter. There are
more numerous cases in which the direct absorption
of sound is of as great importance as is transmission
in auditoria. In the hospital ward, the private sick-
room, and in the office, where quiet and ventilation
are so often incompatible, the best means of destroying
unwanted sounds calls for scientific investigation.
566
That architects are not entirely indifferent to this
subject is shown by the fact that on the formation of
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
several years ago, the Royal Institute of British
Architects formally directed attention to the need for
acoustic experiments, associated with design and
construction,
This need is recognised elsewhere, as is evidenced by
the work done in America where, at Geneva, Illinois,
in the laboratory of acoustics built for the late Prof.
Sabine by Col. Fabyan, much valuable: research has
been carried out. Before his death in rgr9 at the age
of fifty, Prof. Sabine had collected a great deal of
experimental data on sound in relation to materials,
and his researches had sufficiently impressed themselves
on American architects more than twenty years ago
to result in consultations on acoustic design. The
laboratory is now under the direction of Prof. Paul E.
Sabine, some of whose recent researches are referred
to elsewhere in this issue with a brief description of
his laboratory. In this building, devoted solely to
acoustic problems, the difficulties of adequate sound
transmission and suppression are constantly being in-
vestigated. Work of this nature must eventually prove
a valuable national asset by preventing wasted effort
and expenditure, and the example of America is worth
serious consideration in this country.
There are a great many problems in which the work
of the man of science can materially assist the architect,
not only in acoustics but also in the use of materials
for construction generally, but if science is to have its
due appreciation it must supply information of a
practical and simple kind which will appeal to workers
in a field already so wide that they have little time for
the study of theory, however interesting.
The Body Temperature of Birds.
A Study of the Body Temperature of: Birds. By
Alexander Wetmore. Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, Vol. 72, Number 12. (Washington,
D.C., U.S.A. : Smithsonian Institution.)
ITH regard to body temperature, animals are
divided into two great groups, namely, warm-
blooded and cold-blooded, the former including
mammals and birds, the latter reptiles, amphibians,
fishes, and all invertebrates. A more accurate distinc-
tion than the actual temperature, however, is based
on the fact that the so-called warm-blooded animals
have a constant temperature (homoiothermal) while
the cold-blooded animals have a variable temperature
which is practically the same as that of the environ-
ment in which they live (poikilothermal).
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[OcropErR 28, 1922
The essential difference between these two groups
is, that homoiothermal animals—mammals and _ birds.
—possess a heat-regulating mechanism by means of
which the heat production and heat loss are so balanced
that the body temperature remains practically constant,
while poikilothermal animals—all others, except
mammals and birds—possess no such mechanism.
Although much time and research have been
devoted by a host of investigators to the study of
body temperature and heat production in mammals,
comparatively little attention has been given to this
field in avian physiology, and all interested in this
much-neglected subject will be greatly indebted to
the author of the above monograph for his important
and valuable contribution.
The investigation covered a period extending from
January 1912 to October 1919, and records were
obtained from 1558 individuals of 327 species of birds
distributed among 50 families. It was carried on
within the limits of the United States of America,
and all the year round, in temperate regions where
the extreme cold of winter is not encountered. In
addition to the 327 species examined by the author
personally, the previously published records from 89
others are given in the form of a supplementary table,
so that definite statements may be found in the work
regarding the body temperature of 416 species of birds.
A table giving the individual records in detail, not
included because of the high cost of printing, is de-
posited in the files of the Smithsonian Institution’ of
Washington, and may be consulted by those interested.
Specially constructed thermometers of the clinicab
type but with a wider range—g5° F.+to 115° F.+—
were used. When a bird was shot a temperature
reading was taken from the large intestine reached
through the anus or from the proventriculus through ~
the mouth, only when the specimen could be secured
immediately. If there was any delay in retrieving a
correct reading could not be made, so that it was only
possible to secure records from less than half the birds
collected. In the short time that intervened between
the shooting and introduction of the thermometer, it
is assumed that no appreciable loss of heat from the
body took place, and that the figure recorded indicates.
the temperature immediately before death.
With regard to the diurnal rhythm of body tempera-
ture found in all homoiothermal animals, including
man, the author was able to corroborate the work of
previous observers, and it is particularly interesting to
note that in nocturnal birds, such as owls, the normal
rhythm is reversed, the temperature being highest
during the night (period of activity) and lowest during
the day (period of rest).
Hilden and Stenback found that by imposing an
oe ae
OcToBER 28, 1922]
NATURE
567
artificial night (period of darkness) and day (period of
artificial illumination) on birds confined in a darkened
room the temperature rhythm was altered. After
the second day the diurnal birds adapted themselves
to the changed conditions so that the maximum
temperature occurred at night and the minimum during
the day. When the experiment was ended and birds
again led a normal life in relation to daylight, the
diurnal rhythm quickly returned. A similar change of
rhythm has been produced artificially in the monkey.
This bears on the question as to the cause of the
diurnal temperature rhythm in animals. Some believe
that there exists im the body a fixed periodicity of
which the temperature rhythm is an expression, and
that this periodicity persists under all conditions,
and is, to a large extent, independent of outside
influences. Others are inclined to question the exist-
ence of this mysterious periodicity, and look upon the
diurnal variation as being due entirely to the action
on the body of the various outside influences which
affect body temperature, notably, muscular activity
and sleep. The fact that the rhythm may be altered
by changing the daily routine appears to give support
to the latter view.
Although a distinct diurnal body temperature
rhythm is found in birds with a wider range in many
cases than in mammals, there is little evidence of a
seasonal variation. This is all the more interesting,
since no class of non-hibernating homoiothermal
“animals show greater evidence of cyclical bodily
changes than do birds. During moulting time, in the
late summer and autumn, they shed their feathers and
show other signs of depressed vitality, while in the
spring, in preparation for the mating and breeding
seasons, they put on fresh plumage and become ex-
tremely active. However, heat production, if not
greatly increased in a short time, has no relation to
body temperature.
As in the case of mammals, the temperature of the
female was found to be slightly higher than that of the
male of the same species and under the same conditions,
in most cases, but in certain groups the opposite was
found. For example, in the herons (Ardeide), in three
species we have the following averages: Great blue
heron (Ardea herodias), male, 104°-8 F., female, 103°-7 F.
snowy heron (Egretta candidissima), male, 104°-8 F.,
female, 104°-0 F.; and the black-crowned night heron
(Nycticorax nevius), male, 103°-5 F., female, 102°-6 F.
Here there is a very pronounced difference in favour
of the male, and the same is found in certain other
shore birds.
Among other factors that influence the body tempera-
ture of birds it was observed that large masses of food,
if cold, will frequently cause a sudden fall in tempera-
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
ture in a bird of small size, while bathing may produce
a slight fall.
As in the case of mammals, nestlings and immature
birds show a lower temperature and a wider variation
than adults, due to the fact that the temperature
control is less perfect. Ina black-necked stilt (Himan-
topus mexicanus), one day old, a temperature as low
as 95°°3 F. was recorded. Apparently this applies
only to species with altricial offspring ; it is not found
in birds with precocial young, where the mechanism
of temperature control is well organised at birth.
In considering the method of temperature control
in birds, Mr. Wetmore believes, with Soum, that the
air-spaces play an important role in the regulation of
heat loss. On account of the feather covering and
the absence of cutaneous glands, little heat is lost by
radiation and evaporation from the skin. This throws
an increased burden on the respiratory system, supple-
mented by the ostial spaces, and the regulation of heat
loss through this channel is the chief factor in avian
temperature control. The author brings forward some
first-hand evidence in favour of this belief.
Discussing the significance of temperature control
in general, the statement is made that “ In the bird,
the regulation of body temperature has reached its
highest pot, though birds stand second to mammals
from an evolutionary point of view. Proof of this
is found in the fact that birds have the highest body
temperatures known, and that none of them hibernate.”
This conclusion scarcely seems justifiable on the
evidence at hand. The degree of heat control of any
species is not to be measured by the actual height
of the body temperature, but rather bf its diurnal
variation, and according to this standard the regula-
tion of body temperature appears to have reached its
highest point in Homo sapiens, since the diurnal range
in him is less than in any other so-called homoiothermal
animal so far investigated, although the actual body
temperature is among the lowest for mammals and far
below that of any of the birds.
It is generally held that the higher the bird in the
zoological scale, the greater is the body temperature-
The author agrees with this statement, as a rule, but
points out many discrepancies. If the appended tables
be examined it will be noticed that, when arranged by
families, the highest temperatures are found in pigeons,
cuckoos, woodpeckers, and in the great passerine order
beginning with the Tyrannide and ending with the
Turdide. In five species of the former the average
body temperature for male or female was r1o° F. or
more. The highest average temperature for both sexes
was found in the western pewee (Myzochanes richardsont)
with a mean of 11r0°-2 F., the greatest single individual
reading being r12°-7 F. Contrary to popular belief,
568
NATURE
[OcTOBER 28, 1922
it was found that the swallows, as a group, possess the
In seven species
examined in this family one alone, the rough-winged
swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis), showed an average
Humming birds also, “‘ with
lowest average body temperature.
greater than 107°°5 F.
their tiny bodies seem to have a considerable range in
temperature, but as a whole fall low in body warmth.”
The volume is an important monograph, containing
much valuable data, and it is a noteworthy contribu-
tion to this field of avian physiology. ‘
SUTHERLAND SIMPSON.
Prof. Eddington’s Romanes Lecture.
Pour comprendre Einstein. Par VY Abbé Th. Moreux.
Pp. 245. (Paris: G. Doin, 1922.)
Die Grundlagen der einstein’schen Relativitdtstheorie :
Eine kritische Untersuchung. Von Prof. Dr. H.
Strasser. Pp.110. (Bern: Paul Haupt, 1922.) n.p.
Philosophy and the New Physics: An Essay on the
Relativity Theory and the Theory of Quanta. By Prof.
Authorised translation from the
7 francs.
Louis Rougier.
author’s corrected text of ‘‘ La Matérialisation de
énergie,’ by Prof. Morton Masius. Pp. xv +159.
(London: G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) 6s.
net.
Le Principe de la relativité et les théovies d’ Einstein.
Par Prof. L.-G. du Pasquier. Pp. xvi+5r11. (Paris:
G. Doin, 1922.)
Le Principe de la relativité et la théorie d’Einstein. Par
Dr. Leon Bloch. (Bibliotheque des Annales des
Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones.) Pp. ui+4z2.
(Paris : Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1922.) 3.50 francs.
The Romanes Lecture, 1922. The Theory of Relativity
and its Influence on Scientific Thought. Delivered in
the Sheldonian Theatre, May 24, 1922. By Prof.
A. S. Eddington. Pp. 32. (Oxford: Clarendon
ress, 1922.) 25anet.
y a arene collection of books and pamphlets
reminds us of the hold which the theory of
18 francs net.
relativity has on the public imagination.
The Abbé Moreux gives his book the title “ Pour
comprendre Einstein,” though he seems to consider
that the effort to understand him is so much waste of
time, for in his view the theory is both superfluous
and misleading. Dr. Strasser, an anatomist with an
amateur’s interest in physics, gives us a critical dis-
cussion of the theory, but it is manifest that he has not
come near to understanding it. Prof. Rougier,a philo-
sopher who has read all about the new physics, sets
out to tell us something of the influence of the theory
upon philosophy, but leaves us with the impression of
a shallow and ill-digested understanding of the develop-
NO. 2765, VOL, r10]
ment of physical science and tells us little about
philosophy. Prof. du Pasquier and Dr. L. Bloch are
less ambitious in their aims; they are content to be
expositors and not critics. The results are correspond-
ingly more successful and will probably be very useful
to the French reader.
But among the books before us, the English reader
naturally turns to Prof. Eddington’s Romanes Lecture
to hear the latest thoughts of one who has done more
than any man living to establish and to popularise the
general theory of relativity.
The lecturer impresses it upon his audience that it
is stale news that the events around us form a world
of four dimensions. There is, however, something that
It used to be customary for us to think of
this four-dimensional world as having a definite set of
sections, any one of which represented the state of the
universe at a particular moment of absolute time, the
whole being thus stratified in recognisable layers. But
now this stratification has disappeared, there are no
absolute time sections; it is only the individual
observer who, to meet his own convenience, dissects
the whole into *
of an instant of his own consciousness.
is new.
rashers,” labelling each with the mark
With a wealth
of illustration and with language both grave and gay
Prof. Eddington seeks to cure us of our egoistic out-
look, and to persuade us to the wider view which finds
truth, not in a particular picture of reality seen from
one angle, but in a vision which includes and com-
prehends every possible picture. “It is only in this
undissected combination of four dimensions that the
experiences of all observers meet.’ On this we need
scarcely dwell here, save to remind ourselves that the
fault from which he would save us is one to which men
in all ages have been prone, and not the least sinners
have been those whose profession was the pursuit of
exact truth. Yet we cannot help feeling that at times
the preacher goes too far and so damages his case. To
quote an illustration from the lecture. We allow an
apple to fall. The moment the apple is released the
earth begins to rush up to meet it. This is “the
apple’s view of things.” “ It is simpler than Newton’s.
We should regard it as on an equal footing with that
of a terrestrial observer.’’ This is very like asking an
engine-driver to admit that it is quite natural to con-
sider that when he admits the steam to the cylinder he
sets not the engine but the whole universe in motion.
This is trifling however. Let us return to our
destratified world of four dimensions. If we have been
able to achieve this vision or to conceive of its possi-
bility, we have grasped the essence of the doctrine of
relativity, and we have come near to a superhuman
view of history. The world is laid out before us as
a changeless whole. Time and space are no more.
OcToBER 28, 1922]
INA DIC Foe
569
All is static. Dynamics has been resolved away. We
can no longer ask about causes; that is to go back
to the human point of view. We can simply gaze upon
the scene and seek to catch some of its salient features.
So far as our present conceptions go, one of the most
striking things about the picture will be that it is
fibrous. The tangible part of it will be a great number
of threads, one-dimensionalities. These represent elec-
trons. Mere mortals think of them as moving points,
but with our new vision we see them as continuous
threads. These are chiefly present in bundles, twisted
together into ropes; what are these? They are the
material bodies of the mortals. One is an atom.
Another, much more complex, is a man; another is a
chair. The former in one part is gathering more threads
to itself; in another part the threads unravel and
dissipate. Such is life. In one part the chair-rope
and the man-rope are in contact ; the man is sitting
on the chair. But of the behaviour of man as mortal
the picture tells us little. We must become mortal
and see only sections of the picture before we can see
him as a living being with an unfolding consciousness.
If the poet and the mystic do indeed aspire to free
themselves from the fetters of time and space, as we
read in the concluding passage of the lecture, we fear
that they will find but little left either of poetry or of
mystery in the world after which they yearn.
But, leaving the poet aside, and returning to the
physicist, what is left for him in the-great synthesis of
all science into the one map of all events? What
becomes of his vocation of measurement ? As Prof.
Eddington emphasises again and again, he too, with
all his experiments, is in the picture. His rules, scales,
clocks, photographic plates are all there ; their whole
history is depicted. All his experiments of measure-
ment are represented by the passage through the
picture of the threads that represent the marks on the
scales, meeting and intersecting the threads that
represent other particles of matter. The four-dimen-
sional picture itself is not to be measured. It contains
within itself the process of measurement in the ordinary
three-dimensional world and all the results are recorded
for us to read. We have no four-dimensional scale
which we may move about and apply to different parts
of the picture for the sake of comparison.
stand, look, and try to read what we see.
Perhaps Prof. Eddington does not see the picture
quite in this way. Perhaps the “ world” for him is
a four-dimensional continuum in which our threads are
merely lines of singularity.
We merely
He seems to contemplate
as “ measurable ” the intervals between pairs of points
in this continuum which do not correspond to events
in the history of any particle or electron in the material
universe. But we wish to ask him how these intervals
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
are in practice to be measured. He says, “‘ When we
have mastered the geometry of the world we shall
have inevitably learnt the mechanics of it.’’ That is
so. A complete description of the world lines of all
particles necessarily tells us all about the phenomena
of motion. ;
But to master the geometry of the world means to
describe its main features by means of a few simple
propositions. In Prof. Eddington’s view, the process
consists In measuring all the intervals between all pairs
of neighbouring events, and then in examining whether
these intervals will fit together in an Euclidean fashion,
or in a particular type of non-Euclidean scheme. If we
discover that they will fit in a recognised and manage-
able mathematical scheme, we have mastered the geo-
metry of the world.
But we ask again how are these intervals to be
measured. Since all measurements are contained in
the picture, and since for the description of the
picture event by event no system of intervals is
necessary, the whole of our experimental measure-
ments have nothing at all to do with a scheme of
intervals, and any geometrical system whatever may be
used for the purpose of attaching intervals. What,
then, is it which discriminates between Einstein’s
system and any other possible one? It is simply this,
that if we adopt that system, the facts of the motions
of particles or of the propagation of light can be
expressed in a very simple form. The path of Mercury,
for instance, is a geodesic. Possibly this fact may be
further analysed and shown to follow from the con-
figuration of the electron being spherical. But in any
case we cannot measure the tube which would represent
such an electron in the super-world of four dimensions.
Thus Einstein’s law of gravitation, by itself, is not
a statement about the world at all. It is only when it
is taken in conjunction with some other hypotheses,
such as that the path of a particle is a geodesic, that
it predicts anything, and becomes capable of experi-
mental test. The world itself cannot be said to be
either Euclidean or non-Euclidean, for it does not
furnish us with definite values for the intervals between
all pairs of events in the continuum. We may say
that the world-phenomena are more simply described
on the basis of a non-Euclidean system than on a
Euclidean system ; but it is surely not allowable to go
further and say that this is ‘“‘ because the world is not
a Euclidean or flat world.” Prof. Eddington would
perhaps reply that for him the world is nothing more
than the measurements that we make of it, and that
these measurements do not fit in a Euclidean scheme.
But this brings us round again to the same question,
what is meant by measurements of the four-dimensional
whole? We would ask our lecturer to give us a sequel
SI
57°
NATURE
[ OcTOBER 28, 1922
to this discourse in which, assuming the four-dimen-
sional presentation, he would state explicitly, either in
general terms or by precise illustration, how he would
compare the intervals between any two pairs of events.
E. CUNNINGHAM.
The Marketing of Whole Milk.
The Marketing of Whole Milk. By Dr. H. E. Erdman,
(The Citizen’s Library: Marketing Series.) Pp.
(New York: The Macmillan Company ;
21s. net.
XVi + 333.
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.)
HE recent disputes concerning the price of milk
have again shown how difficult the problem has
become under modern conditions, more especially in
the large towns. The farmer is no longer able to take
his milk direct to the consumer except in the case of a
village or small town, and there has arisen a class of
dealers or distributors who occupy the place of the
middleman. Some of these distributors are large
companies with the command of much capital, and
their powerful organisations have led to something
very like monopoly.
have also organised themselves, and a struggle between
the two parties has recently ended. In the volume
under notice, this question as it appears in the United
States is very completely analysed, and Prof. Erdman,
who is an economist, has dealt with it more fully and
critically than has previously been attempted. After
discussing the peculiar position occupied by milk as a
foodstuff, and the regulations which the public health
authorities of all civilised countries have imposed, the
author takes marketing and distribution, instances
what has been done in the past and states the present
position, The part played by the middleman and
dealer is made clear, and the rise of collective bargain-
ing is illustrated by the action of the Orange County
farmers in their successful fight with the New York
dealers in 1883, which may be regarded as the begin-
ning of what has now become the general practice in
the large American cities. The strike—or better the
boycott—has been the weapon of the producers, and
experience has shown that it is two-edged, owing to the
difficulty which the farmer has in disposing of his milk
—a perishable commodity—except by making it into
cheese or butter or, at worst, by feeding it to stock, all
of which courses are seldom remunerative. It is made
clear that the producers must also submit to regulations
governing their combined action, otherwise the results
are doomed to failure. 2
Other matters dealt with are the difficulty of arriving
at the cost of milk, owing to the position of the farm,
the ability of the farmer, the proximity to market, and
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
The producers, on the other hand, |
so on, and it is laid down that the method of arriving at
a basic price can only be a starting-point in negotiations.
This book, which makes a strong appeal to the general
reader, will be of interest to all concerned in the milk
trade, whether as producers, distributors, or consumers,
and it should lead to what the author regards as the
only solution of the difficulty—“ a better understanding
all round.”
Our Bookshelf.
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Second
Series. Vol. 20. Pp. liv+5o0z. (London: F,
Hodgson, 1922.) n.p.
Tue present volume of the London Mathematical
Society’s Proceedings is the fifty-fifth issued since the
foundation of the society and the twentieth in the
present (large octavo) series. Like the preceding
volumes issued by the society, it consists mainly of
papers which embody original investigations on various
mathematical subjects. Many of the papers, of which
there are nearly forty, will appeal only to a limited
class of reader. In mathematics, even more than in
other sciences, the results of new investigations are
apt to appear abstruse to the lay mind. The solution
of a cubic equation, the Newtonian theory of gravita-
tion, even the elementary applications of the calculus,
fundamental and well known as they are now, were
not familiar to the world, or even to the general run
of university students, for many years after their
discovery. By providing facilities for the publication
of these specialised researches the London Mathematical
Society has earned the deep obligation of the English
mathematical world. Practically all the society’s
income is expended in producing its Proceedings, and,
in view of the increased cost of printing, a large member-
ship is essential to provide adequate funds. Inasmuch
as every man is a debtor to his profession, every English
mathematician should help to further the work of the
society by becoming a member.
In the volume under review the articles most likely
to appeal to the general reader are the excellent obituary
notices of the late Lord Rayleigh and Herr Adolf
Hurwitz, written by Profs. Lamb and Young respect-
ively. There is also printed a presidential address
on ‘‘Some Problems in Wireless Telegraphy”” by
Prof. Macdonald. Of the more technical papers it
would be invidious to single out any one for special
mention. The society insists on a high standard of
excellence. in everything it prints, and the inclusion of
a paper in the Proceedings is a sufficient guarantee of
quality. We notice that there is an almost entire
absence of pure geometry from the present volume.
Can it be that research in this subject is no longer
encouraged in England ?
The method of indexing each individual volume of
the Proceedings leaves nothing to be desired. A
subject index to the first thirty volumes of the first
series was issued many years ago. We suggest that
the time is approaching when the Council should
consider the desirability of publishing a further subject
index to the later volumes. W. E. H. B.
OcTOBER 28, 1922]
NATURE
571
A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate
Anatomy. By Libbie H. Hyman. Pp. xv+38o.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922.)
2.50 dollars net.
Tuts work is the outcome of a particular course of
practical lessons conducted by its author. The dis-
ability which such an origin fastens upon a book is well
known to every teacher of zoology, and Mr. Hyman’s
book is no exception to the rule. It suffers from the
conditions of its birth—not that these, though American,
were insalubrious, but that they were so highly special-
ised as to limit greatly the adaptability of the offspring.
Nevertheless the care that has obviously been taken by
the author, and his ability in presentation, should make
his book useful even in our small cis-Atlantic schools of
zoology, where a somewhat more elastic course of
instruction is possible than that provided at Chicago.
Mr. Hyman rebels against the tyranny of the type
system, and uses the comparative method of study in
his laboratory. His chapters describe in succession
the systems of organs of the Vertebrata as exemplified
by Elasmobranchs (Mustelus, Acanthias, Raja), Uro-
deles (Necturus), a Chelonian, the pigeon, the cat, and
the rabbit. The instructions for dissection are clear
and sufficient ; and an attempt is made to bridge the
gulf which commonly yawns between the principles of
the lecture room and the observations of the laboratory,
by supplying an accompaniment of morphological
comment in the form of introductions and summaries to
the chapters. This device and the general nature of the
first four chapters disguise—but do not dispose of—the
evils of the type system, which are perpetuated in spite
of the author’s dismemberment of his types and the
wide dispersal of their remains throughout the book.
Only one notable omission has been detected:
Mr. Hyman’s classification of the Chordates—two pages
in length—ignores the Dipnoan fishes, nor in the whole
of his book do they once appear, though the thesis often
plainly demands them.
A pronouncing glossary forms a valuable appendix,
though we fear its phonetics will not be acceptable to
English ears. ; EivGs2N-
Studies in the Theory of Human Society. By Prof. F.
H. Giddings. Pp. vii+308. (New York: The
Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.,
1922.) 145. net.
Pror. GIDDINGs points out that in science this century |
has been a time of rectification rather than of great
discoveries. This applies particularly to the funda-
mental conceptions of sociology. These “ Studies,”
which are always suggestive, frequently provocative,
and in more than one instance illuminating, are a
contribution to the revision of the theory of human
society necessitated by the increased clarity and pre-
cision in scientific vision which has come about in the
last twenty years. Their somewhat discursive char-
acter makes it difficult to give a concise account of the
author’s achievement in this direction ; but, in brief,
it may be said to lie in the application of a psychological
interpretation to the conclusions of writers such as
Darwin, Spencer, Bagehot, and Kidd, to name the more
important, thereby accounting for social origins and
the stages in the evolution of society in terms of the
struggle for existence. Prof. Giddings’s theory of human
NO. 2675, VOL. 110]
j elementary toxicological analysis.”
society is that social phenomena are a product of stimulus
reacted to by “ pluralistic ” behaviour, giving rise to
consciousness of kind—the “herd instinct ” of other
writers—from which are derived discriminating associa-
tion, the ethical code, co-operation and division of
labour, and, in the long run, selection and perpetuation
of the adequate—the “ fit” of an older terminology.
The Chemical Examination of Water, Sewage, Foods,
and. other Substances. By J. E. Purvis and T. R.
Hodgson. (Cambridge Public Health Series.)
Second and enlarged edition. Pp. viiit346. (Cam-
bridge: At the University Press, 1922.) 20s. net.
In this edition the authors have expanded the chapters
on water and milk, given more details on the analysis
of foods and beverages, and added “an outline of
A very good
feature is the inclusion of plenty of typical analyses.
The book will be found very valuable to students
preparing for the examination of the Institute of
Chemistry, and can be recommended as a useful intro-
ductory treatise. Although the quoted results of water
analyses are given with the acids and bases combined,
there is no indication as to how the necessary calcula-
tions are to be made, and some of the sections are
so condensed that it is doubtful if they are of value.
A great drawback to the utility of the book is its
high price.
Modern Chemical Lecture Diagrams, with Uses and
Applications fully described. By Dr. G. Martin,
assisted by J. M. Dickson and Maj. J. W. Christelow.
Pp. 88. (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co.,
Ictdessneds)s3s.16d-net
Tue purpose of this book is not clear. The illustrations
are found in most text-books with adequate descrip-
tions—those supplied in the present work are often too
brief to be of any service, as “ Fig. 5 shows how these
tubes were experimented with by Andrews and Tait.”
Many of the diagrams represent apparatus far from
“modern.” The only calorimeters illustrated are those
of Favre and Silbermann ; chromium is prepared by
Fremy’s method ; sulphuric acid is concentrated in
glass retorts, etc. In some cases the descriptions are
faulty: Bunsen’s eudiometer is ascribed to Cavendish ;
the Almaden process for the manufacture of mercury
is called ‘‘ Distillation of mercury,” etc, As a work of
three authors a more modern result might have been
expected.
Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. By Dr. J. Dixon
Mann. Sixth edition, revised throughout. By Dr.
W. A. Brend. Pp. xi+573. (London: C. Griffin
and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 30s.
Tue sixth edition of Dixon Mann’s “‘ Forensic Medicine
and Toxicology,” which ranks among the foremost
English text-books on the subject, is the second to be
edited by Dr. William Brend. It has undergone a
revision which brings it completely up-to-date; a
larger page is used than in previous editions, and the
number of pages is reduced. The section on insanity
has been rewritten on the basis of modern psychiatrical
views; and that on toxicology gives additional in-
formation on poisoning by salvarsan, tetrachlorethane,
T.N.T., and the gases of warfare, and on the infections
formerly ascribed to ptomaine poisoning.
cn?
5/2
NA GORE
[OcToBER 28, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
‘The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
Relativity and Physical Reality.
In a review by Prof. H. Wildon Carr entitled
“The New Way of Thinking Physical Reality,”
which appeared in NaturE of October 7, p. 471,
the writer (speaking of a work by Prof. Léon Brun-
schvicg) says regarding physical reality: ‘* Accord-
ing to Einstein, we cannot say, speaking absolutely,
that there is any picture even for God.”
It seems to follow from this that not even the
Almighty himself could understand the theory of
relativity. If this be so I cannot help thinking
that the fault lies with the theory of relativity and
not with the Almighty.
The writer then proceeds to say: ‘‘ The picture
is only known as a function of the frame. That is,
the things measured are only known through the
measurings, and the measurings are bound up with
the things they serve to measure.”
This seems to imply that measurement is the
fundamental thing to be considered in space-time
theory, and with this I am not in agreement.
In my book, ‘‘A Theory of Time and Space,”
published in 1914, I showed that the ideas of measure-
ment could be built up from the ideas of before and
after, which were regarded as absolute and not
dependent on any particular individual.
In my smaller book, “‘ The Absolute Relations of
Time and Space,” I gave an abbreviated account of
this work and added an appendix showing how the
various complicated geometries which are treated
of in Einstein’s generalised relativity could be obtained
by means of a modified measure of interval.
However, most relativists have been too busily
engaged in praising Einstein to spare the time to go
into my work,
One result of this has been that, by taking the idea
of measurement as the fundamental thing, a very
large number, if not the majority, of relativists have
fallen into the very serious error of asserting that
the length of what they call a ‘“ world-line” is a
minimum between any two points of it. In my
“Theory of Time and Space” I showed (p. 360)
that this is not correct.
Finding that a number of writers were making
this mistake, I wrote a letter which appeared in
Nature (February 5, 1920, p. 599) in which I invited
attention to this matter and pointed out that in |
what I called ‘‘ inertia lines’ the length, so far from
being a minimum, was actually a maximum in the
mathematical sense ; while, in what I called ‘‘ separa-
tion lines’”’ the length was neither a maximum nor
a minimum.
In this letter I gave actual numerical examples to
illustrate these points. I invited attention to the
matter again in my “‘ Absolute Relations of Time
and Space ’’ (p. 71), published in 1920.
In spite of these efforts of mine, I again find this
blunder cropping up in works published this year.
Now it seems to me that it is a very important point
since, in ordinary geometry, there is no such thing
as a ‘“‘ longest ’’ line joining two points.
The idea would, I think, be apt to cause bewilder-
ment in the mind of a person meeting it for the first
time, unless it were properly presented to him.
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
D
The idea of a “ straight line ’’ which was neither a
maximum nor a minimum would, I fancy, cause even
greater bewilderment, and he would wish to know
how such lines were to be defined.
In Einstein’s generalised relativity, the element of
interval is taken as a starting-point, although the
idea of an interval in the minds of many writers is
so obscure that they ascribe a minimum property to
it which it does not possess.
Although I have tried so often to impress on
relativists that the ordinary method of treating space-
time theory is unsatisfactory, I propose to make one
more attempt to show that the measurement of
intervals is not the simple thing that is so often
supposed.
Let us consider the simple time-space theory in
which the length of an element ds of what I call a
“separation line ’’ is given by the formula :
ds? =dx* + dy? +dz* — dt’.
Let O be the origin of co-ordinates and let P be
any point on the axis of x, at a distance / from O,
measured, say, in the positive direction.
Let F(x) be any arbitrary differentiable function
of x which is continuous and single valued, and
which is equal to zero for x =O and for ¥ =/.
Now consider the space-time curve the equations
of which are :
y =4=F (4),
i470}
It is evident that this curve passes through O and P.
But now we have
dy =dt,
dz=o,
and so ds? =dx*.
Thus we have ds =dx, and so the length measured
along the space-time curve from O to P is equal to
the length from O to P measured directly along the
axis of y. That is, it is equal to /.
Thus a space-time curve the equations of which
contain an arbitrary function can have the same
length between two points as the direct length
measured between those points.
ALFRED A. ROBB.
October 11, 1922.
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes—an Explanation.
We have in the Gospel according to Saint John, in
his twenty-first and last chapter, an account of the
miraculous draught of fishes in the lake of Galilee for
which modern research into the habits of the Galilean
fishes offers a perfectly reasonable explanation. The
account is as follows :
“Simon Peter saith unto them [certain of the
disciples], I go a fishing. They say unto him, We
also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into
a ship immediately; and that night they caught
nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus
stood on the shore. . . . Then Jesus saith unto them,
Children, have ye any meat ? They answered him,
No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right
side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast there-
fore, and now they were not able to draw it for the
multitude of fishes.”
Simon Peter then girded his fisherman’s garment
around him and leaped overboard. But the other
disciples brought their boat to shore dragging the net
full of fishes with them. Further on we read:
“Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full
of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and
for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.”
The explanation of this is to be found in a study of
the habits of the fishes living in the lake of Tiberius or
OcTOBER 28, 1922]
NATURE
De)
Galilee. These fishes are perch-like in form and
affinities, so much so that the average American angler,
especially if a small boy, would call them perches.
However, ichthyologists to-day place them in a family
called Cichlide, though they were formerly called
Chromide. By one name or another, accounts of
them may be found in systematic works on fishes.
The first ichthyologist to study these fishes in their
habitat was L. Lortet, who made trips to the Holy
Land in 1875 and 1880, and in 1883 published an
extensive memoir based on the results gained at first
hand. Lortet says? (p. 106) :
“The fishes of the lake of Tiberius, very good to
eat, serve as a pasturage for the myriads of crested
grebes (Podiceps cristatus) and of pelicans. Frequently
the grebes snatch at the eyes of the chromids, and
with one stroke of their long sharp beaks lift out as
cleverly as would a skilful surgeon the two eyeballs
and the intro-orbital partition. These unhappy fish,
now blind, of which we have taken numerous examples,
have thus the entire face perforated by a bloody canal
which cicatrises rapidly. It is only the larger indi-
viduals who are thus operated on by the grebes, for,
not being able to avail themselves of the entire fish,
these voracious birds take the precaution to snatch
only the morsel of their choice.”’
The explanation of this we find on his next page,
where we are told that these chromid fishes habitually
swim at or near the surface of the water.
Canon H. B. Tristram made collections of fishes in
the sea of Galilee in 1864, thus antedating Lortet by
eleven years, but his book, ‘‘ The Survey of Western
Palestine. The Fauna and Flora of Palestine,’’ was
not published until 1884 by the Palestine Exploration
Fund.? On page 164 he refers to the Chromide as
found in the lake of Galilee in “‘ amazing multitudes ”’
and continues :
“ All these Chromide are frequently found with
their eyes extracted, and their foreheads pierced by
the Grebes, which prey on them, but they seem to
thrive perfectly well in spite of this mutilation, and to
flourish in a state of absolute blindness.”
Of Chromis tiberiadis, the most abundant form,
Canon Tristram * writes :
“T have seen them in shoals of over an acre in
extent, so closely packed that it seemed impossible for
them to move, and with their dorsal fins above the
water, giving at a distance the appearance of a
tremendous shower pattering on one spot of the
surface of the glassy lake. They are taken both in
boats and from the shore by nets run deftly round,
and enclosing what one may call a solid mass at one
swoop, and very often the net breaks.”
Dr. E. W. G. Masterman,* in chapter 2, “ The
Inland Fisheries of Galilee,’ of his book, “‘ Studies in
Galilee ’’ (Chicago, 1909), thus describes the ordinary
activities of the fishermen of the lake of Tiberius :
“. . . their movements being directed by a man
stationed on a point of the shore high above the water,
who from his vantage ground is able to detect the
presence of a shoal of musht (Chromids).’’ The fisher-
men, proceeding to the point indicated by the look-out,
1 Lortet, L. ‘‘ Poissons et reptiles du lac Tibériade, etc.,”’ in his ‘‘ Etudes
Zoologiques sur la fauna du lac Tiberiade, etc.’’ Archives Museum Histoire
Naturelle de Lyon, 1883, vol. 3.
* The Palestine Exploration Fund is interdenominational in its organisa-
tion and sources of income. It has H.M. King George V. for its patron, and
is supported by voluntary subscriptions. Its purpose is the thorough study
of the archeology, geology, geography, history, natural history, etc., of
Palestine.
* Dr. H. B. Tristram, Canon of Durham Cathedral, because of ill-health
{lung trouble) lived in Algeria during the winters of 1855-1857. He went
to Palestine in 1860 and remained for some years studying the fauna and
flora, the resulting data being incorporated in his 455-page quarto volume,
the standard work on the natural history of the Holy Land. In 1879 he was
nominated for but declined the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem. He was the
author of seven books on Palestine.
* Dr. E. W. G. Masterman is, and has been for a number of years, honorary
general secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund in Palestine.
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
quickly run a net around the school. However, he
tells us that the bottom everywhere is obstructed with
large stones, and that the fishermen have continually
to dive to free the net. This is possibly if not prob-
ably the explanation of Peter’s leaping ovebroard.
From the excerpts given, it is plain as to the purport
of the proffered explanation, if in the East, where
customs change but slowly, we may interpret the past
in terms of the present. Fish which go in schools at
the surface of the water ; fishermen who have not yet
struck a school; Jesus on high ground looks over the
lake, sees a school and points it out to the fishermen ;
they cast their nets in the direction indicated and
draw them in full to the breaking point.
E. W. GuDGER.
American Museum of Natural History,
New York City, Sept. 27.
Arabic Chemistry.
i. May I be allowed to direct the attention of those
interested in the history of chemistry to an important
paper by Prof. Eilhard Wiedemann of Erlangen ?
It is entitled ““ Zur Alchemie bei den Arabern ’”’ and
is published in Heft V. of the ‘‘ Abhandlungen zur
Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin,”
Erlangen, 1922. It contains a translation of the
passage concerning alchemy in the “‘ Kashfu’l-Zunin ”
of Hajji Khalifa, with many biographical details of
the chemists mentioned. Several of these details
have been ‘provided by Prof. Brockelmann, the
author of the monumental “‘ Geschichte der arabischen
Litteratur,’’ and are entirely new. There is also a
list of the most important works (with a few extracts)
of the famous Aidamir al-Jildaki (+ 136r).
It is perhaps ungenerous to offer any criticism of
so useful a contribution to chemical history, but I
feel that Prof. Wiedemann’s explanation of ‘ilm
al-mizan (science of the balance) as Beziehung und
Abwagung des vichtigen Masses should not be allowed
to go unchallenged. As I have pointed out in the
current number of Science Progress (October 1922),
the term “ Science of the Balance ’”’ as applied to
alchemy refers to the proper adjustment of the.
qualities of a substance, that is, its hotness and dryness,
etc., and is not used in a quantitative sense, even by
Al-Jildaki, and certainly not by Jabir ibn Haiyan,
who, I believe, originated it.
A work by Al-Jildaki which seems to have escaped
the notice of Prof. Wiedemann is “ Zahru’l-Kimam,”’
a commentary on an alchemical poem (‘“ Qasidatu’l-
Niniyya ’’) of Abu’l-Asba ‘Abdu’l-Aziz ibn Tammam
al-Iraqi (wrongly named, Abu Casba by Berthelot,
“La Chimie au Moyen Age,” tome iii. p. 4). Ibn
Tammam al-Iraqi was a contemporary of Al-Jildaki,
who thought very highly of him.
ii. Berthelot (op. cit. p. 5) says, “ Plusieurs des
auteurs alchimiques arabes ont été traduits en latin,
aux x® et xul1® siécles, et ces traductions existent
en manuscrit dans les grandes bibliothéques d’Europe.
Un certain nombre d’entre elles ont méme été im-
primées . . . dans les collections intitulées Theatrum
chemicum, Bibliotheca chemica (etc.). . A cété
d’ceuvres authentiques, je veux dire réallement
traduites ou imitées de l’arabe, telles que la Turba,
les écrits attribués a Rosinus, Morienus, Avicenne,
etc., il en existe d’autres, fabriquées de toutes piéces
en Occident, comme les prétendues ceuvres des
faussaires latins qui ont pris le nom de Géber.”’
The first part of Berthelot’s statement is un-
doubtedly correct, although Berthelot himself was
not able to discover the Arabic texts of any of the
works he mentions as of probable Arabic origin.
574
NATURE
[OcToBER 28, 1922
Perhaps, therefore, the following facts will be of
interest.
(a) In a work entitled “‘ Knowledge Acquired
concerning the Production of Gold,” an edition of
the text of which, with a translation, I have in the
press (Geuthner, Paris), the author, Abu’l-OQasim
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Iraqi, quotes several
passages which he attributes to Marianus (Morienus,
supra), the teacher of Khalid ibn Yazid. Many of
these passages occur in the Latin “ Liber de Com-
positione Alchemiae,”’ ascribed to Morienus, which
is to be found on pp. 509-519 of vol. i. of Mangeta’s
“‘ Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa ”’ (1702).
(b) On p. 217 of vol. ii. of the latter treatise is a
work entitled ‘‘ Epistola Solis ad Lunam crescentem,”’
which begins, ‘“‘ In tenuitate enim nimia dabo tibi
de pulchritudine mea lumen.”’ This work is strongly
Arabic in atmosphere, and is apparently a translation
of the ‘‘ Risalatu’l-shams ila al-hilal’’ (Letter of the
Sun to the New Moon) written by Abu ‘Abdullah
Muhammad ibn Umail at-Tamimi, who lived in the
second half of the third century after the Flight
(ca. A.D. 900). There is a manuscript of this work,
with a commentary by AlI-Jildaki, in the British
Museum (Add. 23,418, xvi.). The Latin line quoted
above is an exact translation of the first line of the
Arabic poem; I have not yet seen the MS., so that
I cannot say whether the agreement between the
“Epistola ’’ and the “ Risala ’’ holds throughout.
The second part of Berthelot’s statement, namely,
that in which he expresses his opinion that Geber’s
works are forgeries, opens a question too wide for
discussion here. JI would point out, however, that
Berthelot examined less than a dozen of the Arabic
works of Jabir ibn Haiyan, and as the latter is said
to have written more than 500 books Berthelot was
perhaps a little premature. Jabir, in his ‘‘ Book of
Properties ’’ (a manuscript of which is preserved in
the British Museum), refers to another book of his
called ‘The Summary,’ which may possibly be
the ‘‘Summa’’ of Geber. There is, moreover, in
Mangeta (vol. i. p. 562) a work entitled “‘ Testa-
mentum Gebri’; now a commentator of Jabir’s
“Book of Mercy” refers to the same author’s
“Kitab wasiyya mautihi,” or ‘‘ The Book of his
Last Will and Testament.”’
Evidence of this and other sorts is gradually
accumulating, and it would not surprise me to find
that Geber and Abi Misa Jabir ibn Haiyan were,
as for so many centuries they were held to be, one
and the same. E. J. Hotmyarp.
Clifton College, October 9.
On the Occurrence of the Archiannelids, Saccocirrus
and Protodrilus, on the South and West Coasts
of England.
In Nature (vol. 91, pp. 85 and 348) the present
writer recorded in 1913 the occurrence—for the first
time in England—of abundance of Protodrilus in
many situations, and a few Saccocirrus in one situation
near Plymouth, and it was shown that both these
forms have the curious preference for situations near
high-water mark where fresh water trickles through
or over the foreshore at low water, but covered by
sea water at high tide (l.c. 348).
writer has searched for and found Protodrilus in
similar situations and in a large number of places
between Salcombe and Falmouth, and this year was
successful in taking the same animal at two places
on the west coast of England, namely, on September 7,
near high-water mark where the Wanson (so-called)
river runs into the sea at the south end of Widemouth
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
Since 1913 the |
Bay near Bude. (See Ord. Survey Map, 1 in. to mile,
river Torridge, Sheet 127, IH, 47-53), and on
September 22 in a similar situation on a beach—
formerly well known for shells—at Woolacombe (see
O.S. Map, 1 in. to mile, Barnstaple, Sheet 119,
4C, 16-02).
In 1917 and on various occasions since, the writer has
also taken large numbers of Saccocirrus (e.g., 80 from
a hole in the gravel about 1 ft. by 1 ft. deep in half an
hour) on a beach at Portwrinkle in Whitsand Bay (see
Ord. Sur. Map, 1 in. to mile, Plymouth, Sheet 148, 5F,
83-15) in a position exactly similar to that described
formerly (/.c. p. 348). This year a few individuals
were also taken in the gravel on the above-mentioned
shell-beach at Woolacombe. Protodrilus and Sacco-
cirrus therefore probably occur in all suitable situa-
tions in the south-west of England, and may no doubt
be recorded—after search in suitable places—from
a much more extended area in the British Isles.
The specimens of each genus from all localities
belong respectively to one species, so far as can be
gathered from external characters, namely Protodrilus
fiavocapitatus, and an apparently new and as yet
undescribed species of Saccocirrus. It is hoped that
the characteristic restless side-to-side movement of
the head and anterior region of Saccocirrus may
shortly be portrayed by cinematograph.
Living in about the same situation as Protodrilus
and Saccocirrus is almost always found the planarian
Gunda ulvae. This planarian is large and easily
found under stones in pools, and therefore serves as
a guide in the search for the archiannelids. The
apparent positive geotropism of Gunda, which is
probably true, is an interesting phenomenon and not
well known ; if a number of the planarians be taken
on a flat stone, they can be made to change direction
a large number of times by holding the stone vertically
towards the light and turning it repeatedly through
an angle of 180°.
The occurrence of the above-mentioned animals
only in the peculiar habitat where the water undergoes
violent fluctuations in salinity suggests the presence
of an undetected special food supply.
J. H. Orton.
Marine Biological Laboratory,
The Hoe, Plymouth,
October ro.
Origin of the Name of the Genus Masaris.
In Ed. André, ‘‘ Species des Hyménoptéres d’Europe
et d’Algérie,”” vol. ii. p. 829, it is stated that the
derivation of the name ‘‘ Masaris”’ is unknown. The
first species described under this genus is M. vespiformis
F., from Egypt; it also occurs in Algeria.
May I suggest that the origin of the name is the
Arabic name for Egypt, ‘‘ Masr’”’ (also used colloqui-
ally for its capital, Cairo). As a common noun
““masr’”’ means ‘‘a fortified place,’’ and its plural
is “‘ amsar’”’; the word is connected with the Hebrew
word rendered ‘‘ Mizraim’”’ in Genesis. It has long
seemed to me that this derivation is at least probable,
and I should be glad to know if any other has been
suggested. E. W. ADAIR.
Turf Club, Cairo, September 26.
FABRICIUS, 1793, ‘‘ Ent. Syst.”’ ii. p. 283, in found-
ing the genus Masaris, did not indicate any derivation
for the name, and L. Agassiz, 1845, ‘‘ Nomencl.
Zool. (Hymenoptera),’’ masks his inability to give a
derivation by the suggestion that Masaris is a proper
name. PAS Be
OcToBER 28, 1922 |
NATURE
575
American Research on Acoustics.
By Aran E. Munsy.
HE Wallace Sabine laboratory of acoustics, a
photograph of which is here reproduced (Fig. 1)
is situated at Geneva, Illinois. It is a three-story
building of brick and concrete specially erected for
its purpose and forms a unique design, consisting
of two structures under one roof, an inner room or
sound chamber completely insulated from an outer
shell. Figs. 2 and 3 show a plan and section of the
building, the main feature of which is the sound
chamber 27 ft. by 19 ft. and 1g ft. 10 ins. high. Here
the original intensity of the sound is measured. The
walls of this chamber are of 18-inch brick coated with
cement outside and with wood fibre plaster inside,
and the room as shown in the section has a separate
concrete foundation. From this room half-way up
Fic. 1.—Riverbank laboratories, Geneva, Illinois.
its walls three small testing chambers are provided
furnished with heavy steel doors to exclude sound
completely. Materials to be tested are placed across
these chambers, when the doors are opened to admit
sound from an organ in the sound chamber. The
organ is a complete 73 pipe instrument giving all the
tones of the musical scale from C64 to C 4096. It is
operated electrically by the observer, who notes the
time before a sound becomes inaudible in the test
chamber. To ensure equality of sound distribution
in the sound chamber a large steel reflector mounted
on a central shaft is made to revolve in the room on
a vertical axis. The main work, up to the late Prof.
Sabine’s death, has been connected with the calibration
of the sound chamber and its instruments. This
laborious undertaking completed, the activities of the
laboratory should rapidly command a wider interest.
The present director of the laboratory, Prof. Paul E.
Sabine, has recently published the results of an investiga-
tion on the nature and reduction of noises as occurring
in business offices. Scarcely anything has been done
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
in the way of investigation on the subject of noise,
though the topic is obviously of wide interest. Prof.
Sabine begins by pointing out that the sound-absorbing
qualities of any material vary widely with pitch, and
instead of attempting to apply data obtained for
musical sounds, he wisely deals with the matter de
novo, taking the actual sources of sound, such as the
click of a typewriter, as the source for experimental
purposes. A distinction is drawn between sounds in
the open air and those in which reflection takes place,
as In a room, from the point of view of the effect
of the noise of one operator upon another. All but
two or three per cent. of sound waves falling on a
hard plaster wall are reflected, and in an experiment
cited there were found to be 500 reflections before a
given sound reached final decay. It would seem,
therefore, that as much absorption as possible by
walls and ceilings should be aimed at to prevent
these reflections.
An important point brought out by these investiga-
tions is that the absorption efficiency of a given material
for both musical sound and noise is greater when the
material is employed in small units. In discussing
practical measures Prof. Sabine alludes to linings of
felt for walls, covered with some fabric, to light porous
tiles and plaster, citing a plaster recently developed
which is a much better absorber than ordinary plaster.
He even makes a distinction between painted and
unpainted walls, the general tendency of paints being
to fill up a porous surface and thus decrease sound
absorption, and numerical data are given showing the
relative value of various surfaces in absorbing the
sound of a typewriter. In these experiments the
difference of power of absorption of a given material
for various sounds, though existing, was found to be
small.
Prof. Sabine has made a separate and special
investigation of the absorption of sound by rigid
walls and finds that the refraction effect on the passage
of the sound into the new medium is of only trifling
importance. His experiments have recently been
further extended to tests upon artificial aids to hearing.
He classifies the types of instruments commonly used
and describes investigations to measure the difference
of times during which residual sound may be heard
with and without a particular instrument as a measure
of the increase in loudness produced by that instrument.
His results are illustrated graphically. It was observed
that the highest tones in every case were less loud with
instruments than without, suggesting that the short
wave lengths enter the small cavity of the external
ear better than do the air columns of instruments.
With certain instruments also the lowest tone (frequency
128) was less well heard than without their aid. Prof.
Sabine does not consider the prospects of improvements
in alleviating extreme deafness to be good, but points
the way by reference to the amplification of telephone
currents by the thermionic tube, and he suggests a
joint attack on the problem by physicists and physi-
ologists.
Another series of experiments on sound-proof parti-
57 NATURE
[OcToBER 28, 1922
R.
which are described
of the University. The results
tions has recently been conducted by Mr. F.
Watson, also of Illinois University,
in Bulletin No. 127
Hence the problem of assessing sound transmission is
a very complex one. The author of the bulletin cited
directs attention to the very detrimental effect as
regards sound insulation of even
small apertures caused by ill-fitting
doors or by ventilators; he also
WOLK BLNCH
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| makes a distinction between sounds
due to air waves striking a separat-
ing medium and vibrations such as
those caused by machinery, the
former best resisted by heavy and
rigid walling, the latter by arranging
for absorption of the vibrations by
beds of sand or like loose material.
From a useful résumé of previous
experiments on sound transmission,
the conclusion is drawn that rigidity
is a deciding factor in sound pre-
| vention, and some _ experiments
recently conducted by Prof. P. E.
Sabine are cited which showed that
a plate of glass three-sixteenths of
| an inch thick transmitted less sound
than two glass plates with a sheet
| of celluloid sealed between them of
| the same total thickness. A series
of tests made at the Music Building,
Chicago, in 1895, is quoted, which
tends to show that an air space
between materials forming the two
sides of a partition is of much less
| value for sound prevention than is
| commonly supposed, and _ that
| benefits which accrue from such
| space are almost wholly negatived
=p lan of Acoustic Research Building.
have led to conclusions somewhat at variance with
generally accepted ideas.
Sound, on striking an object, is reflected, absorbed,
| by the inevitable connexion at
intervals for structural reasons
between the two sides.
= = In Mr. Watson’s experiments
use was made of the Rayleigh
disc resonator, which admits of much more accurate
and comparable results than are possible by
aural comparisons adopted by many earlier experi-
or transmitted, and usually all [
three results occur. In any par-
ticular case a definite amount of
energy has to be got rid of in these
ways, and for sound - proofing one
may aim chiefly at reflection or ab-
sorption. When sound waves in one
medium encounter another medium
having a different density, the ra cava tis yee incu
progression of the waves is dis- CHAMBCE CHAMBER
turbed, a certain amount of HOHE
tion takes place, some of the energy
is absorbed, that is, converted into
heat, while the amount transmitted
through the medium will depend on
its thickness and properties, such as
porosity and rigidity.
In practice the materials used to
MSULATED |
EXPERIMENT LOOM
Paias es
ae Al |
5)
a1eeL book
Guat CXPLRIMENT ROOM
LIGHTING BOX
WASULATED)
Poon
REFLECTOR,
floor Linty
"_ SECTION AA.
separate rooms or buildings are = Ta
usually of a complex character, and
their rigidity will depend not only on their nature and
but on the area of the separating wall.
VOL. 110]
thickness,
-Section of Acoustic Research Building.
menters. A very large number of materials were
tested, and these were in all cases of satisfactory area—
ter
OcroBER 28, 1922]
NATURE
eWorh
at least 3 ft. by 5 ft. An adjustable organ pipe blown
at constant pressure formed the source of sound
placed at the focus of a 5 ft. parabolic reflector facing
the partition to be tested in the manner shown in
Fic. 4.—Diagram of apparatus for testing transmission and
4 reflection of sound.
Fig. 4, and a disc resonator was placed on either side
of the partition to measure the transmitted and re-
flected sound. Fig. 5 shows a photograph of the
apparatus in use, and the observer’s box provided to
prevent disturbance due to his presence. The general
and it was found that if the transmission through a
2-inch metal lath and plaster partition has an intensity
represented by 0-93, a 2-inch well-fitted solid wood
door with three-sixteenths of an inch clearance from
the floor increased this to 7-3 and with half an inch
clearance to 11-7, showing the importance of even very
small apertures. As regards composite partitions, the
author’s conclusions are that the small gain in internal
reflection at surfaces of different density is usually
more than counterbalanced by the loss in total rigidity,
and thus in reflecting power of the initial surface of
contact. In practice, of course, too much reflection
may be detrimental to the uses of the room in which
the sound is generated, and as 1s pointed out, absorption
must be the ultimate aim for the destruction of sound,
which means its conversion into heat.
Sound-proofing is of special interest in the modern
type of business building, where, in order to economise
space and admit of adaptability for changes of tenancy,
the constructural brick wall has been so largely re-
placed by the thin partition, and experiments of the
type described should be of great value to architects
who are responsible for specifying materials and
construction. The present writer’s experience is that’
a wall composed of Fletton bricks, which are very
dense, is less effective in stopping sound than one
composed of stock bricks, which are more porous and
less regular.
It would be unwise to generalise too much from the
experiments described ; with floors, for example, the
Fic. 5.—General view of apparatus.
results of the tests confirm the views of earlier experi-
menters cited. Porosity results in absorption but a
good deal of transmission, while rigidity results in
large reflection; the reflection from hair felt, for
example, being 6, while that from Sackett board of
the same thickness is 42-7.
The effect of openings such as doors were also tested,
NO. 2765, VOL. 110]
direct contact produces conditions different from those
of a sound wave in air, and through a solid concrete
floor every footfall may well be heard in the room
below. Much further work on this subject is needed,
and it is to be hoped that investigation in this country
will supplement and extend what is being done else-
where.
578
NATORE
[OcToBER 28, 1922
The Galactic System.!
By Dr. Harrow SHapLey.
Il.
(8 the first part of this article the main character-
istics of the globular and open clusters were dis-
cussed, and it was shown how the determination of their
distances led to the proposal of extremely great dimen-
sions for the galactic system. __Prof. a, McLean 3
Colour Observations of the Moon.—A. F. Warth .
The Local Handbook of the British Association. —
Bernard Hobson
The Early History of the Dead Flora. —I.
D: H. Scott, F.R'S. :
Solar Radiation and its Gisuxes
Obituary :—
W.H. Wesley. By Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin
Prof. C. Michie Smith . j
Current Topics and Events
Our Astronomical Column .
By Dr.
Research Items 3
The Origin of Magnetism.
Man and the Ice Age .
Generation and Utilisation of Cold.
By E. A. Griffiths
Propagation of the Sound of Benlosions
The Whitworth Scholarships
University and Educational Intelligence
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies
Diary of Societies
By Prof. A. O. Rankine
( With diagram.)
Editorial and Publishing Offices 5
MACMILLAN & Co., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
ios)
Primitive Custom and Administration.
HE Report of the Tanganyika Territory for the
year 1921, which has been issued as a White Paper
| (Cmd. 1732), contains much matter of interest relating
to native affairs. It is evident that the Administration
by sympathetic treatment and by a patient hearing
of tribal grievances is winning the confidence of the
native population,
seized to remove hardships which have been inflicted
while every opportunity is being
on them by the excessive alienation of land under the
German colonial system. As a census taken in April
last shows that there is a native population of 4,107,000,
the responsibility for the regulation of native affairs
is not light. It is satisfactory, therefore, to note that
a good beginning has been made towards establishing
sympathetic relations with the tribes. In the interests
of the Territory, it is vital that the administration
should be conducted with due regard to native customs
and institutions. It is even more important that the
native should have an opportunity of development
along lines in harmony with his own culture, and
ultimately, it is permissible to hope, of incorporation
as an essential and responsible element in the com-
munity.
In this connexion a reference in the report to native
beliefs assumes a significance which might, perhaps, be
overlooked. It is stated that in the Mwanza region
the reigning chief has lost his authority through having
failed to live up to his father’s reputation as a rain-
maker, and that witch-doctors are losing their hold
over the younger generation. These statements do
more than throw an interesting light on the religious
beliefs of the people.
chief and rain-maker is not uncommon throughout
Africa. It is one of the marks of “ the divinity that
doth hedge a king ” Its
special significance lies in the fact that not only is
the person of the king or chief sacred, but his authority
The combination of function of
among primitive peoples.
also rests upon his power as a sacred being, of which
rain-making is one of the manifestations. The magic
of the witch-doctor or medicine-man, like that of the
king, is on the side of law and order, notwithstanding
the, to us, sinister character of certain of his activities.
Some of the great secret societies of West Africa, which
are essentially religious in character, have, as one of
their more important functions, the policing of their
respective districts and the punishment of any trans-
gression of the moral or social code. It follows, there-
fore, that any change in attitude towards the religious
beliefs which form the basis of authority cannot fail
to have a harmful effect on the discipline of the com-
munity. Any indication of a weakening in the regard
594
which the natives of Tanganyika have for the magic
powers of their chiefs and witch-doctors must cause
misgiving. It indicates a decay of custom which
may effect the most vital elements in native culture
and social organisation.
A part of the Empire far distant from Central Africa
affords a striking example of a decay of custom similar
to that now taking place in Tanganyika. Over the
greater part of the South Seas the sacrosanct character
of the chief is, or was, the basis of the whole social
order. The sacred power of the chief was the sanction
of the law, and in virtue of it he punished offenders.
Contact with civilisation has proved fatal. The white
man does not recognise the sanctity of the chief, nor
does he discriminate in this respect between the chief
and the ordinary members of the tribe. When he
commits, without fatal consequences, acts which the
native regards as tabu, the sacred character of the chief
is impaired and his authority undermined. As the
laws of morality, of the sanctity of married life, and of
property rest on the principle of tabu, of which the
chief is the supreme manifestation, not only is the
authority of the chief to punish offenders questioned,
but the whole social order is also disintegrated. The
results can be studied in Melanesia, and particularly
in the New Hebrides, where contact with the white
man has led to the discrediting in this way of the
authority of the chief and of the elders of the com-
munity.
The social disintegration which has followed this re-
sult need not be considered here in detail. It has been
detrimental to the native, and, by depleting the supply
of labour, will ultimately have a serious effect on the
development of the resources of the islands. Those
who would pursue the subject further will find it well
and impartially discussed in “ Essays on the Depopula-
tion of Melanesia,” ! which has recently been published
on behalf of the Melanesian Mission. In this instruct-
ive, and indeed valuable little book, a number of
essays by missionaries, an anthropologist, and adminis-
trative officials such as Sir William Macgregor and
Mr. C. M. Woodford, deal with various aspects of the
question. All concur in attributing much importance
to the decay of custom as a cause of the depopulation
which is undoubtedly taking place in this area.
The adjustment of custom when civilised and primi-
tive meet must inevitably give rise to difficulty. It
should be the aim of the ruling power to secure this
adjustment with as little harm as possible to the social
organisation of the subject population. It is unneces-
sary to urge that certain practices cannot be tolerated
under the rule of a civilised power. Human sacrifice,
* “Essays on the Depopulation of Melanesia,’’ Edited by Dr, W. H.
R. Rivers, Pp, xx-+116, (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1922.)
6s, net.
No. 2766, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[NovEeMBER 4, 1922
for example, is a case in point. It has been usual to
forbid such practices entirely, as was done in the case
of suttee in India. Frequently, however, total suppres-
sion entails consequences entirely unforeseen. As our
knowledge of primitive peoples grows, it becomes in-
creasingly apparent that it is difficult to interfere with
one element in custom without affecting the whole.
In Melanesia, head-hunting and intertribal wars have
been suppressed. The results have been serious. It
is not merely that these forms of activity have dis-
appeared, but with them has gone a whole group of
dependent social activities which filled the life of the
Melanesian. A head-hunting expedition entailed the
performance of a prolonged ritual of preparation, extend-
ing over many months, which began with the building
of canoes, and included at different stages many feasts
and the preparations for them. A whole group of
interests, many of practical utility apart from their
main object, has thus been eliminated from the lives
of the natives.
The late Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, in an interesting
essay which he contributed to the work mentioned
above, gave it as his opinion that the most important
factor contributory to the depopulation of Melanesia
was psychological, and, in fact, that it was due to the
lack of interest in life which followed as a consequence
It is interesting
and significant to note, as an indication of the import-
ance of this side of the subject, that it has led even a
missionary to regret the suppression of intertribal war.
It might well be worth while in such cases to endeavour,
of the suppression of certain customs.
by substituting some harmless element, such as, for
example, an animal instead of a human victim, to
avoid total suppression of a custom embodying some
objectionable features. This suggestion was put
forward by Dr. Rivers; but something of the same
nature is already in operation in districts in New Guinea,
where the head-taking propensities of the native have
been turned to account among animals which played
havoc with the women’s plantations.
The whole question is one of extreme difficulty and
To those who realise our responsibilities
to subject populations and the importance of the part
the native should play in the development of tropical
and subtropical lands, any suggestion of change in
custom, such as that reported from Tanganyika, is
big with possibilities of disaster. As a result of past
experience, it is clear that each case must be dealt with
on its merits and as it arises ; but the general principle
is equally clear that it is only by close and sympathetic
study of native custom that it will be possible to avoid
action which may undermine authority and destroy a
social fabric upon which depends the continued exist-
ence of a primitive people.
complexity.
NovEMBER 4, 1922]
Applied Electricity.
A Dictionary of Applied Physics. Edited by Sir
Richard Glazebrook. Vol. II. Electricity. Pp.
vii+rro4. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.,
1922.) 63s. net.
T is interesting to compare the second volume of
Sir Richard Glazebrook’s “‘ Dictionary of Applied
Physics ” with the electrical portions of older diction-
aries. For example, in Barlow’s ‘“‘ Dictionary of Pure
‘and Applied Mathematics ”’ (1814) it is said that “ the
science of electricity became a general subject of con-
versation ” after the discovery of the ‘“‘ Leyden Vial.”
In Nichol’s ‘“ Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences ”
(1860) we learn that electrical science “ has spoken for
itself to the world as no other has.” ‘‘ Witness the
simultaneous discovery of the Leyden Phial and the
Electric shock.” Three practical applications of
electricity are given, namely, the lightning-conductor,
the electric telegraph, and electroplating. The last
is specially commended as being “so conducive to
the comforts and elegancies of life.” An examination
of the volume under review will show how greatly
our knowledge has been widened during the last sixty
years. We were sorry, however, not to have seen
the “‘ Leyden Jar ” mentioned.
The plan of the dictionary follows to a certain extent
that adopted by Nichol, but the important sections
are much larger. In fact, quite substantial books
could be made of the sections written by some of the
contributors. Besides the important contributions
there are a few short articles and many definitions
of electrical quantities, machines, instruments, and
methods. The absence of an index makes it difficult
to find out whether any subjects have been omitted
or not. There is a very elaborate name-index, but
this will be little help even to the older physicist or
electrician, as many of the names will be unknown
to him. We think that the younger physicist will
have considerable difficulty in finding out what he
wants. Doubtless, this will be remedied when the final
volume is published. We have not noticed anything
about electric traction, electric ship-propulsion, electric
vehicles, lightning-conductors, rotary and frequency
converters, electrostatic machines, the attraction
between electrified spheres, or the fixation of nitrogen.
We take it that atmospheric electricity will come under
meteorology in the next volume.
We were glad to notice that the contributors had
not been handicapped by being compelled -to adopt
a rigid nomenclature and an invariable set of symbols.
As a rule, those agreed on internationally have been
adopted. Although considerable use has been made
throughout of elementary vector analysis, there is
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
NATURE
5o)5
little demand made on the reader’s knowledge of
mathematics. Academical subjects, like spherical
harmonics and the perennial “ electrified ellipsoid,”
have been omitted.
Dr. Rayner has written a useful section on alternat-
ing-current instruments and measurements. He has
made a happy selection of the best modern measur-
ing instruments. His description of the electrostatic
watt-meter is specially good. Occasionally his strain-
ing after conciseness leads him into imaccuracy ; as
when he says (p. 11) that the torque is equal to the
square of the volts instead of being merely proportional
to that quantity. There is a misprint also in the
equation on this page.
The articles on primary
batteries, accumulators, and cables are good, but the
last could have been expanded with advantage. The
assumption on p. 94 that the thermal emissivity is
independent of the radius of the wire is certainly not
true, and we doubt whether the formule given on
p- 95 are of general application.
Mr. Albert Campbell contributes a valuable article
He
generally refers to capacity as “ capacitance,” which
is the name the Americans now use, and he calls the
capacity “between two conductors the
capacity.” He clearly recognises the difference be-
on electrical capacity and its measurement.
<
““ working
tween two of the various kinds of capacity and calls
them by different names. In other parts of the volume,
For
example, under units (p. 948), we read that a con-
ductor which had a capacity of 1 farad “ even though
composed of plates very close together, would be very
> ”
large.
however, which capacity is meant is not so clear.
It looks as if conductor were a- misprint for
condenser. The various kinds of capacities have been
clearly defined by nomenclature committees of the
Physical Society and of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers. On p. 107 formule for the capacity
between two circular plates and the capacity to earth
of one of them are given; the formule are only
approximations and no limitations to their accuracy
are given. Their value is therefore doubtful. We
note misprints in formule (27), (50), (54), and (55).
T. Gray’s results for the dielectric strengths (now
usually called the electric strengths) of air at different
thicknesses are given. We think that this is a mis-
leading way of interpreting the experimental results.
If we consider spherical electrodes in air, the disruptive
voltages are computed in everyday work from their
distance apart and their radii, with a maximum in-
accuracy of about x per cent. From these experiments
we would conclude that the assumption that the
electric strength of air was 27-4 kilovolts per cm. at
25°C. and 76 cm. pressure, whatever the thickness
of the layer might be, would lead to very approxi-
596
NATURE
[ NOVEMBER 4, 1922
mately correct results in nearly every case. We
notice that the author adopts Kennelly’s names for
the absolute unit of electric quantity, capacity, and
pressure. We thus get the abcoulomb, the abfarad
and abstatfarad, and the abvolt.
been recognised, even in America, by any technical
society or institution, they are “ technically irregular.”
As they have never
It has to be remembered, however, that all good new
names are introduced in this way.
We do not like the phrase “‘ dielectric constant ” ;
it surprises, at least mathematicians, to find that this
“ constant’ varies with temperature. Many excellent
methods of measuring capacity are given, but beginners
would appreciate some little guidance as to which one
to adopt in special cases.
Dr. Rayner’s article on dielectrics will be appreciated
by engineers, and Mr. Melsom’s article on direct-current
indicating instruments will be most helpful in the
test-room of every factory. Mr. F. E. Smith writes
an authoritative article on systems of electrical measure-
ments which will be of great value for reference by
subsequent writers. Dr. Allmand gives a concise and
excellent description of the technical applications of
electrolysis. Any one reading the fascinating account
of the electron theory and its application to spectrum
analysis, by Sir William Bragg, will find it difficult to
believe that Rutherford and Bohr’s theories of the
atom are not substantially correct. In his description
of ‘electrons and the discharge tube” Dr. Crowther
is also very convincing.
Mr. F. E. Smith gives an illuminating account of
galvanometers, including very helpful rules for choos-
ing a galvanometer for a particular purpose. Mr.
Butterworth writes a valuable account of the formule
used for measuring inductance and gives an excellent
table for computing the mutual inductance between
coaxial circles. We miss, however, his own formula
and that of Mr. H. L. Curtis for computing the high-
frequency inductance of parallel cylindrical wires.
Mr. Campbell gives a very complete account of methods
of measuring inductance and gives some 200 references
to papers on the subject. The method of compensating
for the inductance of a coil shown on p, 402 is not as
accurate as the author states, a term having been left
out in the algebraical reduction shown on this page.
Mr. Dye, in ‘“‘ Magnetic Measurements and Properties
of Materials,” has produced a very complete account
of modern methods.
The General Electric Company gives a very brief
account of “ incandescence ” lamps, which is excellent
so far as it goes. Most readers would like to have
had further data on tungsten vacuum and gas-filled
lamps. The Americans are not so reticent. We note
that the temperature of the tungsten filament is about
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
*2300° K.” We take it that this is in the absolute
Centigrade scale and that the K. refers to Kelvin.
This is ‘‘ technically irregular ’’; but there is a real
demand by engineers and by some physicists that
the absolute Centigrade scale, which is the one they
use, be called the Kelvin scale, and we hope that this
nomenclature will be adopted.
Prof. Honda gives a thoughtful article on the molec-
| ular theories of magnetism, and we have an account
of Ewing’s latest model. Dr. Chree writes a thorough
and interesting account of the observational methods
used in terrestrial magnetism, and Dr, Chapman
describes some of the theories of terrestrial magnetism
and how far the solar agent is responsible for magnetic
storms and aurore. Positive rays are described by
Dr. Aston. A description is given of his mass-spectro-
graph and typical mass spectra are shown.
The lengthy article on radio-frequency measure-
ments by Mr. Dye will be appreciated by workers in
many research laboratories, as these methods are often
of great value. We are doubtful whether it is legiti-
mate to assume that the capacity of a coil can be
represented by supposing that the coil has no capacity
and that a condenser of a certain size is placed across
its terminals. The formula for the high-frequency
resistance of a round wire at an infinite distance away
from other wires is given, but the formule found
recently for more practical cases are not given.
Very complete accounts are given of switch-gear,
telegraphy, and telephony, which will be appreciated
by electrical engineers. We have only space to
mention the valuable articles on vibration galvano-
meters, wireless telegraphy, and thermionic values, by
Mr. Campbell, Dr. Eccles, and Prof. Fortescue. Finally,
the articles by Prof. Richardson and Dr. Wilson on
thermionics, Mr. Smith-Rose on the use of thermionic
valves, Mr. Melsom on direct-current meters, and
Dr. Crowther on X-rays, are of great value.
Under units it is stated that, at the International
Electrical Conference held in Paris in 1900, the Gauss
was defined to be the C.G.S. unit of magnetic force,
and the Maxwell was defined as the practical unit of
magnetic induction, It is also stated that if we take
the permeability of air to be unity and to be a pure
number, the value of the Maxwell is the same as that
of the Gauss. But the Maxwell is not the unit of
magnetic induction density. Hence we should read
in this case that a Maxwell per square centimetre is
the same as the Gauss. There are several definitions
of self-inductance given: that appearing on p. 727 is
wrong, as the self-inductance is the linkage of the
magnetic induction, and not the magnetic force, with
the current. Inno case is it explained how the linkages
inside the conductor have to be computed. We have
NOVEMBER 4, 1922]
NATURE
597
noticed a few other slips and misprints. They do not
appreciably detract, however, from the value of this
volume, which will be welcomed by all physicists and
engineers.
Spitsbergen and its Wild Life.
Amid Snowy Wastes: Wild Life on the Spitsbergen
Archipelago. By Seton Gordon. Pp. xiv+206,
2 maps and 114 illustrations. (London: Cassell and
Co., Ltd., 1922.) 155. net.
LTHOUGH the Spitsbergen Archipelago is only
aN six hundred miles from the north pole, yet,
owing to its accessibility, due to the influence of the
Gulf Stream drift which reaches its
western shores, it has been much
visited in the summer months by
naturalists and sportsmen, with the
result its bird-life is better known
than that of anumber of continental
countries. Its ornithology is en-
crusted in a remarkable literature
dating from 1598, which comprises
no less than 150 contributions, and
includes Prof. Koenig’s “ Avifauna
Spitzbergensis,” which the
beauty of its meisenbach pictures of
scenery, and its excellent coloured
plates of birds arid their eggs, is
entitled to rank among the most
attractive of bird-books, while its
letterpress exhausts the historical
aspect of the subject down to the
year of its publication, rorr.
The latest expedition was organ-
ised by the University of Oxford,
and visited the archipelago in the
summer of 1921 under the leadership
of the Rey. F.C. R. Jourdain. Mr.
Gordon accompanied the party in
the capacity of photographer, and
_ hence the main attractions of his
book lie in the wealth and nature
of its illustrations, about one hundred
innumber. These are supplemented
by a series of pleasantly written
chapters wherein he relates his
personal observations and _ experi-
ences. The scientific results of the
expedition, however, will appear in
due course ; those relating to orni-
thology are being prepared by Mr.
Jourdain, who isaneminent authority
on the subject.
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
from
Fic. 1.—Nesting ground of the Pink-footed Goose.
The most interesting pictures and chapters of Mr.
Gordon’s book are devoted to the pink-footed goose,
Brent goose, long-tailed duck, purple sandpiper, grey
phalarope, glaucous gull, and various nesting colonies.
The chief captures made by the expedition were a
number of eggs of the Bernicle goose, concerning the
nesting habits of which no trustworthy information was
forthcoming until 1907, when the first eggs were found
at Spitsbergen by Prof. Koenig. Five nests and twenty
eggs were obtained in rg21, but for some unexplained
reason the nest of this bird—not yet depicted—does
not appear in Mr. Gordon’s series, though a chapter is
devoted to it.
An interesting account is given of the coal-mining
From ‘‘ Amid Snowy Wastes.”
10 Bt
598
industry, which has been developed during recent years
in Spitsbergen and now finds employment for some 1300
miners, 1000 of whom, some of them with their wives
and families, remain through the winter. This colonisa-
Fic. 2,—Red-throated Diver on its nest. From ‘
tion has effected some remarkable innovations, among
others the establishment of no less than eight wireless
stations whence messages may be despatched to
Britain at a rate of fourpence per word !
The larger mammals, such as the Polar bear, walrus,
and right whale, once extremely
numerous, have long ago been
exterminated, and now only strag-
glers appear at intervals as rare
waifs. The faunal changes, how-
ever, are likely to be much more
rapid in the future than in the
past, since there is now a con-
siderable human population—one
that will doubtless soon be con-
and Spits-
siderably increased
bergen being a no-man’s-land, no
protection can be imposed, and
its animal life will suffer accord-
ingly. There are three character-
istic animals in the archipelago
which are likely to become extinct,
namely, the reindeer (Rangifer
platyrhynchus), which is endemic,
the fox (Canis spitsbergensis), and
the ptarmigan (Lagopus hyperboreus). The deer, once
very numerous and _ still unsophisticated, has been
ruthlessly slaughtered in recent years. The fox since
the advent of the Norwegian hunter, with his traps and
NO. 2766, VOL. 110}
NARBORE
Amid Snowy Wastes.”
Fic. 3-—Purple Sandpiper on its nest.
[ NovEMBER 4, 1922
poison, has been almost exterminated in places where
it once occurred in hundreds. There is only one species
of fox in Spitsbergen, the two species alluded to by
Mr. Gordon being colour-phases due to season or age.
Special efforts were made by the
expedition to find the ptarmi-
only resident land
bird, but without success, though
all their likely haunts
visited, including a valley where
Mr. Gordon tells us in 1920 no
less than fifty brace were shot
in a single afternoon by members
of the Scottish Spitsbergen Syndi-
cate. These birds must afford
poor sport, for Dr. van Oordt
tells us they are so tame that
easily be killed with
gan, the
were
they can
stones.
The another
that is rigorously and
atically persecuted.
bird
system-
Enormous
numbers of its eggs are annually
taken for food and down is col-
lected from their nests—both for sale in Norway.
Mr. Gordon relates that one sloop, which had already
15,000 eggs on board, was still engaged in adding
hundreds of eggs daily to the hoard. It is to be
hoped that the rarer and more interesting species
eider is
From ‘‘ Amid Snowy Wastes.”
alluded to are also natives of the eastern isles of
the Archipelago, which are so beset with ice that
they are little known, and that thus they may escape
extinction. Wa age:
NOVEMBER 4, 1922]
NATURE
HOY
The Reopening of Europe.
Frequented Ways ; A General Survey of the Land Forms,
Climates, and Vegetation of Western Europe, con-
sidered in their Relation to the Life of Man ; including
a Detailed Study of some Typical Regions. By Dr.
Marion I. Newbigin. Pp. xi+321. (London: Con-
stable and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 15s. net.
LARGE part of Europe is again open to the
traveller. Dr. Newbigin, president of the
Geographical Section of the British Association this
year, does well to direct attention to the frequented
ways, and her book asks those who follow them to
adopt an appreciative outlook, casting off the insu-
larity bred among our western isles. Insight into the
relations of nature and man in Switzerland is not to
be gained by selecting hotels where an English chaplain
is on the staff. Dr. Newbigin has evidently suffered
in this matter, and she remarks (p. 165) that the
Catholic religion has the advantage “ that no particular
form of dress is imposed upon the worshippers.” Her
appreciation of the unconventional might have made
her more tolerant (pp. 1 and 163) of “the superior
person ”’ who has been driven from anglicised Grindel-
wald to Japan or the New Zealand Alps. If she thinks
that these fields are reserved for the prattling millionaire,
let her consider Mr. Ralph Stock’s exquisite little book
on the voyage of “The Dream Ship ” (1922), and see
how the spirit of the Elizabethans may still carry our
island-folk, both male and female, across the viewless
seas.
Dr. Newbigin rather overlooks the value of a con-
tinuous traverse of a land-surface by the pedestrian,
the cyclist, and the new users of highways that have
not been so frequented since my lord and my lady took
their own carriage into France. Automobilists are
not always mere diffusers of dust and lubrication-
odours ; thousands are ready to respond to a training
in history and geography. Dr. Newbigin conducts us
inevitably by railway, and it may be noted that her
information as to lines in the Eastern Alps is not entirely
up-to-date. If, moreover, she prefers Basel, with good
reason, as a place-name, why does she write Berne,
St. Gothard, and the purely English Botzen, which
should now, we presume, become Bolzano? She goes
so far as to discuss (pp. 37 and 42) the merits of various
tunnels through the mountains ; these, after all, are
the frequented ways. The Gazette of the Cyclists’
Touring Club for August 1922 will show her, however,
that even the Arlberg road is not forsaken. Again, in
her essay on the Scottish Highlands, we should like to
hear more of the pedestrian who travels across the
glens as well as down them, in his attempt to realise
their “relation to the life of man.”
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
The author seems carried away at times by a certain
vigour of self-expression, as if she had been caught in
the swirls of “the revolt against civilisation.” On
p. 48 she writes, “latitude is only one of the factors
which influence climate,’ and styles this “ current
geographical slang.”” Three pages on, she tilts against
“latent heat,’ surely a very innocent antagonist.
Again, has geographic environment moulded “ the
ferocious individualism of the Scot” (p. 261), which
causes him to charge as much as 2s. 6d. for a belated
breakfast on a winter’s day ? Is not this seeming lack
of hospitality to be ascribed to the advent of tourists
from the south, by way of Edinburgh, into the quiet
of his ancestral wilds ? Do we not remember how a
cotter’s wife was on the look-out for us one morning
with a gift of oatcake, lest we should go hungry on a
twenty-mile track under the Paps of Jura; or how a
poor fisherman forced a tepid meal upon us, with the
remark, “I should not like you to pass this house” ?
This is how the loneliness of moor and island have
really affected the Gael of the old stock, despite the
clan-animosities intensified by seclusion in the glens.
Dr. Newbigin is at her best, and thus at a high level,
in dealing with the influence of climate and land-forms
on European vegetation. Had our military organisers
known as much geography as is compressed into p. 55,
the “ mediterranean climate ” would not have wrecked
a band of gallant men sent up into the snows from
Salonika.
Dr. Newbigin’s photographs are a change from too
familiar scenes. She gives us, for example, the vine-
clad pergolas of Domo d’ Ossola and the deforested
slopes above La Grave. She certainly did not reach
the latter spot by railway. In the Italian chapters,
while seeking to be moderate, she cannot conceal a
genuine hate of Venice ; and, when she justly charms
us with Ravenna, she elaborates a contrast that cannot
be entirely sustained. Did the Goths consciously
embrace the creed of Ulfilas because his homotian views
provided a religion for “‘ free men” ? We are puzzled
by the intricacies of p. 292, and are not going to allow
so good a geographer to entrap us in the maze of
Alexandrian controversy, or into a discussion of the
Virgin enthroned with angels in Sant’ Apollinare of
Ravenna. It is more profitable to note that the
explanation given (p. 231) of phenomena at the Solfa-
tara confirms a suggestion recently made in NATURE
(vol. 109, p. 559).
Dr. Newbigin’s reliance on the railways leads her to
call (p. 309) the Assisi-Foligno-Orte loop “‘an easy
route’ to Rome. The alluvial infilling seems to have
made her forget that she is running upstream past
Monte Subasio, and that clever engineering was
required to get back from Spoleto by the gorge of
600
Narni to the Tiber. Bertarelli’s “ Guida itineraria del
Touring Club italiano,” route 180, puts the true aspect
of this dissected country before the geographic tourist-
Such tourists will receive much encouragement from
the broad views of western lands provided in the book
before us. Perhaps in another volume the author will
show how intensive studies of equal value may be
carried on by easy deviations from frequented ways.
The piazza of Todi, 1350 feet above the sea, Foix on
the Ariége, guarding one of the few passes into Spain,
or Radstadt, tinkling with cattle-bells, on the high
pastures of the Tauern, may serve as epitomes of their
regions and of the reaction of environment on man.
But Dr. Newbigin certainly does not need suggestions.
GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
History of Astronomy.
Histoire de l Astronomie. Par E. Doublet. (Encyclo-
pédie scientifique.) Pp. 572. (Paris: G. Doin,
1922.) 17 francs.
N his first chapter the author passes in review the
principal works on the history of astronomy,
beginning with Weidler’s book and ending with the
great work by Duhem on the cosmical systems. Of the
valuable books of Grant and R. Wolf, only the titles
are given, and several others are omitted altogether.
Of monographs, only Schiaparelli’s first two papers are
mentioned. This is natural enough, since there is
plenty of evidence that the author is quite unacquainted
with the rich literature of memoirs and short papers
on the history of astronomy which has appeared within
the last fifty years. Whenever a fact is not mentioned
by Delambre, Duhem, etc., it will be looked for in vain
in M. Doublet’s pages, and whenever fresh light has
been thrown on any subject since they wrote, he is
not aware of it. Take, for example, the paragraph on
Hipparchus. We are told that his diopter was in the
Middle Ages called a Jacob’s staff ; in reality the former
had a cursor with a round hole in it, and was used only
for measuring small angles such as the diameters of
sun or moon, while the latter was shaped like a cross,
with the shorter arm movable (on p. 152 the invention
of the baculus is correctly attributed to Levi ben Gerson
of Avignon, as Duhem had also done). The star of
Hipparchus is compared to the new star of 1572,
whereas there can be no doubt that it was nothing but
the comet of 134 B.c. The star-catalogue of Hip-
parchus is said to contain 1025 stars and to have been
handed down to us by Ptolemy, but it has been shown
by Boll that the catalogue probably contained only
about 850 stars, while it is now universally recognised
that Ptolemy’s catalogue is not a mere reproduction
of that of Hipparchus. Next it is stated that Hip-
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[ NovEMBER 4, 1922
parchus put the solar parallax equal to 3’; it was Ptolemy
who did that, whereas Hipparchus said that it was at
most a minute and a half. On the same page we read
that Hipparchus determined the principal lunar in-
equalities with admirable precision. Hipparchus knew
only one inequality, the equation of the centre ; but
that is, perhaps, a slip, as it is elsewhere (p. 110)
mentioned that Ptolemy discovered the evection.
The most valuable part of Duhem’s work is his
account of Latin astronomy in the later Middle Ages,
as he was able to make use of many manuscript sources.
M. Doublet has done right in quoting him largely ; but
here, as everywhere else, the consequences of never
referring to the original sources are evident. Duhem
gives a very unsatisfactory account of the planetary
system of Al Betrugi, which was very much discussed
in the thirteenth century both at Paris and at Oxford.
The account of it by M. Doublet similarly misses the
most important part of the system. In the same way,
the account of King Alfonso and his Tables reproduces
all the old misstatements which have been refuted long
ago. The tables were ot published at the time of the
King’s accession, but some twenty years later, and no
change was made in them as regards precession ; they
were not prepared by a “numerous commission,” for
it would have been necessary to raise the dead, since
the alleged members of that Royal Commission lived
long before King Alfonso’s time. The “ Libros del
Saber’? were never translated into Latin, and were
quite unknown until they were at last printed some
sixty years ago, and the last edition of the tables was
not printed then, but in 1641.
The author’s account of the progress of astronomy
from the end of the Middle Ages to the time of Newton
does not differ much in extent or quality from the
earlier chapters. We have only space to direct atten-
tion to a misunderstanding on p. 255, with regard to
Kepler’s work on Mars. What produced errors of 8’
was not the use of the Tychonic system (for that, of
course, made no difference whatever, being merely the
Copernican system with the origin of co-ordinates
transferred to the earth), but the use of an excentric
circle with “ bisected excentricity,” after the manner
of Ptolemy.
Having found the first two-thirds of the book rather
disappointing, we are glad to say that the chapters on
French astronomers in the eighteenth and first half
of the nineteenth century are very interesting and
pleasant to read. They do not go into details as to
the work of these astronomers, any more than do the
earlier chapters, but they tell a good deal about the
Cassinis, the Maraldis, etc., down to Arago and Lever-
rier, which will be new to most readers.
feel, 13% 4D);
NOVEMBER 4, 1922]
Our Bookshelf.
How to Measure in Education. By Prof. W. A. McCall.
Pp. xii+416. (New York: The Macmillan Co. ;
London; Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 15s. net.
In the work under notice an attempt is made to show
that everything in education must submit to statistical
measurement or be condemned as worthless. Fourteen
theses in praise of measurement are blazoned in large
type at the outset. One of them states, ‘‘ To the extent
that any goal of education is intangible it is worthless ”’ ;
as this is given not only the dignity of capitals but also
the embellishment of inverted commas it presumably
conveys some meaning to the author. Education in
this book means a few of the elements of instruction,
such as reading, writing, and the mechanical parts of
arithmetic and composition. An elaborate analysis
is given of how to diagnose defects in reading, and
ignoring the analysis, we are told that “ there are more
failures due to failure of interest than the world
dreams of.” The schoolmaster who has important
tasks in education other than those of teaching mechani-
cal elements would greatly value some help in measuring
the interest of his pupils, but will ask in vain. The
importance of carefully framed instructions in giving
tests is rightly stressed, but we are told that such
“instructions should equalize interest.” To accom-
plish this the pupil must, apparently, be told how
important it is to do well ina test. If he is refractory,
or keen on other things in school besides tests, the
advice may not be effective. Masters, however, are
In a worse plight, for the tests are used not only to
measure the pupils, but also the teaching and the
teachers ; and that form of measurement is said to be
of most service “ which does not require a previous
acquaintance with the pupils.” ;
The most valuable part of the book is that concerned
with “scaling the test,” as it shows the large amount
of statistical treatment necessary to prepare a suitable
test of skill. A useful suggestion is made for fixing
a single common unit of measurement for all mental
scales for elementary schools, namely, some function
of the variability of pupils of twelve years. The
standard deviation of pupils of sixteen years is also
suggested as a unit for measuring older scholars.
The final section of the book deals with tabular,
graphic, and statistical devices. Each part has a
useful students’ bibliography, but it is strange to note
the omission, in a work of this nature, of all reference
to the writings of Udny Yule, from whom the student
of statistical methods will derive more real help than
from any of the authors quoted.
Fruit Farming ; Practical and Scientific for Commercial
Fruit Growers and Others. By C.H. Hooper. Second
edition, Revised and Extended. Pp. xxiii+212.
(London: The Lockwood Press, 1921.) 6s. net.
Wiruin the limits of two hundred pages Mr. Hooper
has aimed at the production of a text-book of fruit
farming under English conditions. After a_ brief
introductory section on the training of the prospective
grower, he deals in succession with the capital required,
the selection of suitable land, the law in relation to
fruit farms and market gardens, the laying-out of
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
NATURE
601
plantations and orchards, and the cultural details and
costings of the more important hardy fruits of this
country. The later chapters are concerned largely
with the more scientific aspects of the subject, such
matters as soils, manuring, insect and fungoid pests,
and spraying and other forms of disease-control in turn
receiving attention. Also included are brief histories
of many of the well-known varieties of apples, pears,
plums, and cherries. The numerous interesting and
economically important problems relating to pollination
and fertilisation and the setting of fruit are briefly
considered and the author is able here to provide data
from his own investigations. The volume is completed
by several sections dealing with special points of a
purely commercial character, as, for example, the
marketing of fruit and book-keeping.
Many chapters have been contributed by specialists
and present in an abbreviated form the results of recent
research. log A. Mag.
INOVe (6: ©2058) 23,94) 93295 36%0
TO; (20) 37) 43), 31 28°>1 0736225073035) 5 10-1
TAN ZON= A7E 206 30,0 25-4
18. 20 57 18 29 16°2 0°3646 0°3150 10°2
222 7 10) 28) 813-0
The comet should be looked for high up in the south-
west soon after sunset.
The search ephemeris lately given for Perrine’s
periodic comet did not include perturbations. M.
Kasakov of Moscow finds that these are large, and
gives the following elements :
T=1922 Dec. 25:2.
w=167° 1521
Q=242° 187753 }-1922°0.
1= 15° 42756
d= 41° 15763
M= 537538.
EPHEMERIDES FOR GREENWICH MIDNIGHT WITH Two
ASSUMED DATES OF PERIHELION.
Perihelion Dec. 21.2. Perihelion Dec, 25.2.
R.A. N
R.A. N. Decl. Decl.
Inf Gate Sh hs?) Tie eS.
oy. 10. 21 314 5 5° 20’ 20K 585 7 Boor
KS) RE ay nia Zl BS} ZT eee Tees 2 33
20a 2) 550) eee 3 52 21 40y ase Zia
Wecw 4. 22 27, I ey ais 22ie eS I 58
It is some 26° south of the other comet, but con-
siderably fainter.
614
NATURE
[ NOVEMBER 4, 1922
Research Items.
A LonG BARROw IN BRECONSHIRE.—In the October
issue of Man, Mr. C. E. Vulliamy describes the results
of his excavations of a long barrow at Talgarth in
Breconshire, on a foothill of the Black Mountain
range. The chamber and its contents had been dis-
turbed, but not in recent times. At an early stage
a calcined thigh-bone of a youth was found, but
lower down there were abundant human remains,
much broken and seldom lying in*anatomical relation
to each other, but showing no evidence of cremation.
Sir Arthur Keith, who has examined the fragments,
finds one skull of a man about forty years of age, the
cephalic index 70, a very narrow, relatively high, and
rather small head, 20 mm. narrower than previously
recorded in Neolithic skulls from Wales. Associated
with the human remains were bones of the pig, ox,
goat, and cat, and quantities of flint flakes and
scrapers are scattered over the neighbourhood.
A THIRD-CENTURY BIRMINGHAM.—Preliminary ex-
cavations have just been completed on the site of
what the Times calls ‘“‘ a third-century Birmingham,”
Ariconium, in the Wye valley between Monmouth
and Gloucester, near Weston-under-Penyard, three
miles from Ross. Over an area of more than 100
acres the earth is full of smelting refuse; evidently
a great iron industry flourished there, the iron ore
being brought from the Forest of Dean. The only
classical reference to the place is in the Itinerary of
Antonius, compiled about 150 A.pD., and in the four-
teenth century the Benedictine monk Richard of
Cirencester refers to it. Some buildings have been
found, the walls of which were decoratedincolumn. A
large quantity of pottery, fragments of Samian ware,
and a coin of Domitian dated 87 4.p. were also dis-
covered. Ariconium seems to have arisen as a
halting-place on the Roman road from Caerleon to
Silchester in the first century, and it became a busy
industrial town in the third. The results of these
excavations justify their continuance on a wider
scale.
BACTERIOLOGY OF CANNED MEAT AND FisH.—The
results of an investigation by Dr. W. G. Savage and
Messrs. R. F. Hanwicke and R. B. Calder on the
bacteriology of canned meat and fish have been
published by the Food Investigation Board as
Special Rep. No. 11 (H.M.S.O., price 2s. 6d. net.).
The report is based on the examination of 344 samples,
the object being to ascertain the character of bacteria
concerned in the spoilage of these canned foods.
Moulds and yeasts are of rare occurrence and probably
of little importance. Obligate anaerobic bacilli are
rarely present in sound tins, but were nearly always
associated with obtrusively decomposed conditions
in the tin. Sporing aerobic bacilli are frequent in
sound samples, and many of them must be regarded as
potential causes of decomposition ; they are unable
to develop in sound tins from which air is excluded
and persist as harmless spores. Non-sporing bacilli
were found in many samples, their importance depend-
ing upon their biological characters. Thus, strains of
B. proteus are important causes of decomposition.
Thermophilic bacteria (7.e. bacteria growing best at
55° C.) were searched for and found to be widely
prevalent but, being non-proteolytic, are unlikely to
cause spoilage. Micrococci are infrequent and as a
group cannot be regarded as a cause of spoilage,
though they may assist more proteolytic types of
organisms. Nearly 62 per cent. of sound tins are not
sterile, the worst offenders being crab and lobster.
Sterility itself is therefore not a criterion of sound-
NO. 2766, VOL. 110]
ness, and these surviving bacteria do not in any way
injure the foods in which they are present owing to
their inability to multiply and produce decom-
position under the conditions existing. Suggestions
are made respecting the process of manufacture so as
to reduce spoilage to a minimum.
FLOWER STRUCTURE IN THE LECYTHIDACE®.—
Prof. McLean Thompson has published a further
study of floral morphology in the Lecythidacee, a
peculiar tropical family with large fruits, related to
the Myrtacee (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., Vol. 53,
Part I., No. 13). The present paper is devoted to a
study of the flowering and certain stages in the floral
development of Napoleona imperialis, the first
member of the West African genus Napoleona to be
described, in 1786, by a French writer. The peculiar-
ities of the flower include so-called inner and outer
corollas with a series of petaloid filaments between
them. Many interpretations have been placed upon
these structures. The floral development indicates
that the petaloid filaments and the outer corona have
taken the place of the outer cycles of stamens in the
Myrtaceous flower, as Bentham supposed. The style
is surrounded by a fleshy glandular disc which is
considered to be a remnant of an inner stamen-
bearing whorl.
HawatlAn GRassEs.—A comprehensive account of
the grasses of the Hawaii islands, which is based on
special collections made by the author in 1906, and
on all accessible material gathered by other observers,
is provided in Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Museum, Vol. VIII. No. 3. (Honolulu), “ The
Grasses of Hawaii,” by A. S. Hitchcock. The
preliminary discussion deals with the distribution
from an ecological standpoint, with the chief agri-
tural grasses, and with introduced species.
the duties of the office.
Applications, together with copies of three testimonials, endorsed ‘* Deputy
Curator,” addressed to the CHAIRMAN OF THE LiBRaRIES, MusEUM, AND
ArT GALLERY ComMIrTEE, to be delivered at my office in this hall not later
than the first post on Monday, November 25 instant.
H. CRAVEN, Town-Clerk.
Town Hall, Sunderland,
November 1, 1922.
THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM.
The Council of the Manchester University invite applications for the
post of KEEPER of the MUSEUM. Preference will be given to candi-
who are University graduates in Natural History subjects. Applica-
must be sent in before Saturday, December 2. Information as to the
and stipend of the post will be supplied in response to enquiries
the SECRETARY of the Manchester Museum.
CHELSEA POLYTECHNIC,
CHELSEA, S.W.3.
Day and Evening Courses in Science under Recognised Teachers
of London University.
I. INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT. ,
Technical Courses in Analytical and Manvfacturing Chemistry,
Pharmacy, Food and Drugs, A.1I.C. Courses, Metallurgy, Assaying,
Foundry Work, Research.
Il. INDUSTRIAL PHYSICS DEPARTMENT.
Practical work in General Physics, Applications to Industries,
Metrology, Calorimetry, Illumination, Acoustics, Electrical
Measurement, Research.
il. BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
Courses for B.Sc., etc., in Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology,
Special Courses in Bio-chemistry, Bio-physics, Bacteriology,
Physiology, Hygiene, Entomology, Plant Pathology. Course for
Tropical Planters, Research.
SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A.,,
Telephone: Kensington 8a9. Principal.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.
UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND.
Vacancies for :
(A) PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY.
Salary.—£860 per annum on scale £860-30-1100.
Passage.—Al\lowance of £60 towards passage expenses.
(B) LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY.
Salary.— £464 per annum on scale 4£464-26-568.
Passage.—Allowance of £40 towards passage expenses.
In addition, in both cases a free first-class ticket is provided from Cape
Town to Johannesburg, and half-salary is paid during the voyage. Duties
commence on March 1, 1923.
Applications, together with copies of testimonials as to qualifications,
experience, and character, all in duplicate, must be lodged with the
SECRETARY, Office of the High Commissioner for the Union of South
Africa, Trafalgar Square, W.C., from whom Forms of Application and
further particulars may be obtained, not later than Noyeinber 22, 1922.
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN.
HARRY BOLUS CHAIR OF BOTANY.
Applications are hereby invited for the HARRY BOLUS CHAIR OF
BOTANY at the University of Cape Town, which will be vacant from
January 1, 1923.
The holder of this chair will be required to take charge of the University
laboratories.
The salary is £900 per annum.
The Professor must become a member of the University Teachers’ Super-
annuation Fund.
Appointments are generally restricted to candidates under 35 years of age,
but in the case of a candidate who has been engaged in teaching or in re-
search in South Africa this restriction need not apply.
Applications and copies of testimonials (seven copies) must reach the
SECRETARY, office-of the High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa,
Trafalgar Square, London, from whom forms of application and further par-
ticulars may be obtained, not later than December 31, 1922.
The successful applicant will be required to assume duty not later than
March 1, 1923.
KENT EDUCATION COMMITTEE.
COUNTY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, BECKENHAM.
WANTED in January, a MISTRESS to help in the teaching of Mathe-
matics, Chemistry, and Physics. Candidates should have obtained either a
Pass Degree in those three subjects or an Honours Degree in one of them,
with qualifications equivalent to an Intermediate Standard in the other two.
Salary will be in accordance with the Provincial Burnham Scale in
Secondary Schools.
Immediate application should be made to the HEADMISTREss.
E. SALTER DAVIES, Director of Education.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
KING’S COLLEGE.
The Delegacy require the services of an ASSISTANT LECTURER in
PHYSICS; salary £300 per annum, ‘lhe duties will commence in January
1923. Opportunities will be given for research work.
Applications, with two copies of not more than three recent testimonials,
should be received not Jater than November 30, by the Secrerary, King’s
College, Strand, W.C.2. from whom further particulars may be obtained.
For other Official Advertisements see p. ii of Supplement.
INPAT AT Fe Lt 625
CONTENTS.
University Representation in Parliament .
Encephalitis Lethargica
The Telescope. By Dr. James Weir Erencs
An Elementary Work on Coal-Mining
Essays on French Science .
Graphical Methods in Crystallography
Our Bookshelf
Letters to the Editor :—
The Structure of the Red Lithium Line.—Prof T. R.
Merton, F.R.S.
The Mechanism of the Cochles eH: W. M.
Bayliss, F.R.S.; Dr. W. Perrett
An Empire Patent. —E. W. Hulme
Transcription of Russian Names. —Major-Gen. ilerd
Edward Gleichen; John H. Reynolds
Volcanic Shower in the N. Atlantic.—Prof. Gren-
ville A. J. Cole, F.R.S. c 6
Orientation of Molecules in a Mannene Field. —
Marshall Holmes
The Ramsay Memorial in Westminster Abbey.
(Zilustrated,) By 1. M.
S. P. Langley’s Pioneer Work in | Reteraan. By
Prof. L. Bairstow, C.B.E., F R.S. a
The Early History of the and Flora. —Il. By De
D. H. Scott, F.R.S.
Obituary :—
DriGsG) Knott FsRS: By J. A. E:
Current Topics and Events .
Our Astronomical Column .
Research Items . 5
The Peril of Milk. By Prof. Heavy, E, henenaee «
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 6
Psycho-Analysis and Education
Corrosion and Colloids
Vitamins
British and meriean ine Ghemiente
University and Educational Intelligence
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .
Societies and Academies
Official Publications Received
Diary of Societies
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2767, VOL. IIo]
University Representation in Parliament.
HE last General Election was held in December
1918 under conditions entirely unfavourable for
testing the revised system of university representation
introduced by the Representation of the People Act
of that year. Many thousands of the graduates of
our universities were, figuratively or literally, re-
moving from their minds and their habiliments the
accumulated mud of four years’ warfare. Women
graduates, enfranchised for the first time both for
university and for local constituencies, had been too
much occupied with the problems, national as well
as domestic, arising from the war, to explore the new
opportunities of social and political service which the
hardly-won privilege of the vote had gained for them.
We need not attempt to examine in detail the political
conditions which faced the nation at the conclusion
of the war. Personalities and powers chose to act in
accord with the transient temperament of a dazed and
somewhat irresponsible people, a temperament which
we now recognise, after four sobering years, was based
on unsound economics and impracticable idealism.
If the lessons of the post-war period have been
taken to heart, it is our duty in the present General
Election to ensure so far as possible the return of
members qualified by natural gifts, by training, by
experience, to give to parliament expert and dis-
interested counsel and to press for measures of re-
construction exhibiting sound and lasting principles.
It is from this point of view that we propose to discuss
the question of university representation. An old and
peculiar element in our electoral system, the principle
of university representation was, before the war, the
subject of acute political controversy. Threatened
with extinction, it has survived powerful and persistent
attacks and, for reasons to some extent extraneous to
the abstract merits of the case, has emerged from the
war with enhanced prestige and extended application.
What then is the history and significance of uni-
versity representation in parliament ? Its originator,
James I., was friendly-disposed towards the ancient
universities of Oxford and Cambridge and indeed to
universities in general, for he confessed that if he were
not a king he would wish to be a university man. By
latters patent under the Great Seal of England he
commanded that two grave and learned men professing
the civil law should be chosen by each university to
serve as members of the House of Commons. In
those days parliamentary representatives were usually
chosen in pairs, possibly for mutual succour, and the
representation of the ancient universities by two
members each has remained undisturbed since the
beginning of the seventeenth century. Originally the
626
NATURE
| NOVEMBER I1, 1922
enfranchisement of the universities was regarded as
“a great favour to the universities as to the prosecuting
their affairs in Parliament.” This supposed benefit
was soon recognised as to some extent illusory, for
whereas under the old dispensation members who had
been students of the universities “ would stand up as
occasion offered on behalf of their respective mothers,”
this duty was relegated to and, it is said, imperfectly
discharged by the elected representatives of the
universities. Candidly, we should find it difficult to
justify the special representation of universities in
the House of Commons if its sole object were deemed
to be purely institutional, however important as
national institutions our universities may be.
In pre-war days Mr. Asquith’s complaint against
university representation was that any constituency,
whether you call it a university or anything else, will
in the long run send to the House of Commons a man
whose political opinions are in accord with the pre-
dominant opinions of those who sent him; and in
support of this contention he was able to quote personal
examples, particularly the treatment of Sir John
Gorst by the University of Cambridge. This argument
is not without weight, but it fails to demonstrate that
a group of men and women of similar education and
a common loyalty does not form as good a constituency
for the election of a member of parliament as a group
of men and women who happen to live in a selected
locality such as South Kensington or East Ham. As
Maitland points out, the ancient idea was the representa-
tion of communities, of organised bodies of men which,
whether boroughs or counties, constantly met as
wholes, and enjoyed common rights and duties. That
system has given way as regards local constituencies
to the representation of numbers, of unwieldy masses
of men and women organised only for the purpose
But this opens up a wide
treated,
of choosing members.
constitutional question which cannot be
adequately and appropriately, in these columns.
We prefer to base the case for university representa-
tion on Lord Balfour’s argument—that it is a method
of getting into the House of Commons, men of science,
men of scholarship, men of special and peculiar gifts
quite alien from the ordinary working politician. The
fact that university representation provides almost the !
last survival of plural voting enforces this argument.
Representation of special interests in parliament may
not be, in the abstract, desirable. Like the weather,
it has to be accepted as a mysterious fact ; and so long
as labour, in a narrow sense, co-operation, “ the trade,”
temperance, and many other interests are able to secure
their representatives through the ordinary channels,
we shall be well advised to implement the traditional
method of securing the representation of science and
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
education and the election to parliament of men and
women whose lives have been consecrated, not to the
study of the eclectic arts of the politician, but to the
pursuit of truth and the advancement of learning. If
this thesis be accepted, voters should strive to express
in university elections the purpose and ideal which
are inherent in this method of election.
Encephalitis Lethargica.
Ministry of Health. Reports on Public Health and
Medical Subjects, No. rr: Report on Encephalitis
Lethargica. By Allan C. Parsons; with contribu-
tions by Dr. A. Salusbury MacNalty and J. R.
Perdrau. Pp. x+344. (London: H.M. Stationery
Office, 1922.) os. net.
HE report on the subject of encephalitis lethar-
gica, recently issued by the Ministry of Health,
has a wider than medical interest, as illustrating the
still considerable range of disease, of which our know-
ledge is so partial that preventive action is almost
entirely impracticable.
This “new disease’? appears to have been first
recognised as distinct from other recognised diseases
by Von Economico in Vienna in the year 1917. In
the early part of 1918 cases were simultaneously
reported in Shefheld and London, and prompt action
for their investigation was undertaken by the Local
Government Board, altogether some 230 cases being
recognised during the first six months of that year.
The symptoms of this disease, comprising somnolence,
from which the patient is roused with difficulty,
paralysis of ocular and other muscles, as their most
marked features, bore some resemblance to those
associated with botulism, and the first task of the
earlier investigation was to eliminate the food poison-
ing to which botulism is due as a cause of the symptoms.
This point the earlier official investigations definitely
settled. A more difficult question was to decide
whether—as was influentially urged—the disease was
not a variant of poliomyelitis, which had been recently
epidemic, especially among children.
The hypothesis that the two diseases both belonged
to what is known as the Heine-Medin group, differing
merely in the locality of the nervous lesions, was
attractive; but for reasons detailed in the earlier
governmental report and confirmed in the present
report, this hypothesis, in the opinion of most observers,
was satisfactorily eliminated. Similar considerations
exclude influenza as a hydra-headed monster, with
poliomyelitis and encephalitis lethargica as variants
caused by the same virus. In Dr. Parsons’ part of
the present report the distinctions between these
three diseases are judicially stated. Poliomyelitis
prevails chiefly in late summer and autumn, encepha-
NOVEMBER IT, 1922]
litis lethargica in the winter months of December to
February inclusive. Poliomyelitis, unlike encephalitis
lethargica, attacks chiefly children. Experimentally,
the unidentified virus of each disease appears to be a
filtrable organism, that of poliomyelitis being readily
transmissible to monkeys ; that of encephalitis lethar-
gica being transmissible with difficulty and only from
acute cases of the disease.
The detailed pathological and bacteriological evi-
dence of the separate identity of these two diseases
cannot be given here, but it is set out lucidly in Dr.
MacNalty’s contribution to the report under review.
The separate identity of influenza is sufficiently indi-
cated by its proverbial infectiousness, whereas multiple
cases of either encephalitis lethargica or poliomyelitis
are a rarity. Even if it be assumed that the appar-
ent partial non-infectiousness of these two diseases is
due to the incarceration of the hypothetical influenzal
virus in the deep parts of the central nervous system,
it would still need explanation that the virus when
introduced in these cases did not cause, e.g. in other
members of the same family, ordinary attacks of in-
fluenza. There is no systematic parallelism in the
prevalence of the three diseases ; and as Dr. Parsons
remarks, “the epidemic behaviour of influenza and
encephalitis lethargica do not seem to represent a
mutuality ofanyconstantnature.”’ Therarity of respira-
tory complications in cases of encephalitis lethargica is
in itself a strong argument against community of origin.
The present reports by Dr. A. C. Parsons, Dr. A. S.
MacNalty, and Dr. J. R. Perdrau, with a prefatory
statement by Sir George Newman, bring our knowledge
of this disease up-to-date. The value of the report is
enhanced by an elaborate bibliography of 1243 items,
which will be most useful to students of this obscure
subject. The extent of incidence of the disease may
be gathered from the statement that in 1919, 541 cases,
and in 1920, 890 cases, were recognised and notified,
and it is not without significance that cases of polio-
myelitis became much fewer in the same period. This
may be explained on the supposition that a common
virus at different times strikes at different parts of
the nervous system; but the totality of evidence,
epidemiological, clinical, and pathological, points in
another direction.
We began this necessarily sketchy review with a
statement that the group of diseases mentioned above
do not yet come within the range of practical preventive
medicine. When the agitation in one of our chief daily
journals in favour of the much-needed Ministry of
Health was at its height, the failure of the Local
Government Board to control the pandemic of in-
fluenza was a big item in the indictment against it.
This report, like the recent official report on influenza,
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
NATIT RE:
627
should give pause to those who anticipate that un-
controllable diseases will be made controllable by
changing the name of a government department. It
has to be confessed—and from a scientific point of
view it is most important to face the fact—that
“respiratory infections” like influenza and (pre-
sumably) poliomyelitis and encephalitis lethargica are
almost entirely uncontrollable, and will remain so until
some new method of securing immunity is discovered,
or until a standard of hygienic precautions is reached
in respect of coughing, and even of speaking, which is
not likely to be attained universally in this century-
Even were it attainable, would life then be tolerable 2?
Meanwhile, every channel of investigation needs to
be pursued ; and a word of praise may be given in this
connexion to the wisdom of making encephalitis
lethargica notifiable in 1918 as soon as its separate
existence was fairly well established. By this means
it has become practicable to investigate each notified
case and to demonstrate the general absence of
personal infection from recognised cases. By implica-
tion we are led to infer that slight unrecognisable cases
of the disease exist which cause its spread ; but this
fact further emphasises the uncontrollable character
of the disease in present circumstances.
Encephalitis lethargica has been described above as
a “‘ new disease.’’ This merely means that it is a newly
recognised disease. Crookshank and others have
searched older literature and found descriptions which
tally with this disease, occurring commonly in associa-
tion with epidemics of influenza; and there can be
little doubt that the apparent strict modernity of
encephalitis lethargica is indeed apparent and not real.
The Telescope.
The Telescope. By Dr. Louis Bell. Pp. 1x+287.
(London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Ltd., 1922.)
15s. net.
NVENTION is not the prerogative of the learned.
| The telescope, we are told, was the creation of the
two little children of an observant father, a spectacle-
maker of Holland. But, however casual the origin,
its development was the result of laborious and pro-
gressive experiment and study, an excellent account
of which is given by Dr. Louis Bell in the introductory
chapter of the work before us.
There are partisans who will dissent from some of
the author’s historical statements, and many who will
object to the presentation of Newton as a “ blunderer,”
a “bungler,” and a man who promptly jumped to a
conclusion. As a boy, Newton tested the wind by
jumping with and against it, and Sir David Brewster
remarks: “ This mode of jumping to a conclusion, or
reaching it per saltwm, was not the one which our
628
NATORE
[ NOVEMBER II, 1922
philosopher afterwards used.’ Dr. Bell has the same
authority for the statement that, when investigating
the relationship of dispersion to mean refraction,
Newton mixed sugar of lead with the water. Traced
to its source, however, this so-called fact appears to be
merely a suggestion of Mr. Michell, a friend of Dr.
Priestley, offered as an explanation of an otherwise
inexplicable experimental result and based on Newton’s
use of saccharum saturni in other experiments.
Flint glass good enough for quantitative observation
could scarcely have existed in 1666, for about a hundred
and forty years elapsed before Guinand resolved the
optical glass problem. It was more the absence of
suitable material that “ delayed the production of the
achromatic telescope by some three-quarters of a
century’ than any action of Newton. Indeed, Sir
Isaac Newton should be honoured for his prescience in
recognising that in the circumstances the practice of
astronomy could best be advanced by the development
of the reflector.
“The Telescope ” has been
observers who use telescopes for study or pleasure and
desire more information about their construction and
properties,’ the information hitherto published on the
subject being “for the most part scattered through
papers in three or four languages and quite inaccessible
to the ordinary reader.’’ Within the limits of a single
volume the author has collected a great deal of essential
information that the general reader will find both
useful and interesting.
Following the historical introduction there are
chapters on the modern telescope, optical glass and its
working, properties of objectives and mirrors, mount-
ings, eyepieces, hand telescopes and binoculars, acces-
sories, the testing and care of telescopes, setting up
and housing, seeing and magnification, and finally, a
brief appendix on work for the telescope.
The book is not free from mistakes. In the descrip-
tion, for example, of the Galilean glass, the field is
stated to be approximately measured by the angle
subtended at the centre of the objective by the pupil.
The description given in “ The Telescope ” by Herschel,
although theoretically incomplete, might have been
copied with advantage, as it explains how the field is
determined by the diameter of the objective and the
possible displacement of the eye. In chapter 7 the
so-called Dove prism system is described as the rudi-
ment of the prism binocular or shortened telescope.
Such a system, unlike the earlier Porro combination,
cannot be placed in the convergent beam and it cannot
serve to shorten the telescope.
Those to whom style and composition are of im-
portance will regret the inelegance of such expressions
as “credulous twaddle,”’ “ pricked up its ears,” and
NO. 2767, VOL, 110]
¢
“written for the many
“blast of hot air.” Their use detracts from the
pleasure of perusal of a welcome addition to the
literature of the telescope. JAMES WEIR FRENCH.
An Elementary Work on Coal-Mining.
An Elementary Text-Book of Coal-Mining. By Robert
Peel. Revised and enlarged by Prof. Daniel Burns.
Twentieth edition. Pp. viiit+420. (London and
Glasgow: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1922.) 6s. net.
HIS little book is, as its title expresses, a book
dealing with the most elementary principles
of coal-mining. It has obviously answered its purpose
extremely well, and has suited the needs of those to
whom it is particularly addressed, as is only too evident
from the fact that it has reached its twentieth edition
since its original publication twenty-nine years ago. -
Tt need scarcely be said, therefore, that the general
arrangement and style of the work are beyond criticism,
otherwise it would not have survived the rigorous test
of experience through which it has passed. Any
review of the work must therefore be based upon the
nature of the revision to which it has been subjected.
Tt may fairly be said that the labour of revising such
a work falls under three main heads, namely, first to
eliminate all possible blunders ; secondly, to bring the
work thoroughly up-to-date, and thirdly, to see that
there is no ambiguity likely to puzzle the student.
Unfortunately, it cannot be said that the revision stands
the test under any of these three heads, and a couple
of illustrative examples of shortcomings may be quoted
under each. There are, for example, blunders in
spelling, such as “ Plainmeller ” for “ Plenmeller ” and
““ Maudline ” for “ Maudlin.”” Under the second head-
ing we have such statements as that the deepest bore-
hole in the world is that at Schladebach, which attained
the depth of 956 fathoms. This was true once, but the
deepest borehole in the world to-day is that at Czuchow,
Rybnik, Upper Silesia, which has attained a depth of
7350 feet. Again, the statement that of centrifugal
fans those most generally adopted are the Guibal,
Waddle, and Schiele was true once, but is not true to-day.
The only reference given to the Kind-Chaudron method
of sinking in this country is its first application at
Marsden, the far more important, instructive, and recent
sinking at Dover not being mentioned. Under the
third head we get such a statement as that when it is
inconvenient to state work in foot-pounds as the unit
of work a higher unit is adopted termed horse-power,
The confusion between work and power, to which most
students are prone, is one that should never be allowed
to creep into a text-book, where the difference between
the two standards should be very clearly explained.
Again, in dealing with the thickness of tubbing, two
NoOvEMBER II, 1922]
NATIORE
629
formulas are given, one due to Greenwell and the other
to Aldis ; an example is given of the use of the former,
which is here worked out, giving a thickness of 1-19
inches ; if the reviser had worked out the same example
by the second formula here given, he would have ob-
tained a thickness of 1-98 inches, yet no hint is given to
tell the student that the two formulas do not agree, or to
help him in any way to reconcile so grave a discrepancy.
It is also a pity that so many of the illustrations are
mere sketches, and badly executed at that. As an
example Fig. 104, which is intended to be the plan of a
horizontal winding engine, may be quoted; an intelli-
gent boy of twelve who had seen a winding engine
would probably in his drawing indicate that there are
such things as valves and valve-rods.
It has been thought advisable to direct attention to
the points in which this little book falls short of the
standard to which it might so easily be raised, because,
as already stated, it has evidently a very decided sphere
of usefulness, and in a work of this kind addressed to
the beginner it is pre-eminently necessary that he shall
receive no wrong impressions and shall be left with
nothing to unlearn when he advances to the higher
stages of the subject.
Essays on French Science.
Discours et mélanges. Par Emile Picard. Pp. v +292.
(Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1922.) 1o francs.
HIS volume contains discourses, short essays, and
obituary notices of some distinguished French
men ofscience. It may be warmly recommended, more
especially on account of the obituary notices, which
do not confine themselves—as is too frequently the
case—with an account of the work done, but tell us
something of early surroundings, education, and
temperament, and thus bring out the personality as
well as the results achieved. It is not only that the
account gains in interest thereby, but the information
allows us to judge more adequately of the individual
influence exerted on contemporary science.
Pierre Duhem’s work is recognised in this country by
every one familiar with thermodynamics, but the
personal touches which M. Picard’s account supplies
give us just what is wanted to appreciate the full value
of the man. Poincaré is better known to us, perhaps
Darboux also, but we shall find here something new
about them as well as about others with whose work
M. Picard deals. The notice of Lord Kelvin is excellent.
The author does not always confine himself to those
branches of science which he has himself enriched by
valuable contributions. As secretary of the Academy
of Sciences he has to undertake the duty of explaining
the ground for the award of prizes, some of which. l’ke
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
that founded by Mr. Osiris, include a wide range of
subjects. We thus find short discourses on “ French
Aviation in 1909,” and even on “ Antityphoid Vaccina-
tion.” A Jecture on the diminution in the birth-rate
was no doubt inspired by the atmosphere of the war,
and some of the other writings are even a more direct
outcome of the anxieties of the time at which they were
written. Here it is perhaps allowable to make one
criticism. In the essay on “ Les Sciences mathé-
matiques en France,’ M. Picard shows so much know-
ledge of scientific history in other countries and such
fair appreciation of the international aspect of science,
that one regrets the inclusion of an article that origin-
ally appeared in the des Deux
“ L’histoire des sciences et les prétentions de la science
allemande.” There is no doubt much in it that is true,
but it is not written in the dispassionate and eminently
fair spirit which pervades the rest of the book and it
strikes a discordant note.
Revue Mondes :
Graphical Methods in Crystallography.
Graphical and Tabular Methods in Crystallography as
the Foundation of a New System of Practice: With a
Multiple Tangent Tableand as5-Figure Table of Natural
Cotangents. By T. V. Barker. Pp. xvit+152.
(London: T. Murby and Co., 1922.) 14s. net.
T has been anticipated for some time that Mr.
Barker would publish an account of the graphical
and tabular methods in crystallography which he has
been teaching at Oxford, and that his book would
include a description of the form of two-circle gonio-
metry and its special application to crystallochemical
analysis, which he recommends as the result of his
studies in Russia under the late Prof. Fedorov. The
present volume only very partially fulfils these expecta-
tions, crystallochemical analysis being reserved for a
further publication. So far as it goes, however, the
book is a valuable presentation of extant graphical
methods, and it concludes with a most useful table
of multiple tangents.
The main purposes of the monograph are “ to provide
the researcher with a select collection of exact graphical
methods, which personal experience has proved to be
both accurate and time-saving ; to discuss the relation
of these methods to formal processes of computation ;
and, finally, to outline a new system of practice.”
The methods described involve the use of both the
stereographic and gnomonic projections, and are a
mixture of the well-known ones due to Penfield,
Hutchinson, V. Goldschmidt, and Fedorov. A crystal-
lographic protractor is described and recommended,
which in itself is a happy combination of the features
of the Penfield, Fedorov, and Hutchinson protractors.
UT
630
WALTORE
| NOVEMBER 11, 1922
The new system of practice, which forms the subject
of the last chapter, is obviously chiefly concerned with
rapid (time-saving) work, with a view to the inclusion
of some crystallographical account of all new sub-
stances, as well as existing ones, in a comprehensive
catalogue, or to the identification of a crystallised
substance by the comparison of such rapidly acquired
data with that contained in such a compendium of
measured substances. Two-circle methods are used,
and the table of angles characteristic of a substance
consists of the theodolitic @ azimuth and p altitude
It is suggested that ‘‘ two, or at most three,
crystals be measured,” that “ the indices be determined
by a time-saving method,” that ‘‘ the mean observed
angles be published without any citation of limits,”
and that “the practice of computing theoretical
angular values (apart from those involved in the
elements) be discontinued.” This may satisfy Mr.
Barker, and may possibly be adequate for the particular
purpose which he has in view. But it is most sincerely
to be hoped that serious crystallographic research is
not to be so circumscribed, and that absolute accuracy
will be placed before time-saving. Otherwise we shall
rapidly revert to former chaos. It has been, indeed,
only by the most accurate and laborious work, in
which time was regarded as subservient to the highest
accuracy, that the subject has been brought to its
present high position ; this alone has rendered possible
the wonderful confirmation, by the absolute measure-
ments now made by the Bragg X-ray spectrometric
method, of the work of the later crystallographers.
values.
Our Bookshelf.
Magnetism and Electricity. By J. Paley Yorke. New
edition, completely rewritten. Pp. vili+248.
(London: E. Arnold and Co., 1922.) 5s. net.
WriTTEN in colloquial language, this book, which is
a first-year course on magnetism and electricity, will
appeal to many beginners besides the students in
technical institutions, for whom it is primarily intended.
“These students have one great quality: they are
out to learn and to understand, and as they are not
hampered by the immediate necessity of cramming
for any particular examination, are able to enjoy the
pleasures of understanding instead of suffering the
terrors of memorising. ... Memory is useful for
examinees, but understanding is essential for engineers.”
There is abundant evidence throughout these pages
that the author is familiar with the difficulties met
with by the beginner, and he is always careful to explain
the technical terms which are apt to be used freely by
text-book writers who have almost forgotten that
their jargon is not that of the man in the street.
Magnetism is first dealt with, and then the ideas of
static and current electricity are introduced. The
author is particularly successful in developing the
self-contained water circuit analogy, the basic idea
NO. 2767, VOL. IIo]
of which is that energy can be distributed without any
consumption of the water. Experience has convinced
him that the plan of introducing the measurement of
electrical energy at an early stage is very effective.
The basic ideas of electro-magnetic induction are
discussed in some detail, and in the final chapters the
phenomena of electrostatics are briefly treated. We
can recommend the book to those for whom it is
intended, but fear to think what the modern relativist
would have to say to such statements as, “ Anything
which has weight is called Matter: magnetism is
therefore not matter” (page 21); ‘‘ This something
which is called energy has not got weight ” (page 57) !
The Climates of the Continents. By W. G. Kendrew.
Pp. xvi+387. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.)
20S. et.
Mr. KenpreEw strikes new ground by giving a descrip-
tion of the actual climates of the regions of the world.
The scope of the treatment must naturally vary with
the nature of the original sources which are available,
but no detailed local descriptions are attempted. A
general knowledge of meteorology is assumed. There
is no explanation of the omission of polar climates,
north and south. Quite enough is now known of these
climates to enable useful accounts to be included in a
book of this sort. The oversight mars the usefulness
of the volume. We notice that Mr. Kendrew adheres
to the idea that the heating of north-west India
furnishes an explanation of the south-west monsoon.
The comparatively poor rainfall in the north-west he
attributes to the previous course of the winds reaching
that region, which has deprived them of much of their
moisture. According to. Dr. G. C. Simpson, the
explanation is far more complex, and depends on
several factors, of which one of importance is the dry
upper-air current from the west, which prevents cloud
formation in the ascending air. These and other recent
theories regarding the monsoon are not discussed by
Mr. Kendrew. There are many clear diagrams and
maps, and numerous meteorological data. All students
of geography will be grateful for this well-arranged and
lucidly written volume.
Miracles and the New Psychology: A Study in the
Healing Miracles of the New Testament. By E. R.
Micklem. Pp. 143. (London: Oxford University
Press, 1922.) 7s. 6d. net.
Tuts work is concerned with a comparison between
the healing miracles described in the New Testament
and the case records of modern psychotherapy chiefly
drawn from war practice. A brief description of modern
psychotherapeutic measures is given, but the com-
plexity and difficulty of the subject almost necessarily
makes such a sketch confusing to the uninitiated
reader. The sources of the New Testament narratives
are examined and the inexactitude of observation is
commented upon, especially in the fourth gospel. The
current superstitions anent the relationship of sin and
disease and demonology are noticed as likely to colour
and detract still further from the trustworthiness of the
descriptions. 2
The miracles are then dealt with seriatzm, and where
possible, recent parallel cases are quoted. Finally, the
author disclaims the belief that all the subjects of the
NOVEMBER II, 1922]
NATURE
631
healing miracles were suffering from what would now
be called functional disease, but seeks to support his
thesis that these works of Christ were in accordance
with natural laws, by quoting cases (not always con-
vincing) of the effect of psychotherapy on organic
disease.
The general impression of the book is that while the
author has made out a plausible and even probable
argument that the miracles were not supernatural
phenomena, his parallels are not sufficiently exact
to carry absolute conviction. Such exactitude could
never be obtained in view of the unscientific observa-
tions of the New Testament cases by men who certainly
thought these works were supernatural and were quite
untrained in medical knowledge. As the author points
out, even Luke “the physician”? uses terms rather
less exact from the medical point of view than do the
others. The book is certainly readable and interesting,
but belief that the ministrations referred to in it were
miraculous is not likely to be disturbed by the author’s
scientific consideration of the evidence upon which it
is based.
A Book about Sweden. Pp. 183. (Stockholm :
Nordiska Bokhandeln, 1922.) n.p.
We have received through the Swedish Consulate-
general in London a copy of “‘ A Book about Sweden,”
published in Stockholm by the Swedish Traffic Associa-
tion. It is a compact guide, very fully illustrated,
written in English for those who may wish to visit
Sweden, or for those who have not yet realised what a
charming and novel field awaits the tourist, accustomed
to think of Europe as centred in Grindelwald or Assisi.
The photograph of the s.s. Saga, now running between
London and Gothenburg (G6teborg), invites the
Englishman by a reminder of his Viking blood. The
description of the country and its human occupations
is geographical, and many of the views, such as those
in Lappland, are difficult to obtain from other sources.
That of the iron-mountain of Kiruna, lit up electrically
for work in the long winter night, illustrates one of the
great romances of Swedish industry. The account of
power-developments in general will interest scientific
readers. We are shown the fascination of Abisko,
remote within the Arctic Circle ; but nothing is said
about the summer mosquitoes, and the happy tourists
at Tornetraésk seem to be going about unveiled. The
manifold charm of Stockholm, a city unlike any city,
the sweet clean beauty of the forest country, the rush
of waters at Porjus and Trollhattan, are here simply
set before us. If one knows Sweden already, it is all
the more delightful to turn these pages, and, as the
Dalarna poem says, to long for her again. This little
handbook may be recommended to British teachers
of geography. Gave da Ca
By Sir Ross Smith.
Macmillan and Co., Ltd.,
A-B.
74,000 Miles through the Air.
Pp. xii+136. (London :
1922.) tos. 6d. net.
Tuts small volume by the late Sir Ross Smith marks
an epoch in the history of flying, for it is a record of
the first flight from London to Australia. Sir Ross
Smith and his brother, Sir Keith Smith, accompanied
by two air-mechanics, Sergeants J. M. Bennett and
W. H. Shiers, entered a Vickers-Vimy aeroplane for
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
the prize of 10,000/. offered by the Commonwealth
Government in 1919 for a flight from England to
Australia in 30 days. As is well known, the two
brothers won the race. They left Hounslow on
November 12, 1919, and reached Darwin on December
to, 1919. From there the flight was continued to
Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The actual time
spent in flying between London and Adelaide was
188 hours 20 minutes. The longest spells in the air
were 730 miles from Bundar Abbas to Karachi, and
720 miles from Karachi to Delhi. The brevity of the
book makes it all the more vivid, and helps the reader
to realise the speed of travelling by air. The author
gives few incidents and certainly dwells lightly on the
difficulties encountered. But there are some exciting
passages, of which one of the best is the flight through
the clouds between Rangoon and Bangkok, and the
groping descent with the fear of collision with the
heights of the Tenasserim Ranges. The book is well
illustrated, the pictures of cities taken from the air
being very striking. It is much to be regretted that
this high-spirited airman lost his life at the very start
of his next great adventure, a few years later, of the
flight round the world.
Evolutionary Naturalism. By Prof. R. W.
Pp. xiv+349. (Chicago and London :
Court Publishing Co., 1922.) np.
Tue author of this book is one of the “critical”
realists. The difference between a neo-realist and
a critical realist would seem to be that the former
regards the datum of perception as identical with
the object of knowledge, while the latter distin-
guishes between them. The neo-realist says that
we know the physical existence in perceiving it, the
critical realist says we know the existence of the
physical thing but what we perceive is its essence.
Objects exist, but only their content and not their
existence is perceived. The special theory which
Prof. Sellars names evolutionary naturalism is based
on this distinction. Its two great enemies, we are told,
are Platonism and Kantianism, both of which are
supernaturalistic. The theory is worked out in
laborious detail and applied to the different problems
of philosophy.
Greek Biology and Greek Medicine.
Sellars.
The Open
By Dr. Charles
Singer. (Chapters in the History of Science, I.)
Pp. 128. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1922.) 2s. 6d.
net.
Dr. SINGER here gives a succinct account of the general
evolution of Greek biological and medical knowledge.
The biological portion of ‘the book is arranged in three
sections, “Before Aristotle ” (18 pp.), “ Aristotle ”
(36 pp.), and “ After Aristotle ” (24 pp.) ; the remain-
ing 50 pp. being allotted to Greek medicine. The
section on Aristotle appears here for the first time ;
the others are reprinted, with slight amendments, from
“The Legacy of Greece.’ All who are interested in
the biological sciences will be glad to have in this cheap
and convenient little volume an authoritative account
of the works of Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates, and others
who laid the foundations of the science of life; and
the majority of readers will be amazed at the extent of
our indebtedness to Greece.
NATURE
[ NOVEMBER II, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice ts
taken of anonymous communications. |
The Structure of the Red Lithium Line.
In a recent number of the Proceedings of the Royal
Society Prof. McLennan and Mr. Ainslie have
announced the interesting discovery of a new com-
ponent of the line \ =6708 in the spectrum of lithium,
the line appearing, under the conditions of excitation
employed by them, as a quartet. They proceed to
discuss the possibility of this structure being due to
two pairs of lines, each pair being assigned to one of
the isotopes of lithium. To the present writer it
appears that the new components cannot be accounted
for in this manner.
The structure of the line in question has been
investigated by Kent (Astyvophys. Journ. vol. 40,
Pp. 337, 1914), Takamine and Yamada (Proc. Tokio
Math. Phys. Soc., vol. 7, No. 18, p. 339, 1914), Zeeman
(Proc. Roy. Acad. Amsterdam, p. 1130, Feb. 1913 ;
p. 155, Sept. 1913), King (Astrophys. Journ., vol. 44,
p- 169, 1916), and the writer (Proc. Roy. Soc. A, vol.
99, p. 101, 1921). Kent, and Takamine and Yamada,
observed it as a single pair of emission lines, and
Zeeman, who investigated the absorption spectrum,
also recorded a single pair of lines, with the reserva-
tion that with a high density of the absorbing vapour
other lines made their appearance. Zeeman con-
sidered that these lines which appeared at high
vapour densities were analogous to lines observed in
the sodium spectrum by R. W. Wood. King, who
investigated the structure of the line in the are and
in the tube-furnace, found that with a low vapour
density the line appeared as a simple pair, and that
at higher vapour densities a third component
appeared ; with a still greater amount of vapour the
phenomena were complicated by reversal. Wing has
published one photograph in which, owing to reversal,
the line has the appearance of a quartet. McLennan
and Ainslie used a vacuum arc under conditions in
which it would appear that the density of the lithium
vapour must have been very great, and one may
surmise that this condition is essential for the appear-
ance of the fourth component.
It seems, however, that under appropriate condi-
tions the line appears as a simple pair, and our ideas
as to the nature of isotopes would have to be pro-
foundly modified if the pairs due to the two isotopes
were found to require different conditions for their
excitation. If the four components were really two
pairs due to the two isotopes they should always
appear together with an invariable intensity ratio of
1:16, The line can be seen easily as a simple pair
in a carbon arc in air if the poles are brushed over
with an exceedingly dilute solution of a lithium salt.
The components are then less sharp than when the
vacuum arc is used, and the main difficulty is to have
little enough lithium in the arc, so as to avoid the
appearance of the third component and complex
structures due to reversal. In the vacuum arc the
third component appears very readily unless the
amount of lithium vapour is small. It may further
be mentioned that the relative intensities of the
components are not in good accordance with the view
that they are due to the two isotopes.
From a theoretical point of view also, there are
grave difficulties. The calculated separation, on
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
Bohr’s theory, of corresponding lines in the pair, is
about 0.087A., the observed separation being between
three and four times as great. McLennan and Ainslie
put forward the suggestion that the separation may
in fact be the product of the “ calculated separation ”’
and the atomic number; but the correctness of the
calculated separation has been verified by the
observed differences between the lines of the Balmer
series of hydrogen and alternate members of the
¢ Puppis series of helium, and in this case the agree-
ment is exact and the “ calculated separation ’’ does
not require to be multiplied by a factor of 2, the
atomic number of helium. T. R. MERTON.
The Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford,
October 19.
The Mechanism of the Cochlea.
In view of the discussion in these columns towards
the end of 1918, and the letters which followed it at
various times, the model designed by Mr. George
Wilkinson, of Sheffield, and described in NAtTuRE of
October 21, p. 559, is of much interest and importance.
It is obvious that the construction of such a model
presented many mechanical difficulties, and great
credit is due to Mr. C. E. Stewart, the mechanician of
Prof. Leathes’s laboratory, for the successful result.
It may, therefore, be useful to mention that a full
description was published in the Journal of Lavyn-
gology and Otology, of September last, a short account
having been given in the Proceedings of the Physio-
logical Society (Journal of Physiology, vol. 56, p. il).
The apparatus was demonstrated to the Physiological
Society in December 1921, as also to the British
Association in September 1922.
I take it that others besides medical students have
been dissatisfied with most of the theories put forward
to avoid the difficulties thought to be involved in the
Helmholtz view of the resonance of the basilar
membrane. Those theories in which this membrane
is supposed to act as a whole, like a telephone dia-
phragm, or by “ pressure patterns,’ are inconsistent
with the progressive differentiation of structure along
the membrane, in addition to being in conflict with
what is known of the conducting properties of nerve
fibres. Thus the views suggested by Ewald, Ruther-
ford, Waller, and Wrightson are unacceptable. It
appears that although Helmholtz had _ referred
incidentally to ‘‘ loading’ of the vibrating elements
of the membrane by the liquid in which it hes, the
great importance of this factor was first realised by
Mr. Wilkinson and investigated experimentally by
him. His model is doubtless capable of still further
improvement, but even in its present form many
problems would have light thrown upon them by its
behaviour. The degree of damping and the spread
of resonance to neighbouring elements may be
mentioned. The number of waves required to excite
sympathetic resonance of a tuned element may
perhaps be determined. Some degree of spread is
not inconsistent with the Helmholtz theory, since the
amplitude of vibration of other elements than those
in tune with the vibrations received might well be
too small to stimulate the nerve endings. Dr. Gray
has shown that a similar cutting out of small stimuli
takes place in the localisation of a point of pressure
in the skin.
It is of interest to note that the model responds to
a tuning-fork held in contact with the brass case, just
as the cochlea does to conduction through bone.
This indicates that the impulses given by the move-
ments of the stapes are the same as those of sound
waves directly transmitted through water, as would
be expected from theoretical considerations.
renee
NovEMBER II, 1922]
Mr. Wilkinson also points out in his paper the
necessity for the basilar membrane being continuous.
If the fibres had gaps between them, no regular
loading of the vibrating elements would be possible.
W. M. Baytiss.
University of London, University College,
Gower Street, W.C.1.
Tue description of Dr. Wilkinson’s model of the
cochlea in Nature (October 21, p. 559) recalls Dr.
Yoshii’s experiments on guinea-pigs. Yoshii operated
with long-sustained notes from whistles of different
pitches, and concluded from the resulting lesions in
the organ of Corti that the pitch of the note deter-
mines the region of maximal displacement of the
basilar membrane. But as he used the same pressure
to blow the different whistles (Zettschr. f. Ohrenheil-
kunde, 58, 1909, p. 205), the product a?n? had a
constant value, z.e. the greater the frequency of the
note employed, the less the amplitude of its vibra-
tions, which shows at once that Yoshii’s results do
not support his conclusions. If Dr. Wilkinson’s
model of the cochlea is a good one, it will show that
the locus of maximal vibration in the basilar mem-
brane for a given note shifts toward the distal end
when the intensity of that note is increased, and
toward the fenestral end when its intensity is dimin-
ished; and will thus demonstrate once again that the
principle of resonance can find no application in the
internal ear. W. PERRETT.
University of London, University College,
Gower Street, W.C.1,
October 26.
An Empire Patent.
In the article appearing in Nature for September
30, p. 437, with the above heading, there is the under-
lying assumption that the status of the inventor
should be assimilated to that of the author, namely,
that both should be secured a world-wide monopoly
at a minimum expenditure. Will you allow me to
present in your columns a more philosophical view of
the history and function of patent law in relation to
the growth and decay of civilisation, from which it
will be seen that the favourable treatment of the
inventor cannot be based upon international prin-
ciples. It is part and parcel of a purely national and
competitive policy.
The processes by which the characteristics of a
higher civilisation are transmitted to races of lower
culture appear to be based ultimately upon biological
laws. Pressure generated within the walls of the
higher civilisation drives out its more enterprising
citizens to seek their fortunes elsewhere, and the new
colonists, by interbreeding with the native stock,
impart to it their own superior characteristics. The
outward forces tending to the disruption of the older
organisation may be economic, religious, or political,
or some combination of these. The process may
occupy centuries or be accomplished within as many
decades. Thus the industrialisation of the English
occupied many centuries—the periods of advance in
the reigns of Edward III., Elizabeth, and Charles IT.
being associated with large influxes of the industrial
population of the Continent. On the other hand,
the rapid rise of the United States to the rank of a
first-class power has been the work of the past fifty
years. In both these instances national development
was preceded by conditions which favoured the intro-
duction and assimilation of a higher strain from
abroad. Maintaining a civilisation at a high level in
NO. 2767, VOL. I10|
NATURE
633
turn rests upon its compliance with the same bio-
logical law.
Talent and enterprise are the natural monopoly of
a relatively small fraction of the human race. These
characteristics are transmitted by direct descent,
reproducing themselves in successive generations.
How closely the fortunes of an industry may be
associated with particular family names—notwith-
standing the dilution which each family undergoes by
marriage—is not sufficiently recognised. It has, for
example, been shown recently that iron founding was
introduced into this country by a body of French
workers in the reign of Henry VII. A leading family
which came in at this period were the Leonards,
members of which migrated to the United States in
the seventeenth century ; whence the saying arose,
that ‘“‘ where you find ironworks there you find a
Leonard.’’ But there is some reason to suppose that
the French iron-founders originally came from Italy.
Hence the Leonardos, Lennards, or Leonards may
trace their connexion with this industry perhaps for
500 years. This reappearance of the same char-
acteristics in successive generations of a family, and
the predominance of the imported families in the
higher ranks of culture—other than that of adminis-
tration—can be verified by reference to the National
Directories. A Stirling is generally an engineer, a
Hochstetter a mineralogist, a Matthiessen a physicist.
These families form a cosmopolitan body whose
services can be enlisted by any country which
possesses the power and foresight to attract them.
Thus the maintenance of a civilisation depends
upon its power to retain the services of its best native
stock, while constantly reinforcing it from outside
sources.
At an early period in the history of this country,
bringing in companies of skilled artisans from abroad
became an accepted feature in the exercise of the
Royal prerogative. In the reign of Elizabeth a new
feature was introduced, whereby, in addition to the
Royal protection and favour, an exclusive right of
manufacture was granted to any institutor of a
manufacture not in use within the realm at the date
of the Letters Patent. This system, though opposed
to the tenets of the Common Law, received a grudg-
ing recognition in the Statute of Monopolies in
1624. Under this Statute the rights of the native
inventor rested on the fact of his profession that he
was willing and able to institute a new industry,
The efficacy of the law rested upon two principles :
that it attracted foreign strains of inventive ability,
while stimulating that of the native inventor.
Anthropologists are agreed that there is a fairly equal
distribution of ability in different races. The
English Crown recognised the deficiency in native
stock and made good its defects by selective racial
interbreeding.
The first blow to the efficiency of the English
patent system was struck in the last quarter of the
eighteenth century by a judge of the King’s Bench.
It is well known that there is a remarkable hiatus in
the continuity of patent law decisions for the century
and a half subsequent to the Statute of Monopolies.
The reason for this is now clear. The Crown, not-
withstanding the provisions of the above Statute,
successfully maintained the right of disposing of its
own grants by constituting the Privy Council the
Court before which alone the validity of patent rights
could be adjudicated. In spite of the more than
doubtful character of its jurisdiction, the Council
proved a most competent and business-like tribunal.
It never lost sight of the real object of the law.
Hence proposals for instituting new industries were
not allowed to drop if a suitable applicant for the
[NovEMBER II, 1922
634 NATURE
privilege was forthcoming. The rights of the native
workman were carefully respected. Occasionally
technical points of law were reserved to the Common
Law Courts, and in exceptional cases parties were
allowed to seek their legal remedy; but in only one
doubtful case during this period has any decision of
the Courts found its way into patent jurisprudence.
With the Hanoverian dynasty the zeal of the
Council in prosecuting its industrial policy sensibly
abated, and about 1750, after an unseemly squabble
between Lord Mansfield and the Privy Council, the
jurisdiction of the Council was allowed to lapse.
Thus when the Common Law Courts resumed their
jurisdiction over Letters Patent they were without
precedent to guide them for a period of about a
century and a half.
It was in these circumstances that the well-known
doctrine of the patent specification was evolved.
Interpreting the Statute of Monopolies by the con-
temporary meaning of its language, the Courts
construed the phrase “‘ true and first inventor ”’ in its
modern sense. This left the Statute devoid of any
expressed consideration ; for it invested the inventor
with rights without any corresponding obligation.
True there was a clause in the Letters Patent of
recent introduction which made the validity of a
patent contingent upon the filing of a specification
within a fixed period, but there was also an older
final clause waiving a full, or indeed any, dis-
closure. By emphasising the former and ignoring
the latter clause, Lord Mansfield laid down that the
patent grant was made in consideration of the filing
by the patentee of such a description of his invention
as would enable a skilled artisan in the trade to work
the invention. The effect of this judgment was to
make the validity of patents conditional upon their
compliance with an uneconomic and, from an ad-
ministrative point of view, impracticable standard of
novelty; for the decision involved the shifting of
novelty from the practice of the trade to novelty
of disclosure within the realm. By depreciating the
security of the patent it lowered its commercial value
—while discouraging the importation of industries not
practised within the realm. As, however, no attempt
was made to bring administrative practice into har-
mony with the legal requirements, applicants continued
to obtain their patents on the old basis.
In 1905 a fifty years’ search through British patent
specifications came into operation. It was instituted
as an instalment of a wider scheme of examination to
be introduced at a future date. The effect of official
examination is always to reduce the restraining power
of a monopoly in a degree corresponding with the
extent of the search. A representative of one of the
largest patent-owning firms in the United States once
said to the present writer, ‘Our American patents
are not worth a d—n! We take them out because
they are cheap!’’ Without applying this dictum
wholesale as a criterion of the value of the patents
issued by any office which examines for novelty, it is
clear that the effect of official examination is to reduce
a large proportion of its grants to the level of com-
mercial advertisement. If it be alleged that the
object of the above measure was to harmonise the
law and practice of patents, it must be pointed out
that the framers of this Act introduced at the last
moment a clause to “ round off ”’ the official search
by removing British patent specifications not retained
on or included in the official files from the stock of
public knowledge. Thus the Common Law standard
was sacrificed to official convenience. In this manner
the English Law of Novelty has been made to box
the compass. Valid patents can now be obtained
without any consideration, for the disclosure may be
NO. 2767,°VOE) 110)|
identical with that already disclosed and published.
The latter cannot be cited as evidence of prior anticipa-
tion. Let it be granted that no public inconvenience
has arisen under the operation of this clause: but
this admission undercuts the whole case for official
examination so far as that examination is conducted
through specifications of lapsed patents. The law
obviously stands in need of a clear and business-like
statement of its principles. An attempt in this
direction was made in the Patents Act of 1919, which
explicitly reaffirms the doctrine of the old Law as
to ‘working’; but as no concurrent relief was
provided for the patentee on proof of commercial
working, the value of the British patent continued on
its downward path.
One step only remains to be taken to deprive our
patent law of its last vestige of biological significance,
namely, the abolition of protection to the importer
of a new industry. This change, however, is fore-
shadowed in the Report of the British Empire Con-
ference of 1922, the delegates to which suggest that
this principle should be sacrificed on the altar of
imperial uniformity.
Is this country so far ahead of others in its in-
dustrial lead that it can afford to discard from its
armoury the competitive principle which formed the
basis of its early practice, securing for it that lead
which it is frittering away to-day? The period
of industrial progress, which dates from 1770, was
marked by a continuous and fairly parallel growth in
population and patent statistics which culminated in
the year 1910. In 1911-12-13 the patent statistics
began to fall away, and in the same year, tort, the
rate of growth of population showed a flattening
tendency which has persisted to this day. These
unfavourable symptoms are not equally reflected in
the corresponding statistics of other countries.
Hence a case appears to be established for an
inquiry into the working of a system which, as the
result of successive modifications during the last fifty
years, has lost all claim to industrial value, con-
sistency, or administrative economy. In this inquiry
all considerations of international or imperial comity
should be subordinated to the national interest.
The services of the inventor should be competed for
by offering him the widest security for his monopoly
compatible with the state of the national industry.
On proof of commercial working, the validity of his
patent should be freed from attack by proof of prior
publication within the realm, and the patent freed
from the payment of further renewal fees. On these
lines the law and practice could be made consistent,
effective, and economical. The cost of administra-
tion would be materially reduced, delays would be
avoided, and a broad claim to the invention made secure
so soon as the full consideration of the patent was
given by its reduction to practice. There would, no
doubt, be some increase in litigation, but patent
litigation is a sign of healthy progress. These are
matters clearly within the control of human agency,
but courage and conviction are needed to bring about
the reforms. When a vacancy occurs in a university
readership the stipend is fixed at a figure calculated,
as Lord Bacon says, “‘ to whistle for the ablest men
out of all foreign parts.’ Educationists do not
accept the latest thesis as a substitute for personal
service. In the same way, new teachers in industry
should be requisitioned to keep our manufactures
abreast of foreign enterprise. A nation which aspires
to maintain its place in the hierarchy of power must
conform to the teaching of natural laws.
E. W. HuLtMeE.
Gorseland, North Road,
Aberystwyth.
ee ee
TT
ar al A AP
lao tn aie
NoveMBER I1, 1922]
NATURE
635
Transcription of Russian Names.
I po not wish to prolong the correspondence upon
this subject further than to say that in their letter
appearing in NATURE, October 14, p. 512, Messrs. Druce
and Glazunov meet (in my opinion) none of the objec-
tions to a Czech-script transliteration of Russian
pointed out in my letter (NATURE, July 15, p. 78),
but merely reiterate their views,—in which, by the
way, I think I could pick a number of holes were
space available.
But I should prefer not being misquoted.
I did not “ask how many English people can
correctly pronounce Czech letters like €”’: (for, of
course, any one can pronounce that letter, 7.e.
English ch). I said I wondered ‘“* how many Britons
would pronounce this ‘c’ [that is, fs] correctly ’’—if
they came across it suddenly in a Czech-script
transliteration of Russian. The same criticism applies
to the quoted Russian x (=Czech ch), which would,
therefore, be wrongly pronounced by the ordinary
Briton as ch in church instead of as ch in loch.
As I previously pointed out, the very simple Royal
Geographical Society II. system already exists in
English ; so why not use it ? EDWARD GLEICHEN.
Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore,
London, S.W.7, October 20.
Apart from the typographical objections to a
Czech transcription of Russian, which have been
pointed out by Lord Edward Gleichen, there are
other difficulties in its use. From Prof. Brauner’s
examples his does not appear to be a uniform letter-
for-letter system, at all events in the treatment of
Russian “ soft ’’ vowels. For example, the letter 1,
when initial, would presumably be transcribed ja,
as in asnms, jazyk; but if it happens to follow a, u
or t, the letter 7 is dropped in the transcription and
the Czech letters d, n, t, are employed, wide Prof.
Brauner’s examples Tatana, Dada. And _ how is
Russian “ soft’ p, which is represented in the Czech
language by 7, pronounced rvzh (y +French 7), to be
transcribed ? For example, is pans to be rendered
Yad, which gives the wrong pronunciation, or vjad,
which is not Czech ?
Again, it is not clear how Russian e and % are to be
treated. The natural Czech transcription would be
e and @ respectively; but Prof. Brauner writes
Mendéléjev, in which there are three different ways of
transcribing Russian e.
The semivowel ii is apparently to be transcribed 7 ;
but 7, yj, are not the Czech equivalents of iif, wii,
Does Prof. Brauner write Cajkouskij 2? (Incidentally,
the average Briton would pronounce éaj like cadge.)
Prof. Brauner would, I hope, go so far as to abandon
Czech for the transcription of Russian r, and would
let us write Vinogradov, though the true Czech would
be Vinohradov.
Messrs. Druce and Glazunov maintain (NATURE,
October 14, p. 512) that the system has the advantage
of being complete ; but what is the complete system ?
The foregoing points want clearing up.
Joun H. REYNOLDs.
Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore,
London, S.W.7, October 21.
Volcanic Shower in the N. Atlantic.
TuHRouGH the courtesy of Dr. Russell (Director)
and of Mr. J. W. Carruthers, of the Fisheries Labora-
tory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at
Lowestoft, I am enabled to record a shower of volcanic
dust that occurred near the Faroes on Thursday,
October 5, soon after 5 A.M.
The captain of the steam trawler Prince Palatine
reports that his mate directed his attention to what
NO. 2767, VOL. I10]
looked like a sudden appearance of land on the port
quarter, when the vessel was about 62° 7’ N. and
7° 43’ W., Myggenees (an islet west of Vag6) being on
the starboard quarter. A heavy sandstorm soon
enveloped the vessel, lasting for the extraordinary
period of sixty-seven hours, during which the air
resembled that of a London fog, while the vessel was
covered with a deposit from stem to stern. Only a
very small sample of the material is available ; but
Mr. Carruthers rightly concluded that it consisted
of volcanic glass. With him, I note a few opaque
particles; but these are in part white by reflected
light, while others are merely fragments of deeply
coloured glass. The material is a characteristic dust
of volcanic glass, distinctly brown, and probably
andesitic or basaltic. I can trace no crystals; some
of the particles show twisted wisp-like forms, and the
majority are comminuted pumice, resulting from
attrition in the air of masses in which the volume of
vesicles exceeded that of glass. Branching forms,
like spicules of lithistid sponges, are thus common.
Mr. Carruthers informs me that the Meteorological
Office record shows that the position of the fall lay
in a cyclonic depression, with a wind from somewhat
east of south, blowing at 17 miles an hour.
The duration of the fall may possibly be due to a
circling round of some of the material. Its occurrence
seems worth recording, for comparison with dust
that may have fallen on other ships at the same date.
Some account may be forthcoming from the northern
isles of the Faroe group. It is most probable that
the source was an eruption in Iceland, the dust having
in that case travelled about 500 miles. The fine
glassy dust has no doubt become sifted out from
coarser matter during transit.
GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
Carrickmines, Co. Dublin, October 21.
Orientation of Molecules in a Magnetic Field.
Axsout this time last year, at the suggestion of
Prof. A. W. Stewart, I began some work to test
whether or not the molecules of a substance (more
particularly at first of a liquid) underwent an orienta-
tion when placed in a magnetic field. So far the
results all seem to indicate that something of the
kind does take place. The method first adopted was
analogous to Laue’s method of diffracting X-rays.
A parallel pencil of X-rays was directed through a
small cell containing barium iodide placed between
the poles of a large electro-magnet, and was then
received on a photographic plate. During the first
complete exposure no current was run through, during
the next current was run through, and the process
was repeated with a second pair of plates. In the
case of both pairs of plates it was found that the disc
which came up dark on development was greater in
diameter for the exposure during which the magnet
had been excited than for that when it had not been
excited. The increase was more than ten per cent.
of the original diameter. This effect may be analo-
gous to that observed when a pencil of X-rays is
passed through a powdered crystal. So far this
method has not been used in a very refined manner,
but it is hoped to continue with it and to improve it.
The results obtained by it, however, have been
corroborated by entirely independent methods, in
which the properties of X-rays were not made use of.
The question of the nature of the orientation, in
addition to that of its occurrence, is still under
investigation here, and I hope to be able shortly to
make a further communication on this subject, giving
more detail as to both the results obtained and the
methods employed. MARSHALL HOLMES.
The Sir Donald Currie Laboratories,
Queen's University, Belfast, October ro.
NATURE
[| NovEMBER 11, 1922
The Ramsay Memorial in Westminster Abbey.
T is a somewhat inhuman trait among British men
of science, and in particular among chemists, that
they have not sufficiently secured public honour for
their fathers who spiritually begat them. Boyle’s
resting-place is unknown, and there is no express
memorial to him in the Royal Society, of which he
was the greatest founder; and to the chief of his
chemical successors, however well remembered in the
records of their science, tangible monuments for the
most part exist only where purely local pride has
Pee ed or erected them. The ceremony of November
, therefore, when a medallion tablet in memory of Sir
‘william Ramsay was unveiled inWestminster Abbey, was
a most welcome manifestation of a world-wide tribute.
The British nation at
large was represented
in the person of H.R.H.
the Duke of York (the
Prince of Wales being
prevented by a riding
mishap) ; Sir Charles
Sherrington, president
of the Royal Society,
stood for British
science, together with
a large gathering which
included many of its
foremost followers ;
Prof. Le Chatelier came
from Paris as president
of the Academy of
Sciences; while the
presence of the am-
bassadors and ministers
ofno fewer than twenty-
one countries attested
the far-reaching fame of
Ramsay’s achieve-
ments. Lady Ramsay
was present, with Mr.
W.G. Ramsay, and Dr.
of chemical engineering at University College, London,
where Ramsay taught and worked for 26 years ; there,
also, an annual Ramsay medal has been founded.
The Abbey bronze, which was executed by Mr.
C. L. Hartwell, A.R.A., is illustrated in the accompany-
ing photograph (Fig. 1). The artist has been compelled,
owing to the nature of the only position available
in the Abbey, to give to the eyes a ‘downcast expression
which in life they rarely assumed. Probably no
medium could convey the inward and outward sparkle
which lit Ramsay’s eyes under their characteristically
lifted brows; and his open glance and the quick
charm of his smile defy portrayal.
As a chemist, Ramsay
had three great gifts in
nearly equal degree:
boldness of imagination,
amazing audacity in
conceiving experiments,
and extraordinary con-
structional and mani-
pulative deftness in
carrying them out. Of
his earlier researches
the importance is ex-
emplified by his dis-
covery of the nature
of Brownian movement,
by the work embodied
in the Ramsay-Young
equation, and by that
which gave the Ramsay-
Eétvés method for
measuring molecular
association in liquids.
In 1894, he alone of
chemists had the cour-
age to see in Rayleigh’s
abnormal nitrogen-den-
sities the indication of
a new atmospheric ele-
ment and to seek it
and Mrs. H. L. Tidy and find it; his dis-
and their children. A covery of hehum came
short choral service ; as a dramatic reward
Bg nal aa ae ae Photo. ALE Mice RoE h ft
was Ae m the nave, Fic. 1.—The Ramsay Memorial, Westminster Abbey. or a seare ater
during which the Duke further sources of
of York unveiled the tablet and offered it to the Dean,
who in dedicating it referred to the panels commemora-
tive of Joule, Kelvin, Hooker, Darwin, and Lister,
among which it is to be per manently set. The medallion
was provided from the Ramsay Memorial Fund.
This fund, begun in 1917, consists of nearly 58,000/.
raised by private subscription all over the world ;
and the capitalised value of the additional endowments
by Dominion and foreign governments is as much
again. Eleven Ramsay Fellowships, each of annual
value at least 300/., enable promising research-students
to come to carry on work in any selected chemical
laboratory in Britain, from Canada, France, Switzer-
land, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain,
Holland, and Japan ; - and there are also British Ramsay
Fellowships, including one specially connected with
Glasgow, Ramsay’s alma mater. From the remainder
of the fund, 25,000/. is being devoted to a laboratory
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
argon; and with the advent of liquid air he,
with Travers, drove on with irresistible impetus to
the detection and isolation of neon, krypton, and
xenon. Only Berzelius has discovered as many new
elements ; no one but Ramsay has laid bare a complete
and unforeseen group. In radioactivity he found
fresh scope ; and the experimental proof that helium
is generated during radioactive change founded the
era of the transmutation of elements. Possibly the
finest example of his skill was given when, with
Whytlaw-Gray, he measured the density of one-
thousandth of a milligram of gaseous radium-emana-
tion—the last member of his own group of inert gases.
Like Priestley and Davy, Ramsay opened up a new
world for science ; and physics, chemistry, and eyen
astronomy are enriched, not alone by the discoveries
which he made, but also by the methods which he
devised and so freely handed on to others. I. M.
ee
_
NOVEMBER II, 1922]
NATURE
637
S. P. Langley’s Pioneer Work in Aviation.!
By Prof. L. Barrstow, C.B.E., F.R.S.
HE work of Prof. S. P. Langley in aviation is
such a first-rate example of systematic inquiry—
of a type rightly called scientific—that no excuse is
needed in again directing attention to it. Progress
was made step-by-step in the face of formidable
difficulties, and no attempts were made to solve the
problems of mechanical flight by bursts of brilliance
or invention. The scientific method appears to be
most suitable for the great bulk of human endeavour
and is required in the interpretation and development
of striking innovations.
Langley was a creative investigator and not merely
a producer of data. It is probably not wide of the
mark to say that his experimental results are now
rarely appealed to, yet who can doubt that the whole
course of aviation was largely determined by his efforts?
Langley’s work may be divided into two periods—
1887 to 1896, and 1896 to 1903. The end of this
period is almost coincident with the earliest successes of
the Wright Brothers. The later Hammondsport trials
on a modified Langley aeroplane have obscured the
real issue, and it is better to leave these out of account
as having nothing to do with Langley and his methods.
The story can be readily told in extracts from the
originals ; in 1901 Langley said :
“ And now, it may be asked, what has been done?
This has been done: a ‘ flying machine,’ so long a
type for ridicule, has really flown ; it has demonstrated
its practicability in the only satisfactory way—by
actually flying—and by doing this again and again
under conditions which leave no doubt.
“ There is no room here to enter on the consideration
of the construction of larger machines, or to offer the
reasons for believing that they may be built to
remain for days in the air, or to travel at speeds
higher than any with which we are familiar. Neither
is there room to enter on a consideration of their
commercial value, or those applications which will
probably first come in the arts of war rather than
those of peace; but we may at least see that these
may be such as to change the whole conditions of
warfare, when each of two opposing hosts will have
its every movement known to the other, when no
lines of fortification will keep out the foe, and when
the difficulties of defending a country against an
attacking enemy in the air will be such that we may
hope that this will hasten rather than retard the
coming of the day when war shall cease.”
This note was written before the advent of the man-
carrying aeroplane—two years before. Some of the
prediction is yet unfulfilled, particularly that as to
remaining for days in the air, but it accurately antici-
pated war uses before civil. In continuing his story
Langley shows that he had no commercial interests
in his efforts :
“T have thus far had only a purely scientific
interest in the results of these labours. Perhaps if
it could have been foreseen at the outset how much
labor there was to be, how much of life would be
given to it and how much care, I might have hesitated
to enter upon it at all. And now reward must be
looked for, if reward there be, in the knowledge that
I have done the best in a difficult task, with results
1 Extracted from an address delivered as chairman of the Royal Aero-
nautical Society on October 5.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
which it may be hoped will be useful to others. I
have brought to a close the portion of the work
which seemed to be specially mine—the demonstration
of the practicability of mechanical flight—and for
the next stage, which is the commercial and practical
development of the idea, it is probable that the world
may look to others. The world, indeed, will be supine
if it do not realise that a new possibility has come
to it, and that the great universal highway overhead
is now soon to be opened.”’
This passage is of extreme interest ; it emphasises
the scientific spirit and the relation of science to
industry. Monetary reward did not come to Langley,
nor did the merits of his work save him from biting
criticism in the press on the failure of his man-carrying
aeroplane. Time has probably enabled us to take a
more detached and fairer view. These early remarks
by Langley prepare us for a note by his assistant,
Mr. Manly :
“Tn the spring of 1904 after the repairs to the main
frame were well under way, the writer [Mr. Manly]
on his own initiative undertook to see what could
be done towards securing for Mr. Langley’s disposal
the small financial assistance necessary to continue
the work ; but he found that while a number of men
of means were willing to assist in the development
of the aerodrome [aeroplane] provided arrangements
were made for later commercialisation, yet none were
teady to render assistance from a desire to assist in
the prosecution of scientific work.’’ On the other hand,
Langley “‘had given his time and his best labours to
the world without remuneration, and he could not
bring himself at his stage of life to consent to capitalise
his scientific work.”’
The problem of financing and directing scientific
research is seen here as a striking example of the
failure of our systems. The troubles still exist in large
measure, and much has yet to be learnt before science
and industry combine for efficiency and economy. The
relation caused comment by Manly to the effect that :
“Persons who care only for the accomplished fact
may be inclined to underrate the interest and value
of this record [1911]. But even they may be reminded
that but for such patient and unremitting devotion
as is here enregistered, the new accomplished fact of
mechanical flight would still remain the wild un-
realised dream which it was for so many centuries.”
Throughout his writings, Langley made a clear
distinction between two subjects which he called
“aerodynamics”? and “ aerodromics ”—a distinction
which still exists but is differently described. His
division corresponds very closely with the modern
expressions “ performance” and “control and stability,”
both being now regarded as branches of aerodynamics.
The scientific advisers of the Air Ministry are more and
more turning to the study of ‘‘ aerodromics,” on which
progress towards safety in flying is seen largely to
depend. Its problems are still very difficult. In
concluding this note probably the best summary is
Langley’s own :
“T am not prepared to say that the relations of
power, area, weight, and speed, here experimentally
established for planes of small area, will hold for
| indefinitely large ones ; but from all the circumstances
Ur2
638
NEAT) Res
[ NOVEMBER II, 1922
of experiment, I can entertain no doubt that they
do so hold far enough to afford assurance that we
can transport (with fuel for a considerable journey
and at speeds high enough to make us independent
of ordinary winds) weights many times greater than
that of aman.” And
“T desire to add as a final caution, that I have not
asserted that planes such as are here employed in
experiment, or even that planes of any kind are the
best forms to use in mechanical flight, and that I
have also not asserted, without qualification, that
mechanical flight is practically possible, since this
involves questions as to the method of constructing
the mechanism, of securing its safe ascent and descent,
and also of securing the indispensable condition for
the economic use of the power I have shown to be
at our disposal—the condition, I mean, of our ability
to guide it in the desired horizontal direction during
transport,—questions which, in my opinion, are only
to be answered by further experiment, and which
belong to the inchoate art or science of aerodromics,
on which I do not enter.”
The problems of Langley are still problems, and we
have very much to learn about the control of aero-
planes. An interesting commentary on Langley’s work
is provided by the fact that on October 19 the world’s
record for gliding flight was obtained on a replica of
the Langley machine and not by a glider following
the modern conventional aeroplane. It would be
wrong, I think, to argue superiority of type for the
successful glider, but it is a not unwelcome reminder
of the enormous progress made by a scientific pioneer
at a time when science in aviation is at a very
low ebb.
The Early History of the Land Flora.!
By Dr. D. H
II.
Wye’ we reach the Upper Devonian flora we
find ourselves in the midst of a comparatively
familiar vegetation. A few of the early forms may
have survived, but the bulk of the plants were highly
organised Vascular Cryptogams or Spermophytes.
While in the Early Devonian no true Ferns have been
found, a branched, naked rachis being the nearest
approach to a frond, the later vegetation has been
called the Archzopteris flora, after the magnificent
ferns or fern-lhke plants of that genus, of which the
famous A. hibernica is the type. We do not, however,
know for certain whether these fine plants were really
Ferns, or fern-like seed-plants. The presence of true
Ferns is more surely attested by Dawson’s Astero-
pteris, from the State of New York, which has the
structure of a Zygopterid, a group well known from
Carboniferous rocks. Lycopods had attained a very
high development, as shown especially by the genus
Bothrodendron, of which the large heterosporous cones
are known.
The now extinct group of the Sphenophyllums,
characteristic of Carboniferous times, had also made
its appearance in the Upper Devonian flora; the
whorled leaves of these early forms were deeply cut,
not wedge-shaped as in most of the later representa-
tives. Nathorst’s genus Hyenia, which already appears
in the Middle Devonian, may probably have been a
precursor of the Sphenophylls.
Another family, represented by Pseudobornia, of
Nathorst, from Bear Island, is only known from the
Upper Devonian. It was a large plant, with whorled
leaves, palmately divided, and further cut into narrow
segments, while the long cones are believed to have
produced spores of two kinds. Pseudobornia is at
present quite isolated; its affinities may be either
with the Sphenophylls or the Horsetails. Apart from
this case, the Equisetales do not appear to be repre-
sented among our present Devonian records, for the
evidence for the occurrence of Archeocalamites at that
period seems to be inadequate. The group, however,
was so well developed in Lower Carboniferous times
that there can be no doubt it had appeared long before.
1 Continued from p. 607.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
p OCOD Hes:
The best proof of the presence of seed-plants in the
Upper Devonian is to be found in the occurrence of
petrified stems, which, from their organisation, must
presumably have belonged to advanced Gymnosperms.
The genus Callixylon, apparently allied to the Lower
Carboniferous Pitys, has a peculiar and_ beautiful
structure in the secondary wood, the pits being localised
in definite groups. The wood appears more highly
differentiated than that of most living Conifers.
Thus the main lines of subsequent evolution were
already well laid down in Upper Devonian times. We
know practically nothing of their origin. Some
botanists believe that the higher plants may have had
a common source in some group, already vascular,
such as the Psilophytales, while others hold that the
main phyla have always been distinct, from the Algal
stage onwards. The existence of these rival mono-
phyletic and polyphyletic hypotheses, both maintained
by able protagonists, shows how little definite know-
ledge of the evolutionary history we possess.
The Lower Carboniferous flora bears a close general
resemblance to the Upper Devonian, but is much better
known. The wealth of forms is, indeed, so great, that
only the merest outline of the main features can be
given here.
The Lycopods were abundantly developed. Many
species of Lepidodendron and Lepidophloios are known,
not only by external characters, but often by anatomical
structure. While the primary ground plan of their
anatomy was not unlike that of some of the simpler
Lycopods of our own day, most of the old forms de-
veloped a considerable zone of secondary wood, and a
massive periderm. They were, in fact, adapted to play
the part of forest trees. The genus Sigillaria, however,
so important in the Upper Carboniferous flora, was still
scantily represented.
As regards their fructification, the Lower Carbonifer-
ous Lycopods had attained the highest level which the
class ever reached. Not only were their cones con-
stantly (so far as observed) heterosporous, with an
extreme differentiation of the two kinds of spore, but
some of them even developed a kind of seed, a structure
quite unknown among Club-mosses of later than
Carboniferous age. In the seed-like fructification
NovEMBER IT, 1922]
(Lepidocarpon) a single megaspore only came to matur-
ity, constituting the embryo-sac, while an integument,
like a seed-coat, grew up round the sporangium.
The prothallus is sometimes well preserved, both in
the seed-like bodies and in the more ordinary mega-
spores. In the latter (Lepzdostrobus Veltheimianus), Dr.
Gordon has recorded a perfectly typical archegonium,
showing that the details of reproduction in these old
Lycopods were the same as in their modern hetero-
sporous representatives.
The best-known member of the Horsetail race was
Archeocalamites, remarkable for the long leaves, often
repeatedly forked, very different from the foliage which
we are accustomed to associate with the Equisetales.
The later Calamites were more or less intermediate in
this respect. Anatomically, the Calamites, whether of
Lower or Upper Carboniferous age, developed much
secondary wood, and, like many contemporary Lyco-
pods, became trees. The Lower Carboniferous Proto-
calamites is remarkable for possessing primary wood,
centripetally formed, thus presenting some analogy
with the Sphenophylls, in which this tissue is highly
developed.
The cones attributed to Archzocalamites are, curi-
ously enough, intermediate in structure between modern
Equisetum cones and those of the Upper Carboniferous
Calamites, for sterile bracts were either absent, or
developed only at long intervals. In Equisetum, of
course, they are absent altogether, while in the well-
known Calamostachys and allied Upper Carboniferous
fructifications, the sterile whorls are equal in number
to the alternating fertile verticils. It must be ad-
mitted, however, that our knowledge of Lower Carbon-
iferous fructifications of this group is still somewhat
scanty.
The Sphenophylls of the period were already very
advanced, and in the genus Cheirostrobus appear to
have reached their zenith. The great cones of this
striking plant, with their elaborate and perfect appar-
atus of compound sporangium-bearing organs, and
protective sterile appendages, are certainly the most
complex cryptogamic fructifications known, from any
period. Thus, in certain directions, the Lower Car-
boniferous plants had attained a height of development
which has never since been equalled.
Sphenophyllum itself still had, for the most part,
the deeply cut leaves of the Upper Devonian species.
Where the anatomy is known (S. zusigne, from Burnt-
island), it is of the same general type as in the later
Upper Carboniferous forms, but apparently somewhat
less specialised. It is worth remarking, that all the
Sphenophyllums formed secondary wood, though they
were small plants. Thus growth in thickness by
cambium was not confined to arborescent forms in
Paleozoic times, any more than it is now.
As regards the affinities of the Sphenophylls, some
relation to the Horsetail stock seems evident, as indi-
cated by the whorled leaves, the general organisation
of the cones, and the detailed structure of the sporangia.
Presumably these two lines sprang from a common
source, but what it was is still unknown. Further
affinities, once suggested, with the Lycopods and the
recent Psilotacezee have not been confirmed and are
probably illusory. Neither has Lignier’s hypothesis of
a common origin of both branches of the Articulate
NO. 2767, VOL. II0]
NATURE
639
from Ferns, gained any support from the fossil record.
The Articulate, as a whole, remain a completely
isolated phylum.
The Ferns of the Lower Carboniferous were well de-
veloped and varied. We meet with the usual difficulty
in distinguishing between the fronds of true Ferns, and
those of the so-called ‘‘ Seed-Ferns,” which simulated
them in habit. Where, however, anatomical characters
are available, we find no approximation whatever
between the two groups. Pteridosperms and Ferns
at all times show themselves perfectly distinct, whenever
our knowledge admits of an adequate comparison.
We have fairly abundant structural material of
Lower Carboniferous Ferns, but it seems that practi-
cally all of it represents the group called Primofilices by
Arber, who by this name meant to suggest age, not
primitiveness. They were curious plants, and many
of them must have been very unlike any Ferns now
living. Unfortunately, our knowledge of their habit
is by no means equal to that of anatomical detail.
The chief family in the Lower Carboniferous is that
of the Zygopterids, of which several genera are repre-
sented. As we have seen, this family had already
appeared in Upper Devonian times. The vascular
cylinder of the stem shows some differentiation of the
wood into a central region (either a mixed pith or a
core of small, short tracheids), and a wide outer zone
of larger elements. The petiole always has a peculiar
structure, with a bilateral strand (often of complex
form) giving off branch-bundles to the right and left.
It is remarkable that the genus Clepsydropsis, once
thought primitive on account of its simple petiolar
structure, has been shown to possess an exceptionally
high organisation of the stem.
The most striking point is the morphology of the
frond. Even where there were only two series of
pinne (as in normal compound leaves) their plane was
not parallel to that of the main rachis, but at right
angles to it. Moreover, in several genera there was
the greater peculiarity that the pinne were in four
rows, two rows on each side, a condition unexampled
in ordinary leaves. In Stauropteris this quadriseriate
branching was repeated in successive ramifications, so
that the form of the whole frond was compared by
Lignier toa bush. In this genus it is practically certain
that the leaflets had no blade, and throughout the
family there is rarely any proof of its presence.
The other Lower Carboniferous family of Primo-
filices, the Botryopteridez, is at present represented
for that period by a single species, the Botryopteris
antiqua of Kidston, a plant in all respects of simpler
organisation than the Zygopterids, and apparently
more like an ordinary Fern.
Sporangia are known in several cases. Those of
Stauropteris were borne singly on ultimate branches
of the frond; they had no annulus, and are very
similar to the sporangia associated with the Early
Devonian Asteroxylon. In the fructification attri-
buted to Diplolabis the sporangia are grouped in a sort
of synangium, while those associated with Botryo-
pteris have a biseriate annulus.
Both families show some affinity with the older
members of the Osmundacez, while a relation to the
Adder’s Tongues has also been traced. But in both
directions the connexion seems to be somewhat remote.
640
We are dealing, in the Lower Carboniferous Primo-
filices, with early races, already specialised on their own
lines, and probably only indirectly connected with the
main current of Fern-evolution.
The “ Seed-Ferns ” or Pteridosperms appear to have
attained a great development in Lower Carboniferous
times. A considerable variety of seeds is met with,
and in some cases there is strong evidence for attribut-
ing them to plants with a fern-like foliage. In one such
example, described by Nathorst, the seed (Thysano-
testa) is remarkable for having a distinct pappus ; it
was thus adapted to wind-dispersal, like the achenes
of Composites.
No less than six families, referred to Pteridosperms,
are known by their anatomy. In only one is there any
evidence as to the seed, but all these groups show, in
their structure, a nearer relation to known “ Seed-
Ferns ” than to any other phylum. The case referred
to is that of Heterangium, a genus with a solid wood
and no pith. A beautifully organised seed (Sphero-
stoma, Benson), obviously related to that of the Upper
Carboniferous Lyginopteris, is found in close association
with Heterangium Grievii and probably belonged to it.
The two genera, Heterangium and Lyginopteris, are
closely related, as shown by Dr. Kubart’s discovery of
intermediate anatomical features, in species of Mill-
stone Grit age.
The Lyginopteridez extend to the Upper Carbonifer-
ous, but the other five anatomical groups are peculiar
to the Lower.1 They show a great variety in structure,
but none of them bear any anatomical resemblance to
contemporary Ferns. Our knowledge of so many,
more or less isolated, types indicates that we have only
found a few relics of what was really a most extensive
class of plants.
The family most richly represented is that of which
Calamopitys is the type. A number of species of
Calamopitys are known ; they are plants with a pith
(sometimes “ mixed ”’), large leaf-trace bundles, and
much secondary wood. The petioles, often of large
size and with many vascular strands, have long been
1 Space does not admit of any account of their remarkable characters.
The five type-genera are: Rhetinangium, Stenomyelon, Protopitys, Clad-
oxylon and Calamopitys.
WA T OLE
[ NovEMBER II, 1922
known as Kalymma. Some of the species, with dense
secondary wood of a Coniferous type, have been
separated by Dr. Zalessky under the name Eristophyton.
An interesting new genus, Bilignea, in which the pith
is replaced by a central column of short tracheids, has
been discovered by Dr. Kidston.
Apart from the “‘ Seed-Ferns,”’ we have the remark-
able Lower Carboniferous family of the Pityez, already
represented, as we have seen, in the Upper Devonian.
Pitys was a genus of trees, with a relatively large pith
traversed by slender strands of wood, while the second-
ary wood was of an Araucarian type. The foliage was
quite unknown until recently, when Dr. Gordon dis-
covered the leaves attached to the twigs in a species
from the shores of the Firth of Forth. The leaves are
totally different both from those of any Pteridosperm
and from the well-known foliage of the Upper Carboni-
ferous Cordaitez ; they rather resemble the needles of
a Fir, though more complex in structure. Dr. Gordon
suspects an affinity with Araucarian Conifers.
?
Perhaps the chief conclusion that follows from this
hasty sketch of the earlier floras is the great distinct-
ness of the main phyla.
The Lycopods may perhaps become merged, as we
trace them back, in the early Devonian Psilophytales,
but nowhere approach any other group.
The Articulate appear as an isolated phylum
throughout.
The Ferns may have come from thalloid plants,
through some of the forms of Early Devonian age,
where the frond is only represented by a bladeless
rachis. The ‘‘ Seed Ferns” now appear as a totally
distinct line, parallel in certain respects to the true
Ferns, but nowhere joining them, unless it be in some
common thalloid source, about the Psilophytales level.
The higher Gymnosperms, represented in the period
considered by Pitys and its allies, may have passed
through an earlier Pteridosperm stage, but this is not
proven. The Spermophyta generally may, for all we
know, be as ancient as any other vascular plants.
Thus phylogeny still eludes us, though it remains
the ultimate goal of the paleontologist.
Obituary.
Dr. C. G. Knorr, F.R.S.
HE sudden death of Dr. C. G. Knott, reader in
applied mathematics in the University of Edin-
burgh, and general secretary of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, has deprived physical science of a devoted
follower and an accomplished exponent. On Wednes-
day, October 25, he was lecturing as usual and attend-
ing, in the afternoon, to the business of the Royal
Society. At night he was taken ill and died of heart
failure in a few hours.
Born at Penicuik in 1856, Knott entered the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh in 1872 and soon joined a little band
of enthusiastic workers in the laboratory of Prof.
Tait. To study under that great teacher was a
privilege and an inspiration. The laboratory, then a
new feature in university physics, was a small attic,
cared to seek admission ; they plunged at once into
research, either sharing in the investigations on which
Tait happened to be engaged, or undertaking some
independent inquiry of their own. Tait was then
collecting data for his thermoelectric diagram, and
Knott’s training was to measure the electromotive
forces between pairs of some twenty different metals,
through a wide range of junction temperatures. He
also began the series of magnetic researches he was
afterwards to pursue with the help of his own Japanese
pupils. In 1879 he was appointed Tait’s assistant, but
gave up that post in 1883 when he became professor
of physics in the University of Tokyo. After eight
years as professor in Japan he returned, in 1891, to
his own University of Edinburgh, where he spent the
rest of his life, at first as lecturer and later as reader
in applied mathematics. He also acted as the official
meagrely equipped. Only a few of the best pupils | adviser of students reading for honours in mathematics
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
awn
NOVEMBER II, 1922]
and physics, or for degrees in science—a task which
his wide knowledge, his unfailing good nature, his
geniality, his ready sympathy, and his infinite capacity
for taking pains, fitted him to discharge to the great
advantage of many generations of undergraduates.
For the last ten years he also held the office of general
secretary in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where
the same characteristics found further exercise, along
with others which eminently qualified him for editorial
work.
In Japan, with pupils such as Nagaoka, Knott’s
influence as a teacher soon became conspicuous, and
has proved enduring. His love of research was
infectious. The school of young Japanese seismologists
and magneticians, then in its infancy, owed much to
his example and encouragement. Along with Tana-
kadate, he carried out a magnetic survey of “all
Japan.” His industry was untiring and the habit
of research, formed in his student days, never left
him. All his scientific work is sound and thorough.
His published papers, more than seventy in number,
cover a wide range, but the subjects of ferro-magnetism,
especially in its relation to strains, and of seismology,
continued to engage his main attention. His book
on the physics of earthquake phenomena, published
in 1908, is an admirable digest of the whole subject,
linking up the older with the newer seismology. His
last long paper, published by the Royal Society of
Edinburgh in 1919, completed a series in which the
theory of earthquake-wave propagation is discussed
with much originality.
Probably the best known of Knott’s books is his
Biography of Tait (Camb.. Univ. Press, 1911). No
other disciple was so fit to undertake the difficult task
of writing the life of the master, for on Knott the
mantle had most directly fallen, and he, more than
any, continued to wear it. Tait himself, in a preface
to his collected papers, speaks of Knott as an adept
NATURE
641
in quaternions as well as in physics, and adepts in
quaternions have always been rare. Knott’s grasp
of mathematical methods, his intimacy with Tait’s
work and appreciation of Tait’s genius, and above all
his affectionate comprehension of an often whimsical
personality, inspired him to write what is beyond
question an exceptionally adequate and deeply interest-
ing biography. More recently he organised the Napier
tercentenary (1914), and edited the memorial volume.
Almost his last act was to pass for the press the final
sheets of collected papers by the late Dr. John Aitken,
E.RS.
An unselfish, modest, Christian gentleman, whose
life was a constant round of unobtrusive service, Knott
is mourned by many friends. We Xs 18,
By the death of Thomas Francis Moore the National
Museum, Melbourne, has lost one of the most valued
members of its staff. Mr. Moore had filled the position
of osteologist at that institution for nearly twenty-two
years. His work was of a very high order and univer-
sally known. As a link with the past, it may be
mentioned that Mr. Moore’s father, Mr. T. J. Moore,
was for forty years curator of the Liverpool Museum,
and from 1865 to 1884 organised and took part in the
Liverpool Free Public lectures. Dr. Frederick Moore,
of the East India Company’s Museum, well known by
his work on oriental Lepidoptera, was an uncle of Mr.
T. F. Moore.
Ture Chemiker Zeitung of October 17 reports the
death, at the age of sixty-four years, of Prof. Lassar-
Cohn, who had occupied the chair of chemistry at
K6nigsberg since 1894. His work was mainly in the
fields of organic and technical chemistry, and his text-
books were well known in English translations.
Current Topics and Events.
THE following is a list of those recommended by
the president and council of the Royal Society for
election to the council at the anniversary meeting
on November 30 :—Pyresident : Sir Charles Sherrington ;
Treasurer: Sir David Prain; Secretaries: Mr. W. B.
Hardy and Dr. J. H. Jeans; Foreign Secretary : Sir
Arthur Schuster ; Other members of Council: Prof. V. H.
Blackman, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, Prof. T. R.
Elliott, Prof. A. Harden, Sir Sidney Harmer, Prof.
W. M. Hicks, Prof. H. F. Newall, Prof. G. H. F.
Nuttall, Prof. D. Noel Paton, Lord Rayleigh, Prof.
O. W. Richardson, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Dr.
Alexander Scott, Mr. F. E. Smith, Sir Aubrey
Strahan, and Prof. J. T. Wilson.
Ir is announced in Science that Dr. S. W. Stratton,
director of the Bureau of Standards at Washington
for the past twenty-one years, has been elected
president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Stratton was professor of physics and electrical
engineering at the University of Illinois and professor
of physics at the University of Chicago before his
appointment as director of the Bureau of Standards
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
in 1901; he found the department a small office
employing three or four people, and from it he built
up the present department with a staff of about goo.
Commenting on Dr. Stratton’s resignation, Mr.
Hoover is reported by the New York Times to have
said: ‘‘ The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
an educational institution, finds no difficulty in
paying a man of Dr. Stratton’s calibre three times
the salary the government is able to pay him.”
It appears that it is impossible to live and to provide
for old age while at Washington on a government
salary, and for this reason it is difficult to induce
men of science to undertake responsible national
posts.
Pror. A. SMITHELLS’ retirement at the end of the
present session from the chair of chemistry of the
University of Leeds, after thirty-eight years of active
work, will be a serious loss to the whole educational
world as well as to the narrower sphere of academic
life of the University in the progress and development
of which he has played so conspicuous and devoted
a part. His intention in retiring is to employ part
642
NWALORE
[ NOVEMBER II, 1922
of his leisure in literary and scientific work with
which his present multifarious duties, not only as
head of a very large and busy department, but also
as member of numerous university committees and
outside public bodies, seriously interfere.
THE use of the cinema as a means of agricultural
education among farmers is in contemplation in
this country, and at least one organisation is under-
stood to be preparing a set of films. A recent
announcement in Le Matin indicates that France
may, however, be first in the field. It is stated that
the Ministry of Agriculture has submitted to the
President of the Republic an order authorising an
annual grant of 500,000 francs for the purpose of
installing, in agricultural colleges and schools and
in the rural communes, cinematographic appliances
which would be used for the popularisation of scientific
agriculture. There is no question that the cinemato-
graph could serve a highly useful purpose ; it is not
only more attractive than the lantern slide, but it
brings out points that could not otherwise be readily
shown. It may be doubted whether the ordinary
lantern slide could be dispensed with, however, and
the lecturer of the future will probably try to use both
films and slides.
Ar the International Congress of Eugenics held in
New York in 1921 an International Commission of
Eugenics was re-formed from a previously existing
committee. This committee held its first annual
meeting at Brussels on October 7 and 9. By a
unanimous vote it was decided to invite Germany to
co-operate in its labours in the future, delegates from
the United States, France, Denmark, Holland,
Norway, together with Major Darwin, the chairman,
and Dr. Govaerts of Belgium, the secretary, being
present. The Société Belge d’Eugenique held a
series of conferences at the same time, at which
interesting papers were read. This society is to be
congratulated on the assistance it is now receiving
from the Solvay Institute, both as regards quarters
and funds.
Upwarops of eighty members and visitors attended
the last conversazione of the Natural History Museum
Staff Association for the current year, which €was
held in the Board Room on November 1. Among
the many interesting exhibits placed round the
room may be mentioned the following: A selection
of birds collected in the course of the Shackleton-
Rowett Expedition to the Antarctic regions by the
Quest ; life-size casts of the dolphins recently received
by the Museum from Tung Ting Lake, China, about
800 miles from the sea; a series of specimens illus-
trating sporadic variation in plaice and flounder ;
life-size models in colour of toads and frogs shortly
to be placed in the exhibition gallery; enlarged
model of an extinct marine arthropod found in the
Upper Silesian rocks of Oesel in the Baltic ; examples
of tropical spiders which have been discovered alive
in this country ; a selection of the butterflies collected
in the course of the Mount Everest Expedition 1922,
and a small fragment of the rock (biotite-schist) at
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
the highest point reached by the climbing party ;
diagrams of genera of British Carboniferous corals,
and others illustrating the distribution of mammals
in Africa; and specimens illustrating the introduc-
tion of the chrysanthemum into this country in the
eighteenth century. In addition, Mr. O. H. Little
showed beaded casts of crustacean or worm tracks
from the Nubian sandstone at Wady Arabah, Egypt.
Messrs. James Swift and Son exhibited recent models
of their microscopes and accessories, and Messrs.
Baird and Tatlock showed examples of glassware
and other apparatus for museum and laboratory use.
THE Society of Chemical Industry, which was
founded in 1881 for the promotion of applied chemistry
and chemical engineering, has now a roll of some 5500
members scattered over all parts of the world. No
less than eighteen local sections have been formed at
home and abroad, each section having its own officers
and programme, and leading to some extent an in-
dependent existence. There is also a chemical
engineering group, which has its headquarters in
London. The Edinburgh and East of Scotland
section has included in its programme an address by
Prof. G. Barger on some recent advances in bio-
chemistry and another by Prof. H. S. Allen on modern
theories of the structure of the atom, the latter being
a joint meeting with the Glasgow section, the Royal
Scottish Society of Arts, and the local section of the
Institute of Chemistry. The programme of the
Liverpool section is more industrial; papers have
been arranged dealing with bleaching agents for
textiles and paper pulp, chemical industry during
the war in Great Britain and France, saponification
of fatty oils, patent fuels, synthetic tannins, fractional
distillation, and sulphur. These two programmes
are wide and varied in their appeals, and serve to
show the range of the society’s activities.
THE report of the council of the North-East Coast
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders for the
year 1921-22, which has recently been issued, marks
the close of the thirty-eighth session of the society.
In addition to the presidential address by Sir William
J. Noble, thirteen papers were presented at meetings
during the session, and twelve are printed in the
Transactions. They cover a wide field, there being
three papers dealing with naval architecture, three
with internal combustion engines, two with electrical
and two with mechanical engineering, in addition to
a paper on casualties at sea and another on standard-
isation. The roll of the society in July contained
1594 names, of which 486 were those of members,
542 of associate membets, and 388 of graduates. The
society benefited by two gifts of 500/. during the
year; one was from Mr. A. E. Doxford, a past
president, for the endowment fund, and the other
from the Furness Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., to provide
an income for the newly formed Middlesborough
branch. The Graduate Section had a_ successful
session, including, in addition to its formal meetings, a
number of visits to works. Study circles inaugurated
in 1920, specialising in the internal combustion
engine and strength of ships, continued to meet. A
NOVEMBER II, 1922]
programme of the papers to be read and the works’
inspections arranged for the Graduate Section during
the current session has been issued and gives promise
of an interesting and instructive series of meetings.
TuHeE tenth annual meeting of the Indian Science
Congress, under the auspices of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, will be held at Lucknow on January 8-13,
1923. The congress will be opened by Sir Spencer
Harcourt Butler, Governor of the United Provinces,
who has consented to be patron. The president of
the congress is Sir M. Visvesvaraya, and the presidents
of the sections are as follows: Agriculture—Dr.
Kunjan Pillai, Trivandrum; Physics—Dr. S. K.
Banerji, director of the Observatory, Colaba, Bom-
bay ; Chemistry—Dr. A. N. Meldrum, Royal Institute,
Bombay ; Botany—Mrs. Howard, Pusa; Zoology
—Prof. G. Matthai, Government College, Lahore ;
Geology —Dr. Pascoe, Indian Museum, Calcutta ;
Medical Research — Lt.-Col. Sprawson, Lucknow ;
Anthropology—Dr. J. J. Modi, Bombay. In addition
to the regular programme of the meetings of the
scientific sections, a series of general scientific dis-
cussions has been organised, beginning with one on
colloids by Dr. S. S. Bhatnagar, of Benares. A series
of illustrated public lectures on subjects of popular
scientific interest has also been arranged, details of
which will be announced later. Further particulars
regarding the congress may be obtained from Dr.
€. V. Raman, general secretary, Indian Science
Congress, 210 Bowbazaar Street, Calcutta. The local
secretaries at Lucknow are Prof. P. S. MacMahon and
Dr. Wali Muhammad of the Lucknow University.
THE British Non-ferrous Metals Research Associa-
tion has just issued a statement as to the investigations
already in hand and the work being undertaken by
the Association. The record is one of active work,
and is to be commended to other Research Associa-
tions as a model to be imitated. The practice has
been to allot the investigations to existing laboratories
of sufficient standing, the work being carried out under
the direction of the chief of the laboratory in con-
sultation with the Director of Research, Dr. R. S.
Hutton. The subjects in which progress has already
been made are: effect of small quantities of im-
purities on the properties of copper; conditions of
obtaining sound ingots of brass ; methods of jointing
metals; abrasion and polishing of metals; atmo-
spheric corrosion ; properties of rolled nickel-silvers ;
influence of oxide on aluminium ; and cause of red
stains on finished brass. Information has also been
collected respecting the electric melting of non-
ferrous metals. In regard to the first of the subjects
mentioned, the effect of oxygen on copper has been
studied in detail and the effect of other elements is
now being examined. The laboratories with which
arrangements have been made include the National
Physical Laboratory ; the Universities of Birmingham,
Sheffield, and Manchester; the Research Department,
Woolwich; the Royal School of Mines, and the
Research Department of Metropolitan Vickers, Ltd.
The pamphlet also contains particulars of the means
adopted for circulating information among members,
NO. 2767, VOL, TIO]
IAT OR LE
643
and concludes with an outline of the future work
proposed for the Association.
A State Institute of Radiology has been established
at Prague, under the direction of Dr. Felix.
In consequence of the great demand for seats
at the joint meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society and Alpine Club for the Mount Everest film
lecture on November 21 at the Central Hall, London,
it has been found necessary to arrange two meetings
—for the afternoon at 3 p.m. and the evening at
8.30 P.M.
A PRIZE of 1000 guineas has been offered by Messrs.
Selfridge and Co., through the Royal Aero Club, for
the first flight of fifty miles made by a British pilot
on a British-built glider, the distance to be measured
in a straight line from a given point of departure.
The prize will remain open for a year from January 1,
and if it is not awarded, a prize of five hundred
guineas will be given for the longest flight of more
than twenty-five miles during the year.
It is announced in Science that the Howard N. Potts
Medal of the Franklin Institute has been awarded
to Dr. Charles Raymond Downs and Mr. John Morris
Weiss of New York “ in consideration of their notable
achievement in the scientific and commercial develop-
ment of the catalytic vapour-phase oxidation of
benzene to maleic acid and their pioneer work in
developing a commercial process for changing
aromatic to aliphatic compounds.”
WE have referred in these columns from time to
time to the preparations which are being made in
France to celebrate the approaching centenary of the
birth of Pasteur. British men of science have had
an opportunity of sharing in the celebrations and we
now learn from Sczence that the New York Academy
of Medicine is organising an exhibition in com-
memoration of the event. The exhibition, which
will be opened on December 27, will consist of a
collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, en-
gravings, etc., illustrating the life and work of
Pasteur, and will conclude with a number of addresses
by distinguished members of the medical profession.
A NEw Danish expedition to the Sahara is announced
in the Times. Under the leadership of Prof. Olufsen,
the expedition will shortly leave Tunis for the Shat-
el-Jerid. From Nefta it will go by Tuggurt to
Wargla in the Algerian Sahara, and thence to Insalah,
and endeavour to explore the Hoggar Mountains.
The members of the expedition will include Dr. Gram,
botanist, Drs. Storgaard and Kayser, geologists, and
Prof. Bourcart, of the Sorbonne. Dr. Olufsen expects
that the journey will occupy some six months.
News from Mr. Kk. Rasmussen brings the story of
his researches in Baffin Land and the Hudson Bay
region down to the end of July. According to the
Times the winter work was carried out according to
programme. Surveys were made of the north coast
of Fury and Hecla Straits, and that part of Baffin
Land between Gifford Bay and Admiralty Inlet.
Mr. Rasmussen himself was chiefly engaged in his
644
researches on the migration routes of the Eskimo,
and in order to become acquainted with the local
dialect stayed several months in a small Igdlulik
settlement at Cape Elisabeth. At the end of March
Mr. Rasmussen, with two companions, left for
Chesterfield Inlet on his way to the Aivilik and
Netjilik tribes. Baker Lake was reached early in
May and Yathkied Lake in June. From there the
party returned in July to Chesterfield Inlet. The
country between Chesterfield Inlet and Yathkied
Lake is inhabited mainly by pronounced inland
tribes of Eskimo who only during recent decades
have begun migration to the sea coast. They live
on bad terms with the nearest Indian tribes, and some
of them had never seen white men. Their legends
often agree in minute detail with the Greenland
legends: their religion is on a much lower level.
Mr. Rasmussen considers these tribes to be the most
primitive that he has ever met: this is also shown in
weapons, houses, and boats. Everything connected
with the seais taboo. The stone houses are unheated,
as no blubber is available. Salmon fishing and
reindeer hunting are the only means of livelihood,
and starvation is not an uncommon experience of
these tribes. Steensby’s theory that the Eskimo were
originally inland American people receives support
from these discoveries. The inland tribes which Mr.
Rasmussen studied very likely may be the last
survivals of the primeval Eskimo who have not yet
reached the sea.
Pror. LEoNarD Hitt delivered a Chadwick Public
Lecture on ‘‘ Ventilation and Atmosphere in Factories
and Workshops”’ on October 26. Prof. Hill em-
phasised the fact that it is not the relative humidity
that matters, but the actual vapour pressure of the
air coming in contact with the skin; the breathing
of cool air entails more evaporation from the re-
spiratory membrane and consequent greater outflow
of lymph through the secretion of fluid from it.
Thus the membrane is better washed and kept clean
from infecting microbes. The open-air worker is
thus better protected, and moreover escapes the
massive infection from carriers which occurs in
shut-up rooms. Wet-bulb temperatures in factories
and mines are physiologically more important than
dry-bulb temperatures; the velocity of the air is
an important consideration, for on this chiefly
depends cooling by convection and evaporation,
The cooling and evaporating powers of an atmosphere
can be measured by the kata-thermometer, a large-
bulbed spirit thermometer. Furnace- and engine-
rooms should be ventilated by fans at the bottom of
wide trunks down which cool air naturally sinks,
the fan breaking up the air into fine streams. Rooms
are best ventilated by open windows or a system of
fans to impel cool fresh air through gratings about
eight feet from the ground and extract it through
apertures in the ceiling ; floors and walls should be
warmed by radiant heat from gas or coke fires.
Tue Eastman Kodak Company of New York has
issued the fourth volume of ‘‘ Abridged Scientific
Publications from the Research Laboratory of the
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[NovEMBER II, 1922
Eastman Kodak Company,” a volume of about 340
pages. It includes abridgments of 54 papers that
have been published during the years 1919 and 1920
in various scientific journals and the proceedings of
scientific societies. The abridgments are not mere
expansions of the titles, as is too often the case just
now, but useful and often long abridgments giving
details of methods and results. At the end of the
volume there is a complete list of all communications
issued by the Laboratory (a total of 117), and indexes
of authors and subjects for the four volumes. The
subjects dealt with cover a very wide range. Besides
those that are obviously related to photography,
which are divided into nine sections, there are papers
on photometry, colour measurement, sensitometry,
photographic optics, physiological optics, chemistry,
physical chemistry, electro-chemistry, colloids, and
radiography. The volume is undeniable evidence of
the activity of those who work in this Laboratory and
of the broad views taken of the subject by the Director.
WirH reference to Dr. Hale Carpenter’s letter de-
scribing a waterspout published in our issue of Sep-
tember 23, p. 414, we have received a letter from
Mr. E. R. Welsh, Devon, Pa., U.S.A., in which he
suggests that in a waterspout, centrifugal force would
cause a partial separation of air and waterdrops, the
waterdrops tending to concentrate in an outer sheath,
while within the sheath there would be a region with
lower waterdrop content; the continued existence
of the central core would be provided by the uprush
of spray from the surface of the water. Mr. Welsh
suggests that the appearance of pulsation in the outer
sheath might be explained by the rotation, combined
with a spiral fluting of the sheath.
In his presidential address before the Institution
of Automobile Engineers, Colonel D. J. Smith warned
the members that they must not allow themselves
to be engrossed entirely in the technical aspect of the
motor car; there are many other questions which
might have a great effect on the well-being of the
industry. He urged upon automobile engineers the
necessity of not being content to design a car which
would run on the comparatively good roads in this
country. The local conditions in the various parts
of the British Empire should be ascertained and steps
taken to design cars to meet these conditions. The
most suitable vehicle for any market captures that
market, price being a secondary consideration.
Col. Smith believes that the chief development in
Great Britain would lie in the direction of vehicles
carrying fourteen to sixteen people and luggage,
which could compete with the railways in providing
rapid and frequent passenger service, and so opening
up rural districts in a manner not hitherto contem-
plated. He also criticised strongly the present
methods of road construction, and likened the result
to that which would prevail if the track of the L. &
N.W. Railway were maintained by the § different
borough councils of the areas through which the track
passes between London and Scotland, each employing
its own unemployed and using local unsuitable
material. In connexion with the carrying capacity
:
{
NOVEMBER TI, 1922]
WAT ORE,
645
of roads, the reduction due to tramway services was
mentioned—a five minutes’ service reduces the
carrying capacity by 50 per cent., and a two minutes’ |
service by 80 per cent. The country cannot afford
tramways, and their comparatively early disappear-
ance is certain. In reference to standardisation,
Col. Smith urged that standards once decided upon
should be used, and condemned the conception that
a design would lose individuality by the adoption of
standardised parts. Again, automobile engineers
should not consider liquid fuel as the only fuel
available. In many countries charcoal is available
at prices which make it equivalent to petrol at a few
pence per gallon. There is a need for a steam vehicle
suitable for such fuel, and of a lighter type than
those generally seen.
THE Journal of Pomology is to be made, in effect,
the official organ of the horticultural research stations
in England, and with this change the name of the
journal will become the Journal of Pomology and
Horticultural Science. Its scope will be widened
and it will be under the control of a publication
committee consisting of Prof. B. T. P. Barker, Horti-
cultural Research Station, Long Ashton, Bristol ;
Prof. R. H. Biffen, Horticultural Research Station,
Cambridge ; Mr. E. A. Bunyard, Maidstone (Editor) ;
Mr. H. E. Dale, Ministry of Agriculture; Mr. R. G.
Hatton, Horticultural Research Station, East Malling,
Kent ; and Mr. H. V. Taylor, Ministry of Agriculture.
The research stations at East Malling, Long Ashton,
and Cambridge have assumed financial responsibility,
It is anticipated that four numbers of the journal
will be issued annually, the first of which will be
ready this month.
A VERY comprehensive catalogue of works dealing
with chemistry in all its branches has just been
published by Messrs. Wheldon and Wesley, Ltd.,
2 Arthur Street, New Oxford Street, W.C.2. Nearly
3000 publications (many of them rare) are listed
under some 44 headings. Being carefully classified
according to subjects the list should certainly be
seen by readers of NaTuRE interested in chemistry.
Our Astronomical Column.
LarRGE METEOR OF OcToBER 17.—Mr. W. F.
Denning writes: ‘‘ This remarkable meteor was
observed at Bristol, and also by Mr. W. Tidmarsh at
Exeter at 11.46 P.M. on October 17. The radiant
point was at 152°+39°. The luminous flight of the
object was unusually long, and extended from over
Stafford to a point in the English Channel about 30
miles south of Plymouth. The radiant point being
near the horizon, the course through the atmosphere
was almost parallel with the earth’s surface. Its
height declined from 71 to 62 miles, the path being
about 225 miles long and the velocity 37 miles per
second.
“ This meteor was very similar in many respects
to brilliant meteors which appeared on October 15,
1Igo2, and October 22, 1919. Their radiant points
were at 150° +43° and 156° +39° respectively. The
comet of 1739 has a radiant point at 157° +39° on
October 22, and may well have supplied the three
bright meteors referred to above.”
VARIABLE STARS.—Owing to the completeness of
the data of variable stars of long period which are being
sent in to Mr. Leon Campbell by his host of energetic
observers, the Harvard College Observatory Bulletin,
No. 776, announces that it is possible to estimate the
approximate magnitudes of most of these stars for
any given date several weeks ahead. It is therefore
proposed to make the predictions one month in advance
and to publish them bi-monthly. This arrangement
is very satisfactory, because those who do not possess
large instruments will be able to observe some stars
when they are brighter than a certain magnitude, and
will know when to commence the observations.
Again, many of these stars are most interesting
spectroscopically, and they can be followed when it
is known that they are bright enough for the particular
instrument the observer possesses. In this publica-
tion the variables are published in groups according
as they become brighter than a certain magnitude
after a certain date. Thus the date chosen here is
November I, 1922, and the variables are grouped as
follows: those that will be brighter than magnitude
8-0 ; those that will be between 8-0 and 10-0; 10 and
12; 12 and 14; and fainter than magnitude 14.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
THE DISTANCE OF THE CEPHEID VARIABLES.—
Prof. Kapteyn and Mr. van Rhijn examined the
proper motions of the galactic Cepheids of short
period, and concluded that their distances were only
about one-seventh of those given by the formula of
Prof. Harlow Shapley, employed in Prof. Shapley’s
researches on the distances of the Globular Clusters.
He replies to their paper in Circular 237 of Harvard
College Observatory, giving reason to believe that the
stars in question have unusually high linear velocity,
which would affect the parallax derived from the
proper motions. He shows that their apparent drift
is not directed away from the solar apex, indicating
that they have independent velocity. In several
cases the spectroscope has confirmed this, the veloci-
ties 50, 51, 193, 74, 49 km./sec. being found in five
cases. Shapley then quotes the recent work at the
Sproul Observatory, where the parallaxes of the
Cepheids have been trigonometrically examined, the
results confirming the spectroscopic parallaxes.
These stars are concluded to belong to the stream of
high-velocity stars, found by Adams, Joy, and Strém-
berg at Mt. Wilson to have a space velocity of some
200 km./sec. Since this is comparable with the
average line-of-sight velocity of globular clusters,
it is conjectured that the galactic Cepheids may
originally have been members of the same cluster,
and be merely travellers passing through the solar
cluster.
The spectroscopic parallaxes agree closely, star-for-
star, with those based on the period-luminosity
curve, which strengthens the case for the adoption
of the latter.
Nova Scorpit 1922.—This object was discovered
at Arequipa by Miss Cannon. On July 1 it was
invisible and less than magnitude 12-5. On July 11,
12, and 17 its magnitude was 10-5, I0-:0, and 9:9
respectively, the latter being the maximum; on
August 2 it had fallen to 10-2, and on August 21
(Harvard) to 11-4. The spectrum is of the Nova
type; bright bands were probably absent on July
12, but certainly present on July 25. Search on
plates made in former years shows no star as bright
as magnitude 15 in the position.
646
NATURE
[ NovEMBER 11, 1922
Research Items.
THE CREEK INDIANS.—Mr. I. R. Swanton, in
Bulletin 73 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, has
followed up his study of the Indian Tribes of the
Lower Mississippi valley (Bulletin 43) by an account
of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy, about 9000
of whom were enumerated in 1910. This report does
not deal with field work among the tribe, which is
reserved for later publication, but is an attempt to
gather from documentary sources an account of their
movements from the earliest times until they are
caught up into the stream of later history, in which
concealment is practically impossible. It justifies the
author’s claim that it is an encyclopedia of informa-
tion regarding the early history of the south-eastern
Indians. A full bibliography and good maps will do
much to assist the student of the ethnology of the
American Indians.
THE STUDY OF FINGER-PRINTS: IDENTIFICATION
or Cows.—In the fourth number of Dactylography, a
journal devoted to the study of finger-prints, Mr.
C. L. Enos, superintendent of the State Bureau of
Criminal Identification, Colorado, states as the result
of his experiments that, as the human being can be
identified by his finger-prints, it is reasonably certain
that the pattern or design which Nature has provided
at the end of every cow’s nose may be made to serve
the same purpose. Up to the present no precise
classification has been worked out, and this will be
necessary before such prints can serve a practical
purpose. The noses of several calves have been
printed each month for one year, and if further
experiments show that these patterns persist during
the life of the animal, it will supply a practical means
of identification which will be valuable to all breeders
and to the police.
THE Music oF THE UTE INDIANS.—Miss Frances
Densmore, well known by her previous studies of the
music of the Chippewa and Teton Sioux tribes, con-
tributes an account of that of the Ute tribe in Bulletin
75 of the publications of the Bureau of American
Ethnology. This tribe, the origin of whose name is
disputed, formerly occupied the entire central and
western parts of Colorado and the eastern part of
Utah, including the eastern part of Salt Lake valley
and the Utah valley. The present work concerns
only the Northern Utes, living in reservations in
north-eastern Utah. They used to live in tipis
covered with elk hides, but now log huts are ex-
tensively used in winter. They have never been a
warlike tribe, but their tenacity of opinion has re-
peatedly brought them into contact with the Govern-
ment; their characteristic is quick transition of mood
concerning matters of secondary importance. The
author gives a good account of their musical instru-
ments, and has collected a number of songs—those
of the Bear dance, Sun dance, Turkey dance, war
songs, those used in the treatment of the sick and
in connexion with games—which will interest both
the student of music in the lower culture and the
anthropologist.
JAPANESE PLIOCENE Fossits.—Some time ago we
directed attention to a memoir by Prof. M. Yokoyama
on fossils from the Lower Musashino Beds (Red Crag
age) from the Miura Peninsula, Japan (NATURE,
August 26, 1920, p. 836). To the same author we are
now indebted for another valuable memoir (Journ.
Coll. Sci. Tokyo, vol. 44, art. 1), this time on the
Mollusca and Brachiopoda of the Upper Musashino
3eds of Kazusa and Shimosa, to the east of Tokyo,
that he considers to be of Upper Pliocene or even
NO. 2767, VOL. TIO]
newer age, since the shell layer is near the top of the
formation. There are 335 species described and a
careful table of their distribution given, with notes as
to their occurrence elsewhere, living or fossil. From
this it is seen that six species are also found in our
English Crags, one in the Pliocene of Italy, and several
in North American Upper Tertiaries and Post-
tertiaries. No less than 103 species are said not to
be known living, while some 113 species are described
as new, and, with many others, figured excellently on
the seventeen appended plates. As in the case of
the previous monograph, the nomenclature will not
always pass muster with adherents to the international
rules for zoological nomenclature.
FossIL VERTEBRATES IN CENTRAL Asta.—More than
twenty years ago a Russian geologist, W. Obrutschev,
observed an extensive freshwater formation between
Urga and Kalgan in Mongolia. He obtained from it
the remains of a rhinoceros of middle or late Tertiary
age. In the early part of this year, Messrs. R. C.
Andrews and W. Granger, of the American Museum
of Natural History, through the generosity of several
friends of the Museum, were able to visit the same
region and explore the formation more thoroughly.
A preliminary report of their results is published by
Prof. H. F. Osborn in the September number of Asia,
the American magazine on the Orient. It now appears
that the freshwater deposits represent a long period,
and contain numerous fossil bones. The lowest
horizon, apparently of Upper Cretaceous age, yields
remains of dinosaurs closely related to those of the
same age found in North America. They include
iguanodonts, megalosaurians, and small running
dinosaurs allied to Ornithomimus. Crocodiles and
turtles are associated with them. The next horizon
is evidently of Eocene age, and contains remains of
hoofed mammals, some being small lophiodonts and
others much resembling the peculiar titanotheres
which are found in the Eocene of North America.
In a still higher horizon there are large land tortoises,
carnivorous mammals, and rhinoceroses, besides a
gigantic rhinoceros-like mammal which may be re-
lated to the Baluchitherium discovered by Mr. Forster
Cooper in Baluchistan. The collection which has
been made will add greatly to our knowledge both of
reptiles and mammals and of their geographical dis-
tribution. Geologists and paleontologists will await
the detailed descriptions with interest.
Ecotocy or “ FroatinG IsLtanps.’’—“ Floating
Islands,’’ on which little colonies of vegetation
maintain an independent, if precarious, existence, cut
; off from all connexion with the mainland, early
attracted the attention of travellers, and have been
reported from lakes, rivers, and the open sea. One
of the earliest references is made by Herodotus to the
floating islands of the Nile, and an interesting Japanese
study by Harufusa Nakano (Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo,
vol. 42, art. 3) quotes early Japanese and Chinese
references, the earliest Chinese citation dating from
about A.D. 300. Nakano shows that these floating
islands may be found on inland waters in both the
Northern and Southern islands of Japan. He traces
their origin to various causes. Sometimes pieces are
isolated from an indented coast-line by various factors
active in erosion, as ice formation or frequent changes
of water level; these pieces ultimately break adrift
and float away. In other cases plant communities
build themselves up from the shallow lake bottom and
appear above water away from the land, ultimately
losing their root anchorage and floating free; such
NOVEMBER IT, 1922]
NATURE
647
islands are usually almost pure colonies of one species,
as the islands of Typha japonica or Zizania aquatica.
Another type of island consists mainly of one species
of a free-floating plant, such as the islands of Eich-
hornia crassipes. A very interesting case is reported
by Nakano from the shallow lakes found in high
moorland regions. Here masses of peat, crowned
with vegetation, may be raised from the bottom of
the lake in large part by the gaseous products accumu-
lated from decomposition processes, in part by the
buoyancy of the tissues of the living plants; such
islands may be recurrent, sinking and rising in different
seasons. Floating islands are gradually leached of
any humus or mineral nutriment they may originally
possess, so that their base is ultimately mainly a
tangle of roots and fibre. It is to this cause that
Nakano traces the gradual disappearance of some of
the colonists prominent on the newly formed islands,
such as Phragmites longivalvis, not as Pallis has
suggested for the “ Plav’’ on the waters of the
Danube (Journal of the Linnean Soc., vol 43, 1916)
to the degeneration of a vegetatively propagated
plant.
New Mars oF THE Gotp Coast.—The Survey
Department of the Gold Coast, which was closed
during the war, was reopened in 1920 under Lieut.-
Col. R. H. Rowe. Work has been pushed forward so
rapidly that about 15,000 sq. miles have now been
surveyed and the publication of the maps has begun.
The sheets, which are printed by Messrs. W. and A.
K. Johnston, are on a scale of 1: 125,000. Relief
is shown by brown form lines at an interval of 50 feet.
Water features and names are in blue. Green is used
for forests, and various symbols are employed to show
the different kinds of plantations. Seven classes of
roads and tracks are shown. Soundings in coastal
waters are given in fathoms. The Accra sheet which
has just been published is an excellent piece of work,
and is notable both for its clarity and amount of
detail. The same publishers have also produced a
folding-map (scale 1: 1,000,000) of the Gold Coast,
Ashanti, Northern Territories, and British Togoland.
No relief is shown. Colour is used for provincial and
other boundaries, water features, and motor roads.
This is a less striking map, but should prove useful
for general reference purposes.
TROPICAL CyCLONES IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.—
A summary of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific,
Australia, and the South Indian Ocean, Joyiy IDS SE
Visher, is given in the U.S. Monthly Weather Review
for June. For the South Pacific 246 hurricanes are
discussed. The huricane season extends from
December to April, and during this period about 95
per cent. of the recorded storms have occurred ;
January alone has 30 per cent., while the six months
from May to October make up only 4 per cent. of the
total. A table gives the frequency of occurrence in
the several island groups. A second table shows the
number of hurricanes between the longitudes 160° E.
and 140° W. for the several months and years,
consecutively for the years 1830 to 1922. There is
a further table which gives approximately the region
of the origin of cyclones in the South Pacific, which
shows a prevailing majority between 15° and 20°
south latitude. Similar tables are given for recorded
hurricanes, between 100° and 160° E., for Australia
and adjacent waters. The maximum number of the
approximate origins or places of first record occurs
between ro° and 15° S. The main season for the
Australian hurricanes is from December to April, and
during this period about five-sixths of the storms
occur. Storms are rare from May to November. Of
the tropical storms in the South Indian Ocean, both
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
January and February have 25 per cent. each and
March 20 per cent. of the total. Storms are extremely
rare from June to September. On the average rather
more than a dozen tropical cyclones occur annually
in longitudes 40° to too° E. There is generally a
preponderance of storms during recent years in the
three regions, doubtless due to an increased number
of observations. Representative tracks are well
illustrated on two charts. The author states that
many widely accepted generalisations as to tropical
cyclones appear unsafe in the light of fuller data being
gathered.
TREATMENT OF TIN AND TUNGSTEN ORES.—The
Tin and Tungsten Research Board, under the chair-
manship of Sir T. Kirke Rose, has recently given
an account of the work done during the period
January 1918 to December 1920, when its activities
came to an end (Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research. Report of the Tin and Tungsten
Research Board. Pp. vi+roo. London: H.M.
Stationery Office, 1922. 3s. 6d. net.). As a useful
introduction to the papers dealing with the various
investigations that have been carried out, an account
is given by I’. H. Michell of the methods already in
use for dressing tin ore in Cornwall, and E. H. Davison
gives a report on the microscopic examination of
veinstones. The ore-dressing investigations include
work on flocculation-effects and friability tests by
S. J. Truscott and A. Yates, and an investigation
by H. S. Hatfield of various physical properties in
relation to concentration possibilities. Hatfield found
that the osmose process was inapplicable to the
separation of cassiterite. He also found that there
is little prospect of increasing the yield on the dressing
floors by the addition of flocculating agents to the
pulp. His work on dielectric constants as a basis
of separation is novel and interesting, depending as
it does on a property which, like magnetic permeability,
is characteristic of the whole mass of a mineral
particle and not merely its surface, and is applicable
to minerals generally. Other researches, by Sir
T. Kirke Rose, J. H. Goodchild, and others, deal
with chemical and metallurgical methods, including
; the use of solvents to remove cassiterite or wolfram
by direct solution, the conversion of cassiterite or
wolfram by furnace methods into a soluble product,
followed by leaching, and the removal of the tin or
wolfram from ores by volatilisation, followed by
condensation. The report thus deals with many
aspects of ore-treatment. It gives a large amount
of information which will doubtless receive due
attention by those interested in the Cornish tin-
mining industry, and will presumably be put to
the test so far as is practicable when the mines
re-open.
SEPARATION OF ISOTOPES OF CHLORINE.—In the
Memoirs of the College of Science of Kyoto Imperial
University, vol. iv., No. 7 (March 1921), Dr. Ishino
describes experiments with the crossed deflection
positive ray method, in which a separation of chlorine
into isotopes was obtained. The paper was received
on July 22, 1920, and the work was completed in
September 1919. Dr. Ishino made experiments to see
if the separation of the parabolas (which are clearly
shown in the plates) was due to impurities, and was
able to show that this was not the case. He found
the atomic weights of the two isotopes to be 34 and
36; a line, 37, was due to hydrochloric acid; the
other hydride (35) had no corresponding line, but the
broadening of the line 37 seems to show the exist-
ence of such a hydride. The connexion with the
“whole number rule’’ and the helium nucleus is
pointed out.
648
NATURE
| NOVEMBER IT, 1922
The Peril of Milk.
By Prof. Henry E. ARMSTRONG.
A. CONFERENCE of a most important and serious
= character was held in the Council Chamber of
the Guildhall, London, on October 16-18, during the
week of the Dairy Show, dealing with our milk supply
in practically all its aspects—except the scientific !
Yet we speak of science as salvation, perpetually
proclaim its importance, and deplore public apathy
towards its priesthood. Our class was not invited
to participate. I heard of the conference only casu-
ally and bought myself in, only at the very last
moment; consequently I was relegated to a place in
the gallery behind the speaker's chair, where I could
not hear a word. Being unobtrusive in my ways,
I descended to the floor and trespassed into a
vacant seat; the platform was all but empty but no
invitation to take a chair upon it came down to
me. I do not wish to complain but merely point
out the rewards of scientific service and the effusive
way in which the man of affairs welcomes our aid.
I make this statement, indeed, just to show where
we are in public esteem, when subjects of vital im-
portance to the national welfare, with which we alone
can deal effectively, are under discussion—nowhere !
Whose is the fault ? Our own! We are mouldering
away in our laboratories and when we seek to make
known what we have been doing use a jargon which
we cannot ourselves understand. That we have a
public duty to perform seems never to occur to us.
Much of our so-called research work is very largely
wasted effort, without any real intelligence behind it
without policy and without imagination. The real
problems are all but untouched.
Our knowledge of milk is practically nil—this was
made clear at the conference. As the result of our
careless abstention from the affairs of the world,
sentiment and commercialism are quietly, without
hindrance, wreaking their will upon the country.
Few are aware, I think, of the extent to which milk
is ceasing to be milk as the cow gives it: how it is
being tampered with to overcome initial avoidable
carelessness, to make it keep and to satisfy the un-
discriminating animus against micro-organisms engin-
eered into existence, of late years, by bacteriologists.
Apart from the wonderful livestock, the feature of the
Dairy Show was Pasteurising plant. One of the most
interesting of these is to be operated at 135° C.!
I was the first to take the floor after the opening
paper was read, dealing with breed of cattle in rela-
tion to quantity, composition and cost of milk pro-
duction. I deplored the absence of the chemist and
insisted that we know nothing of the composition of
milk in any proper sense of the term—that to talk
of it in terms of fat and solids-not-fat was equivalent
to describing a house in terms of percentages of
bricks, mortar, wood, etc. Modern discovery had
taught us that the essential value of milk lay in
certain mysterious minor constituents which could
neither be identified nor quantified—yet were of most
vital consequence: which I would term advitants—
to catch the public ear, maybe vitalites were better—
but refuse to misname vitamins.
To justify Pasteurisation, we have to show that no
harm is done to milk by heating it above bloodheat.
To heat it above this temperature is to treat it
unnatuvally—this cannot be gainsaid. That it is
altered thereby is proved up to the hilt. The conten-
tion is that, by making a certain addition, we can
compensate for the alteration—but we have only
superficial evidence in favour of this contention. The
directed to these matters—it does not know yet what
to look for. The effects may be deep-seated, we
know; and they may come but slowly under notice.
Time alone, combined with the most refined study of
the problem, can prove that it is safe to trespass
beyond Nature’s limit. The second teeth, we know,
are formed at birth; scurvy affects their structure ere
change be noticeable externally ; and so it may be in
other cases. The bad teeth of our nation are prob-
ably, at least in large part, due to defective nutrition
in early years and they affect us throughout life.
Nations whose children are all breast-fed have good
teeth.
The only rational assumption to make is that no
constituent of milk is without a purpose and that, if
anything in it be destroyed, it loses in dietetic value.
The recent remarkable discovery, that a something
secreted by the pancreas, no gross constituent appar-
ently, is required for the normal metabolism of so
combustible an article of diet as sugar, should be a
warning against destroying any natural agent in
a whole food like milk; especially in view of recent
work by Gowland Hopkins.
At a time when we are beginning to know these
things, we have no right to develop an unnatural
practice and allow it to become general. We must
gain much more knowledge before making up our
minds. On all sides, at the conference, it was re-
cognised that clean raw milk can be produced and
purveyed, if we will but take a little care.
Scurvy, rickets, beriberi, we know, are diseases
affecting us as consequences of malnutrition ; scurvy
became rife in Denmark early in the war, on the
farms, when the children were fed on Pasteurised
milk. Who shall say that a host of our minor com-
plaints are not due to dietetic deficiencies ? Women
are often most faddy feeders and the frequent
appearance of nervous disorders in their sex may well
be connected with lack of vital elements, even due
to seed sown in infancy. We may be laying the
foundation of complaints worse than cancer.
Who knows or does not know? At present we
can assert nothing, either way, so crass is our ignor-
ance: so let us halt while we may.
The effect of food on the cow’s milk was more than
once brought out at the meetings. We were told
that milk from cows that had been stall-fed but
grazed occasionally proved vastly richer in one of the
advitants than that from animals simply stall-fed ;
also that two varieties of one root crop had different
effects on the production of milk. Pigs apparently
sive healthy pork when grass-fed but not when
starved of green food. The whole field of food in-
quiry lies open before us. Prof. Stenhouse Williams—
dairy bacteriologist at Reading College—and I were the
only speakers to sound the note of nutritional danger
from Pasteurisation. We stood alone. Rothamsted,
which claims to stand at the head of agricultural
research, was unheard ; the Animal Nutrition station
at Cambridge was voiceless. Sir W. Morley Fletcher,
of the Medical Research Council, who took the chair
at the discussion on Pasteurisation, had not a word
to say by way of caution. The Medical Research
Council, however, has never had a chemist among its
members; and yet medicine is nothing but applied
chemistry.
Where, we may ask, are the Prophets ? Science is
simply disgracing itself in this matter of milk: the
call to wake up and defend the public health must
medical profession has only recently had its attention | go out everywhere.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
NovEMBER IT, 1922]
WA TIO LL
649
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
LTHOUGH only 203 students have worked for
various periods in the laboratories of the Indian
Institute of Science at Bangalore since its opening in
Tori, and although only 14 of these have been re-
garded by the council as suitable for the diploma of
associateship, the history of the Institute is of special
interest to students of educational methods. The
conditions affecting the activities of the Institute
depart, however, so widely from the normal that it
is impossible at this stage in its history to be sure
whether any, and what, changes in the administration
of the Institute would have resulted in more visible
success. Bangalore, the site selected for the Institute
by the late Sir William Ramsay, is mainly a military
cantonment. Its position as a centre, either of
scientific education or of technical industries, is
almost negligible. The Institute itself occupies
isolated ground far enough from the town to cut it
off largely even from the limited social amenities
obtainable in an Indian cantonment station.
Distances in India are of the continental order, and
university graduates, being generally married in
early life, hesitate naturally to leave the established
university cities to undertake post-graduate training
at a distant institute which has no traditions, no con-
nexions, and no established market value. Moreover,
the number of science graduates qualified in India to
undertake research work has hitherto been very small.
The machinery of government originally designed
for the Institute reproduced some of the ordinary
features of established universities, including a large
“court,” composed of widely dispersed members
who have never even met as a body. Even the rela-
tively small council is handicapped by the distance
of some of its members, and its meetings have thus
been largely controlled by the resident professorial
members. Influenced by desire for a special review
of progress by an entirely independent expert body,
the standing Committee of the Court in 1921 requested
the Governor-General in Council to appoint a com-
mittee of inquiry, which met towards the end of the
year under the chairmanship of Sir William Pope,
professor of chemistry at Cambridge ; and the report
of the committee recently made available forms a
valuable study of this artificially created institution.
Hitherto the work of the Institute has been limited
to two groups, which are distinct from one another
in nature and method of training. In the department
of pure and applied chemistry, students have been
engaged in research problems ; there has been, how-
ever, no systematic course of training, either by
lectures or laboratory work. In the department of
electrical technology, on the other hand, students
have undergone a more systematic training, with
the view of qualifying as practical electrical en-
gineers. There has been no department of physics
to link the other two, and no department of mechanical
engineering on which to base the training in electrical
technology.
Up to 1918 the annual income of the Institute
amounted to something less than 17,000/., but recently,
owing to the sale on advantageous terms of the
investments left by the founder, the late Mr. J. N.
Tata, the income now available is nearly doubled.
The committee, in accepting the conclusion that
the Institute has not fulfilled the just expectations
of its founder, wisely refuses to discuss the merits
of the specific complaints made against its adminis-
tration, and limits its report to the discussion of
proposals for reform. In the first place, the com-
mittee, after briefly reviewing the standard of scientific
training obtainable at Indian institutions of univer-
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
sity rank, considers it desirable to establish, by
lectures and laboratory practice in the Institute
itself, definite courses of instruction which will lead
the ordinary science graduate from the stage at which
he usually leaves the average university college to that
which will qualify him for systematic research.
Having given an outline of the fundamental policy
to be kept in view, the committee proceeds to discuss
plans for the logical expansion of the departments
already established, assuming this to be preferable
to the immediate introduction of additional branches
of science. The scheme outlined contemplates the
institution of eight professorships in branches of
pure and applied chemistry, and these are to be
linked with the now isolated department of electrical
technology by a chair in general physics. It is
proposed also to establish two additional chairs,
namely, one in applied mechanics and another in
thermodynamics, for the purpose of rendering more
effective the training in the department of electrical
technology. For the time being this scheme goes as
far as it is safe to project future developments ; even
this will require a larger income than is now in sight.
Indeed, two new chairs will practically absorb the
present annual surplus, and the committee thus
recommends that the first two chairs established to
supplement existing activities should be preferably in
chemistry and in thermodynamics and heat engines.
To create in other parts of India an extended
interest in the Institute, the committee recommends
a reconstitution of its government machinery. To
the court it is proposed to add representatives of
any new benefactors that may appear, as well as
representatives of all the “reformed ’’ Governor
provinces, except Assam.* The committee proposes
also to introduce a representative of each of the new
legislative councils, Assam not in this respect being
specifically excepted. These changes, the committee
hopes, will create a friendly interest in the Institute
in other parts of India; but the tendency (always
manifest, and now decidedly strengthened by the
recently reformed constitution) of developing pro-
vincial institutions may neutralise to some extent
the committee’s expectations in this respect. The
only alternative plan of dispensing with such large
controlling bodies introduces, however, dangers of the
kind that, according to some witnesses, have adversely
affected the development of the Institute hitherto.
The council now proposed as the body responsible
for the determination of matters of policy, for finance,
and for the appointment of a staff, includes the
executive head of the Institute, who is styled principal
in preference to director, together with eleven other
members, composed of five nominees of the Indian
universities, two of the Tata family, two of the Mysore
State, one of the Indian Legislative Assembly, and
a scientific officer to represent the Government of
India. An explanatory paragraph in the report
assumes that by this scheme the central government
will be represented by two nominees, but the nominee
of the Indian Legislative Assembly would be in no
sense a representative of the Government of India.
For purely academic business it is proposed to
establish a board of studies, composed of the principal,
the professors, and certain other members of the staff.
The committee recommends that the principal
should be a scientific man of eminence, with proved
administrative capacity. This obviously wise pre-
scription has been observed in the recent appointment
1 We understand that the Government of India proposes to add to the
government machinery of the Institute a representative of Assam and
another of the newly constituted University of Delhi.
650
NEAT ORE
[NovEMBER II, 1922
of Dr. M. O. Forster, although apparently it has not
been found possible to combine these two qualities
with ‘considerable Indian experience,’”” which the
committee regards as ‘‘ almost essential.”’
Among the many difficult questions which the
committee has carefully considered are: (1) The
claims of local administrations on the services of the
professorial staff for special investigations outside
the Institute. Admitting the occurrence of exception-
ally urgent instances, the committee thinks that any
tendency in this direction to. take members of the
staff away from their immediate duties inside the
Institute should be resisted. (2) The investigation
of special technical problems for outside persons.
These, the committee thinks, might be permitted
under suitable control at the expense of the appli-
cants, so long as a fee be also charged and be wholly
credited to the Institute funds, no part of the fees
thus obtained being granted to the salaried members
of the staff who may undertake the work. (3) The
committee considers that the higher staff should not
accept any private practice which involves work to
be carried out in the Institute laboratories, although
it might be permissible for a professor to undertake
purely consulting practice, subject to the approval
of the council and with specified limitations. (4)
While a member of the staff should enjoy the copy-
right benefits of any book of which he is the author,
the committee is less decided about his taking out
patent rights for inventions arising out of work done
at the Institute. Each specific case of the sort which
arises should be dealt with by the council on its
merits. (5) Technical investigations in the Institute
which successfully lead to work on a factory scale
(when, naturally, commercial interests intervene)
should be stopped at this stage. In the opinion of
the committee, the work should then be transferred
to a commercial firm, which might, if necessary,
employ members of the staff in a purely consultative
capacity. (6) The Institute should not undertake
routine analyses and determinations; these should be
left to the private enterprise of outside chemical firms.
The committee thinks that the necessary co-
ordination of the work of the Institute with that of
Indian universities will be in part effected by the
university representatives on the council and by more
efficient publication of information regarding the
activities of the Institute itself. It is suggested that
the Journal of the Institute should be expanded to
be made of more general interest; that the local
organisation of an Indian section of the Society of
Chemical Industry should be undertaken; that the
staff should be encouraged, by the grant of travelling
expenses, to take part in the annual meetings of the
Indian Science Congress; and that a report on the
research programmes in progress at the Institute
should be submitted annually to the Indian Board of
Scientific Advice.
Because of the isolated location of the Institute,
the committee recommends an improvement in the
hostel accommodation, especially for the benefit of
married students, and generally an increase in the
facilities for games and other social amenities. To
ensure that progress is effected on sound lines, it is
recommended that the Governor-General in Council
as visitor should institute, once in every quinquen-
nium, a review of the operations of the Institute by
a special committee of inquiry.
Psycho-Analysis
{pee place of psycho-analysis in schools was the
subject of a discussion at a joint meeting of
Sections of Psychology and Education of the British
Association meeting in Hull. The crowded meeting
testified to the evident interest taken in the subject,
and to the growing appreciation of the need in
educational work of a closer co-operation between
those who are responsible for the training of the
young, and those who are making a scientific study
of mind working and development.
It will be well at the outset to state that the term
psycho-analysis was used by all speakers in the broad
sense of mental exploration to discover, or at least
trace, the mental history of the abnormal child, the
cause of his mal-development, feeble intelligence,
delinquency, or vicious conduct. In no case was the
term used in the strict Freudian sense ; in fact, Dr.
Crichton Miller, one of the speakers, expressly stated
that, in order to avoid any misconception arising from
the use of a term that might imply exclusively the
theory and technique laid down by Prof. Freud, he
preferred to use the term analytical psychology.
Appearing first as a method of treating nervous
disorders Dr. Miller said that analytical psychology
has a wider function. Its real scope and value should
be preventive, its application as universal as the
accepted principles of hygiene, and its propaganda
carried on by all who have a stake in the next genera-
tion. Hence its importance to teachers, and hence
the necessity for teachers to understand and value it
in their own experience.
The advent of analytical psychology marks a new
era in education because it makes a new demand,
that the teacher should know, not only his subject
and his pupil, but himself. It follows that one of the
chief functions of analytical psychology in education
is not to enable the teacher to analyse his pupils—a
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
and Education.
technical task for which he cannot usually have either
the time or the training—but to help the teacher to
recognise and remedy failures of character develop-
ment in himself, the inherent childishness, the
prejudice, and self-deception which are the chief
obstacles to understanding children, and handling
them wisely. If there are still teachers who maintain
that analytical psychology is irrelevant to their work,
Dr. Miller reminded them that their failures will come
to be judged by analysts later who have to attempt the
re-education of the adult who might have developed
into a man, and instead developed into a neurotic.
Dr. C. W. Kimmins in opening the discussion
presented the case from the schools point of view, and
claimed that the time was singularly opportune for a
clear statement by the experts of the possibilities, and
limitations, of the part a well-qualified psychologist
could take in the appraisement of intellectual values,
and in helping to solve those complex problems
presented by the abnormal child.
The improvement attending the use of intelligence
tests in the selection of children for promotion over
the method of marks gained by the usual examination
method has already been demonstrated, and there is
no doubt that in the greater freedom of the child, and
the fuller scope it has of self-expression and self-
development under the Montessori system, the
Dalton plan, or any other similar form of school
organisation, many of the so-called psycho-patho-
logical cases would disappear. But the child that
will not respond to normal methods of instruction or
treatment will probably always exist. The boy who
has no apparent mental or physical defect, is interested
in out-of-door life and plays games but shows no
interest in instruction, and is always at the bottom
of the class, is an educational failure, and a case for
the psychologist. A day-dreamer is another type.
NoveEMBER 11, 1922]
NATURE
651
These Dr. Kimmins would have treated at psycho-
logical clinics such as are already established in the
United States, America, and other countries, in which
very useful results have been obtained. He also
suggested that if the teacher had a fairly sound
knowledge of his own personal equation it would
greatly increase his efficiency.
Dr. Hamilton Pearson claimed that the practical
application of psycho-analysis had a place in school
routine with two reservations, namely, that the operator
should be not only a trained analyst, but should have
special experience in child analysis, since the technique
is different, and the work altogether more difficult
and delicate than with adults; and secondly, that
the limitations of the field of application within the
radius of our present knowledge are thoroughly under-
stood. In helping to define those limitations it may
be taken as a rule that no child showing normal
development, adapting adequately and progressively
to its environment, should have even a nodding
acquaintance with analysts. The rigidity of a
systematised educational scheme must of necessity
fail to win response from a minority of children, and
this coupled with an adverse family environment
accounts for the mal-development of the few.
Among this group of potential neurotics, criminals,
and chronic failures lies the sphere of usefulness of the
child analyst.
Dr. Pearson declared that analysis itself is not
curative, but by exposing the causal factors of the
mal-development it is a means of pointing the way to
constructive methods of treatment. He described
three cases in which analytical methods had been
used, to illustrate how they had been treated. The
subsequent history of each child showed how by
co-operation with the teacher a definite cure had
followed. He believed that in co-operation lies the
future of psycho-analysis in its practical value to school
life, and that the knowledge gained in dealing with
the abnormal would be of inestimable importance in
dealing with, and understanding, the normal.
Dr. R. G. Gordon endorsed the value of co-opera-
tion of the workers in the fields of education and
psychology, and also emphasised the necessity that
such problems should be dealt with only by people
whose knowledge is extensive, and embraces such
collateral subjects as physiology and biology. He
protested strongly against the unqualified dabbler
with his pseudo-metaphysical speculations which are
not even logical.
Dr. Gordon described two types of children likely
to give trouble, namely, the psycho-pathic child, and
the retarded child who is yet not sufficiently feeble-
minded to be classed as mentally deficient. Every
child inherits certain predispositions, and some dis-
positions unmodified or uncontrolled are evil and lead
to vicious conduct, but if properly correlated, and
modified by each other, and by education, they are all
capable of leading to the highest virtues. It is
the uncontrolled impulses which characterise the
behaviour of the moral deficient, such as an over-
mastering impulse of acquisitiveness and a complete
failure to get into touch with reality.
The retarded child is a slightly different problem.
If with an intellectual inferiority he possesses a
nature in which self-assertion is a large factor, he will
not submit to inferiority—superiority at games may
save his self-respect, but in their absence his will to
assertion may show itself in acts of rudeness, dis-
obedience, or stubbornness. To avoid punishment
he becomes a liar; to prove his independence he
plays truant ; and possibly to further his object he
may steal money, etc. Other undesirable traits may
exhibit themselves in his efforts to gain ascendancy
over other children. In many cases it is only neces-
sary to remove such children from the unfair competi-
tion involved in school, and start them in training
suited to their intellectual capabilities. Not only
will this do away with all vicious tendencies, but it will
increase their achievement to a remarkable degree, so
that they grow up not incapable of taking a worthy
place in the world. Neglect of proper treatment for
such children means that they eventually enter the
ranks of the neurotic or the criminal, or may turn
to drink or drugs which lead to an abased and
useless life. Itis obvious that investigation and treat-
ment of such cases should be definitely undertaken
both for the sake of the individual and of the State.
_The investigation should be carried out in three
directions: (1) the physical examination—a purely
medical concern ; (2) the intelligence estimate through
the use of such means as the Stamford revision of the
Binet-Simon tests, etc. ; and (3) the child’s reaction to
life—requiring mental exploration. In the last case
Dr. Gordon said if clinics are established it must be
borne in mind that only properly qualified workers
should conduct the inquiry. The mind of the child
is a delicately adjusted mechanism and cannot be too
carefully handled; the greatest care must be taken
that nothing shall be implanted which shall still
further weaken control and upset the nice adjustment
of impulses on which his or her sanity depends. The
functions of such clinics will at first be purely advisory,
and here the importance of sound advice is obvious.
In schools of all types are to be found children
whose moral sense and will to work are so impaired
that their time at school and probably at home is a
succession of misdemeanours and acts of viciousness,
a continued refusal to adapt themselves to social
order; they are deaf to all appeals to reason. The in-
vestigation of the problems set by these children seems
to be rightly in the hands of the psychologist, and the
present inquiry is to learn to what extent mental
exploration in the form of psycho-analysis can save
the child by pointing out the cause and thus suggesting
the remedy. Every speaker expressed the opinion
that this inquiry should only be undertaken by a fully
qualified specialist and should be limited to those
children who were abnormal in their behaviour and
in their response to the usual incentives to work.
Corrosion and Colloids.
CORBCEION is defined as the oxidation of a sub-
stance ; it may be produced by chemical or electro-
chemicalmeans. The following facts are difficult to ex-
plain on a purely electro-chemical theory of corrosion :
(a) Certain depolarisers do not increase corrosion,
but actually inhibit it; (b) the conductivity of elec-
trolytes is not directly connected with the amount
of corrosion; (c) Lambert’s pure iron is readily
attacked by sodium chloride solution and dilute
1 Abstract of sixth report of the Corrosion Research Committee of the
Institute of Metals, presented by Dr. G. D. Bengough and J. M. Stuart at
the Swansea meeting of the Institute on September 20.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
acids ; and (d) the presence of ions of the corroding
metal sometimes increases corrosion. The order of
corrodibility of metals in distilled water, certain salt
solutions, and non-electrolytes is different from their
order in the electro-chemical list ; this suggests that
there are factors interfering with the electro-chemical
action. Such factors are scale formation, and the
nature and distribution of the products of corrosion.
The effects of strain and impurity in the metal are
considered on the electro-chemical view to be of
fundamental importance. Experiments on Lambert’s
652
pure iron and lead showed that the effect of strain
is a minor and ephemeral factor in corrosion in neutral
solutions; a trace of impurity appears to assist
local corrosion, but the amount of corrosion is not
proportional to the amount of impurity. The effect
of a trace of impurity is probably a trigger action.
The main function of oxygen in corrosion is not that of
a depolariser, but rather to oxidise the metal directly,
and also in some cases the products of corrosion.
Two chief types of corrosion are distinguished :
(a) The general type, usually characteristic of acid
corrosion ; and (b) the local type, usually character-
istic of corrosion in water and salt solutions. The
latter is generally characterised by the formation of
an adherent scale on the metal, which may contain
colloid. The significance of colloids in corrosion
appears to be as follows : A metal immersed in water
sends positively charged metal ions into the liquid,
and becomes itself negatively charged. With com-
mercial metals, the metal also becomes superficially
oxidised if dissolved oxygen is present. The
hydroxide produced can take up the ions given off
by the metal, and thereby becomes a positively
WA TORE
[ NovEMBER II, 1922
charged colloid. Some of this will diffuse away,
permitting further reaction between oxygen and the
metal surface. Oxidation stops until this hydroxide
can pass into the colloidal state by acquiring positively
charged metal ions. This, in general, does not take
place till the colloid initially formed has diffused
into the presence of electrolyte, when it is pre-
cipitated by the anion of the dissolved salt, the
cation neutralising the charge on the metal corre-
sponding to that on the colloid. Then the metal
can send more ions into solution, and the uncharged
hydroxide can acquire a charge. If the colloid
produced can diffuse away, the process can continue
and corrosion develop. If the colloid precipitates
directly on the corroding surface it will, in general,
adhere and stop corrosion. In the case of a corrosion
pit, it is only when the colloid diffuses through an
aperture in the gel-deposits at the mouth of the pit
that it meets electrolyte and is then precipitated.
Such precipitation merely thickens the external
gel-deposits. The latter protect the metal surround-
ing the pit, and emphasise the local nature of the
corrosion.
Vitamins.
{pee Sections of Physiology and Agriculture of
the British Association held a joint discussion
on vitamins at Hull on Friday, September 8.
Prof. J. C. Drummond spoke of the great strides
that have been made since the discovery of the
vitamins by Hopkins in 1912. Both the existence
and the indispensability of these substances are now
generally accepted. The far-reaching importance
of the qualitative composition of the diet of man
and animals is being gradually appreciated, and the
significance of those factors which exist in extremely
minute amounts recognised. Three substances of
the so-called vitamin class have been differentiated
with certainty, and it is possible that more exist.
They do not appear to be of one chemical type, and
the only ground for grouping them together is that
they occur, and are effective, in very small amounts.
Parallel examples from the inorganic food con-
stituents are known, such as the value of minute
doses of iodides in the treatment and prevention of
foetal athyrosis in swine.
The green tissues of plants would seem to be the
chief site of vitamin synthesis, although lower forms
of plant life devoid of photocatalytic pigments can
apparently produce the vitamin B. Plant tissues
undoubtedly form the direct or indirect source of the
vitamin supply of animals, but we are entirely ignorant
as to the role of the vitamins in the plant itself.
Storage of the vitamin A may take place in the
tissues, liver, and body fat of animals, and may
serve as a reserve from which are drawn supplies to
maintain the vitamin concentration of milk if the
diet during the lactation period should be deficient.
In collaboration with Dr. Zilva a prolonged in-
vestigation of the origin of the large stores of vitamin
A in cod-liver oils has recently been made. It has
been ascertained that the marine diatoms synthesise
the vitamin, and that it is transferred to the tissues
of minute animals (plankton) which thrive on the
unicellular plants. These in turn form the food
supply of larger species, particularly*small fish,
which in their turn are devoured by the larger fish,
such as the cod. Through all these stages there is
apparently a transference of the vitamin, ending
finally in the storage in the liver of the cod. The
modern methods of manufacture of cod-liver oil
do not appreciably lower the vitamin value, but
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
there are wide variations in the value of different
samples which are probably connected with the
seasonal changes in the feeding habits or physio-
logical condition of the fish. Considerable work has
been done on the chemical nature of the vitamin A,
but an isolation has not yet been made. It is very
stable, except to oxidative changes, and passes into
the unsaponifiable fraction of the oil. Cholesterol,
pigments, and other fractions of this fraction may be
removed without loss of potency.
Capt. J. Golding gave a number of illustrations of
the value of the application of vitamin theories in
practical pig-feeding. Frequently the usual type of
pig diet is deficient in vitamins, particularly vitamin
A, and the beneficial influence of cod-liver oil or of
feeding on pasture or lucerne in such Cases is remark-
able. In the compounding of rations care should be
taken to ensure an adequate supply of food-stuffs
rich in vitamins, otherwise there is danger of sub-
normal growth, impaired resistance to infections,
and disturbances of the power to produce and rear
normal young. The majority of the cereal products
are deficient in vitamin A, and the amount in the
diet is not raised much by the use of separated milk.
Such diets can be supplemented by small additions
of cod-liver oil, 1-2 oz. daily for full-grown pigs, or
by access to pasture. Cod-liver oil is also valuable
in maintaining the vitamin value of the milk yielded
by cows on winter rations in stall, which otherwise
tends to fall. The administration of cod-liver oil,
if of good quality, does not produce flavour or taint
in pigs or milk and butter.
Dr. Atherton Seidell (New York) described his
attempts at the separation of the vitamin B from
yeast by chemical methods. By adsorption of the
vitamin from yeast extracts on to fuller’s earth, and
extraction of the activated solid with alkalies under
suitable conditions, considerable concentration of the
active substance could be effected. The resulting
extract when fractionated by precipitation with silver
salts gave active fractions, but these have not yet
yielded a pure substance.
Prof. W. D. Halliburton referred to the need for
caution that enthusiasm for a new word such as
vitamin did not overwhelm the importance of other
dietary units. There must not be a loss of per-
spective in viewing the function of these newly
NoOvEMBER I1, 1922]
NATURE 65
ios)
discovered substances. There is also need for
further research on the nature of the substances
(auximones) which are believed to act as vitamins
for plant growth.
Dr. Monkton Copeman agreed with the importance
of vitamins for the young and growing organism, but
questioned whether they are as important, or not
actually deleterious, to the mature animal. In some
researches which had recently been made under
the auspices of the Ministry of Health, evidence had
been obtained that patients suffering from malignant
growths had received benefit from a course of feeding
on dietaries deficient in vitamins. There was also
a definite, if microscopic, fall in the Registrar-General’s
figures for cancer during the years of the war, when
food restrictions were in force.
British and American Fine Chemicals.
HE “ Catalogue of Chemical Products ’’ issued
by the British Drug Houses, Ltd., is now so
well known to chemists that there is little need to do
more than direct attention to the new edition, issued
on September 21, which includes several thousand
chemicals, many of them recent additions. The firm
caters not only for chemical laboratories, but also
supplies an extensive range of requisites for micro-
scopic work, such as stains, mounting media, embed-
ding materials, liquids of known refractive index,
etc. Special mention may be made of the list of about
50 indicators for which the catalogue gives a useful
table showing the Pu range in each case, including
the universal indicator, a mixture to be used for
determining rapidly and in one operation the approxi-
mate Px of a solution by the colour developed.
A new edition (No. 8) of the list of organic chemicals
sold by the Eastman Kodak Co. in the United States
has also been issued recently. It includes about 1400
products and has two good features which British
firms might copy with advantage. It indicates,
usually by means of the melting- or boiling-point, the
degree of purity of the product, and states which
materials have been made or purified in the firm’s
own laboratories. The American firm seems to
realise the necessity of securing as quickly as possible
a reputation for quality similar to that enjoyed by a
few of the German makers before the war, and the
features just alluded to have no doubt been intro-
duced into their list with that object.
The Eastman list begins with an introduction in
which, after recording progress, a frank appeal is
made to chemists to co-operate with the company in
making the United States independent as regards the
supply of these essential materials, by indicating
possible means of improving the quality, furnishing
information as to supplies of new or rare organic
chemicals available for purchase, and suggesting new
materials for manufacture.
British manufacturers should realise that British
chemists are equally interested in this matter so far
as this country is concerned, and similar appeals in
their lists would probably have an excellent effect.
There are few research laboratories in which there are
not residues of rare organic chemicals available for
disposal, and most laboratories of university standing
could, from time to time, do something towards
supplying complex organic chemicals.
It has been urged against the Board of Trade lists
drawn up under the Safeguarding of Industries Act
that they “ protect ’’ many chemicals which, owing to
the small demand and the cost of labour, can never be
made in thiscountry. The co-operation of university
laboratories might also be a means of overcoming this
difficulty.
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
University and Educational Intelligence.
CAMBRIDGE.—Mr. E. C. Francis, Trinity College,
has been elected Fellow and mathematical lecturer
at Peterhouse. Mr. C. G. Lamb has been appointed
reader in electrical engineering.
The allotment made in 1920 of 165,000/. for the
endowment of the School of Biochemistry from the
estate of the late Sir William Dunn has been increased
by a further sum of 45,000/. It is of interest to note
the allotment ordered by the Court for the sub-
division of the total sum of 210,o00l., namely (a)
96,00o0l. for the site and building of the Institute of
Biochemistry; (6) 18,ooo/.. for equipment, main-
tenance, and improvements out of annual income;
(c) 89,0001. for salaries and the expenses of research
work out of annual income; (d) 7oool. for a fund
to meet contingencies and unforeseen expenditure.
A studentship for study and research in the
languages, literature, history, archeology or art of
ancient Greece or Rome or the comparative philology
of the Indo-European languages is to be founded
from a bequest under the will of the late Sir John
Sandys, Public Orator.
MANCHESTER.—On Monday, October 30, Mr. Harold
L. Cohen opened the Lewis Departmental Library
in the Faculty of Commerce and Administration.
This library, and also certain scholarships, have been
provided from a gift by Messrs. Lewis with the
object of encouraging co-operation between the
university and the business community of the city.
The Faculty of Commerce has made rapid progress
during recent years, and it is hoped that university
graduates may find increasing opportunities to
demonstrate the value of a university training in
commerce.
Mr. E. J. Sidebotham has been appointed honorary
lecturer in public health, and Mr. G. J. Langley
hon. assistant lecturer in physiology.
The following appointments have also been made :
assistant lecturer in electrical engineering, Mr. L. S.
Palmer ; special lecturer in textile design, Mr. Henry
Cadness; Osborne Reynolds fellow, Mr. F. D.
Reynolds ; Vulcan fellow, Mr. F. Heywood ; Leech
fellow, Mr. C. D. Hough.
Sr. ANDREws.—The University Court has now made
an appointment to the chair of natural philosophy in
the United College, which became vacant at the end
of last academical year by the retirement of Prof.
Butler. The new professor is Dr. H. Stanley Allen, of
the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Allen was educated
at Kingswood School, Bath, and Trinity College,
Cambridge. Afterwards he held a post as assistant
lecturer at the University College of Wales, Aberyst-
wyth; he also did research work in physics at the
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, under the direction
of Sir J. J. Thomson, and was in charge of Lord
Blythswood’s physical laboratory at Renfrew. In
October 1905 Dr. Allen was appointed to a post in
the physics department of King’s College, London,
where, after being lecturer for some years, he followed
his chief there (Prof. C. G. Barkla) to the physics
department in Edinburgh. In the course of his
career Dr. Allen has had a varied experience of the
teaching of physics, and he has made some notable
contributions to the scientific literature of the subject.
THE following Parliamentary candidates for uni-
versity constituencies have been returned unopposed ;
—Scotland: D. M‘Coig Cowan (N.L.), Sir Henry
Craik (U.), and Sir George Berry (U.). Queen's,
Belfast : Sir William Whitla (U.}. Sir George Berry
is the only new member from these two constituencies.
654
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
November 12, 1902. William Henry Barlow died.—
Appointed principal engineer of the Midland Railway
in 1844, when thirty-two years of age, Barlow laid
out the line from London to Bedford and was re-
sponsible for St. Pancras Station. He was also
concerned with the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the
second Tay Bridge, and the Forth Bridge. He was
widely known for his scientific investigations of
arches and beams, and in 1868 was made one of the
committee appointed to investigate the applicability
of steel to structures. He was a vice-president of
the Royal Society, and in 1879-80 president of the
Institution of Civil Engineers.
November 13, 1903. Josiah Vavasseur died.—
One of the chief ordnance engineers of last century,
Vavasseur invented in 1866 the copper rotating ring
or band for projectiles of breech-loading guns, and
subsequently did important work on the construction
of built-up steel guns and on hydraulic mountings.
In the Vavasseur mounting of 1877, the recoil was
for the first time scientifically controlled by hydraulic
buffers having a uniform resistance. The London
Ordnance Works which he founded was in 1883
merged in those of Armstrong’s at Elswick.
November 14, 1830. Henry Bell died.—The tore-
most pioneer of the steamboat in Europe, Bell, who
was born at Torphichen, Linlithgowshire, on April 7,
1767, was apprenticed as a stone mason but after-
wards became a shipwright and builder. In 1808 he
became proprietor of a hotel and baths at Helens-
burgh on the Clyde and in 1811 ordered the Comet.
In August 1812 this little craft began running
between Glasgow and Greenock, and from this dates
the beginning of steam navigation in Europe. The
vessel was wrecked in 1820, but the engine was salved
and is preserved in the Science Museum at South
Kensington.
November 14, 1905. Robert Whitehead died.—
The inventor of the automobile torpedo, Whitehead
made his first torpedo in 1866 while holding a position
in an engineering works at Fiume. Taken up first
in 1868 by the Austrian Navy, experiments were
carried out at Sheerness in 1870 and soon afterwards
the torpedo was adopted by the British and other
Governments.
November 15, 1839. William Murdock died.—
Known principally for his discovery of lighting by
coal gas and as the originator of a great industry,
which in Great Britain alone consumes some 22,000,000
tons of coal per annum, Murdock was for many
years the right-hand man of Boulton and Watt. He
was first employed by them in 1777, and was sent
to Cornwall to erect steam engines. In his house at
Redruth in 1784 he experimented with a small
locomotive and in 1792 lighted his house by gas.
He was also a pioneer in the transmission of power
by compressed air.
November 16, 1911. Engelbert Arnold died.—A
notable contributor to the literature of electrical
engineering, Arnold, after studying at Ziirich, engaged
in practical work in Russia. For a short time he was
engineer to the Oerlikon works in Switzerland and
from 1894 to 1911 held a chair at the Institute of
Technology at Karlsruhe.
November 18, 1814. William Jessop died.—Trained
as a civil engineer under Smeaton, Jessop was em-
ployed on some of the English canals, completed
the West India Docks and constructed a railway in
Surrey which was the first opened to the public in
the South of England. He Cus:
NO. 2767, VOL. 110]
NATORE
[ NovEMBER II, 1922
Societies and Academies.
Lonpon.
Royal Society, November 2.—Sir Charles Sherring-
ton, president, in the chair.—Lord Rayleigh : Polarisa-
tion of the light scattered by mercury vapour near
the resonance periodicity. White light scattered at
right angles by dense mercury vapour is to a first
approximation completely polarised. Ultra-violet
radiation of the mercury spectrum line \2536, when
examined immediately it enters mercury vapour in
an exhausted vessel at room temperature, gives a
scattered radiation which is slightly though de-
finitely polarised. This polarisation has been ob-
served to increase as the beam is filtered by penetra-
tion of a considerable depth of vapour. After
penetration of 27-5 cm. of vapour the weaker
polarised image had 60 per cent. only of the intensity
of the stronger one, instead of 90 per cent. as at
first. The radiation removed by the filtration
appears to lie within a spectral range of about 1/100
Angstrom.—G. P. Thomson: The scattering of
hydrogen positive rays and the existence of a
powerful field of force in the hydrogen molecule.
At a pressure of less than 1/100 mm., hydrogen
positive rays of 10,000 volts mean energy suffer
considerable small-angle scattering in a distance of
15 cm. This scattering is ro-20 times greater than
would be expected on theoretical grounds. There
must, therefore, be a field of force in the hydrogen
molecule at distances of the order of 10° from a
nucleus which is much stronger than would be
expected from the inverse square law. A subsidiary
experiment throws great doubt on Glimme and
IXoenigsberger’s ‘‘ Stossstrahlen.’—H. D. Smyth:
A new method for studying ionizing potentials.
Positive ray analysis is used to study the ions pro-
duced in a gas or vapour by the impact of slow-
speed electrons of known energy. This requires
that the density of gas be considerable where the
energy of the impacting electrons is known, and as
small as possible where the energy conditions are
not known. In the case of mercury such a localisa-
tion of vapour density was obtained by using a
unidirectional molecular stream similar to that
employed in a mercury diffusion pump. lIons were
produced by electrons from a hot filament, and after
acceleration by a large electric field were analysed
by a magnetic field. In this way the values of m/e
were determined approximately. The experiments
on mercury indicate the formation of doubly charged
ions at 19+2 volts. The series relations of the
enhanced spectrum of mercury are not known, but
analogy with zinc and cadmium suggests an estimate
in agreement with the above value. The conclusion
is that the double ions formed at this voltage are
the result of two impacts. Experiments at higher
voltages indicate formation by single impacts. More
highly charged ions were present in such small
quantities as to make their identification uncertain
even at voltages as high as five hundred. It was
also impossible to identify a singly charged diatomic
molecule.—I. Backhurst: Variation of the intensity
of reflected X-radiation with the temperature of the
crystal. General agreement only is found with the
theories of C. G. Darwin and P. Debye. Aluminium :
Very marked decrease in intensity was observed
with rise of temperature, and fair agreement with
P. Debye’s theory obtained for the (100) and (222)
spectra. Carborundum: A_ special furnace was
constructed for temperatures up to 960° C. and no
deterioration of the crystal was observed. The
decrease in intensity with rise of temperature was
NOVEMBER IT, 1922]
much greater for the higher-order spectra, and different
curves were obtained for the Ka (333) and K 8 (333)
spectra. Graphite: Only for the cleavage-plane
reflection was it possible to obtain a definite tem-
perature-intensity curve, and for the direction
perpendicular to this plane an unusually high co-
efficient of expansion was measured. Diamond :
No decrease in intensity was found that could be
measured with certainty, and a very small thermal
agitation would be expected on account of the
diamond structure’s great strength. Ruby and
sapphire: An anomalous effect was observed, since
the decrease of intensity of the (111) spectra was
greater than that of the (222). This may be com-
pletely explained by assuming that the atoms of
the aluminium pair remain in contact and do not
share in the expansion of the lattice-—S. Datta:
The absorption spectrum of potassium vapour. The
principal series lines up to m= 42 have been observed
as absorption lines and their wave-lengths accurately
measured. The series equation shows satisfactory
agreement between the observed and the calculated
values, with the exception of deviations for the last
few lines, for which a possible explanation has been
given. The first seven members of the series have
been resolved into their components. Besides the
absorption of the lines of the principal series, new
lines have been found to be absorbed at higher
pressures, which seem to have no correspondence
with the known lines in the emission spectrum. The
combination lines 1s—2d and 1s—3d have been found
to be absorbed, the first as a pair, confirming the
presence of a satellite to the lines of the diffuse
series. Their appearance in the absorption spectrum
gives distinct evidence of contradiction of the
selection principle.— K. R. Ramanathan: The
molecular scattering of light in vapours and in
liquids and its relation to the opalescence observed
in the critical state. Three instances of light scatter-
ing by homogeneous media are known—opalescence
near critical point, scattering of light by gases, and
scattering of light by liquids. Experiments on
scattering of light by ether, in vapour and liquid
phases, at different temperatures from 33° C. up to
critical temperature 193:6° and in gaseous phase
from 193-6° to 217°, give results in accord with the
Einstein-Smoluchowski formula and not with the
Rayleigh law. The Einstein-Smoluchowski formula
is inapplicable in immediate neighbourhood of critical
point. The scattered light is markedly less blue
here. Following the theoretical work of Ornstein
and Zernike, from maximum value of intensity of
scattered light the value of ce, radius of action of
ether molecule, is deduced to be 4:6x10~7 cm.
Light scattered at right angles to incident beam is
imperfectly polarised ; ratio of weak component to
strong is throughout nearly 1-2 per cent., in case of
vapour, while in case of liquids, ratio is 8 per cent.
at ordinary temperatures, remaining constant till
about 120° and then falling off to about 1-2 per
cent. at critical point. There is no change of im-
perfection of polarisation on passing through critical
point. Correction due to this in the expression for
inteasity of scattered light is given.
Paris.
Academy of Sciences, October 16.—M. Albin
Haller in the chair.—The president announced the
death of F. P. A. Barbier, correspondant for the
section of chemistry.—Maurice Hamy: The calcula-
tion of a double integral which occurs in the theory
of the diffraction of solar images by a rectangular
slit—An. Bilimovitch: The lines of inertia on a
surface.—Ed. Le Danois: The hydrology of the
NO. 2767, VOL. I10]
WATORE
655
North Atlantic. It is considered that the name
Gulf Stream should be restricted to the return current
from the equatorial region. The variations in tem-
perature and salinity of the surface water are due to
a seasonal phenomenon and not to ramifications of
the Gulf current.—C. Raveau: Demonstration of
Fresnel’s law of zther drift, without reference to
the relativity of time and space—André Guilbert :
The calculation of the attraction of electro-magnets.
—Maurice Curie: The refractive indices of the
phosphorescent sulphides. The refractice indices
of phosphorescent sulphides of calcium, strontium,
barium, and zinc have been measured directly by
the observation under the microscope of particles
of the sulphides in a transparent homogeneous liquid
of the same refractive index. The values found
differ considerably from the square root of the
dielectric capacity and lend no support to the theory
of P. Lénard.—L. Simon and L. Zivy: The
neutralisation of tartaric acid by potash in presence
of the chlorides of the alkaline earths. In the
presence of calcium (or barium) chloride, the titration
of tartaric acid requires the same volume of caustic
potash solution for neutralisation with either methyl
orange or phenolphthallin as _ indicator. — Albert
Perrier and B. de Mandrot: The elasticity and
symmetry of quartz at high temperatures. Flat
plates were cut from quartz crystals in four
directions: along the binary and ternary axes,
then in two directions normal to the binary axis.
The quartz plates were worked with optical precision
and the flexures caused by a load at the centre
determined for temperatures ranging from 18° C. to
rrgo° C. There is a rapid change in the value of
Young’s modulus at 576° C., a rise of I° increasing
the modulus to three times its value. Aimé Azam:
The origin and process of formation of the soils at
the Hague.—Jean Mascart: The proportion of
successes in weather prediction. The question as to
what constitutes a successful weather prediction is
discussed, and it is pointed out that many predictions
are too vaguely drawn and cover too many possi-
bilities. If the forecast is drawn in precise terms,
weather prediction may be considered satisfactory
if the proportion of successes is more than 60 per
cent.—P. Bugnon: The systematic position of the
Euphorbiacee. J. Beauverie: The “ critical period
of wheat.’—L. Blaringhem: A _ sterile hybrid of
spelt and rye——Adrien Davy de Virville and Fernand
Obaton: Observations and experiments on ephemeral
flowers. Light has no action on the opening or
closing of the corolla in ephemeral flowers, and
hygrometric state has a very slight influence. The
temperature is the main factor in these movements.
—Mare Bridel and Mlle. Marie Braecke: Rhinanthine
and aucubine. Rhinanthine is impure aucubine.
Rhinanthine was extracted by Ludwig from the
seeds of Rhinanthus Crista-galli, and aucubine was
discovered by Bourquelot and Hérissey in the seeds
of Aucuba japonica. Rhinanthine is regarded by
the authors as a mixture of saccharose and aucubine,
and experimental data are given in support of this
view.—Fred Vlés: The variations of the hydrogen
ion concentration in the neighbourhood of eggs
undergoing division.—J. Legendre: The trophic role
of birds as regards the culicines. Further studies on
the part played by domestic animals and birds in
the protection of man against insects (Culex, Stego-
myia).—Paul Wintrebert: Movement without nerve
and nervous movement of the embryos of Raia.—
A. Gruvel: Two species of lobster from the coasts
of Indo-China.—J. Dumas and D. Combiesco:
Dysenteric intoxication of the rabbit and cholera
intoxication of the guinea-pig by ingestion of soluble
dysenteric and cholera toxins.
656
Official Publications Received.
Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo.
Vol. 42, Art. 3: Okologische Untersuchungen der Schwimminseln in
Japan. Von Harufusa Nakano. Pp. 57. 1.50 yen. Vol. 44, Art. 1:
Possils from the Upper Musashino of Kazusa and Shimosa. By
Matajiro Yokoyama. Pp. 200+ viii+17 plates. 9-20 yen. Vol. 44,
Art. 2: On some Japanese Freshwater Triclads ; with a Note on the
Parallelism in their Distribution in Europe and Japan. By Tokio
Kaburaki. Pp. 71+1 plate. 2-30 yen. (Tokio: Imperial Uni-
versity ; Maruzen Co., Ltd.)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
B, Vol. 211: The Breeding Places of the Eel. By Dr. Johs, Schmidt.
Pp. 179-208. (London: Harrison and Sons, Ltd.)
Actes de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles.
annuelle du 29 aoit au ler septembre 1920 4 Neuchatel.
Pp. 266+55. (Aarau: H. R. Sauerlinder et Cie.)
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 46,
Art. 10: The Locomotor Apparatus of certain Primitive and Mammal-
like Reptiles. By Alfred Sherwood Romer. Pp. 517-606+plates
27-46. (New York: American Museum of Natural History.)
Contributions from the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, from the
Cruft High-Tension Electrical Laboratory, and from Colleagues and
Former Students, dedicated to Professor Edwin Herbert Hall, for the
Year 1921. Vol, 15 (unpaged). (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
Unive y Press.)
_ The Institution of Civil Wngineers. Engineering Abstracts prepared
from the Current Periodical Literature of Engineering and Applied
Science, published outside the United Kingdom. New Series, No. 13,
October, Edited by W. F. Spear. Pp. 176. (London: Institution
ot Civil Engineers.)
_ Repiblica Argentina. Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nacién:
Oficina Meteorologica Nacional. La Maxima de la radiacién solar en
Enero y Febrero de 1920, y el estado del tiempo mundial. Por H. H.
Clayton y Guillermo Hoxmark. Pp. 18. (Buenos Aires.)
Rapport annuel sur l'état de Observatoire de Paris pour l’année
1921. Par M. B. Baillaud. Pp. 35. (Paris: Impr. Nationale.)
Canada. Department of Mines: Mines Branch. No. 549: Report
on Structural Materials along the St. Lawrence River, between Prescott,
Ont., and Lachine, Que. By Joseph Keele and L. Heber Cole. Pp.
119+30 plates+3 maps. (Ottawa.)
Nedboriakttagelser i Norge utgitt ay det Norske Meteorologiske
Tnstitutt. Tgang 27,1921. Pp. xiii+79+47+2 maps. (Kristiania:
H. Aschehoug and Co.) 6.00 kr.
Jahrbuch des Norwegischen Meteorologischen Instituts fiir 1921.
Pp. xi+174, (Kristiania : Grondahl and Son.)
Field Museum of Natural History. Publication 210, Zoological
Series, Vol. 12, No. 3: Game Birds from North-western Venezuela.
By W. H. Osgood and B. Conover. Pp. 17-48. (Chicago.)
Annual Conference of the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland,
1922. Abridged Report of Proceedings. Pp. 32. (London: Uni-
versities Bureau of the British Empire.) 1s.
Nedboriagttagelser i Norge utgit av det Norske Meteorologiske
Institut. Middelverdier, Maksima og Minima. Pp. xvi+xi+83-+
12 plates +2 maps. (Kristiania: H. Aschehoug and Co.) 6.00 kr.
State of Mlinois. Department of Registration and Education :
Division of the Natural History Survey. Bulletin, Vol. 13, Art. 14:
Forest Insects in Illinois. I. : The Subfamily Ochthiphiline (Diptera,
Family Agromyzide), By J. R. Malloch. Pp. 345-362. Bulletin,
Vol. 13, Art. 15: The Small Bottom and Shore Fauna of the Middle
and Lower Illinois River and its Connecting Lakes, Chillicothe to
Grafton ; its Valuation ; its Sources of Food Supply : and its Relation
to the Fishery. By R. E. Richardson. Pp. 363-522. Bulletin, Vol.
13, Art. 16; An Ecological Survey of the Prairie Vegetation of Illinois,
By H. C. Sampson. Pp. 523-578+plates 48-77. Bulletin, Vol, 14,
Art. 1: The Orehard Birds of an Illinois Summer. By S. A. Forbes
and A. O. Gross. Pp. 8+6 plates. Bulletin, Vol. 14, Art. 2: Dis-
tribution of the Fresh-water Sponges of North America. By F. Smith.
Pp. 9-22. (Urbana, Ill.)
_ Republica Argentina. Ministerio de Agricultura de la Naci6n:
Oficina Meteorologica Nacional. Las Condiciones fisicas del Atlantico
Sur entre et Rio de La Plata y las Islas Orcadas del Sur durante el
verano. Por R. C. Mossman. Pp. 26. (Buenos Aires.)
University of London: University College. Calendar, Session
RES Pp. Ixviii+410+1xix-clxxxviii. (London: Taylor and
‘ancis. ‘
Annuaire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des
Beaux-Arts de Belgique. 1922, 88° année. Pp. 124+209-+plates.
(Bru elles : M. Lamertin ; M. Hayez.)
Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. Cotton Research Board.
Series
101¢ Session
lve Partie.
Second
Annual Report, 1921. Pp. xvi+203. (Cairo: Government Publica-
tions Office.) 15 P.T.
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 45,
Iil.: The Predaceous Enemies of Ants. By J. Bequaert. Pp. 271-
331. Vol. 45, IV. : Ants in their Diverse Relations to the Plant World.
By J. Bequaert. Pp. 333-583. Vol. 45, V.: The Anatomy of certain
Plants from the Belgian Congo, with Special Reference to Myrmeco-
phytism. By I. W. E ey. Pp. 585-621. Vol. 45, VI.: Notes ona
Collection of West A an Myrmecophiles. By W. M. Mann. Pp.
623-630, Vol. 45, VII.: Keys to the Genera and Subgenera of Ants.
BY Ww. M. Wheeler. Pp. 631-710. Vol. 45, VIIJ.: A Synonymic
List of the Ants of the Ethiopian Region. By W.M. Wheeler. IX. :
A Synonymie List of the Ants of the Malagasy Region. By W. M.
Wheeler. Pp. 711-1055. (New York.)
Jamaica. Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for
the Year ended 31st December 1921. Pp. 43. (Kingston, Jamaica.)
. Studies on the Cyclostomatous Bryozoa. By F. Canu and R. 8S.
Bassler, (No. 2443: From the Proceedings of the United States
National Museum, Vol. 61, Art. 22.) Pp. 160+28 plates. (Washing-
ton: Government Printing Office.)
NO. 2767, VOL. I10]
Ma TORE
[ NovEMBER II, 1922
Diary of Societies.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13.
RoyaL Society OF ARTS, at 8.—J. Slater:
Adelphi in Ancient Times.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, at 8.
SURVEYORS’ INSTITUTION, at 8.—J. M. Clark: Presidential Opening
Address.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL Socrety (at Aolian Hall), at 8.30.—Com-
mander F, Wild: The Work of ** The Quest.””
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14,
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL Society, at 3.—Dr. H. Wager: The Colours
of Flowers and Fruits (Masters Memorial Lecture).
INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS (£ Royal Society of Arts),
at 5.
INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERS, INC., at 6.30.—J. Steinheil: The
Evolution of the Nobel Diesel Engine (Part I.).
QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB, at 7.30.—Dr. R. J. Ludford: The
Cytology of Growth.
ILLUMINATING ENGINEERING Society (at Royal Society of Arts),
at 8.—Reports on Progress during the Vacation and Developments
in Lamps and Lighting Appliances.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 7.—J. C.
Kingdon: Experiments on the Tensile Strength of Gelatine and
Gelatine-jelly ; Discussion of the Results as bearing on the Structure
of Gelatine ; with a Note on the Evolution of Heat by Gelatine
when expanding in Water.—K. ©. D. Hickman: Rapid Sulphiding
of Bromide Prints. Toning with Gases instead of Liquids ; together
with a Demonstration of the Methods employed.—D. Northall-
Laurie: Photomicrographs in Colour mounted to exhibit changing
Tints,
The Strand and the
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15.
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY, at 8.—C. Beck: Glare and Flooding
in Microscope Ilumination.—Dr. C. Singer: The First Mechanical
Microtome.—Prof. G. S. Thapar: The Occurrence and Significance
of a Third Contractile Vacuole in Paramecium caudatum.—Prof.
B. L. Bhatia: The Significance of Extra Contractile Vacuoles in
Paramecium caudatum.
RoyaL Society OF ARTs, at 8.—Dr. S. Smith: The Action of the
Beater in Paper Making, with Special Reference to the Theory of
the Fibre Board and its Application to Old and New Problems of
Beater Design.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16,
ROYAL Society, at 4.30.—Probable Papers.—Prof. A. S. Eddington,
The Propagation of Gravitational Waves.—Dr. J. H. Jeans: The
Theory of the Scattering of a and 6 Rays.—Prof. A. P. Chattock
and L. F. Bates: The Richardson Gyro-magnetic Effect.—P. M. 5.
Blackett: The Analysis of a Ray Photographs.—J. H. Jones :
The Kinetic Energy of Electrons emitted from a hot Tungsten
Filament.—Dr. W. Wilson: The Quantum Theory and Electro-
magnetic Phenomena.—S. Marsh and A. E. Evans: Measurements
of Electrode Potential Drop with Direct Current and Alternating
Current Electrolysis.
LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 5.
ROYAL ABRONAUTICAL SOCIETY (at Royal Society of Arts), at 5.30.—
R. McKinnon Wood: The Co-relation of Model and Full-Scale
Work.
CHILD-STUDY SocreTy (at Royal Sanitary Institute), at 6—A. D’ Arey
Chapman: The Measurement of the Intelligence of School Children
in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—The late Dr. G. Kapp :
The Improvement of Power Factor (read by Prof. M. Walker).
CHEMICAL SOCIETY, at 8 (and Informal Meeting).
CAMERA CLUB, at 8.15.—T. H. B, Scott: Lourdes,
EF RIDAY, NOVEMBER 17.
RoyAL Society OF ARTS (Indian Section), at 4.30,—J. W. Meares:
The Development of Water Power in India,
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Adjourned discussion
on paper by Sir Vincent L. Raven: Electric Locomotives.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30.—Annual General Meeting.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—N,. E,
Luboshez : Definition and Diffusion of Image.
PUBLIC LECTURES.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.80.—Dr. W. A. Cunnington :
The Natural History of Crabs.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13. i
Ciry or LonpON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir Bruce
Bruce-Porter : How to Keep Well.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14.
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, at 5.—Dr. T. G. Bailey: The Sansis,
or Thieves of India: Their Language. History, and Customs.
ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE, at 5.15.—Miss A. D. Muncaster: Some
Hygienic Aspects of Food and Food Preparation. (1) The Hygiene
of Raw Food (Chadwick Lecture).
GRESHAM COLLEGE, at 6.—W. H. Wagstaff: Geometry.
Lectures on November 15, 16, and 17.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, |
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 2.30.—Miss Margaret A, Murray:
Excavations in Malta.
KING’s COLLEGE, at 5.30.—M. Beza: The Story of Cupid and Psyche
in Rumanian Volklore.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17.
BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, at 5.30.—Miss K. M. Westaway:
Plutarch ; His Life and Writings.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—A. D. Howell Smith:
Textiles and their History.
Succeeding
Recent
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
“© To the solid ground
Of Nature trusts the mind which budlds for aye. ”—WorpsworTH. 1M
No. 2768, VOL. 110]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1922
_ [PRICE ONE Sue
Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.]
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clxii
WA TORE
[NoveMBER 18, 1922
CHRISTMAS SCIENCE COURSE IN
SWITZERLAND.
Dr. RUDOLF STEINER (Editor of standard editions of
Goethe's scientific works), whose lectures at the recent Conference
at Oxford opened up new fields of work in Education, will give a
course of lectures on
“THE GENESIS AND SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT OF
NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD”
AT THE
GOETHEANUM, Dornach, near BASLE,
December 24 to January 6.
For all particulars apply SECRETARY, Goetheanum Science Course, 46
Gloucester Place, London, W.1.
TO SCIENTISTS, RESEARCH STUDENTS, AND
SCHOLARS.
THE INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SERVICE BUREAU
supplies complete Continental and American bibliographies on any scientific,
literary, or medical subject. Chemical work a speciality. Extracts made.
Headquarters: Vienna. English representative: ‘‘ ALEXANDRIAN,” IA
Longridge Road, Earl's Court, S.W.s.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.
UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND.
Vacancies for :
(A) PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY.
860 per annum on scale £860-30-1100.
—Allowance of £60 towards passage expenses.
(B) LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY.
Salary.— £464 per annum on scale £464-26-568.
Passage.—Allowance of £40 towards passage expenses.
In addition, in both cases a free first-class ticket is provided from Cape
Town to Johannesburg, and half-salary is paid during the voyage. Duties
commence on March 1, 1923
Applic ations, together with copies of testimonials as to qualifications,
experience, and character, all in duplicate, must be lodged with the
RETARY, Office of the High Commissioner for the Union of South
Africa Trafalgar Square, W.C., from whom Forms of Application and
further particulars may be obtained, not later than Noveinber 22, 1922.
CIVILIAN EDUCATION STAFF
ROYAL AIR FORCE.
ions are invited for the following vacancies to be filled in
923 or earlier:
Electrical and Wireless School, Flowerdown, near Winchester.
MASTER-IN-CHARGE, Grade II.—£600 by £20 to £700.
No. 1 School of Technical Training (Boys), Halton,
near Wendover, Bucks.
Several GRADUATE ASSISTANT MASTERS, Grade III.—£275 by
415 to 4395, by £20 to £550.
Applic
January
In the case of appointments to Grade III. an allowance up to ten in-
crements of the scale can be granted in respect of previous experience and
war service. Preference will be given to candidates who have served as
commissioned officers in any of the three Services.
The subjects of instruction include English, Practical Mathematics,
nanics, Elementary Thermodynamics, Electricity and Drawing.
artic ul irs and the necessary form of application can be obtained
from the Secretary (A.E.), Air Ministry, Kingsway, London, W.C.2
SWANSEA EDUCATION COMMITTEE.
SWANSEA MUNICIPAL Se SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
HEApMISTRESS—MISS E. F. PHIPPS, B.A.
WANTED, in January, an pee SCIENCE MISTR
Candidates must be Graduates of a British University with qualifications
in Physics.
Salary according to the Burnham Scale for Secondary Teachers.
Forms of application may be obta me from the undersigned.
T. J. REES, Director of Education.
Education Offices
Dynevor Place, Swansea.
November 1922.
INDIAN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE.
The Secretary of State for India invites applications for the following
posts:
MYCOLOGIST.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE,
WITH SPECIAL INTEREST OR TRAIN-
ING IN STOCK-BREEDING.
ECONOMIC BOTANIST O
For service in
3urma.
For service in the
United Provinces,
For the appointments in Burma Indians will not be eligible. In filling
the appointments weight will be attached to the possession of University
Degrees or As gricultural Diplomas and practical experience ; but practical
experience alone is insufficient.
Candidates must be between 23 and 30 years of age. The ordinary scale
of pay is Rs.350 a month rising to Rs,1250 a month, with Overseas pay
arying from Rs,150 to Rs.250 a “month for officers of non-Indian domicile, a
local allowance varying from Rs. go to Rs.165 for the officers appointed to
Burma, and special initial rates of pay for persons who have served during
the war in His Majesty’s Forces. There are many selection posts in the
Indian Agricultural Service on higher rates of pay.
_ Full seule ulars and forms of application may be obtained from the
: Commerce and Revenue Department, India Office, London,
S.W. I, to whom all applications must be sent not later than December 1.
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER.
DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY AND PREVENTIVE
MEDICINE.
The following appointments will shortly be made in the above department :
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN BACTERIOLOGY.
Stipend, £500 per annum.
DEMONSTRATOR IN BACTERIOLOGY.
Stipend, £400 per annum.
In both cases the applicant appointed must join the Federated Syper-
annuation System for Univ: ersities.
A Medical qua tion is not an essential condition of either appointment.
Applications, t ther with three testimonials, should be sent to the
Internal Registrar on or before November 25, from whom further particulars
may be obtained.
UNIVERSITY OF HONG-KONG.
A LECTURER in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING is required
for the University of Hong-Kong. Candidates should be graduates in
Engineering of some British University. Preference will be given to un-
married men. A sound knowledge of workshop practice, ability to take
students in steam and oil engine work and to lecture on practical subjects,
is required. The Lecturer “will be expected to keep all the plant of the
Laboratories in running order, The appointment will be on a five years’
agreement. Salary 4500 per annum, converted for purposes of local pay-
ment at two shillings to the dollar. Free quarters or an allowance of £100.
Half salary from date of embarkation.
Application should be submitted in covers marked ‘‘C.A.” to the
Secretary, Board of Education, Whitehall, London, S.W.1. Scottish
candidates should apply to the SEckeTARy, Scottish Education Department,
London, S.W.1.
ISLE OF WIGHT
COUNTY EDUCATION COMMITTEE.
SANDOWN COUNTY SECONDARY SCHOOL.
An ASSISTANT MASTER will be wanted after the Christmas holidays
to h Geography as a main subject. Applicants should be Graduates,
preferably in Honours, and should state what subsidiary subjects they can
offer. Willingness to take part in out-of-school activities will be a strong
recommendation. Salary will be paid according to the provisions of the
Burnham Secondary Je. Further particulars and forms of application
may be obtained upon receipt of a stamped addressed envelope from the
undersigned,
H. JERVIS, M.A., Director of Education-
~ County Hall, Newport, I.W.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
KING’S COLLEGE.
The Delegacy require the services of an ASSISTANT LECTURER in
PHYSICS; salary £300 perannum. The duties will commence in January
1923. Opportunities will be giv en for research work.
Ap plications, with two copies of not more than three recent testimonials,
should be received not later than November 30, by the SECRETARY, King's
College, Strand, W.C.2, from whom further particulars may be obtained.
THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM.
The Council of the Manchester University invite applications for the
post of KEEPER of the MUSEUM. _ Preference will be given to candi-
dates who are University graduates in Natural History subjects. Applica-
tions must be sent in before Saturday, December 2. Information as to the
duties and stipend of the post will be supplied in response to enquiries
addressed to the SECRETARY of the Manchester Museum.
For other Official Advertisements see p. vi of Supplement.
INGA TO 657
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1922.
CONTENTS.
Technical Institutions and the Board of Education .
Internal Secretion. By Sir W. M. Bayliss, F.R.S.
The Origin of Worlds. By Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin
Reservoir and other Dams. By Dr. Brysson Cunning-
Sham . é ; : 3 5 ,
Science and Progress . . . :
Our Bookshelf. 5 c Q ;
Letters to the Editor :—
The Isotopes of Selenium and some other Elements.
—Dr. F. W. Aston, F.R.S..
Bohr’s Model of the Hydrogen Molecules and their
Magnetic Susceptibility.—Prof. Kotaro Honda .
Gravity Observations in India.—R. D. Oldham,
Reso:
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. RR? S.;
Right Hon. Sir “Herbert Maxwell, Bart.,
F.R.S.; Dr. W. B. Drummond; Hy. Harries
On the Reality of Nerve Energy.—Prof. D. Fraser
Harris :
Habits of Echizus ASOT: —Richard Elmhirst .
Perseid Meteors in July 1592.—H. Beveridge
Skin Effect in Solenoids.—G. Breit é
Colour Vision and Syntony.—H. S. Ryland .
Mosaic Disease in Plants. Kenneth M. Smith
Finstein’s Paradox.—Rev. H. C. Browne; Prof.
H. Wildon Carr m é Q
Waterspouts.—Dr. Willard J. Fisher .
Tables of the Incomplete Gamma-Function. —Prof.
Karl Pearson, F.R.S. :
The Nitrogen Industry. By Prof. C. 'H. Desch :
The Thermal Basis of Gas Seo upDly oe Prof. Jenn
W. Cobb . c
Obituary :—
Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S. .
Prof. J. P. Kuenen. By Prof. H. Kamerlingh
Onnes, For. Mem. R.S. .
Current Topics and Events
Our Astronomical Column .
Research Items
The Origin of Atmospherics. “By R. A. Watson
Watt ° c
X-Ray Electrons. By Prof. A. O. Rankine
Correlation of the Social Sciences.
The Effect of peformapen on the Ar 1 Change in
Steels ;
Medical Education
The Chilian Earthquake . 7 : 5
University and Educational Intelligence c ‘ o
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . o
Societies and Academies
Official Publications Received
Diary of Societies
PAGE
657
658
660
661
662
662
664.
664
665
688
688
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CoO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
Technical Institutions and the Board of
Education.
HE Board of Education has issued a circular (1286)
for the purpose of defining full-time teaching
service within the meaning of the School Teachers
(Superannuation) Act. The Board appears to find
much difficulty in defining full-time teaching service—
difficulty which would not be shared, we think, by the
average layman.
It would seem to us that there are two classes of
teachers—those who have chosen teaching as their
profession and have taken up full-time appointments
under an Education Authority, and those who are
known as visiting teachers or part-time teachers, and
attend at their educational institutions only in
order to conduct the special courses for which they
were appointed. Generally speaking, the latter indi-
viduals are members of some other profession and would
not expect to be regarded as full-time teachers.
We can believe that there may be a few border-line
cases—but they would be relatively very few, and
each case could be considered on its merits. But
the Board of Education—or is it the Treasury ?
—cannot look at the matter in this broad light, and
this circular is an attempt to define full-time teaching
service. The circular indicates that the first essential
for recognition of full-time teaching service should be
a formal agreement between employer and teacher in
which should be clearly set out the nature of the
duties, whether they are wholly of a teaching character,
the extent of the employer’s claim upon the teacher’s
working hours, and the restrictions, if any, put upon the
employment.
We should have thought that such an agreement
would have been sufficient evidence of full-time teach-
ing service, just as it would be sufficient evidence for
any judge or jury. Indeed, it is even sufficient for
the Board so far as head or assistant teachers on the
ordinary staffs of elementary or secondary schools
are concerned, but in the case of specialist teachers and
of teachers in technical schools and colleges, many of
which are of university rank, “it will be necessary to
call . . . for information as to the actual teaching
hours as evidence of their full-time employment.”
Teachers in technical schools and colleges have a
genuine cause for complaint here—not only because
their agreement cannot be regarded by the Board as
sufficient evidence in itself, but also because of the
nature of the additional evidence to be demanded.
Full-time teaching service consists essentially of two
component parts: actual teaching before a class, and
the subsidiary duties entailed by actual teaching. The
proportional value of these components depends, most
658
WTA ORL
[NovEMBER 18, 1922
obviously, upon the subject taught, upon the standard
which is reached, upon the technicality of the subject,
and upon the experimental preparation involved.
Therefore it would be impossible for the Board to make
any just assessment of the magnitude of the sub-
sidiary duties entailed on a bare return of actual
If the Board of Education is unable
to accept an approved agreement as sufficient evidence
of full-time service, then, in justice to the teachers of
science and technology, it must have more informa-
teaching hours.
tion than would be given by a mere return of actual
teaching hours.
The circular indicates that the specific preparation
of lessons (as distinct from general study) would be
regarded as a subsidiary duty entailed by actual
teaching, and we would point out here that teachers of
science and technology must spend a large amount of
time in keeping in touch with modern developments in
science, and with the even more rapid and more ex-
tensive developments of the applications of science to
industry. The time absorbed to this end cannot be re-
garded fairly as general study of an independent kind ;
it cannot be considered as dissociated from the teaching
service ; and it cannot be described as non-essential.
The teacher of science and technology has a claim
for very special consideration here, for, though we are
prepared to admit that every teacher should and must
spend time in general study and should keep in touch
with modern developments, yet we cannot be expected
to believe that the time which must be spent in keeping
up with the development of, for example, Roman
history, is comparable with that which must be spent
in keeping in touch with the development of electrical
engineering.
In this connexion we note with amazement that
according to this circular (clause 7) research work will
not be regarded as teaching service, and the time spent
in research work would not be counted as teaching
service for the purpose of the Superannuation Act.
We can only hope that either our reading of the clause
is wrong or that it has been badly phrased, and does
not express the real intention of the Board. If the
research work referred to is research work which a
teacher is undertaking on behalf of some firm, and for
which he is receiving remuneration, then it is quite
reasonable to regard such work as private work and
not as teaching service to the State. But if the clause
means that all research work will be regarded as non-
teaching service, then we must protest most emphatic-
ally in the interests of the State.
Is it not essential for teachers of science and techno-
logy to give a certain amount of attention to research
work in order to keep in touch with modern develop-
ments? Are there not students doing research work
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
in many of our technical institutions ? Will the time
spent by the teachers in these institutions in guiding
and directing that work be regarded as of no service to
the State ? Surely that clause in the circular has been
badly phrased : it is incredible that all research work
in technical institutions should be banned, by order of
the Board of Education! For many years the value
of research by teachers has been impressed upon the
governing bodies of our chief technical institutions,
but if the Board holds that time spent upon such
investigations, however stimulating the work may be
to teacher or pupil, is to be excluded from the
superannuation scheme as pensionable service, then
the institutions will be thrown back to the state they
were in twenty years ago.
We feel that this circular has been drawn up without
sufficient consideration of what is involved in the
teaching of scientific and technological subjects, and
it would seem that there has not been sufficient regard
for the special conditions of teachers of science and
technology in our technical schools and colleges.
We are glad to note, however, that the circular has
been sent out to local authorities, governing bodies,
and others for their observations, and that the Board
will not arrive at a final decision as to the application
of the principles set out until these observations have
been considered. We hope, therefore, to see very
considerable amendment in the final form of the
circular.
Internal Secretion.
Glands in Health and Disease. By Dr. B. Harrow. Pp.
xv+218. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.,
1922.) n.p.
Internal Secretion and the Ductless Glands. By Prof.
Swale Vincent. Second edition. Pp. xx+422.
(London: E. Arnold and Co., 1922.) 255. net.
HE two books before us have not the same object
or scope, but they appear equally to fulfil the
purpose intended. On the whole, they may be said,
along with Sir E. Sharpey Schafer’s ‘ Endocrine
Organs,” to be the most useful books on the subject in
the English language, apart from the encyclopedic
“Endocrinology ” edited by Llewellys Barker. While
that of Dr. Harrow is of a somewhat popular nature,
assuming comparatively little physiological knowledge
on the part of the reader, Prof. Swale Vincent’s book
has the more ambitious aim of a scientific presentation
of the facts definitely known on the subject. This
latter has therefore rather the character of a work of
reference, and will be found very useful in this way.
It is naturally not so easy to read as Dr. Harrow’s book,
which presents an admirable, connected account of the
ee
aE
NOVEMBER 18, 1922]
NATORE
659
subject and may be thoroughly recommended to all
who wish for a critical statement of the problems which
are attracting so much attention at the present time.
It is to be hoped that those of us who have been misled
by the wild reports of marvellous results published in
the Press will adopt Dr. Harrow’s cautious attitude
and assess such reports at their proper value. Prof.
Harvey Cushing, as quoted by Dr. Harrow, remarks :
“Nothing will discredit the subject so effectively as
pseudo-scientific reports which find their way into
advertising leaflets, where, cleverly intermixed with
abstracts from researches of actual value, the adminis-
tration of pluriglandular compounds is promiscuously
advocated for a multitude of symptoms, real and
fictitious. The Lewis Carroll of to-day would have
Alice nibble from a pituitary mushroom in her left hand
and a lutein one in her right hand and presto! She
is any height desired ! ”
The title of Dr. Harrow’s book, and also to a lesser
degree that of Prof. Vincent’s, invites some criticism.
The name “ gland” implies to the physiologist many
organs and tissues which have functions other than
that of producing substances for the purpose of exerting
a particular action on other organs or tissues when they
pass into the blood current. Those which form saliva
and also the lymphatic glands may be mentioned. It is
true that we might define a gland in a new way and
say that any organ that produces some substance not
already contained in the blood is entitled to the name.
It would conduce to accuracy, however, if the name
“gland” were limited to those organs able to pour
out a secretion which can be collected and examined—
those of “ external secretion’ in fact. In this case,
the ductless “glands” would have to be called
“bodies,” or some similar name, as is indeed frequently
done in speaking of the “pituitary body” or the
“supra-renal bodies.” The name “ secretion ”’ itself
as applied to the activity of the endocrine organs is also
not very satisfactory.
It must be confessed that we do not possess a really
good name for these substances which act as ‘“‘ chemical
messengers,” formed by special cells for the special
purpose, if the expression may be allowed, of produc-
ing an effect on another organ or cell when carried to
it by the blood. A short word with the meaning of
“chemical messenger” is what is wanted. When
Prof. Starling and the present reviewer were engaged
in investigating the mechanism of pancreatic secretion,
we sought in vain for a word of this kind and were
finally obliged to be satisfied with “‘ hormone,” although
we felt that it was not exactly what we wished. It has,
however, come into general use, although its meaning
as “‘ setting into activity ’’ has caused the introduction
of a number of other names, which might perhaps have
been avoided. It is to be remembered that a messenger
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
14
is sent for a special purpose, although he must take the
road or railway which is in existence. Thus one of our
hormones in the blood passes by a number of different
cells before arriving at that kind which is sensitive to it,
just as a letter sent by post is only received at that
house to which it is addressed. A definition on the
lines suggested would exclude such a constituent of the
blood as carbon dioxide, called by Gley a “ par-
hormone.”? Carbon dioxide would be produced by all
active cells whether the respiratory centre happened to
be sensitive to it or not. A train (the blood) carrying
soldiers (carbon dioxide) to a port for foreign service
(the outer air) might pick up men at various stations
(organs of the body) through which it passed. At one
station there might be on the platform a nursemaid (the
respiratory centre) who greatly admired soldiers. She
would be excited by the passage of the train, but it
would scarcely be held that the soldiers were sent for that
purpose. The development of the special sensibility
of the respiratory centre is of course another question.
While each of the books before us is provided with
a good index, Dr. Harrow alone gives a list of original
works, which, however, does not profess to contain more
than the most important ones. Considering that Prof.
Vincent’s book is especially valuable for reference, it
seems unfortunate that he has omitted in this second
edition the bibliography contained in the first. It may
' be putting too great a burden upon him, but it would
have been of great service if he had given the titles of
papers which seemed to him to contain definite new
knowledge, rejecting those numerous ones which have
no real value.
in the next edition the original bibliography, adding to
Perhaps we might ask him to reprint
it papers which appeared up to 1915 and referring to
Physiological Abstracts for the subsequent literature.
Although many of the current text-books of physiology
serve well for the use of junior students without
references, it must not be forgotten that the more
advanced of these books are often referred to by
research workers and teachers, and information as to
the place of more detailed description would greatly
increase their value.
The great difficulty of exact research in the problems
dealt with is impressed upon readers of either of the
books before us. Sensational reports as to the trans-
plantation of organs from one individual to another, or .
even from one species to a different one, are put in their
proper place. It seems certain that individual char-
acters are so highly marked, at all events in the higher
mammals, that the only permanent grafting occurs
when a tissue is taken from one part of an individual
and planted in another part of the same individual.
Occasional success has been obtained by L. Loeb
between closely related persons, brothers for example.
660
Otherwise the graft always degenerates sooner or later.
All the effect it has is the temporary addition of just
that amount of the special hormone present in the cells
of the graft when inserted. This appears to be the only
basis of the much-talked-of transplantations of Prof.
Voronoff.
That part of the subject about which the evidence is
most conflicting is the interrelation of the various
Both books deal with this in a
Prof. Vincent gives a valuable
“ductless glands.”
duly cautious manner.
account of the morphology of the different organs and
tissues. His views as to the nature of the Islets of
Langerhans will perhaps not be generally accepted, but
it must be admitted that he brings good evidence.
The only points in Dr. Harrow’s book which invite
criticism are (rt) the undue importance ascribed to
adrenaline and to the nervous system in the production
of wound shock—we find no reference to the toxeemic
aspect, which would seem to be more appropriate to
the subject matter ; and (2) the reference to the liver
as ‘“‘ the seat of carbohydrate metabolism in the body,”
in connexion with diabetes. The views of Langfeld
are quoted, but the reversibility of the action of the
liver enzymes is not taken into consideration. It seems
to the reviewer that this word ‘“‘ metabolism ” is used
far too frequently in a loose way and often when other
expressions would convey the meaning much better.
The “metabolism” of carbohydrates, for example,
should refer to the complete series of chemical changes
which take place from the time of their introduction to
their final elimination as carbon dioxide and water.
When measurements of the oxygen intake are made,
what is really done is to determine the whole oxidative
and should be called “ oxidation,’ not
“metabolism ” as Similarly, valuable
processes
is common.
measurements of output of heat have been made. It
would be more useful to speak of such determinations
as of heat production, not as of metabolism. One also
hears sometimes of mere nitrogen estimations in urine
as “ metabolism experiments.’’ However this may be,
it is certainly misleading to suggest that the liver is the
most important place of chemical changes in carbo-
hydrates. The whole problem of diabetes is still in a
very unsatisfactory state. May it not be that we have
given our attention too much to changes in particular
compounds, such as glucose or fat, while the funda-
mental defect is a general failure in oxidative capacity ?
Thus the pancreatic hormone might be an oxidation-
promoter, possibly for glucose, since there is evidence
that the combustion of fat and protein is inadequate
except in the presence of and as part of a kind of coupled
reaction with that of sugar. “ Acidosis” rather than
“cetosis ” should not now be regarded as the cause of
diabetic intoxication, as Prof. Vincent suggests.
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
INADA Tale,
[NovEMBER 18, 1922
The multitude of the physiological phenomena con-
cerned, as well as their practical importance, may serve
as some excuse for the length of this review. We may
conclude with a list of those organs or tissues which
appear to Prof. Vincent to have established their claim
to be regarded as producing true hormones. These are
the thyroid, pancreas, reproductive organs, adrenals,
pituitary body, and the intestinal mucous membrane
(“secretin”). The evidence as to the parathyroids
(which seem to act otherwise), the thymus, kidney, and
pineal body is conflicting. It is to be remembered that
the chemical nature of two only of the hormones has
been discovered. Even active extracts have not been
prepared in all cases. Still more uncertainty exists as
to the way in which hormones act. There is much yet
to be discovered. W. M. Baytiiss.
The Origin of Worlds.
Par Abbé Th.
Gaston Doin,
Origine et Formation des Mondes.
Pp. xi+4or. (Paris:
n.p.
HE Abbé Moreux has essayed, in the volume
T under notice, the ambitious task of giving a
complete explanation of the origin of all the orbs in
the solar system. Works on cosmogony have this
advantage that no one can positively assert that any
particular system is wrong, since certainty is quite
unattainable.
Moreux.
1922.
Hence a reviewer is not called upon to
pronounce a theory of cosmogony right or wrong, but
merely to note how far it appears to fit in with known
facts.
The author uses as his materials nebulze and meteoric
swarms ; he attributes the dark lanes in the Milky
Way and regions where stars are unusually sparse to
meteoric clouds, and supposes the outbursts of Nove
afford examples of the collisions between nebule and
meteoric clouds which he assumes to be the origin of
systems. He uses the spiral nebula analogy in tracing
the distribution of the matter scattered by the collision.
At this point he notes the fact that the planetary orbit-
planes are arranged alternately on opposite sides of the
plane of maximum areas. He also conjectures that
the two arms of the spiral were in slightly different
planes, and that the planets were developed alternately
from one or other of them. ‘This idea seems somewhat
fanciful ; it is fairly obvious that the two most massive
planets, Jupiter and Saturn, would have their orbit
planes on opposite sides of that of maximum areas,
while the same would probably hold for Uranus and
Neptune. Another criticism is that his theory, like
that of Laplace, makes Neptune much the oldest planet.
It was pointed out by the late Prof. Lowell that
|
NOVEMBER 18, 1922]
apparently the two outer planets were not much further
advanced in development than Jupiter and Saturn,
although their much smaller size would imply a shorter
career and more rapid development ; it therefore seems
probable that the order of formation of the giant planets
has been from the inside outwards, and not the reverse.
In the matter of the origin of the moon the author
does not favour the idea of its separation from the
earth by fission, holding that it grew from meteors
captured in the outer portion of the extended nebulosity
which represented the future earth. Throughout the
book he postulates the action of resisting medium ;
many systems of cosmogony do the same.
A few errata may be noted. On p. 207 the author
pours scorn on the suggestion that the comets of Tuttle
and De Vico have any connexion with the planets
Saturn and Neptune respectively ; he overlooks the
fact that while the inclinations of their orbits are 55°
and 85° respectively, the inclinations of their major
axes are much less, so that in each case a shift of the
node by a few degrees would bring about intersection
with the planetary orbit. In the tables of planetary
elements he adopts for Venus the very doubtful rotation
period of 68 hours, while he treats both the rotation
time and the position of the axis of Uranus as unknown,
whereas both are known within narrow limits.
It is of course unreasonable to expect a book on such
a subject to settle definitely all the matters on which it
treats. Viewing it as a setting forth of the problems
presented by our system, with more or less plausible
solutions, it makes interesting reading.
A. C. D. CRoMMELIN.
Reservoir and Other Dams.
The Design and Construction of Dams: including
Masonry, Earth, Rock-fill, Timber, and Steel Struc-
tures, also the Principal Types of Movable Dams.
By E. Wegmann. Seventh edition, revised and
enlarged. Pp. xviu+555+plates A-Z+plates AA-
VV+plates 1-111. (New York: J. Wiley and
Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.,
1922.) 50s. net.
R. WEGMANN’S treatise has been before the
M public for so long that we imagine its general
features will be more or less familiar to all who are
engaged in the domain of waterworks engineering.
The modest volume of 106 pages which appeared
thirty-four years ago has, however, developed con-
siderably in the course of time. It is now a ponderous
tome of some 600 quarto pages of text, with well over
too full-page plates in addition. A volume of such
weighty proportions cannot fail to impress the reader
No. 2768, VOL. 110]
NATURE
661
in point of size alone, and it undoubtedly represents a
considerable amount of patient toil in its compilation.
It is, in fact, not merely a text-book ; it is a work of
reference, containing diagrams and particulars of most
of the notable dams which have been constructed in
recent years. It is permissible to the critic to question
the wisdom of combining the two objects in a single
volume. To the student, a text-book of modest pro-
portions is a desideratum ; he needs something easy
to handle and conveniently portable, in the pocket if
need be. The work of reference, on the other hand,
is only required on occasion and may rest in the book-
case for long intervals. This combination of text-
book with an exhaustive, or nearly exhaustive, record
of existing examples is open to the objection that it
meets the convenience neither of the student nor of
the expert. However, we do not wish unduly to press
the point.
In the seventh edition Mr. Wegmann has made his
treatise replete with information of a highly valuable
character. He has included a full description of the
Kensico dam, New York ; particulars of the movable
dams of the New York State Barge Canal; and a brief
notice of the Camarasa dam in Spain. This last is
stated to be the highest gravity dam in the world, but
surely the Arrowrock dam is higher by 20 ft. Probably
what is meant is that the depth of water against the
Camarasa dam is not equalled elsewhere. Why is the
Arrowrock dam not included in the table of high
masonry dams? Another very high dam omitted is
the Hetch-Hetchy dam. There is, perhaps, some
excuse for this omission, as the dam is yet under con-
struction. Still, its dimensions are known and it is
an important undertaking. A new chapter on crest
gates and siphon spillways has been added, with par-
ticulars of examples built both in America and else-
where, some of them of considerable size.
The subject of dams, of course, is wider than the
sphere of waterworks engineering, although this is,
perhaps, the most important field of its application.
Mr. Wegmann’s treatise covers dams as adapted to
river engineering operations, and cofferdams as used
in foundation work. Briefly, the volume consists of
four parts, the first of which deals with the design and
construction of masonry dams; the second, with
earthen, rock-fill, timber, and steel dams ; the third,
with movable dams, cofferdams, and overflow WeIrs ;
and the fourth with recent dams of all classes. There
is an appendix containing the specifications for the
New Croton dam with various supplementary notes,
a lengthy bibliography which, unfortunately, is not
alphabetically arranged (the writer traced some works
with difficulty, and failed to find mention of Mr. Powell
Davis’s book on irrigation works, which contains a
xX I
662
NADORT:,
[ NovEMBER 18, 1922
good deal of information on dams), and a fairly full
Index.
Taken as a whole, the work undoubtedly maintains
its high reputation as a standard authority on the
subject of reservoir dam construction, and its wealth
of diagrammatic profiles from existing examples will
cause it to be of great value to the practising engineer,
as well as to the student who is seeking to acquire a
knowledge of first principles.
BRrySSON CUNNINGHAM.
Science and Progress.
Progress and Science : Essays in Criticism. By Robert
Shafer. Pp. xii+243. (New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press; London: Oxford University Press,
1922.) 2s. net.
HIS volume is almost entirely critical, mainly of
the doctrine that science has contributed to a
more rapid ” of the human race as a whole,
and that we may expect this progress to continue.
Much of the criticism is acute and many other writers
are cited—Prof. Bury, Mr. G. D. H. Cole, Mr. Tawney,
and Miss Follett ; but the main attack falls upon Mr.
F. S. Marvin, whose books, “ The Living Past ”
“The Century of Hope,” are largely quoted in the
“ progress
and
initial chapter, which gives its title to the whole;
he is dismissed in the concluding sentence thus :
“Tt follows that men such as Mr. Marvin are hardly
doing us any good, are promoting rather beliefs and
hopes which may in the end work an intolerable mis-
chief in the world.”
It is a challenge to optimism, or rather to meliorism,
based on science, and would have more justification if
the author could find any passage either in Mr. Marvin’s
writings, or in any sympathiser’s, indicating a belief
either that this progress was complete, or that it could
be expected to continue without the strenuous efforts
of mankind to carry it further and remedy its defects.
This Mr. Shafer does not attempt to do. We are,
therefore, reduced to asking him one or two quite
simple and direct questions as to his judgment of facts.
1. Is it not a fact that the advance of science in the
last three or four centuries has, on the whole, led to
an enormous alleviation of human suffering and
an increase in the and the facilities for
happiness ?
2. Has not this advance been accompanied by a
growth in the collective consciousness of mankind,
quite unparalleled in ORY | ? And is not this growth
” due, partly to the knitting
up of the world by the mechanical application of
science, partly to the fact that science is in itself a
NO. 2768, VOL. IIo]
capacity
in the sense of ‘‘ humanity ”
social thing and that its growth involves the co-
operation of multitudes of minds bent on the whole—
poison gas and weapons of war notwithstanding—
towards increasing human welfare ?
3. If this is so, is it an evil or mischievous thing to
try to realise these forces in the world and to feel that
they are with us in our individual efforts to promote
the same great ends ?
It should be noticed that Mr. Shafer in his criticism
of Mr. Marvin quotes exclusively from the two books
mentioned above, which are rather popular summaries
of great epochs of history, and does not refer to the
more philosophic treatment of the same topics in the
various volumes of the “‘ Unity ” series published by
the Oxford University Press.
Our Bookshelf.
The Union of South Africa. Department of Mines and
Industries. The Geology of the Country around
Heidelberg ; Geological Map of the Country around
Heidelberg. By Dr. A. W. Rogers. Pp. 84.
(Pretoria: The Government Printing and Stationery
Office.) 8s. 6d. net, including map.
Tue publication of the official description of the geology
of the Heidelberg district has been anticipated ae
much interest by South African geologists. The main
features of the area have long been known on account
of the economic importance of the Nigel Reef. Mainly
owing to the pioneer work of Dr. Hatch, it was recog-
nised more than twenty years ago that the Heidelberg
district forms the south-eastern limb of the great
pitching syncline, on the northern limb of which lies
the Rand, and it may at once be said that the result of
the detailed survey fully confirms the accuracy of Dr.
Hatch’s general conclusions. The gradual extension
of mining towards the East Rand and the sinking of
many bore- holes, some of great depth, have clearly
shown that the Nigel Reef ‘belongs to the Main Reef
series of the Witwatersrand ; it is also shown that the
whole Witwatersrand sy stem decreases regularly in
thickness towards the south» and east, from about
25,000 feet near Johannesburg to 15,000 feet at Heidel-
berg. This is quite in consonance with the theory of
its formation as the delta of rivers coming from an old
land to the north-west.
In this memoir the structure of the district is lucidly
described. The most remarkable feature is the great
Sugarbush fault, so called from its relation on the
Zuikerboschrand. This is a new discovery of great
importance. The fault is apparently nearly vertical,
with a down-throw to the south; at one point in its
course, where it brings the Ventersdorp Amygdaloid
against the Hospital ‘Hill Series, the throw must be
at least 16,000 feet. It therefore ranks as one of the
world’s greatest dislocations. The fault is certainly of
pre- Karroo date, but its relation to the Pretoria Series
has not been made out. Probably, however, it was
later in date than the deposition of the whole of the
Transvaal system, and therefore possibly of early or
middle Palaeozoic age. R. H. Rasrart.
NoveMBER 18, 1922]
Patents for Inventions. By J. Ewart Walker and
R. Bruce Foster. Pp. xiii+377.- (London: Sir
I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 21s. net.
THE authors of this book depart somewhat from the
usual manner of treating the subject of patent law.
After a brief introductory survey, they first deal with
the manner of obtaining a patent, detailing the pro-
cedure in the Patent Office and in possible opposition
proceedings. Their next concern is the establishment
in the courts of the validity of the patent, consideration
being given both to the general rules governing the
interpretation of patents and to the grounds upon
which the patent may be held invalid. Finally, the
privileges and responsibilities associated with the
possession of a valid patent are discussed, the chapters
relating to this covering very fully the nghts of the
patentee in respect of infringements, royalties, licences,
etc., and his liabilities as regards revocation and
compulsory licences.
By presenting the subject in this sequence, the
principles underlying patent law are linked up in a
manner which can easily be followed. As, in addition,
the treatment throughout is clear and concise and
avoids undue stress upon legal technicalities, the book
should commend itself not only to legal practitioners
but also to business men, directors of industrial re-
search, and others who are interested in the protection
and commercial exploitation of inventions.
An appendix, which extends to a little over half the
book, contains as its most valuable features the Patents
and Designs Acts in a consolidated form, and a list of
the leading cases to which reference has been made
in the text. Of lesser value relatively are the reprints
of the patents forms, the Patents Rules, and the war
legislation, the inclusion of which accounts for the
abnormal size of the appendix. These reprints, we
think, might very reasonably have been dispensed
with as adding unnecessarily to the cost of a very
useful book. am fe
Technische Trdume.
Haas). Pp. 83.
50 marks.
Von Hanns Giinther (W. de
(Zurich: Rascher & Cie, 1922.
Tuts illustrated pamphlet issued free to subscribers
to the journal Natur und Technik contains short
accounts of the most important of the proposals which
have been made from time to time either to use coal
more efficiently in view of its complete exhaustion
1500 years hence, or to substitute for it some other
source of power. Of schemes falling within the former
category theauthor thinks Ramsay’s plan for converting
coal into water-gas 7m sitw not likely to prove successful,
and attaches more importance to the proposals to
generate electric current thermo-electrically or by
means of carbon cells. Apart from coal and petroleum,
natural power has been derived from sunlight, from the
wind, from steam in volcanic regions, from the tides,
and from the waves of the sea. Sunlight power plants
in tropical regions can, he considers, compete with coal
at ros. a ton, while at Landerello in Tuscany all
domestic and power heating is supplied by steam from
underground heat. The waves have not proved an
economical source of power, but the tides are more
promising where the necessary structural work is not
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
NATURE
663
too costly. The estimated costs of the Severn Scheme
the author thinks too low.
Filtration: An Elementary Treatise on Industrial
Methods and Equipment for the Filtration of Liquids
and Gases for those Concerned with Water Supply,
Ventilation, and Public Health ; Chemists, Mechanical
Engineers, and Others. By T. Roland Wollaston.
(Pitman’s Technical Primers.) Pp. x+102. (Lon-
don: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d.
net.
Tur very ambitious title of this small volume would
naturally lead one to expect more than is contained
| in the book. The author has wasted a good deal of
the space at his disposal by a rambling style and by
irrelevant discussions. Thus, on p. 4 no less than
thirteen lines are sacrificed to a reference to a paper in
connexion with two very simple chemical equations
which are to be found in every text-book. Much of
the text deals with very elementary matters, which
should be assumed to be known by the readers. In
consequence, the remaining space is insufficient to
render possible a clear description, in sufficient detail,
of apparatus for technical filtration.
The Tutorial Chemistry. Part 2, Metals and Physical
Chemistry. By Dr. G. H. Bailey. Edited by Dr.
W. Briggs. 12th impression (4th edition). Pp.
vili+494. (London: University Tutorial Press,
Ltd., 1922.) 6s. 6d.
Dr. BarLtey’s text-book, in its revised form, will continue
to be useful to students. It gives a clear introductory
course of physical chemistry and of the chemistry of
the metals. A good feature is the inclusion of brief
accounts of the so-called “ rare metals,” many of which
are now technically important. Specific heats at low
temperatures might have been mentioned, and we also
miss any allusion to Werner’s theory and the cyanide
process for silver extraction. There are some criticisms
which might be made. The definitions in connexion
with the phase rule (§ 45) are not sufficiently precise.
Stas’s silver was not so pure as is implied (§ 281) ;_ the
existence of MnO, is doubtful ; stannous oxide 1s olive
coloured, not black ; and the atomic weight of nitrogen
is not a whole number within the limits of experimental
error (§ 508).
Mentally Deficient Children: Their Treatment and
Training. By Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth and Dr. W. A.
Potts. Fifth edition. Pp. xvii+320. (London:
H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1922.) ros. 6d. net.
Tue fact that a fifth edition of this book has been
required is sufficient evidence of its value. It gives
in a very comprehensive form a quantity of useful
information, legal and medical, concerning the men-
tally defective child. At the beginning of the book
there is an interesting account of the early efforts of
Séguin and other pioneers in this field. This is followed
by chapters on the regulations in England and other
countries, the types of mental defect, the treatment
available, educational, industrial, and moral training.
The appendices supply a list of institutions, both in
England and America, where treatment is given, as well
as the medical certificate forms under the Mental
Deficiency Act, and a list of the Binet-Simon tests.
There is also an excellent bibliography.
664
INA Fore
[ NovEMBER 18, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Wo notice is
taken of anonymous communications.|
The Isotopes of Selenium and some
other Elements.
Tue first experiments with selenium some time
ago were not successful. Very satisfactory mass-
spectra have now been obtained by vaporising the
element itself in the discharge tube. The interpre-
tation of these is quite simple and definite, so that
the results may be stated with every confidence.
Selenium consists of six isotopes, giving lines at
74 (f), 76 (c), 77 (e), 78 (b), 80 (a), 82 (d). The line
at 74 is extremely faint. The intensities of the
lines are in the order indicated by the letters, and
agree well enough with the chemical atomic weight
79:2. Measurement of the lines shows no detectable
deviation from the whole number rule.
Application of the method to cadmium and
tellurium has failed to give the mass lines of these
elements. The employment of the more volatile
TeCl, was also unsuccessful, but incidentally gave
evidence of great value, which practically confirms
two facts previously suspected, namely, that chlorine
has no isotope of mass 39, and that aluminium is a
simple element 27.
During some work requiring very prolonged
exposures with a gas containing xenon, two new
isotopes of that element were discovered at 124,
126, making nine in all. The extreme faintness of
both lines indicates that the proportion of these
light isotopes in the element is minute.
It will be noticed that the first of these is isobaric
with tin, and that the seleniums 78, 80, 82 are isobares
of krypton. All isobares so far discovered, including
the radioactive ones, have even atomic weights.
F. W. Aston.
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, November 6.
Bohr’s Model of the Hydrogen Molecules and
their Magnetic Susceptibility.
Bour’s model of the molecules of hydrogen explains
very satisfactorily the light dispersion of hydrogen,"
and gives the same value for the moment of inertia
as that deduced from the specific heat ;* but it is
generally believed that the model does not explain
the diamagnetic property of the gas.* For, according
to P. Langevin’s theory,? the hydrogen molecules
must have paramagnetic susceptibility, while as a
matter of fact the gas is diamagnetic, as determined
lon? Ihe Ak, Soné.® But, as this note will show, this
conclusion is not correct.
It is well known that, besides three degrees of
freedom for translation, hydrogen molecules possess
two degrees of rotational freedom. According to
Bohr’s model, this rotational motion must, from
the point of view of symmetry, take place about an
axis perpendicular to the magnetic axis of the mole-
cules—that is, an axis perpendicular to the line joining
two positive nuclei. This rotational motion is uniform
and increases with the rise of temperature. Hence
1 Debye, Miinchener Akademie (1915), 1.
2 Reiche, Ann. der Phys., 58 (1919), 682.
3 J. Kunz, Phys. Rev., 12 (1918), 59.
+ Pp. Langevin, Ann. de Chem. et de Phys., 8 (1905), 76.
5 Sci. Rep. 8 (1919), I15.
NO. 2768, VOL. 110] 7
the magnetic effect of each molecule due to the
revolving electrons vanishes on account of the rota-
tional motion. In this case, therefore, Langevin’s
theory of paramagnetism is not applicable. Obvi-
ously his theory can be applied only when the gas
molecules have no degree of rotational freedom, or
when they revolve only about their magnetic axes.
If a strong field acts on a uniformly revolving
magnet in its plane of revolution (Fig. 1), the rotation
begins to become slightly ac-
celerated in the half-revolution + SS
in the direction of the field + ’
and retarded in the other half,
this causing a diamagnetic \ é
effect.6 In the case of the Sees
molecules of hydrogen the
moment of inertia about the
axis of rotation is, however, very large on account of
the positive nuclei being apart from each other; hence,
during rotation, these two revolving nuclei behave like
a large flywheel, and before the revolution of the moie-
cules is sensibly accelerated it is newly excited by
thermalimpacts. Hence we may assume that this rota-
tion is not sensibly affected by the action of a strong
magnetic field, and therefore, in the mean, remains
uniform throughout. The hydrogen gas is then
diamagnetic, and its susceptibility can be calculated
by Langevin’s theory of diamagnetism.?
Assuming Bohr’s new model of the hydrogen mole-
cules (in which the electrons have elliptic orbits),
we have for the major axis of the orbit
Fic. 1.
h?
a= (ue ) (n +n°’)?,
2me ne-t
tir Gaara een i|
ee oe ae
V3 (n +n’)?
where h is Planck’s universal constant, m the mass
of the electrons, and e their charge; e is the eccen-
tricity of the orbit, m and mn’ are the azimuth and
radial quantum numbers.
In the case of n+mn’=1, the possible orbit is n=1,
n’=0, which reduces to a circle, the radius of which is
a=0°507 x 1078,
2
aq an DEM ENOA5 321K LOse:
4m2me? 8 0°53
The magnetic susceptibility of the gas per gram-mole-
cule is given by
y 2
x= 2M (£) "208
12 \m 4
where 7 is the total number of electrons and © is
to be taken for different orbits. Applying this
formula to the above case, we have
Nes OTD Es WO
In the case where n+n’=2, n=n’=1 corresponds
to the elliptic orbit. Here e?=3/4, and the equivalent
radius of the circle is
@=1:433 x 10-* cm.,
X= a 57 Ox Los.
The diamagnetic susceptibility x=3:96xro-§ ob-
served by Dr. T. Soné les between these two. In
actual cases a certain fraction of the whole number
of molecules may have the first orbit (7=1, n’=0),
and the other fraction the second orbit (n=n’=1),
etc. As the orbit becomes greater there is a greater
chance that it will collapse into a smaller orbit ;
® K. Honda and J. Okubo, Sci. Rep. 5 (1916), 325.
7 Pp, Langevin, Le.
NoveEMBER 18, 1922]
hence the number of molecules with an orbit (n, 1’)
at any instant rapidly decreases with the increase of
n and n’. If we assume that the hydrogen gas con-
tains only the first and second kinds of molecules,
viz., 35 and 65 per cent. respectively, then the
calculated value exactly coincides with that observed.
K6rard HonpDa.
Research Institute for Iron, Steel,
and other Metals,
Imperial University, Sendai, Japan,
September 22.
Gravity Observations in India.
THE importance of the bearing of a change in the
force of gravity, if such could be established, on
all problems connected with the physics of the earth,
especially those of the origin of mountains, continents,
and oceans, is sufficient justification for directing
attention to certain peculiarities in the determina-
tions which have been made at Dehra Dun.
When observations of gravity in India were
resumed in 1904, with a group of four identical half-
seconds pendulums of v. Sterneck’s pattern, the
value of gravity at Dehra Dun was determined, by
comparison with Potsdam, as 979-063 dynes. The
earlier observations of Basevi had given a value
equivalent to 978-962 dynes, so there was an apparent
increase of o-ror dyne in the interval between the
two sets of observations.
A fuller examination of the evidence has shown
that no such conclusion can be drawn from the
comparison of these two sets of observations. Basevi’s
final value at Dehra Dun was derived from an
elaborate series of observations, made in a room
specially adapted for experimenting on the effect of
changes of temperature, and in this the legs of the
stand were supported on brick pillars. At the time
it was unknown and unsuspected that this would
seriously vitiate the results, and we have also on
record the value obtained from a preliminary observa-
tion, conducted under conditions similar to those in
his other stations, where the stand rested directly on
a concrete floor at ground-level; this preliminary
observation gave a value discordant from the final
ones, but differing from the 1904 value by about the
same amount as is found in other of his stations
which have been re-observed. The position was,
therefore, that there was no proof of any change of
the force of gravity at Dehra Dun, but equally there
was no disproof of such change having taken place ;
all that could be said was that, if any change had
taken place, it must have been of a much smaller
order of magnitude than one-tenth of a dyne.
In the course of the new series of observations
further evidence came to light. The pendulums,
swung regularly every year at the commencement
and close of each field season, showed a gradual
decrease in the period of vibration till, in November
1g09, the mean period had decreased by 0:0000043
seconds, making the apparent value of gravity
979:079 dynes. Since then the time of vibration
showed a gradual increase till in April 1913 it had
reached a value only 0-ooo0012 seconds less than in
1904. It has been suggested? that the increase
after 1909 was due to a gradual wearing of the agate
edges; the suggestion is a possible one, but it leaves
unexplained the diminution between 1904 and 1909,
which was evidently due to some cause which affected
all four of the pendulums in about equal degree.
There was no change in the routine of observation *
which could account for it, and the alternatives
1H. J. Couchman, Prof. Pap., Survey of India, No. 15, p. 2-
2 Records, Survey of India, vol. 2, 1913, p. 33-
NO. 2768, vol. 110]
Ne OTRAS
665
seem to be a gradual molecular change in the material
of the pendulums, leading to change in length, or a
real change in the value of the force of gravity at
Dehra Dun. As all four pendulums were made at
the same time, of the same material, and, so far as
possible, of the same form and dimensions, the former
is not impossible, but the latter would equally
affect all four simultaneously and alike. The situa-
tion therefore remained as in 1904, that, so far as
the Indian observations are concerned, there was
neither proof nor disproof of any change in the force
of gravity having taken place.
In addition to the observations of the Survey of
India there have been some other determinations
of gravity in India. In 1905 Hecker, at Jalpaiguri,
obtained a value which was 0-002 dyne in excess, and
in 1906 Alessio, at Colaba, a value of 0-004 dyne in
defect, of the Survey of India values, being in sub-
stantial agreement with the value determined at
Dehra Dun in January-February 1904. In 1913
another determination was made at Dehra Dun, by
Prof. Alessio, with an apparatus consisting of eight
pendulums prepared for the Filippi expedition to
Central Asia, and the value obtained, which has
only recently been announced,? was 979:079 dynes,
or 0-016 dyne in excess of the standard accepted value
used by the Survey of India, as determined in 1904.
The position therefore now is that, while independent
direct comparisons made in the two years following
the commencement of the new series of observations
in India showed substantial agreement, a similar
determination made nine years later showed a-
material difference, and this opens out the pessibility
that part, at least, of the changes noticed at Dehra
Dun may have been due to a real change in the force
of gravity at that place.
The difficulty of accepting such interpretation is
less at Dehra Dun than at many other stations,
for that place lies on the fringe of the Himalayas,
the elevation of which has been one of the latest
incidents in the geological history of the earth, and
it also lies in a region where the surface deformation,
established after the earthquake of April 4, 1905,
shows that changes are still taking place.
It is to be hoped that when gravity observations
are resumed in India the matter will be looked into ;
in part the doubt left by these observations might
be cleared up by the re-observation of some of the
Peninsular stations, where gravity was determined
at the outset of the series and about 1909. For ex-
ample, Colaba (1904), Mysore (1908), and Jubbulpore
(t9I0) seem convenient and suitable; a _ fresh
determination at these stations would show whether
there had been a change in the force of gravity as
compared with the reference station of Dehra Dun.
R. D. OLDHAM.
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.
To the several names of the Sea of Galilee, Prof.
Gudger, in his very interesting letter (NATURE,
October 28, p. 572) has thrice added “ Lake of Tiberius,”
evidently by mistake for ‘‘ Lake of Tiberias.’’ Also
he omits any reference to the important paper by
Prof. Théod. Barrois, ‘‘ Contr. a l’étude de quelques
lacs de Syrie”’ (in Rev. Biol. du Nord de la France,
tome vi., 1894), which usefully summarises what is
known of the fauna of the lake in modern times from
Belon in 1553 to his own date in 1894. The lake, it
appears, contains twenty-two species of fish, some
small fishes and some large ones in vast abundance.
As of old, it is subject to sudden squalls, dangerous
to navigation. Some of its inflowing waters for their
3 Ricvista Maritiima, March 1922, Supplement, p. 73-
666
healing properties have, says Prof. Barrois, from the
most remote antiquity, attracted patients suffering
from eczema, arthritis of every kind, and other
afflictions. But, with regard to Prof. Gudger’s
ingenious explanation of the miraculous draught of
fishes, coupled with Lortet’s description of the
behaviour of grebes over a shoal of large Chromids
and Canon Tristram’s account of their dorsal fins
as seen at the surface, surely the wonder is that
experienced fishermen lke St. Peter should have
needed outside assistance, let alone superhuman aid,
as is implied in the narrative of St. John’s Gospel.
DARA Rs:
Tunbridge Wells, October 30.
In the passage from Lortet’s work on the Lake of
Tiberias, quoted in Prof. Gudger’s interesting letter
in NaturE of October 28, p. 572, the scientific title
of the crested grebe is given as Podiceps cristatus.
This misrendering of the true name of the genus
Podicipes may be traced, I think, to Yarrell, for it
appears in his “‘ History of British Birds,’ published
in 1845. Yarrell was not a classical scholar; but it is
strange that the late Lord Lilford should have slipped
into the same error in his splendid ‘‘ Coloured Figures
of British Birds.’’ The difference in form is important,
because Podiceps, if it means anything, means “ rump-
headed’’; whereas in coining the word Podicipes,
meaning ‘“‘ rump-footed,’’ Linnzus indicated the
posterior position of the feet so characteristic of
the genus. HERBERT MAXWELL.
Monreith, Whauphill,
Wigtownshire.
Pror. E. W. GupGeEr’s letter on this subject in
Nature of October 28, p. 573, is interesting from
the natural history point of view, but it misses the
most suggestive point in the narrative. That point
is the number—one hundred and fifty and three.
What is the meaning of this very definite figure ?
It will scarcely be contended that the number is
merely the simple statement of a historic fact—that
the fishes caught did actually number one hundred
and fifty and three, neither more nor less! The
naive literalism of such an explanation is totally blind
to the true significance of the story.
Obviously, the story is a parable. The lake of
Gennesaret is the world. The fishes are the souls
of men. The net that is not broken is the Church.
And the number? That isa problem, but an explana-
tion I heard given in a sermon by my father, the
late Rev. R. B. Drummond, of Edinburgh, seems
to meet the case. Where he found the solution
Ido not know. It was not original.
The Jews, as is well known, attached a mysterious
significance to numbers, and if they met a definite
number like this, they would not pass it by unheeding,
but would try to discover its meaning. Well now,
this number is what is called the perfection of the
number 17; that is to say, it is the number arrived
at by adding all the consecutive numbers from
1 to 17 inclusive. And the number 17 itself is the
sum of the two sacred numbers 7 and ro. These
again (here I am a little vague as to why) stand
respectively for the Jews and the Gentiles. Hence
the story means that the net of the Church is able,
without breaking, to gather together not only, as
some contended, Jews and those who became Jews,
but all sorts and conditions of men of every race
and tribe. W. B. DRUMMOND.
Baldovan Institution, by Dundee.
November 1.
NO. 2768, VOL. 110]
INA TD OLE:
[ NoveMBER 18, 1922
PRoF. GUDGER’S communication under this heading
in Nature for October 28, p. 572, has brought back
to me a vivid recollection of a fishing incident in the
north-west of Ireland. About a dozen years ago I
spent a week-end at Ballina, County Mayo, and as
the express to Dublin did not leave until after mid-
day, I devoted Monday forenoon to a ramble along
the banks of the Moy river. Observing several
men, with a boat and draw-net, making a succession
of fruitless attempts to land fish, I crossed the river
and made my way to them. It was true—they had
toiled and had caught nothing. They were putting
out to make another attempt, and I offered them
five shillings for the next haul. They declined.
The net was hauled in, and there was not a scrap of
anything in it. They put off again, and I repeated
my offer, which was rejected, and the net came in
empty, as before. With all their futile endeavours
the men were not in the least put out. Calmly the
boat and net were again got ready, and I was told
it would be no use offering to buy the haul. When
the net was landed it was found to have brought in
one little fish—a sprat in size! Apparently this was
looked upon as a good sign—a command to try again,
for, still undaunted, the men persevered—they rowed
off cheerfully, let out the net, then returned to
shore and hauled at the net, but evidently it was
harder work than on any previous occasion. When
the operation was completed, hundreds—the men said
eleven hundred—salmon had been landed! 8.
cosh C>1,
Hence, since
a>B+y.
That is, the greatest side of a pure time-triangle is
greater than the sum of the other two sides.
It follows at once that the stationary value of the
integral /do, where the path is purely temporal, is
an absolute maximum.
There is thus a real hyperbolic angle between any
two _ co-directional temporal vectors. The triangle
ABC has two real “internal’’ hyperbolic angles
(B and C), and one real ‘ external’’ hyperbolic
angle A’. Besides the above formula we have
7 elo yt+a?— B?
cosh A’= i cosh B= ee
Taking positive signs for intervals and angles, we
have
sinh A’_ sinh B_ sinh C
a B Y
and cosh (B+C)=cosh A’.
Thus the one real external angle of a time-triangle
is equal to the sum of the two real internal angles.
The hyperbolic angle between two co-directional
temporal vectors has a perfectly definite physical
meaning, if the physics of special relativity is sound.
Let CA and CB be the time-axes used by two
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
NATURE
699
observers X and Y. The spaces which they use are
normal to these axes. Then if v be their mutual
relative velocity, E
v=tanh C,
the velocity of light being unity.
It may be added that the relation B+C=A’ is
a particular case of the more general “ triangle of
relative velocities.” Let OP, OQ, OR be a triad of
co-directional non-coplanar temporal vectors (Dr.
Robb’s “inertia lines’) cutting the “open hyper-
sphere ”’ (centre O)
UA— 4 — 42 — A=
in point-instants P, OQ, R, wherew isthe time co-ordinate.
Let a, b, c be the geodesic arcs OR, RP, PQ within
the hyper-sphere. These arcs are minima, not
maxima; their elements in the limit are spatial in
character, being normal to time-vectors; their
hyperbolic tangents represent the mutual relative
velocities of observers (X, Y, Z) who use OP, OQ, OR,
or parallels thereto, as their time-axes. The Euclidean
space used by X at any instant is parallel to the
tangent space at P to the hyper-sphere, and from
the point of view of X the directions of the relative
velocities of Y and Z are the tangent-lines at P to
the geodesic arcs PQ, PR. The angle between these
directions is a circular angle (P), and the metrics
of the geodesic triangle PQR are contained in the
formule
cosh a=cosh } cosh c—sinh b sinh c cos P,
sinP sinQ_ sinR
sinha sinhb- sinhc’
When a, b, c are very small compared with the
radius of the hyper-sphere the spaces of the observers
are regarded as parallel, and we get the ordinary
formule
a*=b?+c*—2bc cos P, etc.
When OP, OQ, OR are coplanar we get the
relation as before (with change of letters)
a=b+c.
The above remarkable formula for relative velocities
was, I believe, first discovered by Dr. Robb, and is set
forth by Dr. Weyl (‘‘Space, Time, and Matter,” § 22).
I am not aware, however, that its direct connexion
with the geodesic geometry of the open hyper-sphere
has been explicitly noticed. R. A. P. RoGErs.
Trinity College, Dublin, October 31.
Space-Time Geodesics.
In Nature of October 28, p. 572, Dr. Robb pointed
out the incorrectness of asserting that the length
of a “ world-line”’ is a minimum between any two
points of it. He gave an example in which the length
was neither a minimum nor a maximum. The
object of his letter, no doubt, was to remind some
reckless relativists that they should be more careful
in their language. But there is the danger that
some may suppose that he was dealing with a real
weakness in Einstein’s theory. To dispel this idea
we may recall a few well-known facts.
Treatises on the geometry of surfaces (in ordinary
three-dimensional Euclidean space) define geodesics
in various ways. Some say that a geodesic is the
shortest line that can be drawn on the surface between
its two extremities, and they use the calculus of
variations to find its equations. This method is
open to criticism. The researches of Weierstrass
have shaken our faith in the infallibility of the results
obtained by an uncritical use of the routine processes
of that calculus. But whatever may be said against
the process employed, the equations of a geodesic
finally obtained agree with t hose obtained by more
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
trustworthy methods. For example, we may define a
geodesic as a curve such that at every point the
osculating plane is perpendicular to the tangent
plane to the surface. From this definition we can
easily obtain (cf. Eisenhart’s “‘ Differential Geometry,”
p- 204) equations which in the usual abbreviated
notation of tensor calculus may be written
Oe { a,o \ GE EEB = g
os* y J ds ods
Einstein’s equations (‘“ The Meaning of Relativity,”
p. 86) are the obvious generalisation of these and
differ merely in that the suffixes range over the
values I, 2, 3, 4, instead of only 1, 2. His notation
is slightly different from the form given above, which
is due to Eddington.
These equations can be obtained by at least two
other methods. Einstein uses a “ parallel displace-
ment’? method due to Levi-Civita and Weyl.
Eddington (““ Report on the Relativity Theory of
Gravitation,’ p. 48) shows that the equations are
satisfied (or not) independently of the choice of
co-ordinates, and that they reduce to the equations
of a straight line for Galilean co-ordinates. This
straight line is described with uniform velocity, so
Einstein’s equations may be regarded as a generalisa-
tion of Newton’s first law of motion.
Applying these equations to the example given
by Dr. Robb, we find that his space-time curve
does not satisfy them unless F”’(v) =o. This means
that F(*) must be a linear function of ¥ and so it
cannot fulfil the required conditions of vanishing for
two different values of ¥, except in the trivial case
F(¥) =o. Thus the ambiguity seems to lie, not in
Einstein’s equations of motion, but merely in a
particular method of arriving at them.
As regards the desirability of modifying Einstein’s
ideas on the nature of time, it is hazardous to give
a definite opinion at present. It may be noted that
Prof. Whitehead’s new book (‘‘ The Principle of
Relativity ’’) endeavours to combine all the verifiable
results of Einstein’s theory with somewhat con-
servative ideas concerning space and time. The
modified theory leads to some remarkable predictions
(p. 129) which should be tested by experiment.
H. T. H. Praceto.
University College, Nottingham,
November 4.
The Dictionary of Applied Physics.
THE issue of NaturE of September 30, p. 439,
contained a highly appreciative review of the first
volume of the “ Dictionary of Applied Physics,”’ and,
as editor, I am much indebted to the author for his
kind words. One remark, however, has, I gather, led
to some misunderstanding ; may I have space for a
brief explanation ?
Dr. Kaye directs attention to some of the “ omis-
sions,’ with the view of their future rectification.
Most of these “‘ omissions ”’ will be found dealt with
in future volumes of the Dictionary. Thus, in an
article in vol. iii, on Navigation and Navigational
Instruments, by Commander T. Y. Baker, the gyro-
compass is treated of very fully, while, in vol. v.,
Mr. Dobson has a highly interesting article on instru-
ments used in aircraft. ;
It has been part of my plan to separate the mathe-
matical treatment of a subject and its practical
applications. In this manner I hoped to increase
the utility of the work to various classes of readers,
some of whom are interested chiefly in the theory,
while others are more closely concerned with the more
practical details. R. T. GLAZEBROOK.
5 Stanley Crescent, Kensington Park Gardens,
London, W.11.
NATURE
[ NovEMBER 25, 1922
Action of Cutting Tools.
In the interesting letter which appeared in NATURE
of August 26, p. 277, Mr. Mallock objects to the use
of the word cutting as incorrect when applied to
tools used for metal work, and it is surprising, there-
fore, to find that his own paper to which he refers
in support of his contention is entitled ‘‘ The Action
of Cutting Tools,’’ although it is almost entirely
devoted to showing that the action of such tools is
that of shearing.
In a further letter in NATURE, p. 603, of November
4, Mr. Mallock dismisses my paper as having no
reference whatever to the action of cutting tools,
apparently on the ground that it is entirely devoted
to a consideration of elastic strains. So far as the
tool itself is concerned, it is only useful so long as it
does not become permanently deformed, and to the
maker of tool steel, the stresses and strains produced
within the elastic range are therefore matters of
interest, so that an attempt was made in this paper
to show the distribution of stress in the tool itself
under these conditions.
In another section an account is given of the stress
effects in the work when the tool is removing material
therefrom, which are quantitative within the range
for which the laws of photo-elasticity are known,
and qualitative in the plastic region, as present
knowledge is not sufficient to interpret fully the
interference effects observed. Mr. Mallock ignores
these latter effects, although they are undoubtedly
of importance. They show, for example, that the
action is sometimes discontinuous, and under other
conditions is not so, although Mr. Mallock states
quite definitely that it is always discontinuous and
quasi-periodic. Mr. Mallock’s letter also lays stress
on the curling up of the shaving, but this does not
always happen, as the discussion on my _ paper
brought out the interesting fact that, as the speed
increases, the curls of steel shavings increase in
radius until at speeds of about two feet per second
the shavings become practically straight and are
often a danger to workmen. This effect has also
been produced in nitro-cellulose at low speeds with
a suitable tool, and it is then found that these straight
shavings show permanent stress effects similar to
those produced when a thin curved beam is flattened
out. E. G. CoKErR.
Engineering Laboratory, University College,
London, W.C.1.
A New Worship?
“Therefore no man that uttereth unrighteous things
shall be unseen;
Neither shall Justice, when it convicteth, pass him by.
For in the midst of his counsels the ungodly shall be
searched out;
And the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord
To bring to conviction his lawless deeds:
Because there is an ear of jealousy that listeneth to all
things,
And the noise of murmurings is not hid.
Beware then of unprofitable murmuring.”
AFTER a period of ennobling worship in that
greatest of our English Cathedrals, the Scafell massif,
on my return to town I chanced to enter that strange
building, Burlington House, wherein be installed
many altars to the great god, Science. Visiting
that which ranketh first, I found an impassive
figure, seated in a chair, at the High Altar, with a
brass bauble before him: he needed but the peculiar
head-dress to be an Egyptian Priest-King. More-
over, the service was apparently Greco-Egyptian,
if not Babylonian. The officiating young priest used
many beautiful words clearly of Grecian origin,
NO. 2769, VOL. I10]
though at times an American phrase was noticeable,
as when he spoke of Arrhenius doing chores, as I
understood, for the god Isos. Most remarkable,
however, was the way in which, at intervals, turning
towards the altar, he solemnly gave utterance to
the incantation—* See, Oh, Too!’’ My impression
was that Too was the great king in the chair. The
priest apparently was in fear of impending disaster,
for at the close of his address he spoke much of
concentration of the Hydrogen Ikons and _ their
attack and repulse, often repeating the phrase “‘ See,
Oh, Too ’’—but Too seemed not to notice.
Two young acolytes then cast pictures of writing
upon the wall as difficult to interpret as was that
message expounded by Daniel in days long ago.
Most marvellous was the closing sermon, in which
an account was given of the confusion wrought
among a strange people, called “ Lysodeiktics,” by
adding tears, nasal secretion, animal stews, turnip
juice—seemingly muck of any kind—to their food :
and how some of them were not killed. To one of
an old faith, it seemed a strangely degenerate worship ;
indeed, that such service could be held worthy of
attention amazed me.
In the evening, it chanced that I was led to peruse
an article, in The Times Literary Supplement, on
“ Tradition and the French Academy,’ wherein is
given Matthew Arnold’s quotation, in his well-known
essay, from the Academy’s statutes :—
“The Academy’s principal function shall be to
work with all the care and all the diligence possible
at giving sure rules to our language and rendering
it pure, eloquent and capable of treating the arts and
sciences.”
The whole article is worth reading; at the end
is a quotation from a work by the late Pierre Duhem,
the closing words being—
“le vespect de la tradition est une condition essentielle
du progrés scientifique.”
It is scarcely necessary to point out the application
of these quotations; yet shall I ever pray: See to it,
Oh, see to it, great Oh, Too! ;
Henry E. ARMSTRONG.
The Spectrum of Neutral Helium.
A most? significant feature of the success of the
quantum theory in explaining the sequence of
radiation-frequencies forming the Balmer type of
series in the spectra of hydrogen and ionised helium
is that it also offers an intelligible explanation of the
differences in the intensities of the successive lines in
the sequence, and that its postulates are not incon-
sistent with the known facts regarding the sizes of
the atoms in their normal states. The fundamental
assumption in the theory is that the states of the
atom represented by increasing quantum numbers
depart more and more from the normal state, and the
greater intensities of the earlier lines in a sequence are
readily understood as due to the greater probability
of transitions actually occurring between states re-
presented by smaller quantum numbers. ;
Any attempt to build up a theory of spectra which
ignores these fundamental considerations must be
received with caution. The remark just made
appears to be particularly applicable to Dr. Silber-
stein’s attempt (NATURE, August 19) to explain the
spectrum of neutral helium on the assumption of the
independence of the electrons. Looking over the list
of frequencies given in his letter, and comparing them
with the maps and tables of the helium spectrum
contained in Prof. Fowler’s report, it is noticed at
once that the well-known intense yellow line of
helium at 5876, which is the first member of the
diffuse series of doublets, is given by Dr. Silberstein the
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
NATURE
701
formula 9/6.15/6, while other lines which are of
vanishingly small intensity in comparison with it
are assigned formule with much smaller quantum
numbers. For example, the doublet at \3652, which
is the seventh in the sharp series and so faint that
it fails to appear in the photographic reproduction
of the spectrum, is assigned the formula 6/4 . 9/5.
Similarly, the first diffuse singlet at \6678 gets the
formula 9/6 . 24/7, while the fifth in the same series is
indicated by 7/5.19/5, that is, by much smaller
quantum numbers, while it is actually a far fainter
line than the other.
These facts naturally lead one to question whether
Dr. Silberstein’s proposed new combination principle
has any real physical basis or significance. To settle
this point, I undertook a careful survey of the figures
and carried out a series of computations with the aid
of my research student Mr. A. S. Ganesan, and have
come to the conclusion that the approximate agree-
ments between the calculated and actual frequencies
are merely fortuitous arithmetical coincidences. This
is clear from the following facts brought out by a
survey of the figures :
(1) The proposed combination formula with its
freedom of choice of four numbers gives a very large
number of lines out of which it is possible to pick out
a few coinciding approximately with practically any
arbitrary series of frequencies which may be proposed,
the accuracy of fit increasing as the quantum numbers
chosen are increased.
(2) The coincidences between the calculated and
observed frequencies are most numerous and accurate
precisely in the region where the density of either
series of frequencies is greatest, which is what we
should expect according to the laws of chance.
(3) It is not, in general, possible to get a good fit
for the earlier members of a line-series except by
using large quantum numbers. This is what we
should expect if the coincidences were fortuitous, as
the frequency-differences between successive lines are
greatest in the beginning of a series.
(4) More than one combination of quantum
numbers will fit a given line tolerably well. For
example, the D; line of helium is also represented
fairly well by 13-21/5-12. ;
(5) The quantum numbers giving the best fit do
not fall into any regular sequence when arranged
either according to the frequencies of the lines or their
intensities, nor do they show any characteristic
differences for the singlet and doublet series.
Needless to say, the foregoing remarks apply with
even greater force to the case of the lithium atom
when a choice of six numbers is permitted.
Finally, it may be remarked that the Rydberg
constant 109723 chosen by Dr. Silberstein is appro-
priate only to the case of the ionised helium atom in
which only one electron is coupled to the nucleus.
If both electrons exert reactions on the nucleus and
move simultaneously, the value of the Rydberg
constant cannot remain the same in general.
C. V. RAMAN.
210 Bowbazaar Street, Calcutta,
October 18, 1922.
Water Snails and Liver Flukes.
Havina been attracted on several occasions by
the presence of actively swimming cercarie of
Fasciola hepatica in material collected for protozoan
studies and searching for the intermediate host,
I have come across several examples of Limnaea
pevegra harbouring perfectly developed cercarie of
the same species. Prof. Graham Kerr has also had
similar experiences.
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
May I claim the hospitality of your pages to ask
of your readers for references to literature dealing
with the subject of any intermediate host, other
than L. truncatula, of the liver-rot parasite? Mr.
Staig has kindly informed me that Prof. J. W. W.
Stephens writes in “‘ Animal Parasites of Man,’’ by
Fantham, Stephens and Theobald: “In the allied
species of L. peregra the fluke will develop up to a
certain stage but never completes all its various
phases.’’ Many text-books in zoology give one the
impression that L. tyvuncatula is the only intermediate
host.
My experience in searching for L. tvuncatula is
that the occurrence of the snail is very local in
S.W. Scotland. It seems to be rare, or altogether
absent in some districts. Yet in these districts the
sheep are known to be infected with the liver-rot
disease. It would seem, then, that L. pevegya acts as
| the normal intermediate host in those districts, the
Fasciola completing within its body in normal fashion
the life cycle up to the stage when the cercaria
becomes free. Monica TAYLOR.
Notre Dame, Dowanhill, Glasgow.
A Mutation of the Columbine.
Last summer a remarkable mutation of the blue
columbine (Aguilegia cerulea James) was discovered
by Miss Madeline Gunn near the Smuggler Mine,
in the vicinity of Ward, Colorado. Only a single
plant was found, growing under a spruce tree. The
flowers are of good size (about 63 mm. diameter),
with the pale blue sepals deeply trifid apically, the
divisions about 12 mm. long, broad basally, the
outer ones overlapping the median one (Fig. 1). Inone
case the median division is bifid apically. The petals
are white, the lamine and spurs shorter than usual.
Dy preal
$ Epe iF
A.carrulta
Aquilegias
Caeruléa,
mak thi fidas.
half nak ize,
Fie. 1.
The form may be called mut. tvifida ; it represents
a striking new type which, if it can be propagated,
will be a notable addition to horticulture. Were it
received from some remote region, it would appear
to be a very distinct new species, or some might
even wish to separate it generically. The trifid
structure is characteristic of the divisions of the
leaves of Aquilegia, and no doubt we may say that
a quality of the leaf has been transferred to the
sepals. Numerous cases of phyllody of the calyx
in various flowers have been described by Maxwell
Masters and others, but in this case the sepals are
not at all leaf-like, and if such flowers were common
they would not strike any one as abnormal.
T. D. A. CocKERELL.
DorotTHy YOUNG.
University of Colorado.
hve:
NATURE
[ NovEMBER 25, 1922
The Atoms of Matter; their Size, Number, and Construction.!
By Dr. F. W. Aston, F.R.S.
9 (irae matter is discontinuous and consists of
discrete particles is now an accepted fact, but
it is by no means obvious to the senses. The surfaces
of clean liquids, even under the most powerful micro-
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Fic. 1,—Cubes 11 to 15 compared with familiar objects to scale.
scope, appear perfectly smooth, coherent, and con-
tinuous. The merest trace of a soluble dye will colour
millions of times its volume of water. It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that in the past there have arisen
schools which believed that matter was quite continuous
and infinitely divisible.
The upholders of this view said that if you took a
piece of material, lead, for example, and went on cutting
it into smaller and smaller fragments with a sufficiently
sharp knife, you could go on indefinitely. The opposing
school argued that at some stage in the operations
either the act of section would become impossible,
or the result would be lead no longer. Bacon, Descartes,
Gassendi, Boyle, and Hooke were all partial to the
Jatter theory, and Newton in 1675 tried to explain
Boyle’s Law on the assumption that gases were made
up of mutually repulsive particles.
The accuracy of modern knowledge is such that we
can carry out, indirectly at least, the experiment
suggested by the old philosophers right up to the stage
when the second school is proved correct, and the
ultimate atom of lead reached. For convenience, we
will start with a standard decimetre cube of lead
weighing 11°37 kilograms, and the operation of section
will consist of three cuts at right angles to each other,
dividing the original cube into eight similar bodies
each of half the linear dimensions and one-eighth the
weight. Thus the first cube will have 5 cm. sides and
weigh 1-42 kilograms, the second will weigh 178 gm.,
the fourth 2-78 gm., and so on. Diminution in the
+ From an evening discourse delivered before the British Association at
Hull, September 12, 1922.
NO. 2769, VOL. I10]
series is very rapid and the result of the ninth operation
is a quantity of lead just weighable on the ordinary
chemical balance. The results of further operations
are compared with suitable objects and a scale of
length in Figs. r,2,and 3. The last operation possible,
without breaking up the lead atom, is the twenty-
eighth. The twenty-sixth cube is illustrated in Fig. 3.
It contains 64 atoms, the size, distance apart, and
general arrangement of which can be represented with
considerable accuracy, thanks to the exact knowledge
derived from research on X-rays and specific heats.
On the same scale are represented the largest atom,
cesium, and the smallest atom, carbon, together with
molecules of oxygen and nitrogen, at their average
distance apart in the air, and the helical arrangement
of silicon and oxygen atoms in quartz crystals discovered
by X-ray analysis. The following table shows at what
stages certain analytical methods break down. The
great superiority of the microscope is a noteworthy
point.
Cube. Side in Cm. Mass in Gm. Limiting Analytical Method.
9 0-0195 8-5 x 1075 Ordinary Chemical Balance
14 6-1 1074 2:58 x 1079 Quartz Micro-balance
15 305X104 3-22 K 10710 Spectrum Analysis (Na lines)
18 3°8 x r07® 6:25 X 10714 Ordinary Microscope
24 6:0 X Lo7 2-38 X 10718 Ultra Microscope
28 3°70 107% 5°15 x 10722
Atom. 370 1078 3°44 .X 10722 Radioactivity
Just as any vivid notion of the size of the cubes
passes out of our power at about the twelfth—the
limiting size of a dark object visible to the unaided
eye—so when one considers the figures expressing the
number of atoms in any ordinary mass of material,
the mind is staggered by their immensity. Thus if
Thinnest Part Oil Film
of a Bubble on Water
Ipey in Wave Length of Cadmium
OB Red Light
Influenzo 20% 6438.4702 AU
Bacill ius)
23 yu 4
Fic. 2.—Cubes 17 to 21 compared with minute objects to scale.
we slice the original decimetre cube into square plates
one atom thick the area of these plates will total one
and one-quarter square miles. If we cut these plates
into strings of atoms spaced apart as they are in the
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
solid, these decimetre strings put end-to-end will reach
6:3 million million miles, the distance light will travel
in a year, a quarter of the distance to the nearest fixed
star. If the atoms are spaced but one millimetre apart
the string will be three and a half million times longer
yet, spanning the whole universe.
Again, if an ordinary evacuated electric light bulb
were pierced with an aperture such that one million
molecules of the air entered per second, the pressure
in the bulb would not rise to that of the air outside
for a hundred million years. Perhaps the most striking
illustration is as follows: Take a tumbler of water
and—supposing it possible—label all the molecules
in it. Throw the water into the sea, or, indeed,
anywhere you please, and after a period of time so
great that all the water on the earth—in seas, lakes,
rivers, and clouds—has had time to become perfecily
mixed, fill your tumbler again at the nearest tap.
How many of the labelled molecules are to be expected
in it? The answer is, roughly, 2000; for although
the number of tumblerfuls of water on the earth is
5 x 107, the number of molecules of water in a single
tumbler is 10”.
From the above statements it would, at first sight,
appear absurd to hope to obtain effects from single
atoms, yet this can now be done in several ways, and
indeed it is largely due to the results of such experiments
that the figures can be stated with so much confidence.
Detection of an individual is only feasible in the case
of an atom moving with an enormous velocity when,
although its mass is so minute, its energy is quite
appreciable. The charged helium atom shot out by
radioactive substances in the form of an alpha ray
possesses so much energy that the splash of light
caused by its impact against a fluorescent screen can
be visibly detected, the ionisation caused by its passage
through a suitable gas can be measured on a sensitive
electrometer and, in the beautiful experiments of
C. T. R. Wilson, its path in air can be seen and photo-
graphed by means of the condensation of water drops
upon the atomic wreckage it leaves behind it.
In the first complete Atomic Theory put forward
by Dalton in 1803 one of the postulates states that :
“ Atoms of the same element are similar to one another
and equal in weight.” Of course, if we take this as
a definition of the word “element” it becomes a
truism, but, on the other hand, what Dalton probably
meant by an element, and what we understand by
the word to-day, is a substance such as hydrogen,
oxygen, chlorine, or lead, which has unique chemical
properties and cannot be resolved into more elementary
constituents by any known chemical process. For
many of the well-known elements Dalton’s postulate
still appears to be strictly true, but for the others,
probably the majority, it needs some modification.
Throughout the history of science philosophers have
been in favour of the idea that all matter is composed
of the same primordial substance, and that the atoms
of the elements are simply stable aggregations of atoms
of this substance. Shortly after Dalton’s theory had
been put forward Prout suggested that the atoms of
the elements were composed of atoms of a substance
he called “ protyle,’ which he endeavoured to identify
with hydrogen.
If Dalton and Prout were both right the combining
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
NATURE
i
'
703
weights of the elements should all be expressible as
whole numbers, hydrogen being unity. Experimental
evidence showed this to be impossible in many cases.
Chemists therefore wisely preferred Dalton’s theory,
which was in accord with definite though fractional
atomic weights, to Prout’s, which would necessitate
the elements of fractional atomic weight being hetero-
geneous mixtures of atoms of different weight.
The idea that atoms of the same element are all
identical in weight could not be challenged by ordinary
chemical methods, for the atoms are by definition
chemically identical, and numerical ratios were only to
be obtained in such methods by the use of quantities
of the element containing countless myriads of atoms.
At the same time it is rather surprising, when we
consider the complete absence of positive evidence in
its support, that no theoretical doubts were publicly
expressed until late in the nineteenth century, first by
Carbon
Comparative
Sizes of Atoms
Atoms in Quartz Crystals Si 0; ed ,
— 35 ip = a
Fic. 3.—Cube 26 showing atoms with scale of reference.
Schutzenberger and then by Crookes, and that these
doubts have been regarded, even up to the last few
years, as speculative in the highest degree. In order
to dismiss the idea that the atoms of such a familiar
element as chlorine might not all be of the same weight,
one had only to mention diffusion experiments and the
constancy of chemical equivalents. It is only within
the last few years that the lamentable weakness of
such arguments has been exposed and it has been
realised that the experimental separation of atoms
differing from each other by so much as ro per cent.
in weight, is really an excessively difficult operation.
There are two ways by which the identity of the
weights of the atoms forming an element can be tested.
One is by the direct comparison of the weights of
individual atoms ; the other is by obtaining samples
of the element from different sources or by different
processes, which, although perfectly pure, do not give
the same chemical atomic weight. It was by the
second and less direct of these methods that it was
first shown by the experiments of Soddy and others
on the atomic weight of lead from different radioactive
704
NATURE
sources, that substances could exist which, though
chemically identical, had different atomic weights.
These substances Soddy called “isotopes” as they
occupy the same place in the periodic table of the
elements.
The first experimental comparison of the weights of
individual atoms was made by Sir J. J. Thomson in
his analysis of positive rays by the “ parabola ” method.
Subjected to this test most of the lighter elements
appeared to follow Dalton’s rule, but the results with
the rare gas neon suggested the possibility of the atoms
of this element being of two different weights, roughly
20 and 22 respectively. In other words the parabolas
of neon indicated that it might be a mixture of isotopes,
but the accuracy of measurement by this method was
not sufficient to settle the point with certainty.
The requisite accuracy has been obtained by an
instrument for the analysis of positive rays called the
“mass-spectrograph.” By this device, the weights
of atoms can be compared to an accuracy of one-
tenth per cent., and it has been demonstrated not
only that neon (20-2) is a mixture of atoms of weights
exactly 20 and 22, but also that chlorine (35°46) is a
mixture of isotopic atoms of weights 35 and 37.
Furthermore, about half the elements investigated turn
out to be mixtures,some of the heavier ones consisting
of six or more different constituents. Most important
of all is the fact that every element investigated, with
the exception of hydrogen, consists of atoms the
weights of which are expressible as whole numbers on
the oxygen scale used by chemists.
This remarkable generalisation called the ‘ whole
number rule” has removed the last obstacle in the
way of the unitary theory of matter. We now have
no hesitation in affirming that Nature uses the same
standard bricks in the construction of the atoms of
all elements, and that these standard bricks are the
primordial atoms of positive and negative electricity,
protons and electrons.
These are the natural unit charges of electricity,
equal but of opposite sign. Of the shape of these
particles we know next to nothing, but the wonderful
advances of modern physics, in particular those of
radioactivity, enable us to speak of their weights and
dimensions with some assurance. The weight of the
proton is very nearly the weight of a hydrogen atom,
the electron is nearly two thousand times lighter, so
that the atomic weight of an element (not consisting
of isotopes) will be roughly equal to the number of
protons in its atoms. The dimensions of the electron
are about one hundred thousand times less than those
of the atoms as illustrated above, and the proton is
probably nearly two thousand times smaller still.
We now know of what atoms are constructed, and
may go on to consider the evidence as to how their
constituent parts are arranged. In the foregoing
diagrams the atoms are represented as spheres, and
in respect to the small forces and velocities which
occur in the collisions between the atoms of gases at
ordinary temperatures they do behave very exactly
as smooth elastic spheres. But unfortunately the idea
of a sphere carries the suggestion of a portion of space
full of something ; that is, the atom as a sort of spherical
bag packed full of electric charges. Nothing could
be further from the actuality, for from the figures
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
[ NovEMBER 25, 1922
already given, it can be seen at once that even in the
heaviest atom known the constituent charges fail to
fill even the million millionth part of its whole volume.
To convey any direct idea of these numerical relations
by diagrams is practically hopeless, and were we to -
construct a scale model of the atom as big as the dome
of St. Paul’s we should have some difficulty in seeing
the electrons, which would be little larger than pin
heads, while the protons would escape notice altogether
as dust particles invisible to the unaided eye. Ex-
perimental evidence leaves us no escape from the
astounding conclusion that the atom of matter, as a
structure, is empty, empty as the solar system, and
what we measure as its spherical boundary really
only represents the limiting orbits of its outermost
electrons.
The hypothesis which has led to the greatest advances
in our knowledge of the inner construction of atoms
is Rutherford’s theory of the “nucleus atom” put
forward in torr. ‘This is supported by so many
results of direct experiment that it is now universally
accepted and must be substantially correct. It pos-
tulates that all of the positive and about half of the
negative electricity, that is, practically the entire
weight, of the atom is concentrated at its centre,
forming a very small body called the nucleus. In
other words, all the protons and about half the electrons
in the atom are packed together, forming a sort of sun
round which revolve the remaining electrons as planets.
The number of protons in excess of electrons in the
nucleus will clearly be its net positive charge, and since
this will not depend on the gross numbers of protons
and electrons but only on their difference, we can have
elements the atoms of which have nuclei of different
weights but the same net charge. These are isotopes,
for the chemical properties of an atom are determined
by the charge on its nucleus.
The nucleus is extremely small compared with the
whole atom. Thus, if in the atom of helium atomic
weight 4 atomic number 2 we take the nucleus, con-
sisting of 4 protons and 2 electrons, as represented by
a rather large pea, its planetary electrons may be
represented on the same scale as two rather smaller
peas revolving round it at a distance of a quarter of
a mule. The dislodgement of one of its planetary
electrons from an atom requires comparatively little
energy and is the well-known process called ionisation.
This change is only a temporary one, as the atom takes
the first opportunity of attracting it or any other
stray electron back into its orbit and becoming neutral
again. It is by a sort of continual exchange of such
loose electrons that electricity is conducted along
metallic wires. Disruption of the nucleus, on the
other hand, needs enormous energy, but once performed
must give rise to the atom of a new element. This
process of transmutation has been achieved by Sir
Ernest Rutherford, in the case of some of the lighter
elements, by bombarding their atoms with alpha rays,
which are charged helium nuclei expelled at enormous
speeds from radioactive atoms during their natural
process of disintegration. From the tiny dimensions.
of the nucleus compared with those of the atom it
is obvious that the chance of getting a direct hit on
the nucleus is only one in many millions, but the
experiments show that when this does take place
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
protons are dislodged from the atoms of the element
struck and that therefore transmutation has been
actually carried out.
The quantity of matter so transmitted is indeed
almost inconceivably small, but it is the first step
towards what may well be the greatest achievement
of the human race, the release and control of the so-
called ‘‘ atomic energy.”’ We now know with certainty
that four neutral hydrogen atoms weigh appreciably
more than one neutral helium atom, though they contain
identically the same units, 4 protons and 4 electrons.
The change of weight is probably due to the closer
“packing” in the helium nucleus, but whatever the
explanation may be transmutation of hydrogen into
helium must inevitably destroy matter and therefore
liberate energy. The quantity of energy can be
calculated and is prodigious beyond the dreams of
scientific fiction. If we could transmute the hydrogen
contained in one pint of water the energy so liberated
would be sufficient to propel the Mauretania across
NATURE
795
the Atlantic and back at full speed. With such vast
stores of energy at our disposal there would be literally
no limit to the material achievements of the human
race.
The possibility that the process of transmutation
might be beyond control and result in the detonation
of all the water on the earth at once is an interesting
one, since, in that case, the earth and its inhabitants
would be dissipated into space as a new star, but
the probability of such a catastrophe is too remote
to be considered seriously. A recent newspaper article
pointed out the danger of scientific discovery, and
actually suggested that any results of research which
might lead to the liberation of atomic energy should
be suppressed. So, doubtless, the more elderly and
apelike of our prehistoric ancestors grumbled at the
innovation of cooked food, and gravely pointed out
the terrible dangers of the newly-invented agency, fire,
but it can scarcely be maintained to-day that subse-
quent history has justified their caution.
The Herring Fishery and its Fluctuations.
By B. Storrow, Dove Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, Northumberland.
ERRINGS are fished in every month of the year,
and the catches show considerable variation in
the size of the fish, the state of the reproductive organs,
and the age composition of the shoals. It is necessary,
therefore, before arriving at any conclusion with regard
to the fishery, to take into consideration the kinds of
herrings which are caught on the different grounds
throughout the year.
In the beginning of the year, January, February, and
March, shoals are fished about the north-west of Ireland,
off the north of Scotland, including the Shetlands and
Orkneys, and in the Firth of Forth. These herrings are
all fish with the gonads well developed, and they spawn
towards the end of February or in March. They are
known as spring spawners and, except for the shoals of
the Firth of Forth, they, so far as the western part of the
North Sea is concerned, are caught in northern waters.
In April the spent fish from the spring spawning shoals
are caught all over the North Sea, from the Shetlands to
Bergen Bank, from North Shields to the Naze, and off
Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The catches are used chiefly
for bait by the drift-net fishermen, who at this time are
fishing with lines for cod, ling, halibut, etc. Among
some of the bait catches are found numbers of small fish
with the gonads not developed, and without doubt
these can be classified as virgin fish.
During May the number of drifter-liners decreases
and catches of herrings are made from ten to thirty
miles off our coast. These catches consist of young fish
with the gonads at practically the same stage of develop-
ment as those found in catches made in April, roo miles
from the nearest port, and when, for the offshore and
inshore fish, the growth as calculated from the scales 1s
compared, the agreement warrants the conclusion that
the young fish have moved shoreward from the deeper
waters. In good seasons this movement towards the
shore coincides with increased landings of herrings.
Throughout June waves of migrating herrings come
on to the grounds, and in the beginning of July the
migrations are large enough to bring about a consider-
able increase in the fishery. These June and early July
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
migrants have been found, off the Northumberland
coast, to be marked with a comparatively small first-
year growth, as determined from the scales, which, for
the most part, show three winter rings. Recovering
spents from spring spawning shoals are found among
catches of young developing herrings, but after the
beginning of July they disappear, or the numbers found
are Insignificant.
Herrings with three winter rings and with a com-
paratively larger first-year growth than the June fish
invade the grounds during July and August and give
the high catches which are taken in these months in a
successful fishery. Towards the end of August and the
beginning of September shoals of larger and older herrings
appear. They are full fish with their reproductive
organs developed, and they, together with the young
herrings sufficiently developed, form autumn spawning
shoals. After spawning they disappear quickly and
only young fish are to be caught.
The summer fishery of the east coast, the Shetlands
excluded, is one which depends chiefly on young fish,
and samples examined from Wick to Scarborough have
been found to contain from 50 to 7o per cent. of fish
with three winter rings on their scales. Fish of this
age, therefore, determine the productivity of the fishery.
In September herrings are caught in the vicinity of
the Dogger Bank by Dutch luggers and by trawlers, off
Scarborough and Grimsby by drift-nets. ‘Some of these
fish are autumn spawners, but some, especially those
caught by trawlers, are spring spawners, which now
make their reappearance in great numbers. An
examination of catches made on these grounds points
to the herrings coming from the north-east to the south-
western end of the Dogger Bank and then moving in a
south-westerly direction to the Grimsby grounds.
The East Anglian harvest begins in September and
continues to the beginning of December. In the early
part of the fishery many of the catches are landed from
the grounds off Grimsby and it is not until October
that the large fleets concentrate off Yarmouth and
Lowestoft. This fishery is essentially one for full
706
NATORE
[ NOVEMBER 25, 1922
herrings and, although small numbers of spawning fish
and spents are caught, the bulk of the catches consists
of fish which will become spring spawners. The her-
rings are of all ages, from fish with three winter rings to
those with as many as nine or ten, and the samples
obtained from these shoals point to the older fish being
the latest migrants.
The herring fishery of the southern part of the North
Sea differs from that of the east coast in that it depends
for its success upon the presence of older and adult fish.
In this respect it is like the fishery in northern waters
about the Shetlands. But both these fisheries must
receive additions from the summer shoals of developing
fish if they are to continue in existence, and the
question of their productivity cannot be considered
without reference to the younger shoals.
For other waters we have not the same quantity of
data as we have for the North Sea. In the Minch and
off the north-west of Ireland there are spring and
autumn spawners and summer shoals of developing fish.
In the Irish Sea the summer feeding shoals are followed
by autumn spawners, but for these waters, owing to the
large numbers of herrings with two winter rings found
in the catches of 1921, further investigations are
required before a definite statement can be made as to
the age when the young fish join commercial shoals in
greatest numbers.
The poor summer fishery of 1920 and its failure in
192 can be accounted for by a shortage of fish with
three winter rings and belonging to the year-classes of
1917 and 1918. For an explanation of the poor catches
from shoals of adult herrings a consideration of their
age composition is necessary. Samples examined in
191g, 1920, 1921, and the spring of 1922, and obtained
not only from the East Anglian shoals but from the
north-west of Ireland and the north of Scotland, have
contained large numbers of fish of the 1913 and 1914
year-classes. In all samples the year-class of 1915
has been poorly represented. The year-class of 1916,
which gave the fairly successful summer fishery of 1919
when the young fish had then three winter rings, can
be considered a good but not a rich year-class. The
older herrings have naturally decreased in numbers and
the samples and catches obtained from shoals of adult
fish give no indication that a rich year-class of young
herrings has joined these shoals.
While a consideration of the age composition of the
shoals leads to the conclusion that the failure of the
fishery is due to the relative value of the different year-
classes it indicates also that the migrations have had
some effect. Although we know little about the migra-
tions of the herring, there appears to be no doubt that
the migrations of the fish which have become adult and
joined spawning shoals differ from those of the young
which have not yet spawned. In the spring of 1921
comparatively large numbers of young herrings with
three growth areas on the scales were found as full fish !
among the samples from the north of Scotland and
the Firth of Forth. Further sampling in 1922 has con-
firmed the finding of the previous year. Now, fish of
this age in the spring of the year are those which, in
June, July, and August, determine the yield from the
summer fishery. Since large numbers of them had
spawned in the spring of 1921, and afterwards would
migrate as adult fish, the summer fishery of that year
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
was poorer by reason of theirabsence. The high catches
made this year from the waters about the Shetlands
came, in part, from grounds which have been unpro-
ductive for a number of years, and they point to
migrations which we know have followed the activity of
Atlantic waters and herrings reaching maturity at an
early age.
The age composition of the adult shoals fished off the
north-west of Ireland, the north of Scotland, and in the
southern North Sea, does not permit of the idea that
the conditions which govern the fishery occur in small
areas only. A consideration of the 1904 year-class from
data accumulated by Hjort and Lea gives some idea
of the widespread nature of the factors which produce
good year-classes. In the southern waters of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence the year-class of 1903 was found to
predominate, and that of 1904 in the northern waters
of the Gulf. The same year-class was the mainstay of
the Norwegian fishery for a number of years and was.
rich in Icelandic waters. The large catches on the east
coast of Scotland in 1907 can be referred to the 1904
year-class, and so can the good fisheries of the English
Channel in 1909 and 1910. The conditions producing
good year-classes extend over the greater part of the
North Atlantic area. The difference between the north-
west of Ireland fishery and that of the North Sea in
1909 and 1910 suggests that in some years, e.g. 1905,
the factors which govern year-classes may move along
the west coast of Ireland towards the North Sea. The
age composition of the shoals in 1919-1921 indicates the
coincidence of conditions over the area north-west of
Ireland north into the North Sea. That variations in
oceanic circulation may bring about local changes in
the fishery would appear from the failure of the Firth of
Clyde fishery, 1904-1920, and that of the west of the
Shetlands, 1905-1922. The disappearance of young
herrings from the Wash points to the same conclusion.
To say that fluctuations in the herring fishery have
been observed since the beginning of the fishery is to
make a statement incapable of proof but one which is
extremely probable. The history of the fishery, so far
as we know it, consists of a series of fluctuations, and the
attempts to account for these have given rise to ex-
planations which have varied from the conditions of the
year of capture to the wickedness of the people.
However ridiculous some of these old opinions may
appear, it is only since Norwegian investigators, Hjort,
Dahl, and Lea, directed attention to the scales of the
herring that we have had any definite knowledge of the
age composition of some of the herring shoals. Few
people think of herrings in their fourth year as being of
greatest importance in our summer shoals; a still
smaller number think of the conditions of the year of
hatching as being the factor which determines good and
poor year-classes. Evidence recently examined points
to this view requiring some modification and to the
possibility that the conditions of the year preceding
hatching are the dominant factor in the production
of good year-classes. Whatever modification may be
needed for this latest idea will depend on the knowledge
we hope will be obtained of the life of the herring before
it enters the commercial shoals.
That the conditions preceding hatching are of greatest
importance is indicated by some of the results obtained
when this has been taken as a working hypothesis and
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
a period of four years allowed between hydrographic
phenomena and herring catches. For a period of fifty
years it has been possible to show a relation between
the range of tide at Aberdeen and the productivity of
the herring fishery of the east coast of Scotland. The
curves representing tidal data and herring catches show
periods in which they tend to parallelism and to con-
vergency, but until this periodicity is understood and
can be foreseen the result will be of little use com-
mercially. Good year-classes can be referred to the
activities of Atlantic water, which have been shown by
Pettersson to depend upon the periodic variation of
lunar influence, but more definite knowledge is required
as to the time, intensity, and direction of invasions of
Atlantic water into the North Sea. This is particularly
illustrated by the conditions which are held to have
produced the 1907 year-class, which gave the nich fishery
on the east coast of Scotland in 1910. The wide-spread
occurrence of the rich year-class of 1904 which was
found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in practically all
waters of north-west Europe suggests that a study of
the hydrographic conditions of the North Sea alone
is insufficient for a full understanding of the factors
which determine the wealth of the different year-
classes.
Although the production of gocd year-classes has the
greatest influence on the fishery in that these year-
classes give a herring populaticn sufficiently large to
yield a succession of large catches throughout the season,
or a number of seasons, the migrations of the herrings
have an effect which is considerable and they may in
some cases bring about the formation of new fisheries or
the non-existence of others. Pettersson has shown how
the great Baltic herring fishery of the Middle Ages coin-
cided with a maximum activity of Atlantic waters, due
to the greatest possible tidal influence of the moon and
sun, and, also how the present Baltic fishery fluctuates
in a period of eighteen to nineteen years. These fluctua-
tions are noticeable chiefly in shoals of adult fish, and,
in our waters, for the shoals off East Anglia and the
winter herrings of the east coast of Scotland, they have
NATORE
797
been found to alternate with those of the Baltic fishery.
The composition and nature of the shoals about the
Shetlands this year point to migrations which have
followed the most recent invasion of Atlantic waters,
with which has coincided the lateness of the appearance
of the Northumberland July shoals in 1920 and 1921
and of the shoals fished from Yarmouth in September
1921. Before we can hope to understand this periodicity
In migrations and the difference from year to year- in
the arrival of our shoals a much more comprehensive
knowledge of the hydrography of the North Sea and of
the factors controlling the movements of the waters of
the North Atlantic is required. Further, the publica-
tion of the statistics relating to the fishery in a form
which will allow of their examination as to where and
when the catches were made is desirable.
That the poor quality of the herrings and the early
maturity of the younger year-classes have coincided
with one another and with the presence of large quan-
tities of Atlantic water cannot be taken as solving the
problem of their occurrence. Neither does the poor
liver yield from Norwegian cod, which, in some years
at least, coincided with large numbers of young fish
among adult cod and with Atlantic water activity,
throw any further light on what must be regarded as a
physiological problem awaiting investigation, and one
which cannot be considered as explained by a reference
to a possible scarcity of copepcds.
The problem of the fluctuations in our herring fishery
is not one which can be solved by a consideration of one
or two isolated set of phencmena. ‘That the activity of
Atlantic water has a connexion with pericdicity in the
fishery and with the preduction of good year-classes.
suggests a possible way of approach. It is a problem
which demands the attention not only of the zoologist
and the hydrographer, but also of the physiologist and
probably that of the astronomer. Further, it must not
be forgotten that the men engaged in the fishery and
the industries connected therewith are concerned more
about the fluctuations from year to year than those
which are spread over much longer periods.
The Nebraska Tooth.
By W. P. Pycrart.
At the meeting of the Zoological Society on Novem-
ber 7, Prof. Elliot Smith exhibited a cast of
the now famous Nebraska tooth, which is regarded
by American paleontologists as representing a new
genus and species of the human race—Hesperopithecus
haroldcookt. This tooth—a “second upper molar ”
—differs, we are assured, on one hand from that of
any known anthropoid apes, and on the other from
any of the primitive types of man yet discovered.
Prof. Elliot Smith is in agreement with this interpre-
tation ; and presented fresh evidence in its support,
furnished him by Prof. Osborn. This evidence included
the results of radiographing the tooth, together with
the teeth of a chimpanzee and Piltdown man. But
these, it must be admitted, were unconvincing pictures,
since they failed to demonstrate the features they were
designed to show.
The teeth of the Piltdown man, it will be remembered,
showed a large pulp-cavity placed above the level of
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
the alveolar border of the jaw, as in modern man’;
wherein, however, the cavity is smaller. But the
Piltdown teeth, in this regard, differ as much from the
teeth of Neanderthal man, wherein the pulp-cavity
was of great size, and evidently developed at the
expense of the roots. Sir Arthur Keith has called
such teeth “ taurodont.” They are peculfar to men
of the Neanderthal type. The Piltdown teeth, like
those of the modern man, are of the “ cynodont ””
type. This fact, it may be predicted, will come to
have an additional significance in the near future.
Dr. A. Smith Woodward, in the discussion which
followed Prof. Elliot Smith’s remarks, reaffirmed his
original belief{—expressed at the time when the dis-
covery of the Nebraska tooth was first announced,
and set forth in NaTuRE of June ro (vol. 109, p. 750)—
that this tooth was more probably that of one of the
primitive, extinct bears (Hyznarctos), than of some
primitive member of the primates. Prof. Osborn
~
708
NATURE
[ NOVEMBER 25, 1922
dismisses this suggestion on the ground that “the
difference is so fundamental that it is difficult to find
any single point of agreement.’’ But from Prof.
Osborn’s own account of this tooth, which appeared
in Nature of August 26, p. 281, it is a no less difficult
matter to discover harmony between this tooth and
the molars of any of the primates, living or extinct.
We cannot escape the conclusion, in short, that the
evidence as to the true character of the Nebraska
tooth has been only partly sifted. Before we can
consider ourselves in possession of the whole of the
evidence it must be carefully compared with worn
teeth of Hyeenarctos, and its near allies. Radio-
graphs of such teeth are essential. For the moment
the material for such a comparison is, doubtless,
limited: but even this can, and must, be taken into
account. We trust that Prof. Osborn will see his way
to supplement the able summary he gave us in NATURE,
in August last, wherein he contrasts the tooth of
Obit
Mrs. A. D. WALLER.
HE announcement of the death on October 22, at
sixty-three years of age, of Mrs. Waller, widow of
the late Dr. A. D. Waller, must have been noticed
with regret by many workers in the world of science.
Alice Mary Palmer, which was Mrs. Waller’s maiden
name, had early aspirations towards a medical career,
and after matriculating in the University of London
she took up her medical course at the London School
of Medicine, where she became the pupil of Dr. Augustus
Waller, then lecturer in physiology at the School.
Miss Palmer was appointed his demonstrator—a post
which she filled with enthusiasm. His original and
stimulating lectures were a great delight to her, and
the relationship of teacher and pupil ripened rapidly
into a closer one.
Husband and wife had much in common : both cared
intensely for education and worked throughout their
lives for what they considered its best interests. After
her marriage Mrs. Waller’s chief concern was for her
husband’s work. In all that he did she had her part ;
she enjoyed the whole technique of laboratory work,
owning apologetically that even a bit of “ mere”
anatomy never came amiss to her. The house in
Grove End Road, which soon became such a centre
for scientific interests, was secured for the young
couple early in their married life. It was an unusual
household, being at once both laboratory and home,
and its ways were unconventional; but to those
who caught the spirit of the place, the charm of its
hospitality was irresistible. All who cared for scientific
work were welcomed there, and to the student who
sought her advice Mrs. Waller became at once friend,
champion, and helper. Foreign friends, distinguished
and undistinguished, made Weston Lodge their resting-
place when visiting London, and much good talk was
heard within the walls of the old study—great were
the discussions, vigorous the arguments, and over all
debates played the gentle humour of the hostess,
softening the sometimes mordant wit of her husband.
During the latter years of their lives the centre
of interest was transferred, for the Wallers, from
Weston Lodge to the University Laboratory at South
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
, Hesperopithecus with the teeth of chimpanzee and
Pithecanthropus, by a similar pictorial comparison
between this remarkable tooth and the teeth of the
fossil bears, or at least a Hyzenarctos.
The extremely worn condition of this tooth compels
caution in every statement made concerning it: and
more especially on the part of those who have never
seen and handled the actual specimen. The danger
of dogmatising on the evidence afforded by photography
and casts alone, was forcibly illustrated in the case of
the skull of Piltdown man. But it is also imperatively
necessary, in the interests of science, that even remotely
possible relationships should be seriously examined.
It is always unwise to assume that what ought to be,
must be. We cannot help feeling that this applies very
pertinently in the case of the Nebraska tooth: and
that therefore it would be wise at any rate to entertain
the suggestion, that it may, after all, represent one
of the Urside, instead of one of the Hominide.
uary.
Kensington. That laboratory fulfilled to a large
extent the purpose for which it was founded. Many
will remember it as a place of help, inspiration; and
fruitful work, and it may safely be said that there
are none who ever worked there but will remember
with affectionate gratitude the gentle woman who
cared so greatly for the destinies of the laboratory
and for the welfare of each of its individual workers.
Lapy HERDMAN.
In educational and scientific circles widespread sym-
pathy is felt with Sir William Herdman at the death
of Lady Herdman on November 7. His loss is shared
by all who knew Lady Herdman, as well as by many
others to whom her life and work were both a stimulus
and a standard. Lady Herdman was a daughter of
the late Mr. Alfred Holt, and was a student at Uni-
versity College, Liverpool, when Sir Wiliam Herdman
was professor of natural history there. She graduated
in science at London University in 1891, with first-class
honours in physics, and in the following year became
the first president of the Women Students’ Repre-
sentative Council at Liverpool. She was thus an active
worker in the University College of the city before it
became the University of Liverpool in 1903; and in
promoting this development, as well as since, Lady
Herdman was closely associated with her distinguished
husband. The scientific world gratefully remembers
how in 1916, in commemoration of the death of their
brilliant son George in the battle of the Somme, they
gave the sum of 10,0001. to the university for the
foundation of the George Herdman chair of geology,
and three years later founded and endowed the chair
of oceanography in the university. In these and
many other ways, as, for example, by devoted service
on the Liverpool Education Committee, of which she
was a co-opted member, Lady Herdman exercised an
influence which was always beneficial and often more
far-reaching than she herself ever conceived. She
possessed wisdom as well as knowledge, and the re-
membrance of her life will long be cherished with
affection, to console as well as to inspire.
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
NATURE
Current Topics and Events.
THE presence of the Prince of Wales at the dinner
arranged by the Institution of Mining Engineers and
the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy at the
Guildhall, London, on November 16, gave Royal
distinction to a memorable occasion in the history of
applied science in this country. The Prince himself,
in his tribute to the mining engineer, referred with
_particular approval to the amalgamation of the two
institutions and remarked: “ I cannot help feeling that
there are in this country many institutions, scientific
and otherwise, which might do well to follow your
example, and, as you have done, group themselves
round a joint secretariat and library, housed in a
single building.’”’ The combined membership of the
two institutions is more than 6300, and the two
councils have decided to invite the sister-institutions
in the British Isles and the Dominions to co-operate
with them as equal partners in the constitution of an
Empire Council of Mining and Metallurgical Engineer-
ing Institutions. Sir John Cadman, president of the
Institution of Mining Engineers, who presided at the
dinner and was associated with Mr. S. J. Speak, pre-
sident of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, in
referring to this new body linking up members of the
mining profession throughout the British Empire in
a concerted effort of practical achievement, expressed
to the American Ambassador, who was present, the
hope that such a scheme would find favour in the
United States and ultimately embrace all English-
speaking mining and metallurgical engineers. The
importance which the Institution of Mining and
Metallurgy attaches to technological education was
shown by the presentation of the gold medal of the
institution to Sir Alfred Keogh, who has just retired
from the Rectorship of the Imperial College of Science
and Technology. Sir George Beilby was similarly
presented with the medal of the Institution of Mining
Engineers in recognition of his contributions to science,
with particular reference to his researches on fuel ;
both recipients had the honour of receiving the medals
from the hands of the Prince of Wales. The speeches
at the dinner were of a remarkably high order, and we
offer our congratulations to all who were concerned
in making arrangements for an event which not only
maintained the dignity of applied science but also
will contribute in no small measure to its continued
development.
TuE latest reports add little to our knowledge of
the Chilian earthquake except to increase the esti-
mates of the loss of life and of the destruction of
property. The total number of deaths is for the
present officially put at 1800, and that of the injured
at more than two thousand. The town which seems
to have suffered most is Vallenar, half-way between
Coquimbo and Copiapo and about forty miles from
the coast, where one out of every eight inhabitants
was killed. Much of the damage, especially from
Coquimbo to Chanaral (240 miles north of Coquimbo)
was caused by the sea-waves. The early and clearly
erroneous report that the depth of the sea near
Copiapo had decreased from 2800 to 86 fathoms is _
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
now contradicted. The greatest known uplift is less
than 48 feet, in Alaska during the earthquakes of
1899. M. de Montessus de Ballore, who has studied
the distribution of the Chilian earthquakes, defines.
several regions along the coast. The region of
Atacama, Copiapo, and Coquimbo, to which the
recent earthquake belongs, is one in which earth-
quakes are relatively frequent, though it is less often
visited by destructive shocks than the regions of
Arica and Iquique, and of Valparaiso, Santiago, and
Concepcion. All three regions are situated in a dis-
trict of unusually steep surface-gradient. Off Arica
lies the Bartholomew deep (3500 fathoms), off Copiapo
the Richards deep (4100 fathoms), and off Valparaiso
the Haeckel deep (3000 fathoms). The origin of the
recent earthquake may have been near the southern
end of the Richards deep.
TuHE Electrical Review is to be congratulated on the
issue of its jubilee number. It may well be proud
of its record during the last fifty years. It has taken
a broad view of its technical functions and has pub-
lished many important papers in pure and applied
science. This jubilee number is a particularly in-
teresting one, as the articles are written more with an
eye to the future than the past. Electricians regard
a cheap unit of electricity as the most essential raw
material for the country. There are endless duties
which electric power can perform, not only in our
homes and factories but on our railways and in mines.
It is possible that the advent of the thermionic valve
may lead to the scrapping of the telephone system
of the country. Major Purves, the Engineer-in-Chief
of the Post Office, looks forward to the possibility of
an entire change in our methods of telegraphy.
Telegrams can be despatched by the photographic
means already shown to be feasible for the trans-
mission of drawings and photographs. These mes-
sages would be charged by the area of the paper
occupied by the telegram and not by the number of
words. The received telegram would be a facsimile
of the original and neither counting of words nor
corrections would be required. Sending telegrams
would be almost as simple as sending letters, and
would be much quicker and less costly than at
present. The advantages of electric heating are also:
emphasised. When this system is adopted chimneys
in buildings can be dispensed with, fireplace furnish-
ings will be unnecessary, and the inlet and outlet
ventilators on the floor and ceiling of the room will
give the occupant a better control over the air supply.
Tue words “ Leaf Pictures’”’ recall the ingenious
arrangements of pressed seaweeds, shells, and the like
still to be found adorning the walls of modest dwell-
ings in the country. The work exhibited by Mr.
W. J. King at 118 New Bond Street is of a very
different order, and challenges the attention alike of
the man of science and the lover of art. As the
botanist turns from the plant materials employed to
the finished product, he cannot but marvel at the
delicacy of perception required in the selection of the
710
former and the degree of technical skill shown in
elaborating an entirely original technique. Some of
the work dates from twenty years back and suggests
problems to the plant physiologist on the stability of
vegetable pigments in relation to light and other
external conditions. Seen at a little distance, the
pictures might be mistaken for oil paintings. Actu-
ally, the medium consists of plant material—leaves,
petals, and other tissues—selected with much skill
and exposed to bright sunshine after drying. The
material so prepared is treated as would be the colours
on a palette, and by its use in this way Mr. King
has achieved remarkable results. The ‘‘ Dante bust ”’
(Naples) and the “ Virgin ”’ (after Bernardino Luini)
afford proof of the technical skill of the craftsman,
The original works, especially the landscapes entitled
““Spring,’”’ “ Beech Trees in Autumn,” and others,
provide evidence of real artistic ability as well as
mastery of a most remarkable plastic medium.
Dr. GRAVELY, the superintendent, seems deter-
mined to make the Government Museum, Madras,
used by the local schools. He has attached the
scientific and popular names in various vernaculars
to the trees in the compound; he has started a
herbarium of the flora of Madras: city, also with
vernacular names, as a guide and ensample to the
schools; he has had a research student of the Univer-
sity of Madras working on the local fauna with special
reference to groups likely to be useful for nature
study (bugs are specially mentioned) ; and he has
arranged for demonstrations both to teachers and to
students. Alas! Madras does not respond as it
ought: one out of the four demonstrations to
teachers failed because no teachers turned up, and
of the 2221 anticipated students only 950 attended.
But Dr. Gravely goes on collecting the local specimens,
and his sub-librarian has at any rate found matter
for a chapter on ‘‘ Museums and Libraries ’’ con-
tributed to a work on “‘ Teaching in Indian Ele-
mentary Schools.” All of which and much more we
learn from the Report entitled G.O. No. 885.
Dr. J. C. Wriris has published in the Nineteenth
Century for October a statement of his hypothesis of
“ Age and Area,”’ in its bearing on the evolution of
species. It will be remembered that the subject was
introduced by him at the recent meeting in Hull of
the British Association, where it met with somewhat
severe criticism. In the present article the author
avers that Darwin’s theory of natural selection ‘* has
received so severe a shake that it is no longer a name
to conjure with.”” It is unable, for example, to ex-
plain the distribution of the Ceylon species of the
genus Coleus (nettle-geranium). The visible struc-
tural differences between the species of wide and
those of restricted distribution cannot possibly make
any difference of advantage or disadvantage to their
possessor. The controlling principle, according to
Dr. Willis, is that “ widely-spread species are in
general the oldest and first evolved, very local species
the youngest and last evolved.’’ Moreover, the area
occupied by a group of genera corresponds roughly
with the number of species in each genus of the
NO. 2769, VOL. 110]
WAT ORE
[ NovVEMBER 25, 1922
group. It follows that the number of species in a
genus should also show an increase with its age.
Opinions will differ as to the importance to be assigned
to the factors suggested by Dr. Willis; it cannot,
however, escape notice that while he alleges that it
would be “ wiser to abandon natural selection’ as
the general principle that has guided evolution, he
yet allows that “nothing can come into lasting
existence ’’ without its permission.
THE opening remarks of Prof. C. H. Desch in his-
Streatfeild Memorial Lecture delivered at Finsbury
Technical College on November 2, on the subject
of “The Metallurgical Chemist,’’ emphasised the
value of trained chemists in the field of metallurgical
and chemical industry to control and guide these
industries. Prof. Desch asserted that the basis of
the training for a metallurgical chemist should be
mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and specialised
work should not be entered upon at too early a stage.
Chemical knowledge and manipulative skill is required,
for example, for the analysis of alloys and modern
high-speed steels, while training in physical chemistry
and physics is requisite for a proper interpretation
of the results of examinations of physical properties,
for example, of alloys as shown by X-ray analyses,
There is also need for engineering knowledge for
carrying out large-scale metallurgical operations,
such as the study of fatigue and also in ore extrac-
tion. Probably the best results can be obtained by
the co-operation of chemist and engineer both with
a certain amount of training in common. Prof.
Desch also referred to the importance to the metal-
lurgical industries of further work on refractory
materials. Another matter awaiting immediate at-
tention is economy in the utilisation of fuel and
other natural resources. Secrecy and rule-of-thumb
methods have completely disappeared from the steel
industry, and co-operation between the scientific
advisers, to the advantage of the whole industry,
has taken its place. :
On November 15, Prof. A. P. Laurie, professor of
chemistry to the Royal Academy, delivered a lecture
at the Academy on “ The Preservation and Cleaning
of Pictures.’”’ He pointed out that the question of
the preservation and cleaning of pictures is not a
purely scientific one, but involves certain esthetic
considerations, and he suggested3that there has been
some confusion of thought on the whole subject.
A picture might have certain flakes of paint off it,
and yet be otherwise in good condition, and in such
a case it would probably be considered necessary to
restore the absent pigment. Here, however, we get
upon purely esthetic ground as to whether such a
restoration is justifiable. In order that the general
appearance of the picture conveyed to the observer
what the artist intended, it is necessary to replace
the defective part, but from the point of view of the
minute and careful student of the picture, it is essential
that such replacement should be known. This diffi-
culty can be overcome by taking photographs of
the picture before repair, so as to put on record
what is the work of the master and what is the work
1» —~engemilngetncstedinn:
NOVEMBER 25, 1922]
of the restorer. While not prepared to give a final
opinion as to the safest methods of cleaning, Prof.
Laurie suggested that where alcohol is used castor-oil
should be laid on the surface with a soft brush, and
then a mixture of castor-oil and alcohol dabbed on
with a soft brush, and removed by diluting with
turpentine and sopping up with a large dry brush.
Where alcohol is not a sufficiently powerful solvent
copaiba balsam emulsified with ammonia might be
used, a preparation of copaiba balsam thinned with a
little turpentine being laid on the surface first. If any
friction is to be applied it should be done with a soft
rubber point, and at every stage examined under a
powerful magnifying glass. No important public pic-
ture should be cleaned until it has been authorised
-by a committee of experts, and the cleaner himself
should be present and explain exactly what he is
going to do, while everything he does should be under
the direct supervision of the head of the Public Gallery.
TuE next Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute
will be held at Hull on. July 30-August 4, 1923, by
invitation of the Mayor and Town Council.
Tue Huxley Memorial Lecture announced for de-
livery by Prof. M. Boule at the Royal Anthropological
Institute on Tuesday, November 28, has been post-
poned through the ill-health of the lecturer and his
ORWARD progression, perhaps the form of
muscular activity most commonly engaged in
by the average human being, is, both in its anatomical
and physiological aspects, one of extraordinary com-
plexity. The work of Marey, Carlet, Braune and
Fischer has thrown much light on the actual movement
of the body and legs during the forward movement,
and the researches of Zuntz and Schumburg, Durig,
Douglas, Benedict and Murschhauser, and others have
helped towards the elucidation of the metabolism and
energy expenditure of the movement. A number of
problems which have emerged from the previous in-
vestigations still remain unsolved; some of these
questions are discussed, and in part elucidated, in this
new volume from the Carnegie Institution’s Nutrition
Laboratory at Boston.
This book forms the natural sequel to the work of
Benedict and Murschhauser. These workers dealt with
the changes in the metabolism, the cost and the
efficiency of the human body during horizontal walking.
Monmouth Smith’s work, although ostensibly it is
meant to deal principally with “grade” walking,
contains much new data on horizontal walking, more
especially as regards the influence of the movement
and change of position on the blood pressure, pulse
and temperature. The effect of horizontal walking
on the blood pressure is not great ; as regards the pulse
rate, one of the most striking features is the great
variation found in the same subject under apparently
identical conditions. In connexion with the rectal
temperature several interesting facts emerge : (a) there
is a definite lag in the rise of temperature which occurs
in changing from standing to walking ; (b) except at the
higher rates the effect of the rate of walking is small ;
and (c) the maximum increase at any speed less than
roo metres per minute does: not exceed 0:5° C. (without
taking into consideration the duration of the exercise).
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
Many new observations have also been made on the
“step-lift.” A slightly lower value for the cost of this
operation than that of previous workers was found.
A slightly lower value than that commonly accepted
was also found for the energy cost per horizontal
kilogrammetre.
In the grade-walking experiments a preliminary
series of experiments were made on the influence of the
mouthpiece on the breathing of the subject. These
tests are of considerable technical interest. The
general result is that unless the preliminary period of
breathing with the mouthpiece in position be of
sufficient duration, the accuracy of the determination
of the respiratory quotient is endangered.
A large number of observations were also made on
the influence of grade walking, in addition to the
determination of the energy cost, on the blood pressure,
pulse, pulmonary ventilation, and temperature. Those
on the temperature are particularly interesting. It
was found, for example, that the temperature increase
was not always the same for the same amount of work,
although, as might be expected, a higher temperature
and a greater increase over normal were usually
observed when the work and the metabolism were
greatest. The maximum total increase, when the
work done was heavy, was between 1:5°C. and 2° C.
A number of very interesting experiments on the rate
of the fall of the rectal temperature after the cessation
of work are recorded. In one experiment at least it
was very rapid, 1-14° C. in twelve minutes, or 0-09° C.
per minute. On the other hand, if observations were
continued, the rectal temperature was found to approxi-
mate normal pre-work temperature only about two
hours after the cessation of work.
The Nature of Science.
What is Science? By Dr.- Norman Campbell. Pp.
ix+186. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1921.)
5s. net.
i \ \ 7 HAT is Science?” is a question that may be
answered in as many ways as “ What is
Truth ?”’, and much depends on the questioner. In this
case the original questioner was apparently an audience
drawn from the Workers’ Educational Association.
Fifty or more years ago the worker was all agog for
science ; now, it appears, he either shoulders it aside
as too academic for practical use, or rejects it as the
“stone ” of vocational education proffered instead of
the “ bread ” of culture. The worker, in this limited
sense, is not alone in misapprehending what is meant
by “science,” for the public at large, as recent years
have given abundant proof, often blames it for sins
DECEMBER 2, 1922 |
NATURE
729
of both commission and omission, due really to human
nature. It is well then that we should be provided
in this handy form with a clearly-written and common-
sense account of what scientific men mean by “‘ science.”
So much for the form.of the answer. As for its
content, Dr. Campbell will find one or other of his
statements disagreed with by each philosopher in turn.
But he refrains, wisely, from straying far along the
perilous paths of metaphysics, and, while expressing
his own opinion, admits frankly that there are others.
If the question is to be answered by way of definition,
Dr. Campbell’s may be accepted as giving at any rate
one point of view: ‘Science is the study of those
judgments concerning which universal agreement can
be obtained.” In rebutting the objection that there
cannot be universal agreement, Dr. Campbell selects
as the most perfect example the order in which events
occur. But have not some of the relativists suggested
that agreement on this may not necessarily be universal ?
Probably a definition is not the best way of answering
Dr. Campbell’s definition may be true,
It has one
the question.
but it does not cover the whole ground.
advantage, in that it omits reference to “ the external
world of nature,” and that advantage is not merely
metaphysical but practical, since without further
discussion it permits one to include the study of the
human mind and its products. It has been the attempt
to define science by reference to its subject matter that
has led to much of the misunderstanding. Science is,
it seems to us, rather a way of looking at things or a
method of study, and if it excludes any subject it is
only because the method proves inapplicable. Un-
doubtedly a necessary condition is agreement upon
the judgments. Take literature for example. Purely
esthetic criticism will never give that ‘ Quod semper,
quod ubique, quod ab omnibus” which science demands;
and science therefore must decline to appraise the
poetic merits of “‘ Lear,’ “ Hamlet,’ and “‘ Macbeth.”
But the number of lines with weak endings in those
plays can be ascertained definitely, and can therefore
be subjected to scientific inquiry.
How science works is the subject of three chapters,
which consider the nature, the discovery, and the
explanation of the laws of science. We used to be
taught that “a Natural Law is a regular sequence of
Cause and Effect.” Dr. Campbell discards the causal
relation and .replaces it by “invariable association.”
It is this invariability that lies at the base of the
definition of science recently given by the Master of
Balliol: “(a body of generalisations from facts which
enables us to predict fresh facts.” But further inquiry
shows that the associations, in their original sense, are
not invariable. Exceptions arise and have to be met
by new laws, either of the same kind or of a new type.
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
The discovery of a new type of law is the privilege of
So far one may go with Dr. Campbell, but
when he implies that the genius imposes the law in
accordance with his “ intellectual desires”? and that
“the universe obeys the dictates of [his] mind,” it is
not so easy to follow him. Does he mean that all our
systems are purely subjective? To some extent the
answer to this question is given in the section headed
“ Are theories real?” The reality of a theory depends
on its power of predicting true laws, and thus it gains
universal acceptance. ‘“‘A molecule is as real, and
real in the same way, as the gases the laws of which
it explains. It is an idea essential to the intelligibility
of the world not to one mind, but to all ; it is an idea
which nature as well as mankind accepts. That, I
maintain, is the test and the very meaning of reality.’’
The position is intelligible, but our difficulties recur
when we come to the interesting remarks on symbols
and the zsthetic sense of the mathematician—< one
more illustration of the power of pure thought, aiming
only at the satisfaction of intellectual desires, to control
the external world.” Would it not be truer to say
that the external world, by countless direct and indirect
means, acting since life began, has so influenced the
unconscious as well as the conscious perceptions of
man, that the mind necessarily regards as harmonious
those relations which conform to the seen or unseen
reality of the universe? The scientific genius is he
who has a deeper intuition of that harmony than his
fellows, or, perhaps more accurately, he who can the
most easily raise to the plane of consciousness the
subconscious promptings of external nature.
genius.
Aspects of Military Medicine.
History of the Great War, based on Official Documents.
Medical Services: Diseases of the War. Vol. t.
Edited by Major-General Sir W. G. MacPherson,
Major-General Sir W. P. Herringham, Col. T. R.
Elliott, and Lt.-Col. A. Balfour. Pp. viii+550.
(London: H.M.S.O., 1922.) 21s. net.
P to the beginning of the nineteenth century
the medical history of wars was very incom-
plete, and is to be found in memoirs or commentaries
written by individual military surgeons. To this
category belong the works of Percy, M‘Grigor, and
particularly Barron Larrey, the great military surgeon
of the Napoleonic period. A great change, however,
took place with the publication by the Americans of
the splendid and exhaustive “ Medical and Surgical
History of the War of Rebellion (1861-1865),” which
has remained a model for all later works on military
After the greatest of all wars it was to be
ZI
medicine.
7 30
INGA T ORE
| DECEMBER 2, 1922
expected that the medical histories which were bound
to make their appearance would be voluminous and
detailed, and that this country would not be behind
others in this respect. The volume before us does
not lead one to anticipate a standard work of per-
manent value in medical literature. From the brief
preface, occupying a page and a half, it is not clear
what the object of the work is. It is stated that the con-
tributors had at their disposal the material contained
in official documents, while later on it is said that
“there has been little opportunity for further analysis
and study of accumulated records of medical cases,”
and an apology is made that the contributors have
been handicapped by the fact that papers published
during the war were comparatively few. To any one
conversant with the volume of medical literature which
poured out in every country, this must seem an
extraordinary statement. The “Index Medicus War
Supplement,” dealing with 1914-17, occupies alone
260 pages of titles, which at a conservative estimate
represents at least 10,000 papers which were pub-
lished on some aspect of military medicine during
these three years.
Whatever was the intention of the editors, the book
before us consists, in fact, of a series of short essays
dealing with general statements rather than with
actual data acquired during the war with respect to
the several diseases of which they treat. Thus typhus
fever and cholera are disposed of in sixteen and thirteen
pages respectively, while the article on “ General
Aspects of Disease during the War” occupies less than
ten complete pages. The other articles deal with
such conditions as the enteric group of fevers, dysentery,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, malaria, trench fever, jaun-
dice, scurvy, beri-beri, pellagra, nephritis, and cardio-
vascular diseases.
There are twenty-one contributors, and of these but
It cannot serve
a useful purpose to make an analysis of each of the
individual articles. some are
trivial, but those of Dr. Wenyon on malaria, of Sir W.
Willcox on scurvy and beri-beri, of Sir J. Rose Bradford
four were regular officers in the army.
Many are sketchy,
on nephritis, of Dr. Hume on cardio-vascular diseases,
and of Col. Lelean on pellagra, are worthy of study.
We are informed in the article on cholera that “ all
recent evidence shows that the cause of cholera is
infection cholera The word
“recent? must here be taken as implying a period
of nearly forty years.
with the bacillus.”
The bibliographies in general are short, and some
bear the impress of the professional copyist from the
‘Index Medicus” rather than represent the works
consulted by the authors.
?
In some cases the refer-
ences given are to abstracts and epitomes and not to
NO: 2770), VOL, WTO}
the original works, although the latter were easily
accessible. References such as ‘‘ Nicolot, Bour, Monier-
Vinard and Buguet, Le Paludisine,” without date or
locus of publication, are not helpful to the reader.
The coloured illustrations, six in number, are successful,
but the index bears evidence of having been compiled
by some one unfamiliar with this class of work. In
future volumes it is to be hoped that some of the
defects of this one will be rectified. Compared with
the greatness of the subject, the appearance of the
volume is not attractive. WB:
Our Bookshelf.
Engineering Inspection. By Prof. E. A. Allcut and
C. J. King. Pp. xv+187. (London: G. Routledge
and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 15s. net.
Tue authors of the work under notice commence with
a summary of the objects of inspection, and follow this
by descriptions of inspection methods ranging from
the inspection of raw materials to the carrying out of
running tests on the manufactured product. These
descriptions should make the book valuable to inspec-
tion staffs, who will find therein much of the information
required in ordinary inspection work. In many cases
references are given to original papers dealing with
special methods of inspection, while the general in-
formation given in the text is amplified by a collection
of useful tables in the appendix. In some respects
the last chapter is the most important in the book,
since it deals with the kind of temperament, as well
as the qualifications, required in inspectors and viewers.
Throughout the book the authors emphasise the point
that the aim of an inspector should be to “ scrap” as
little work as possible, to detect faults in materials
and workmanship at the earliest possible stage of
manufacture, and to pass all sound work with the
minimum delay. The type of organisation sketched
out will be of interest to all engineers, and may indicate
lines on which existing inspection systems can be
improved ; the general tone of the book should serve
to remove much of the distrust with which inspection
is still viewed by many. The authors are to be com-
plimented on having presented so comprehensive a
survey of an important subject in such a readable and
well-balanced form.
The Emotions. By Carl G. Lange and William James.
(Psychology Classics, vol. 1.) Pp. 135. (Baltimore,
Md.: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1922.) 4 dollars.
Witiiam JAmes and Carl Lange, investigating the
problem of the emotions, independently and within a
year, arrived at a very similar point of view with regard
to the relation between the emotion as experienced by
the subject and its bodily expression. The theory,
cenerally known as the James-Lange theory, inverts
the usual common-sense sequence which would say
that we cry because we are sorry, and asserts that,
on the contrary, we are sorry because we cry. Practi-
cally every student of psychology since the publication
of the original articles has had to consider this conten-
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
731
tion ; it is fairly easy to criticise, extremely easy to
ridicule, and yet still remains provocative.
Very much more knowledge of the physiological
processes concerned in emotion is available now, and
although few thinkers could be found to accept the
theory in its more extreme form, nevertheless it still
has vitality.
The whimsical humour characteristic of James’s
writing arrested most readers’ attention, and there
seems little doubt that, although it in its turn had been
stimulated by the work of Darwin, the publication of
this theory gave considerable impetus to the study of
the emotions and their relation to organic processes.
The present book, a reprint of James’s and Lange’s
work, will be a valuable addition to the psychologist’s
library, presenting as it does, in convenient form,
papers hitherto not easily obtainable.
A Manual of Clinical Laboratory Methods. By Prof.
Clyde L. Cummer. Pp. 484. (London: H. Kimp-
ton, 1922.) 28s. net.
Dr. Cummer has produced this manual for students
and practitioners with the object of presenting clinical
laboratory methods in concise and accessible form.
The book is divided into seven chapters dealing with
different materials—the examination of blood, of
urine, of gastric contents, etc. In each, the methods
of carrying out an investigation are first described,
and the significance of the findings is then discussed.
The subject-matter of each section is well arranged,
and there are numerous excellent engravings and plates ;
but there is much detail which could with advantage
have been omitted. The method of using the in-
accurate Tallquist hemoglobinometer does not merit
description in a text-book which aims at being concise ;
nearly half the book is devoted to the examination of
the blood, and the chapter on urine is comparatively
brief ; the estimation of basal metabolism is not men-
tioned at all. The best section is that on cerebro-
spinal fluid, which contains good deseriptions of modern
investigations, including the Lange colloidal gold
reaction.
The Teaching of General Science. By Prof. W. L.
Eikenberry. (University of Chicago Nature-Study
Series.) Pp. xii+169. (Chicago, Ill.: University
of Chicago Press, 1922.) 2 dollars.
Tue rapid spread of the teaching of general science
follows on the recognition of the educative value of the
subject. Much of this is lost, so far as children are
concerned, if the content is restricted to what may be
useful for some of them in future training as specialists.
“The preparatory values are incidental. The adjust-
ment between general science and special science must
be made by the latter building upon what foundation
the former lays, rather than by any attempt to prescribe
that certain materials shall be used for preparatory
reasons.” This is the main idea underlying Prof.
Eikenberry’s book, in which he describes the history
and practice of the teaching in America. He has gone
to the root of the matter, dealing fully with the prin-
ciples on which practice should rest ; and the result is
a book which no one who has the interests of science
teaching at heart can afford to ignore.
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
The Elements of Astronomy.
Pp. vill+233. (Cambridge :
Press, 1921.) 14s. net.
THE problems of the diurnal rotation, meridian observa-
tions, the motion of the moon and planets, precession,
nutation, refraction, etc., are dealt with in quite an
elementary manner in the work under notice. The
chief new feature is an interesting account of ancient
Indian astronomy. The book is, unfortunately,
greatly in need of revision, misprints, misspellings,
and other errata being numerous. Some of them are
likely to cause serious misconceptions; thus, the
moon’s distance is given as 23,800 miles, both on
pp. 102 and r17._ On p. 146 the distance of Europa
from Jupiter is given as 9400 miles; on p. 138 the
periodic time of a planet is stated to vary as 7°. It is
difficult to suppose that the proofs were read with
By Prof. D. N. Mallik.
At the University
any care. fey (Cy 1D) (Ce
The Iron and Steel Institute. Carnegie Scholarship
Memoirs. Vol. 11: The Corrosion of Iron. By
Dr. J. Newton Friend. Edited by George C. Lloyd.
Pp.vi+16r. (London: The Institute ; E.and F.N.
Spon, Ltd.; New York: Spon and Chamberlain,
1922.) 16s. net.
Dr. FRIEND’ collection of reports, dealing with various
aspects of corrosion, does not represent a complete
treatise on the subject. Many important researches
and theories are not to be found in it, but the sections
of the subject dealt with (including much of Dr.
Frend’s own work) are treated fairly fully. The
subject of the corrosion of iron is one which has occupied
man for some thousands of years, and a collected
account of further progress will, therefore, be useful.
Each investigator has usually emphasised one aspect
of the process more than others, and in a “ colloidal ”
theory of corrosion we recognise Dr. Friend’s con-
tribution.
Daval.
(Paris :
Construction des réseaux dénergie. Par M.
(Bibliothéque Professionnelle.) Pp. 275.
J. B. Bailliére et Fils, 1922.) 8 francs net.
M. Davat’s work is written for those who have to
design or superintend the working of electric power
networks. It is written from a severely practical
point of view, and assumes only the slightest mathe-
matical knowledge on the part of the reader. The
author lays particular stress on those practical points
about which the academically trained engineer is often
ignorant. The book is clearly written, and will be
helpful to the junior staff engaged in the distribution
of electric power.
Les Encres, les cirages, les colles et leur préparation.
Par Maurice de Keghel. (Bibliothéque Profession-
nelle.) Pp. 384. (Paris: J. B. Bailliére et Fils,
1922.) 10 francs.
REFERENCE has already been made in Nature to an
earlier volume of this encyclopedia. The subjects
are treated from the technical point of view, 2.e.
recipes are largely given. Many of these would seem
likely to be useful in the laboratory as well as in the
workshop, and the book should fulfil the purpose for
which it is intended.
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice ts
taken of anonymous Communications. |
[The
The Isotopes of Antimony.
Owi1nc to the kindness of Prof. G. T. Morgan, who
prepared a specimen of pure antimony trimethyl for
this purpose, I have now been able to obtain the
mass-spectrum of antimony. The element is char-
acterised by two lines of nearly equal strength at 121,
123. The first is the more intense by perhaps Io to
20 per cent. If sufficient exposure is given two faint
companions are visible at 122, 124, but the general
evidence suggests that these are due to hydrogen
addition products. The isotopic nature of the lines
121, 123 is amply confirmed by the appearance of
similar pairs 15 and 30 units higher, due to molecules
of their monomethides and dimethides. The most
trustworthy measurements show that the masses of
the isotopes of antimony are most probably less than
whole numbers by one to two parts in a thousand.
These results show that the chemical atomic weight
120-2 at present accepted is certainly too low. They
are, however, in excellent agreement with the value
121-77 recently obtained in America by Willard and
M'‘ Alpine. F. W. ASTON.
Cavendish Laboratory,
Cambridge, November 16.
Experiments on the Theory of Soil-acidity.
In a recent paper “On the Adsorption of Ions ”’
(Phil. Mag. (VI.) 44, 321) the origin of soil-acidity
has been discussed (pp. 338-45, especially PP. 343-45):
In the following a short account is given of some
experiments carried out with Mr. Kamalacharan
Bhattacharya and Mr. Bankim Chandra Roy.
It was suggested that the acidity is due to the |
adsorption by the gels (of silicic acid, aluminium
oxide, and ferric oxide) of the anions of acids. The
adsorption is so strong that the adsorbed substance
cannot be washed out by water, and the aqueous
extract is neutral. The anions are adsorbed on the
surface by ‘‘ chemical forces ’’ whereas an equivalent
number of cations forms the mobile second sheet of
the double layer. If the cations consist in part
of H’ ions, in treating with excess of a neutral salt
(IXCl) solution there is a displacement of the cations
of the second Jayer by the cations of the neutral
salt, as the latter is present in relatively enormous
concentration, and as the forces acting on the cations
of the mobile second sheet of the double layer are
mainly electrical in nature.
Experiments have been carried out with powdered
precipitates of silica, ferric oxide, and alumina. Of
these, silica has been found to adsorb appreciable
quantities of acids, e.g. acetic, citric, hydrochloric,
and nitric. The adsorption is so strong that on
repeated washing the adsorbed substance cannot be
removed so that the aqueous extract soon becomes
perfectly neutral. On now shaking the precipitate
with KCl—which is tested with indicators to be
perfectly neutral—the aqueous extract (free from
particles of the precipitate) is found to be distinctly
acid. The amount of the acid depends on the amount
of the precipitate. In the extract with the neutral
salt solution, acetates or citrates could not be detected.
The formation of insoluble salts of alkali metals
or replacement of hydrogen ions by metallic ions in
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
complex silicic acids is evidently out of the question.
It is unanimously agreed that silica is an acid, and
the probability of forming definite complex acids
with acetic acid is very remote.
It might be argued that the acids are adsorbed
as such, that is, the entire molecule isadsorbed. This
point has been settled by simultaneous experiments
on electro-osmosis. The apparatus used was a modifica-
tion of that used by Briggs (Journ. Phys. Chem. 22,
1918, 256), which the writer found was employed by
Dr. Ishikawa in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory of
Prof. F. G. Donnan, University College, London.
The sample of pure precipitated silica (British Drug
Stores, Ltd.) we are using shows a marked negative
charge in pure water. On treating with acetate the
charge increases as shown by the rate of motion.
The results are accurate within about 1o per cent.
Velocity in cm, per min,
Pure water c :
N/1ooo sodium acetate .
N/2000 acetic acid ey ; 2-73CDs
N/1ooo sodium hy droxide ie) 314. CIL.5 Sh2ncms
N/roo acetic acid | eA ane
N/1o0oo hydrochloric acid 2°3 cm.
N/1ooo potassium chloride . 3°1 cm
It will be seen that in the presence of sodium acetate
and potassium chloride the negative charges increase
too and 50 per cent. respectively. The experiments
have been carried out under identical conditions.
In the case of sodium acetate the presence of hydroxyl
ions have to be taken into account. It will be seen,
however, that acetanions are adsorbed to a greater
extent than hydroxidions, and it is well known that
the more strongly adsorbed substance largely dis-
places the other which is not so strongly adsorbed.
In the case of potassium chloride the question of
hydrolysis does not arise.
As is to be expected from the greater mobility of
the hydrogen ions and the views of the writer (Far.
Soc. Disc., Oct. 1921, Phil. Mag. (V1.) 44, 330-37),
the acids of the same concentrations show a smaller
charge than their salts. The charge is, however,
undoubtedly greater than that with pure water, so
that there is unmistakable evidence of the adsorption
of anions, but owing to the effect of hydrogen ions the
charge indicates a smaller adsorption than is really
the fact.
We are at present engaged in working with the
gels (which are likely to have greater specific surface)
and with chemically pure silica or silicic acid gel.
It appears that the electro-osmotic apparatus is also
capable of further improvements.
These experiments clearly show that we are really
dealing with the kinetic exchange of i1ons (hydrogen
or Al” in the case of soil acidity) in the second sheet
of the double layer or present as electrically adsorbed,
as suggested by the writer. It is not necessary to
assume the hydrolysis of potassium chloride into
alkali and acid in water, or the displacement of
hydrochloric acid from alkali chlorides by humus
acid, or the formation of insoluble salts of alkali
metals, as has been done in the past.
There is other corroborative evidence in support
of this point of view. N. MUKHERJEE.
Physical Chemistry Department,
University College of Science, Calcutta,
September 20.
New Spectra of Water Vapour, Air, and Hydrogen
in the extreme Ultra-violet.
AFTER reading of the excellent work of Prof. Wood
on the extension of the Balmer series of hydrogen,
I decided to investigate the Lyman series of hydrogen
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
in a similar manner. In the process of this in-
vestigation, some results were found which I now
describe.
Water vapour in contact with films renders them
insensitive to the extreme ultra-violet, and on the
other hand, new films may be made sensitive for
immediate use if they are thoroughly dried.
Water vapour gives a spectrum in the ultra-violet
extending to about \9goo0. It consists of oxygen lines,
hydrogen series lines, the secondary spectrum of
hydrogen, and some bands probably not due to
hydrogen. The A.C. or D.C. current used was found
to dissociate water into its elements almost completely.
A condensed discharge, however, formed compounds
in the receiver of the vacuum grating spectrograph
which fogged the films in the path of the light. It
is, therefore, not surprising that a spectrum of water
vapour should be found in this region of short wave-
lengths, for hydrogen is known to be transparent
here, and the author has shown (Physical Review,
in press) that oxygen likewise is remarkably trans-
parent in a portion of this region.
With condensed discharge and low pressure in
receiver and discharge tube, a spectrum was obtained
for air to \350. In this experiment no attempt was
made to eliminate mercury vapour. Many of the
lines in the neighbourhood of 600, recently found
by Lyman to constitute a helium series, were also
found on these films.
Ordinary commercial films were found sensitive at
1215-7, so that a very clear line was produced on
the film after only five minutes’ exposure, with
hydrogen at a pressure of 0-3 mm.
Using wet hydrogen and a long discharge tube
three new members of the Lyman series of hydrogen
were found. Thus there are now six lines of that
series known. Appearing on the same spectrogram
with these was a line \243:210-2. This was observed
on many films, and on some of them it occurred in
the first, second, and third orders. Its wave-length
agrees within limits of experimental error with the
equivalent wave-length (\248) for the L critical
potential of oxygen, observed by Kurth, using photo-
electric methods. The observation of this line in
hydrogen at a pressure of 0-3 mm., after the light
had traversed a distance of one metre, shows the
transparency of hydrogen in this region. This fact
may be useful to those working in soft X-rays or in
the region of these short ultra-violet radiations.
Furthermore, the presence of this line indicates that
the great absorption band of hydrogen which begins
at about \850 terminates on the long wave-length
side of \243. J. J. Hoprrerp.
Department of Physics, University of California,
Berkeley, October 30.
Molecular Viscosity.
Tue following remarks are offered rather in the
nature of a foreword, suggesting a particular line of
research, than as an article of belief. Although the
conclusions arrived at are purely theoretical, and
have at present no experimental confirmation, the
practical test outlined at the end of the paper should
supply a definite answer as to whether there is any
foundation for the theory advanced.
Our conception of the physical forces which are
called into play when a liquid is caused to flow with
‘linear or stream-line motion is gradually undergoing
a change. The old definition of viscosity as internal
friction needs revising. Already Dunstan and Thole
(Journ. Inst. Petr. Tech., vol. iv. p. 197) have
come to regard viscosity in the nature of a dual
phenomenon, which they attribute partly to internal
NO. 2770, VOL. I10|
NATURE
oo
friction and partly to deformation of molecular
grouping (although these may conceivably be one
and the same thing). There is one aspect of the
subject which does not seem to have received its
fair share of notice. Allusion is made to the gyro-
scopic resistance offered by any orbits, the motion of
which has components at right angles to the line of flow.
When a vapour condenses into a liquid, the mole-
cules still retain the major portion of their high
velocity ; and since it is only their mutual attraction
that prevents them from escaping again into space,
it follows that their paths must be very curved, and
that in all probability there will be at any instant
of time a certain number of them revolving round
one another in orbits, after the fashion of the twin
stars. These systems would doubtless have only a
short life, being destroyed by collision with neighbour-
ing molecules, but for the instant of time during
which conditions were favourable similar orbits would
be formed to take their place.
For want of a better name this particular form of
viscous resistance will be referred to as gyro-viscosity.
We may then consider the property, common to all
liquids, of resistance to flow as made up of at least
two parts, namely :
(a) gyro-viscosity.
(b) molecular friction or deformation.
Whereas (a) lends itself readily to mathematical
treatment, (b) is still so largely a matter of conjecture,
that while our ideas are in their present state of
flux, we cannot be sufficiently definite about anything
in this connexion to attempt any sort of analysis.
We can, however, be moderately confident that in
some degree (a) must obtain, and it is hoped to show
a means whereby it may be measured. When a
liquid is subjected to a shearing stress, in other words
when flow starts, there will be at once the gyroscopic
resistance of those components of the orbits at right
angles to the line of flow; and when these have
been turned through a right angle and flow continues
there will remain the constant resistance of those
orbits which are produced during flow. Viewed in
this way the initial momentary resistance should be
greater than the subsequent constant resistance ; and
since the former is independent of the rate at which
the orbits are being formed, it would afford a means
of estimating the relative molecular gyro-viscosity,
if only it could be measured with sufficient accuracy.
A method of doing this which suggests itself is based
upon the correct resolution of the forces which go
to produce the so-called Couette correction for flow
through capillary tubes.
Couette found that when the length / of the tube
was doubled the corresponding time ¢ was not quite
doubled, and that in order to satisfy his equation
it was necessary to replace 7 by 1 +kd, where d is the
diameter of the capillary and # a constant having
an approximate value of 0:25. Since this correction
is, in a sense, a measure of the total work W, done
outside the tube, it must contain also the preliminary
work W,, required to turn all the orbits in existence
at any instant of time in the whole volume run.
The difference W,-W,, represents the work done
outside the tube in overcoming viscous resistance of
the liquid alveady in motion (the kinetic energy
correction was, of course, allowed for, and therefore ~
does not enter into these quantities).
The Couette value affords a direct means of deter-
mining W, but the calculation of W,-W,, presents
considerable difficulties. We are faced with the
problem of finding (1) an expression for the distribu-
tion of the velocities in the trumpet-shaped lines
of flow of the liquid before it enters the tube ; (2) the
varying acceleration of any one of these lines before
it attains its final constant velocity on entering the
Lon
iwATORE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
tube ; (3) the influence of the head of liquid on the
curvature of these lines. As all of these admit of
exact mathematical treatment, it should be possible,
by running a gram-molecule of the liquid, to calculate
W,,. This would be entirely independent of the
velocity of flow and would represent the relative
molecular gyro-viscosity. Whereas the ordinary
figures for absolute viscosity appear to bear no
general relationship to the other physical constants
of the liquid, it is possible that these values might
be more productive of results. A thorough investiga-
tion of these lines of flow is therefore the first necessary
step towards the solution of this most interesting
problem. FRANK M. LIDSTONE.
37 Powell St., Derby,
November 1.
New Weights and Measures for India.
I HAVE read with interest the article in NATURE
of September 2, p. 325, on the weights and measures
of India by Mr. Silberrad, president Indian Weights
and Measures Committee. Mr. Silberrad reports
conditions much the same as I found them in India
in 1910. One of the pleasures in reading NatTuRE
is that the desirability of producing commodities
and methods of service is taken for granted. Now
in attacking this problem it is assumed that a simple,
useful system of weights and measures is desired for
India.
article on weights and measures for the ‘‘ Times
Year-book,”’ and in looking up data in.this connexion,
I came across the permissive Metric Act of 1871.
This Act represents one of the attempts of the leaders
of India to secure the advantages of the general use
of the metric system. By it the Viceroy of India is
empowered to make what preliminary arrangements
might be necessary, and proclaim the date after
which metric weights and measures shall come into
general use.
Let us consider the various necessary units of
measurement in their logical order.
1. Mr. Silberrad rightly mentions “‘ the Peshawari
yard of 38 in. to 38} in.,” and also the yard of ap-
proximately 40 inches. Also the Ilahi gaz, which
is frequently in the neighbourhood of, if not exactly,
39°37 imches or one metre. These are only a few
examples of units of length in a country of approxi-
mate lengths that could be best standardised on the
international metre.
2. Practically the same thing is true of measures
of area. Nearly all of the British engineers that I
have met have favoured the metric system, and
few have any desire to continue the use of such a
difficult unit as the acre. The square metre and
the hectare of 10,000 square metres are good and
sufficient, and will, we believe, be used eventually
in all civilised countries. Several of the Indian
units fortunately approximate to the hectare.
3. The suggestion that “the standardisation of
suitable measures of capacity at the nearest suitable
multiple of the bulk of 14 seers of water, this being
approximately equivalent to the bulk of a seer of
wheat,’’ is not so unfortunate as it may seem. This
probably will soon become the litre.
4. My findings also correspond with those of Mr.
Silberrad in reference to the tola of 180 grains, about
12 grams. This brings the seer to approximately
1 kilogram. When it is understood that the seer
has been adopted for practically all railroad trans-
actions in India by the British Government, one
realises that India is using the metric system in what
amounts to 60 per cent. of all accurate transactions
according to weight.
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
‘While in India I was asked to rewrite the |
It was my pleasure to spend part of the past
summer in England, and confer in regard to the
metric campaign with members of the Decimal
Association and others who are actively interested
in the metric movement. I found a general desire
to secure the advantages of decimal currency and
metric weights and measures. It was forcibly brought
home to me that the chief men of England who have
the vision of service and big foreign trade will not
only encourage the Colonies to make progress in the
metric movement, but will also see to it that the
British Government leads the way in this much-
needed reform. Readers of Nature will be in-
terested to see the following statement by Prof. J. C.
McLennan of Toronto University: ‘‘ In the early
part of 1906, at the request of the Hon. L. P. Brodeur,
Minister of Inland Revenue of the Dominion Govern-
ment of Canada, I agreed to deliver a number of
lectures on the use of metric weights and measures.
“Through the co-operation of the Department
mentioned, a schedule of the lectures was arranged,
and it was made known in various centres through-
out Canada that my services in connexion with
the metric campaign would be available on certain
dates for the various local societies interested in this
subject.
“In carrying out this rather strenuous schedule,
lectures were given in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto,
Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver, and in over 30 other
Canadian cities. In some places the idea of the
simple metric system corresponding to decimal
currency was then new to many people. Our meet-
ings were well attended, in some cases as many as
600 people being present. At the close of each
address, all present were invited to take part in the
discussion of the subject. The pros and cons were
propounded with the utmost frankness, and in some
cases with considerable vigour. Never during this
lecture tour or at any other time have I heard, in
so far as I can judge, a really valid argument against
the general use of metric weights and measures.
On the other hand, the many valid reasons for their
use increase as time passes.
“Tt is highly desirable that this preliminary
educational work, conducted entirely at the expense
of our Government, should be effectively followed
up. It is chiefly for the purpose of encouraging others
to do their part in securing for Canada the advantages
of the use of the metric system that on April 28,
1922, I accepted the Chairmanship of the Toronto
Section of the American Metric Association. At
that time Mr. W. P. Dobson of the Hydro-Electric
Power Commission was elected Secretary, and Mr. L.
Burpee, of the Canadian General Electric Company,
Ltd., was elected Treasurer. Our Section is com-
posed of volunteer workers, who desire to see the
metric campaign progress as it should. We believe
that everybody can do something to help. We
hope that a great many people will let Mr. Dobson
know that they will help the metric movement in
their own industry or line of work.”
It may seem a far cry from Canada to India, but
there is a direct connexion when one realises that
the various peoples of the world can understand and
serve each other best when they use the same con-
venient weights and measures. The members of
the American Association are determined to secure
these advantages in the United States and Canada,
and we ask for the hearty co-operation of all pro-
gressive men and women throughout the world.
HowarpD RICHARDS
(Secretary).
American Metric Association,
156 Fifth Avenue, New York.
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
735
By the courtesy of the Editor I have read Mr.
Richards’s letter, and think that he and I disagree
solely by reason of the difference in our Indian
experiences. If it were a case of starting with a
clean sheet there would be no greater difficulty in
adopting the metric system than in adopting any
other; but this is not the case. The British yard
has become very widely known, whereas the metre is
quite unknown. The Peshawari yard and the [ahi
gaz, themselves variable units, are used only to a
comparatively small extent, while the most widely
known unit of length, the hath or cubit, is very near
to half the British yard, and as a matter of practical
fact this measure is regarded as representing it
exactly.
Similarly, the acre has now become very widely
recognised and used as a unit of area, while the
hectare has scarcely even been heard of.
It is true that the 8o-tola seer (of 14,400 grains)
is near the kilogram, but it is not exactly equal
thereto, and to change it would, as a matter of
practical fact, involve altering the weight of the
rupee, as that coin is universally recognised as
representing in weight 1 tola. This question of chang-
ing the weight of the rupee so as to give a seer of
exactly two pounds, or else of 1 kilo, was one that
the Weights and Measures Committee considered
very carefully and on which it recorded much
evidence, and (the majority of the members) re-
luctantly came to the conclusion that any alteration
—whether in weight or value—of that coin would
give rise to so much suspicion as to make it more
than doubtful whether such a change would be worth
while.
It has taken fifty years to spread the knowledge
of the 80-tola seer to the extent now achieved; to
introduce a new unit would mean starting all over
again, and the same remark applies to any change
in the units of length or area.
I have no doubt that engineers would prefer the
metric system—so would I, personally. But the
people of India are not engineers. Ninety per cent. of
them live in villages or small towns of less than 5000
inhabitants, and are only interested in weights and
measures being true and uniform within the limited
range of their journeyings. For one transaction
in which it would be an advantage to use a world-
wide system, there must be at least 10,000 in which
it would be of not the slightest advantage.
Mr. Richards refers to Canada. I imagine that it
would be difficult to find two peoples more absolutely
different than those of Canada and of India; the
Canadian is well educated and progressive, the
Indian, as a rule, very poorly educated, and intensely
conservative. It would be difficult to conceive of
widespread lecturing on weights and measures in
India ; audiences might perhaps be secured in half a
dozen of the largest towns, but nowhere else, and the
population of India is more than thirty times that of
Canada. (I do not wish to imply that Mr. Richards
thinks lecturing advisable, but merely to emphasise
the difference between the two countries.)
My own experience of India at the time of the
Weights and Measures Committee was twenty years
in the Civil Service, all on the executive side, in the
course of which I usually spent four to six months
every year on tour among the villages and small
towns of my district; that of my Indian colleague
on the Committee (who shared my views, with very
insignificant exceptions) was very similar. With
this experience we disagreed from our other member,
and held that there were not sufficient advantages
attached to the metric or other non-Indian system
to justify us in making a recommendation which, if
accepted, would affect the method of carrying out
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
an enormous number of petty transactions, and could
be given practical effect only by a large amount
of interference. Now interference of such a kind as
would be required to enforce the use of a new system
of weights and measures means interference by a
large and therefore necessarily low-paid staff, and
what that means any one with Indian executive
experience knows, for though the head of the Indian
Government colossus may be golden, its feet ave very
certainly still decidedly argillaceous !
In brief, we found a very general desire for a uni-
form system of weights and measures, but for one
based on a unit that was known, and hence we
recommended that system which could be adopted
~with very much less difficulty than any other.
C. A. SILBERRAD,
President Indian Weights and Measures
Committee, 1913-14.
Harpoons under Peat in Holderness, Yorks.
ON page 481 of Nature for October 7, Mr. O. G. S.
Crawford states that he believes one of the alleged
harpoons said to have been found under the peat
in Holderness to be genuine. At the Hull Meeting
of the British Association he thought that both were
genuine. After the spade-work to which he refers,
I feel satisfied that he will consider both of them
are modern. I am also glad to learn that he now
regards the evidence supplied by the flint axe to be
of no value, whereas formerly he considered that it
helped to prove the great age of the harpoons.
As one who knows Holderness fairly well, I should
like to ask what evidence there is for the statement
that ‘ There can be little doubt that in Holderness
exist remains of the early neolithic age, remains
which are older than the Long Barrows’? At Hull
we were promised that a committee should be formed
to inquire into the question of the harpoons. I have
heard nothing further about it, but trust such a
committee may be called together.
If I have cast doubts upon the authenticity of
implements which have been accepted as genuine
by quite a number of authorities, and my doubts
prove to be unfounded, I deserve censure. If,
however, the statement I made proves to be correct,
the facts should be published, in the interests of
truth.
Reasons for my belief are given in a communication
which I sent to the Editor of Man a little while ago,
as Mr. Armstrong’s illustrated description of the
harpoons first appeared in that journal. I do not
remember having made the statement in public that
the harpoons had been ‘‘ made by the supposed
finder.’ I did say they were not as old as Mr.
Armstrong. T, SHEPPARD.
The Museum, Hull.
The Relationship between the common Hermit-
crab (Eupagurus bernhardus) and the Anemone
(Sagartia parasitica).
Tuer relationship between the common hermit-crab
(Eupagurus bernhardus) and its messmate anemone
Calliactis (Sagartia) parasitica has long been a subject
of much conjecture, owing largely, the present writer
thinks, to the unnatural figures of these animals in
all the text-books and most popular books—derived
probably from old and abnormal aquarium specimens.
In most figures purporting to show the relationship
of these animals, the anemone is shown with its
tentacles beautifully expanded and the mouth region
facing upwards away from the ground, and generally
73
Wei ORE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
also one anemone as the central figure sitting on the
top of the shell—containing the hermit-crab—with its
column extending high above the shell and crab.
When these hermit-crabs with their associated
anemones are caught fresh in the trawl it may be
observed that although the anemones come up closed
in no case are they sitting on the shell as is shown
in the well-known figures ; on the contrary, whether
there is only one or as many as three anemones
on a shell they are all found to be either hanging |
from the shell with the disc region towards the
ground or are straining their bodies to reach their
discs over the side of the shell towards the ground
(see Fig. 1). In order to obtain more informa-
tion, a collection of fresh hermit-crabs and ane*
mones was obtained by trawling in September 1920
and a few experiments made in a tank.
hermit-crabs and anemones were isolated and kept
without food for a few days, in the course of which
most of the anemones closed. At 11.30 A.M.,
September 22, the crabs, carrying altogether 18
anemones, were fed with cockles and queens. At
12.5 P.M. all anemones were open with their discs
and tentacles spread flat out on the bottom of the
AAR
Lip
ZA fe
ny
Fic. 1.—Drawing from life of the Hermit-crab (Eupagurus bernhardus) in a shell of the common
whelk with two anemones (Calliactis parasitica) shown in the natural feeding position, and with
the commensal worm (Nereis fucata) in the act of taking food out of the jaws of the hermit-crab.
(About half the natural size.)
tank (as is shown in Fig. 1) and being trailed about in
this position by the crabs. At ro A.m., before the feed-
ing, two anemones were closed, three already had their
discs on the ground, and thirteen were held horizontally
from the apical region of the shell-house of the crab,
and at 1 p.m., after feeding, many were again closed
or with their bodies held horizontally. On September
29 the experiment was repeated, but this time fresh
dredgings only were thrown into the tank. All the
anemones soon put their discs flat on the ground,
and those which were sitting horizontally bobbed
their discs down on the ground within a few minutes,
almost as though the order “ heads down ”’ had been
given and obeyed. It was not possible to see whether
the unusual movements of the crabs on the addition
of food, or the smell of the added food, caused the
anemones to react as they did.
On adding the food to the tank it was also observed
that the worms (Nereis fucata) living in the shells
inhabited by the hermit-crabs also came out to feed.
The hungry worms came out cautiously some time
after the hermit-crabs had begun to feed, and in
one case a worm was observed to crawl alongside
the body of the crab (see Fig. 1), over the active
mouth appendages, and literally to take with impunity
a piece of food from between the jaws of the crab
and bolt it. There seems to be little doubt that
this action of the worm is consciously tolerated by
the hermit-crab, as it was observed that the crab
can apparently control the exit of the worm from
the shell. It was found, however, that strange
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
dhe: |
worms taken from other hermit-crab shells are not
regarded in a kindly manner by either the anemone
or the crab: worms fed to anemones are eaten, and
worms straying in the neighbourhood of hermit-
crabs were mercilessly torn up and tasted but rejected
as food. The spectacle of a hermit-crab cleaning
itself after feeding is a revelation of the value of
spines and hairs and of the meticulous cleanliness
of these animals, and cannot fail to impress the
observer with the pleasure—and even mild intoxica-
tion — experienced by the hermit-crab from the
feed.
It is clear that the anemone derives advantage
from the hermit-crab by getting dragged about with
its tentacles on the ground and being given op-
portunities for picking up pieces of food left or lost
by the hermit-crab and for capturing other animals as
food. The hermit-crabs were not seen to pass on
pieces of food definitely to the anemones, but there
would always be a good chance of an anemone getting
some food from the table of the hermit-crab, owing
to the habit of the latter of tearing the food apart.
The crab itself probably derives some measure of
protection from attacks from fishes owing to the
unpleasantness of its associated
anemones as food, but it is well
known in this laboratory that the
common ballan wrasse (Labrus
bergylta (maculatus)) will watch its
opportunity to seize a large claw
otf a hermit-crab and shake it—
like a dog worrying a rat—with the
common result of extracting the
whole hermit-crab out of the shell-
house without touching the
anemone.
The function of the worm in the
shell can scarcely be guessed at,
but the curious and constant wave-
like motion of the whole body of
the worm—which can be seen by
making a window in the shell—
will certainly keep up a _ strong
current of water around parts of
the body of the hermit-crab, and may assist the
hermit-crab in this way in the aeration of its
body or in the removal of effete products. The
advantage to the worm of obtaining shelter and of
partaking of the hermit-crab’s food is obvious.
J. H. Orton.
Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth,
November 9.
First Lessons in Practical Biology.
AFTER being encouraged by favourable criticism,
both from the Press and from private individuals
(not in all cases personal friends), I was somewhat
surprised at the acerbity of the attack, published in
Nature, November 4, upon my unpretentious book
“First Lessons in Practical Biology.’’ Helpful
criticism is welcome to an author, and the correction
of errors can be the making of a second edition of
a text-book ; but adverse criticism in which personal
bias of opinion is allowed to outweigh generally
; accepted beliefs can have little value either for the
author or for the reading public.
If “the telson is not a segment ’’ I am consoled
by the thought that two such standard works as
“Practical Zoology ’’ (Marshall and Hurst) and
“ Biology ’’ (Parker) contain the same heresy. If
“the biramous appendage is mot the primitive form
of crustacean appendage ”’ I have still to read a more
convincing argument than that given in the ‘‘ Cam-
bridge Natural History (Crustacea).”’
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
137,
I conclude that the critic was so pained by my
restricted use of the term ‘‘embryo”’ (as applied
to plants) that he failed to read to the end of the
chapter ; otherwise he would not have stated that
“experiments on plant physiology are not reached
until chapters 16 and 17.” I agree that it is desirable
to introduce plant physiology at an earlier stage in
the course; but, with the exception of germination
(which is introduced in the Easter Term), the ex-
periments seldom yield good results in the winter
months. The school year begins towards the end
of September, and the arrangement of the chapters
(as stated in the preface) was based upon this
assumption. E. W. SHANN.
Oundle School, November to.
I REGRET that Mr. Shann regards my review of
his book as an “ attack,’ and yet more that it calls
from him the word “‘ acerbity.’’ The need for brevity
compelled, perhaps, a certain bluntness; and I beg
him to accept my assurance that it was solely to
my regard for space in your columns that any such
bluntness was due. It was from like considerations
that I was obliged to refrain from indicating the
authority for and adducing evidence in support of
some of my criticisms.
With regard to the telson and biramous appendage
I adhere to my statement. If Mr. Shann will refer
to p. 144, § 2 c of Marshall and Hurst (9th edition,
1920), he will see that the telson is spoken of as a
“region ’”’ of which a “‘segment’’isa part. On referring
to the passage in my copy of the “‘ Cambridge Natural
History ”’ I find that when I first (presumably in 1909)
read its discussion of the relative claims of the
biramous and foliaceous limb to be regarded as
“ primitive,’ I wrote in the margin “‘ All the facts
here stated, if taken in the reverse order, support
the opposite theory.’’ This is equally true to-day.
If Mr. Shann willread H. M. Bernard’s “‘ The Apodide”’
(Macmillan, 1892) I shall be astonished if he does not
abandon the biramous as the “ primitive’ form of
crustacean limb.
I duly noted that the course was arranged with
the view of beginning in the Michaelmas Term ; but
as the very next sentence in the preface suggests
modification of the order “at the discretion of the
teacher,” I felt justified in directing attention to the
tardy appearance of plant physiology. The fact that
some physiological experiments occur as early as
chapter 14 does not seriously affect my criticism.
THE REVIEWER.
The Mechanism of the Cochlea.
Ir I understand Dr. Perrett’s letter in Nature of
November 11, p. 633, his objection to Yoshii’s ex-
periments (which would apply equally to those of
Wittmaack and Siebenmann) is based on the assump-
tion that the intensity of the stimulation of every
part of the cochlea must be proportional to the
amplitude of the vibration set up in that part. I
think this assumption is unwarranted, as the intensity
of the sensory impression may vary also with the
rapidity and the rate of change of direction of the
movement imparted to the cilia of the hair-cells;
i.e. as the total energy of the stimulus, not its ampli-
tude only. Even supposing Dr. Perrett’s assumption
were correct, still Yoshii’s deductions are not invali-
dated. Take the case in which he found that after
prolonged subjection to high-pitched noise the basal
portion of the cochlea showed degeneration. He de-
duces the logical conclusion that a high-pitched note
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
stimulates the basal portion of the cochlea. It does
not matter whether the stimulus thus applied were
small as compared with that produced in the apical
region by a prolonged low note or not. The apical
region remained unaffected because it was not stimu-
lated at all.
I cannot say that my model shows the shifting of
the responses according to the intensity of the stimulus
that Dr. Perrett says it should do, and possibly my
knowledge of physics is insufficient to enable me to
appreciate the reasons which lead him to look for
this result. Personally, I have very little faith in
the “‘ crucial test ’’ method of solving the problem of .
sound perception. The question has already been so
long and so keenly debated, and so many “ crucial
tests ’’ have been applied on both sides of the argu-
ment, that one almost begins to doubt the possibility
of tone perception at all.
I have read Sir William Bayliss’ letter (p. 632) with
great interest. Naturally, it is very gratifying to me
to find that my view of the mechanism of the cochlea
has the support of so distinguished a physiologist.
I am not very sanguine that my model will throw
much light on the more refined details which he
gives of the working of the cochlea. What the
model actually shows is a definite, though not always
well-defined, series of responses at different points
along the “ basilar membrane ”’ for vibrations varying
in frequency from about too to about 1000 D.V. per
sec., the higher notes being at the proximal and the
lower at the distal end of the scale. More than this
I cannot claim for it. The mechanical difficulty of
setting up a series of short threads, evenly spaced,
evenly graduated in tension, and maintaining their
spacing and tension unaltered during and after the
processes of fixation, embedding and immersion in
fluid, is so great that I have not succeeded so far in
attaining anything approaching accuracy.
One need scarcely say that so imperfect an appara-
tus cannot, in its present state, throw much light on
the more recondite points. If on the other hand we
concentrate our attention on the more obvious, and
more fundamental factors, I think the model does
give some help. We recognise in the basilar mem-
brane of the cochlea a threefold differentiation of its
fibres, for length, tension and mass, and this differ-
entiation is progressive, and in the same sense for
each factor. We can embody those mechanical
factors crudely in the form of a working model, and
we get some sort of remote and inaccurate representa-
tion of what happens in the cochlea. The effects
observed are undoubtedly resonance effects. It fol-
lows that the same resonance effects must take place
in the cochlea. One cannot understand how Nature
could evolve so elaborate a mechanism of resonance
as we find in the cochlea, except by means of, and for
the purpose of, increasingly accurate analysis of sound.
G. WILKINSON.
387 Glossop Road, Sheffield, Nov. 15.
An Offer of Nature Volumes.
THE writer has been entrusted with the disposal
of thirty-three volumes of NATURE (unbound, as issued)
which their owner wishes to present to some library
in the war-devastated area. These consist of vols.
50 to 56, 74 to 92, 97 and 98, and 103 to 107._ A few
parts are missing. Should any reader of NATURE
know of some one who may be communicated with
for this purpose, the information would be gratefully
received. M. GHEURY DE Bray.
40 Westmount Road, Eltham, S.E.9,
November 13.
738
NATURE
[DECEMBER 2, 1922
Human Blood Relationships.
eae idea that a loss of blood by hemorrhage or ' human blood corpuscles: A corpuscles will react only
tl
he possession of blood of a poor and deterior-
ated quality might best be rectified by the introduc-
tion into the body of blood from a healthy person is of
respectable antiquity. It is small wonder that the
ancients attributed to so splendid and conspicuous a
tissue an importance rather beyond its due. -About
the time of the fire of London Pepys attended experi-
ments in which the blood of one dog was passed into
another and found to be sufficient for its needs, and on
another occasion at which a man was hired for a
sovereign to have some sheep’s blood let into his body.
For even at this time it was realised that some sorts of
blood were more suitable for transfusion into man
than others. Little boys might be bled to death in
the fifteenth century to provide stimulating potions
for aged Popes, but human blood seems scarcely to have
been available in Lower’s time, and the choice gener-
ally fell on the sheep, partly because of its gentle and
amiable disposition and partly ‘“‘ quia Christus est
agnus Dei,’ as Coga said, an indigent bachelor of
divinity who subjected himself to the experiment in
1667. But transfusion of blood never became an im-
portant or popular therapeutic procedure on these
terms ; large quantities of foreign blood were found
to cause serious and even fatal ill-effects and small
amounts did no good. With the discovery of the last
thirty years that the tissues of any one species of
animal are foreign and more or less poisonous to the
economy of any other species came the recognition
that transfusion in man could be done only with human
blood, and in recent years the value of the procedure
has been fully established, large quantities being
transfused from a healthy to a sick person without
untoward effect.
In this revival of human transfusion it was, how-
ever, soon found that the capacity of the body to
identify any blood as foreign to and incompatible with
its organisation was based on finer distinctions than
zoological species. If from a dozen people a few cubic
centimetres of blood are withdrawn, and in each case
preparations made of the serum and of the red cor-
puscles washed free from serum, and if a sample of each
lot of corpuscles is then mixed with a little of each
serum in a series of test-tubes, it will be found that the
results are not all the same. In some the corpuscles
behave as if they were suspended in physiological salt
solution—remain dispersed from one another and in-
tact ; in other cases they run together into larger or
smaller clumps and masses and often disintegrate. It
is obvious that the occurrence of this agglutination in
the circulating blood is very undesirable, as the masses
of corpuscles are liable to block important blood-
vessels, and there is plenty of experience to show that
serious trouble may be caused in this way. It is
therefore not every human blood that is suitable for
transfusion into a given person.
By sorting over a large number of people by this
test it has been found that they may be classified into
four groups by the satisfactory hypothesis of von
Dungern and Hirschfeld. On this view there are
two agglutinating factors in human blood serum (a
and b) and two agglutinable factors (A and B) in
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
with a serum, } serum only with B corpuscles. A 1s
never found in the same person as a, nor B with b;
either combination would be incompatible with life.
The blood characteristics of the four groups are :
Serum. Corpuscles,
Group I. neither A and B
Group Il. . z b A
Group III. . 3 a B
Group IV. a and b neither
It follows that the serum of Group I. will not ag-
elutinate anybody’s corpuscles, while the corpuscles
of Group I. are agglutinated by all other sera except
their own. Group IV. is the reverse of this, while the
serum of Group II. agglutinates the corpuscles of
Groups I. and III., and the serum of Group III. the
corpuscles of Groups I. and II. The corpuscles of
Group I. can safely be put only into recipients belong-
ing to the same group, those of Group II. only into
Groups I. and II., those of Group III. only into Groups
I. and III., those of Group IV. into anybody. It
is a curious fact that in actual practice it is only the
qualities of the donor’s corpuscles and the recipient’s
serum which need be considered. When, for example,
Group IV. blood is transfused, the plasma of it should
agelutinate the corpuscles of the recipient if the
reaction took place as it does outside the body. This
does not appear to happen, or if it does it produces no
obvious ill-effects—which is fortunate, as otherwise
| safe transfusion would be impossible except between
members of the same group. Why this should be so
is at present doubtful. It is most probably due to
the quantity of transfused plasma being insufficient,
when diluted with the recipient’s blood, to cause a
significant agglutination of the recipient’s corpuscles.
The fact that it is plasma which is injected and not
serum may also have some influence, though the
recipient’s plasma has the same effect as his serum, at
any rate qualitatively.
While it is convenient to recognise four varieties of
individuals, it will be seen that there are only two
factors concerned. A is characteristic of Group II.,
and B of Group III.; A+B are present in Group I.,
and both are absent in Group IV. A corpuscles are
necessarily associated with not-a serum,and B corpuscles
with not-b serum. In inheritance these qualities have
been shown to be transmitted as straightforward
Mendelian factors. It follows that the blood of
parents and children are by no means necessarily
compatible: though parents both of Group IV. can
produce children only of the same group, two Group I.
parents may have offspring belonging to any group,
according to the particular composition of their
hybridity. The possibility of using these blood re-
actions to investigate cases of disputed parentage has
been carefully worked out by Ottenberg, who shows
that the method can have but a limited application,
though the answers are conclusive if they can be ob-
tained at all. Of much interest also is the observation
that the proportion of the population falling into Groups
II. and III. varies a good deal in different races. In
England about 4o per cent. are Group II., about 15 per
cent. Group III., Groups I. and IV. giving about 2
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATORE
739
and 43 per cent. respectively. Several workers, and
especially the Hirschfelds, have shown that as one
travels from west to east the prevalence of Group IT. (A)
decreases and that of Group III. (B) progressively
rises. In Western Europe, A is found in about 45 per
cent., in Russians and Arabs in 37 per cent., in negroes
and Indians in 27 per cent. B, on the other hand,
increases from about 15 per cent. in France, through
the Balkans (20 per cent.), Malagasies (28 per cent.),
negroes (34 per cent.) to Indians with 49 per cent. We
have here an obvious suggestion of two original races
of mankind, which have mingled in various degrees :
it is possible that in some remote place a pure A or B
variety still exists.
At present there is no evidence that these blood
The History of the
as REGINALD S. CLAY performed a needed and
useful service when he selected for the subject
of the twenty-fifth annual Traill-Taylor Memorial
Lecture, which he delivered at the meeting of the Royal
Photographic Society on October ro last, ‘“ The Photo-
graphic Lens from the Historical Point of View.” It was
a needed service, because a historical review of the origin
and development of the photographic lens is necessary
for a just estimate and balanced perspective of the
many and diverse scientific factors that have to be
taken into account in the production of modern photo-
graphic lenses. It was a useful service, because the
fascinating and, at times, almost dramatic ‘story that
Dr. Clay had to tell brings out clearly the paramount
importance of the pioneer work done in this field by
British firms and scientific workers, and it must act as
a useful corrective to the tendency, sometimes mani-
fested in unexpected quarters, to underrate the value
of British work in the optical field.
After touching lightly on the early history, Dr. Clay
comes to “one of the great landmarks in the history
of optics—the invention of the achromatic lens.”
John Dolland, after numerous experiments, exhibited
to the Royal Society an achromatic prism in 1758 of
crown and flint glass, and explained its construction.
Of the authors who contributed, in this period, before
the invention of photography, to the theoretical treat-
ment of the lens, Dr. Clay instances, after Kepler, the
following :
Huygens, who, besides expounding the wave theory
of light and the explanation of double refraction, also
dealt with the spherical aberration of lenses, and
showed how it varied with their aperture and focal
length ; Newton, who investigated the dispersion of
light; Joseph Harris, who discussed the cardinal
points, optical centre, oblique pencils, curvature
of field, etc., in his “‘ Treatise of Optics ’’ ; Herschel,
who obtained valuable equations for the calculation
of objectives free from chromatic and spherical
aberration ; George Biddell Airy, who investigated
the conditions for eliminating astigmatism and
distortion ; William Hamilton, who evolved powerful
mathematical methods which even yet have not been
fully utilised; and, last but not least, Henry Cod-
dington, who worked out the methods which, I
believe, still form one of the most useful bases for
attacking new problems in lens construction.
The next milestone marks the almost simultaneous
announcements of the inventions of photography by
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
characteristics are associated with any other qualities,
and it seems likely, like some other Mendelian characters,
that they are negligible in the problems of selection
and survival. It would, too, be an error of the ancients
to suppose that the qualities of the blood dominated
personality and conferred a general characteristic on
the individual. There is much evidence of the essential
similarity of parents and offspring. The greater
success of grafting tissues from one animal to another
if they are of the same family is a germane example.
In blood tests brothers and sisters by no means
always agree so far as the agglutination of their cor-
puscles is concerned: in other respects their bloods
are probably more similar than those of more remote
relations.
Photographic Lens.
Daguerre in 1838 and Fox Talbot on January 30, 1839,
and we reach “‘ the epoch from which we may date the
great evolution of the photographic lens.’ After
referring to the photographic lenses of Charles L.
Chevalier, Dr. Clay comes to the work of Josef Max
Petzval (1807-1891), who computed a new and most
successful lens, corrected for spherical aberration over
a small angular field, which was made by Frederick
Voigtlander in 184o.
We may pass over much interesting record and come
to a new chapter, opened in 1866 with the aplanatic
lenses of Steinheil and Dallmeyer. Steinheil, ‘ be-
ginning to recognise the value of symmetry in reducing
astigmatism and distortion,’ concluded that the
astigmatism would be less if the refractive indices of
the glass were more nearly equal; he therefore used
two flints instead of flint and crown, putting the higher
refractive glass outside. Dallmeyer also used two
flints, and called his first lens a “ wide-angle recti-
linear lens,” 1866. It worked at f/15, and he followed
it by his symmetrical at f/7 and £/8. In 1874 Steinheil
made a portrait lens of two cemented lenses working
at f/3-5, and in the same year Ross brought out their
portable and rapid symmetrical, calculated by F. H.
Wenham. “ This is of interest,’ says Dr. Clay, “as
Ross and Co. (as the firm then was) was thus the first
firm to employ a scientific man as calculator. Wenham
was with them from 1870 till 1888.”
The next step, which Dr. Clay describes as “ the
greatest step in the development of the photographic
lens,” was made possible by the new glasses—the barium
crowns of the Schott glass factory at Jena. The
problem and its solution is thus expressed :
An achromatic lens of ordinary crown and flint,
which we may call an “old achromat,’”’ could be
corrected spherically, but not made anastigmatic.
An achromatic lens made of the new barium crown
and a flint could be corrected for astigmatism, but
not spherically. To correct both, all three glasses
must be used—old crown, flint, new barium crown.
To take full advantage of this principle, it is obvious
that each component can be made of all three glasses.
It can then be achromatic, anastigmatic, and
aplanatic. By combining two such components
into a symmetrical lens, it can also be made ortho-
scopic, and can easily be given a flat field. This is
the principle underlying the well-known Goerz lenses.
Another way to achieve the result is to use two unlike
combinations, one of which is made responsible for
740
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
correcting the spherical aberration and the other for
correcting the astigmatism. This is usually the
method adopted by Rudolph in the earlier of the
Zeiss lenses and several of the recent lenses by other
makers.
Hugo Schroeder and Stuart, of Ross and Co., were the
first to take advantage of the new Jena g classes, and in
1888 they patented the “concentric ” lens, composed
of a flint and a barium crown. It was corrected for
astigmatism, but had a lot of spherical aberration.
Dr. Clay reviews briefly the series of Zeiss lenses—
Planar, Protar, Unar, and Tessar—made by Ross under
license, and in this connexion tells the following
significant story :
In 1911, when Zeiss had finished their factory at
Mill Hill, they gave Ross notice to terminate the
license, and themselves made the Tessar—the only
one of which the patent was still running. This is
rather an illuminating fact. It must be remembered
that in 1892, when Koss started making the Zeiss
lenses, Ross had a great name as makers of photo-
graphic lenses, while Zeiss’s were practically unknown
in that connexion, and undoubtedly Ross’s reputation
helped to make the new lenses known ; yet no sooner
are Zeiss ready to make their lenses over here than
they terminate the contract! No further comment
is necessary.
An interesting summary follows, which we have not
space to notice in detail, of a brillant series of lenses
produced by Ross from 1892 to the present day.
Dr. Clay says: “One other achievement of this firm I
must refer to. When the Air Force began to take
aerial photos in the war they found the Ross-Zeiss
Tessar, of 83-in. focus, suitable, but soon wanted great
numbers, and also asked for a longer focal length lens
with perfect definition over a small angular field, e.g.
a 20-in. lens to be used with a 5 by 4-in. plate. This
was wanted urgently, and in a single fortnight the lens
was recalculated, and the ‘ Airo-Xpres’ lens evolved
in November 1918, working at {/5°6. Messrs. Taylor,
Taylor and Hobson also made a variety of the Cooke
lens, the ‘ Aviar,’ for the same purpose.”
We have not space to deal more than hurriedly with |
the fascinating record that Dr. Clay gives of the other
work done in Britain in the development of the photo-
graphic lens to its present stage of wonderful achieve-
ment. An interesting account is given of the lenses
introduced by the firm of Dallmeyer, and special
attention is directed to the striking advance repre-
sented by their telephoto lenses. The original patent
for the telephoto was taken out in 1891. Another
English firm, R. and J. Beck, Limited, it is interesting
to note, were the first to apply the iris diaphragm to
photographic lenses, as early as 1882. In 1906 Beck
introduced their “ Isostigmar Universal,” and in the
able distance behind the collective lens ;
following year their Isostigmar portrait lens. ‘‘ These
lenses do not obey the Petzval condition—that the sum
of the power of the lenses, divided by their refraction
index, should be zero—and were constructed by
omitting this from consideration, as they believed it
was not essential for a flat anastigmatic field ’—a view
afterwards confirmed by the investigations of W.
Elder. The Isostigmar is of interest, as it covers a
field of 85 to 90 degrees at f/16, the first wide angle
with such an aperture. Beck also introduced another
simple idea—the use of magnifiers in front of a lens—
made for their Frena camera in 1894.
We have left till the last not the least of the British
achievements in the development of the photographic
lens—the Cooke lens invented by W. H. Dennis Taylor
and made and put on the market by Taylor, Taylor and
Hobson, Limited. Dr. Clay says: “I do not think
the great step which the Cooke lens marks is as well
appreciated here as on the Continent. The introduc-
tion of this lens has formed the starting-point for a
new method of lens construction which has had, and
will continue to have, many fruitful applications.”
The germ of the invention is thus expressed by Dennis
Tay lor :
It... occurred to the author that since the
normal curvatures of images due to any lens, whether
simple or compound, are fixed by its refractive indices
and power alone, and are independent of the state of
rays entering the lens, whether convergent, divergent,
or parallel, then it should follow that the normal
curvature errors of an achromatic and aberration-
free collective lens should be neutralised by the
normal curvature errors of an achromatic and
aberration-free dispersive lens of the same power
(and made of the same glasses), placed at a consider-
while the
combination would, as a result of the separation. . .
yield a positive focus... .
The patents for the Cooke lens were taken out in
1893, 1895, and 1898. During the war the special
Aviar lens, referred to above, was evolved, designed
by Arthur Warmisham of Taylor, Taylor and Hobson.
It is a split-divergent lens, which was a conception of
the inventor of the Cooke lens, but the exploitation
of the idea was left to Warmisham, who was able, by
making a special study of coma, to improve upon the
large aperture Cooke lenses, and secure a flat field of
larger area than had hitherto been found possible.
In a brief review of Dr. Clay’s lecture we have had
perforce to omit much of important interest, but we
may conclude by re-echoing the words of the author :
“Tn this story I think we in Britain may claim that we
have borne our share, in spite of all the praise that has
been lavished on the Germans.”
Obituary.
Pror. Heinrich RUBENS.
I EINRICH RUBENS was born at Wiesbaden on
March 31, 1865, and received his early training at
the Ee Oana at Frankfurt on the Main, where he
gained the School Leaving Certificate, equivalent to
Matriculation, in March 1884. In the summer term
of that year he proceeded to the Technical High School
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
at Darmstadt to take up the study of electro-technics.
During the following winter term and the summer
term of 1885 he continued his studies at the Technical
High School at Charlottenburg, but soon recognised
that his ability and interest lay in the domain of
pure science, and for this reason he began the study
of physics. After spending the winter term (1885-86)
at the University of Berlin, Rubens passed on to Strass-
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NALTORE
741
bourg at Easter of the latter year to work under August
Kundt. He followed Kundt to Berlin in May 1888,
and obtained his Ph.D. there the year following. His
early post-graduate career was spent as Assistent under
Kundt at the Physical Institute of the University of
Berlin, where he remained until 1896, when he was
invited to the Charlottenburg Technical High School,
and in 1900 he was officially elected professor at that
institution. In the autumn of 1906 he was elected
to a full chair of experimental physics at the University
of Berlin, and to the directorship of the Physical
Institute, which posts he filled during the remainder
of his life. He died of leuchemia on July 17 last.
Rubens was a member of the Berlin Academy of
Science, and of many other similar bodies in his own
country and abroad, including the Royal Institution,
of which he was an honorary member. He held
doctor’s degrees (honoris causa) of the Universities
of Leeds and Cambridge, and was a recipient of the
Rumford Medal of the Royal Society.
Most of Rubens’ scientific investigations were con-
cerned with the infra-red region of the spectrum,
and the logical connexion of his numerous researches
is a noteworthy feature of his scientific activity. Many
of the instruments used in the prosecution of his work
were of his own construction, including the Rubens
thermopile, and the Rubens-Du Bois spherical sheath
galvanometer. He was led to the discovery of residual
rays as a result of his work and measurements on the
optical properties of various substances with regard
to heat rays. He succeeded in reducing the previously
unexplored region of about twelve octaves (from
A=0:005 to 50 mm.) between the infra-red region of
the spectrum and electrical waves, by his discovery
of about seven of the missing octaves.
After his observation that a number of minerals
strongly reflect infra-red waves of certain definite
wave-lengths, and transmit the rest of the rays, Rubens
was able to isolate rays up to a wave-length of about
oor mm. Repeated reflection of the radiation from
such surfaces results in a residual radiation which
contains certain definite wave-lengths only; e.g.
from fluorspar (0-022 and 0-033 mm.), rock salt (0-052
mm.), sylvine (0-063 mm.), potassium bromide (0-083
mm.), potassium iodide (o-o94 mm.). In part col-
laboration with Wood, Rubens isolated still greater
wave-lengths by the quartz-lens method, in which, by
virtue of the higher refractive index of quartz for
these long waves than for the shorter infra-red and
visible rays, and by the use of suitable diaphragms,
he succeeded in obtaining rays with a wave-length
of about o-rro mm. from an incandescent mantle.
Using a quartz mercury lamp he extended this limit
to beyond 0-3 mm. In continuation of his earlier
measurements on wave-lengths in the near infra-
red, Rubens and his co-workers examined the dis-
persion and absorption of the whole range of the infra-
red in numerous substances. By making use of the
refractive indices of numerous substances found for
these long wave-lengths, or the values extrapolated
for infinite wave-length, he tested the validity of
Maxwell’s law (m?=h) between the refractive index
for these waves, and the corresponding dielectric
constant of the substance in question. Several series
of measurements on the absorption of infra-red waves
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
in water vapour supplied him with the material requisite
for the comparison of Bjerrum’s theory of rotation
spectra with experiment, and for calculating the main
moment of inertia of the water vapour molecule.
In addition to his fundamental work on residual
rays, Rubens accomplished much in other branches
of radiation. He carried out measurements in col-
laboration with Hagen at the Physikalisch-Technische
Reichsanstalt on the reflecting power (R) of metals, which
led to the empirical result that for metals the coefficient
of penetration (P =1 —R) for very long waves can be
represented by the relation P=0-365 \/a/A, where o is
the specific resistance of the metal, and ’ the wave-
length of the rays in terms of the unit o-oor mm.
This result is in agreement with deductions from the
electromagnetic theory of light. His investigations on
the validity of the law of radiation are of primary
importance. Conjointly with Kurlbaum he carried out
measurements on black body radiation of long wave-
length, and this work was largely responsible for a
revision of Planck’s first radiation formula, and thus
supplied one of the experimental bases of the quantum
theory. Only last year, Rubens again applied his
great experimental ability in an endeavour to test
Planck’s law of radiation in its final form. The
results of this work led to the complete confirmation
of the theory. They were communicated to a Congress
of Physicists at Jena in the autumn of 1921, and
Rubens was acclaimed by the congress in a manner
seldom met with in scientific life.
Rubens, whose wife survives him, was in failing health
for some years prior to his death. To those who knew
him well, it seemed that the privations attendant upon
war-time conditions were in a large measure responsible
for hastening the end. In addition to his great powers
and achievements, his active nature and kindly disposi-
tion bound him closely to his colleagues, who realise that
in Rubens they have lost much more than a valued
colleague. The loss to science will be appreciated by
those of other countries who came in contact with
him, for one could not meet Rubens without feeling
the forcefulness of a striking personality. Until his
death he maintained none but the friendliest of feelings
towards his colleagues in England, and during the
long years of the great war he took a human interest
in the well-being of those of our scientific nationals
whose lot it was to be detained in enemy territory.
For these he did what he could. Science mourns
his loss, and the record of his active life will occupy
a prominent place in the annals of science.
R. W. L.
THE opportunity is most welcome to add my expres-
sion of deep regret for the loss of Prof. Rubens at an
age when much might still have been expected from
his scientific activity. I well remember the enjoyment
of the hospitality of himself and his family in days now
past, in the residence attached to the Physical Institute
of the University of Berlin, where memories of Helm-
holtz were evoked at every turn. One can recall the
simplicity of the apparatus used in his personal investi-
gations, in keeping with the directness of his main
results. In these respects he retained throughout his
career the stamp of the school of his early master Kundt.
The existence of sharply defined ranges of intense
742
optical reflection, even of the metallic type, from some
crystals had been known and understood in its main
features for a long time! It was left for Rubens to
develop it into what amounted to a new kind of spec-
trum analysis for invisible rays far down in the infra-
red, by sifting the radiation by successive reflections.
By this means he discovered and isolated precise narrow
bands of dark radiation (Reststrahlen) very remote
from the visible spectrum : just what was most needed
at that time for the wider verification and consolida-
tion of ideas regarding the general laws of radiation.
In collaboration with Rubens in these investigations
his friend E. F. Nichols first made his mark, soon to be
followed up at home in America.
In later years by use of the Reststrahlen he was able to
discover that in metals the defect from perfect reflection,
for radiation of great wave-length, depended on their
conductances alone. This was readily intelligible in a
general way: for the square of the complex index of
refraction for rays of frequency p/27 is of the form
K—47cp~ 101, and as both terms of it are found to be
effective in metals for ordinary light, the second term,
involving p 1 and the specific conductance o, must
predominate far in the infra-red. But the entirely
unexpected feature was that the agreement was so close
that optical observations by themselves could give a
good value for the ordinary conductance o of a metal
for continuous currents. In other words, the response
to electric force in metals is so prompt that the mechan-
ism of conductance becomes completely established
within the fraction 10718 of a second of time, thus
giving an essential datum for the understanding of the
process of transfer of electrons in metallic bodies.
The decisive completeness of this incidental verifica-
tion of the Maxwellian scheme of radiation naturally
attracted general attention, in its contrast with the long
years that elapsed in the early time before the cause of
the imperfect correspondence of the refractive index
with ./K for transparent media was fully appreciated.
One was struck with the ease and simplicity of
Rubens’ modes of thought. The problems which he
wished to attack came naturally to him, without any
incrustation of theoretical complexities.» Like Faraday
and many another experimenter, he was an example
of how far simple physical intuition could lead. The
directness and cordiality of his personal qualities must
have won and retained the regard of all who knew him.
JosepH Larmor.
Lieut.-CoL. G. L. Tupman.
Lieut.-Cot. GEorcE L. TupmMan, who died at
Harrow on November 4 at an advanced age, was for
many years a devoted amateur astronomer. He was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in
1863, being one of the oldest Fellows at the time of his
death. He was on its council from 1873 to 1880, and
secretary from 1884 to 889. His earliest astronomical
work was on meteor radiants; he made numerous
observations of meteors while on service in the Mediter-
ranean, 1869-1871, and published a catalogue of radiants
in Mon. Not. R.A.S., vol. 33. Tupman observed the
transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882 from Honolulu and
New Zealand respectively. He worked for some time
1 Cf. ex. gr. Stokes in discourses at the Royal Institution and to the
Chemical Society, as early as 1864: ‘Math. and Phys. Papers,” vol. iv.
PP. 244, 261.
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
WATORE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
at Greenwich Observatory as a volunteer, both in pre-
paration for the transits and in their subsequent dis-
cussion ; his preliminary result from a discussion of the
1874 transit, 8”-813, is very near the value now accepted.
Since many of the stations were dependent on lunar
observations for longitude, he studied carefully the
errors of the lunar ephemeris from the results of all the
leading observatories.
Tupman had a well-equipped observatory at Harrow,
with two equatorials, reflector and refractor, and a
transit circle. He made many meridian observations
of stars, also occultations (especially during the lunar
eclipses of 1884, 1888, 1895 for the determination of
the moon’s diameter), comets, transit of Mercury, etc. ;
he also frequently invited other astronomers to use
his instruments. A. C. D. CROMMELIN.
H. J. Powe t.
By the death of Harry J. Powell, on November 26,
at the age of sixty-nine years, the country has lost one
of the earliest pioneers in the scientific manufacture
of glass. For some years he lived in the works at
Whitefriars, and during this time, and for many years
afterwards, he superintended personally the weighing
out and mixing of the material for the next week’s
batch of glass. For forty-five years he was making
experiments with the object of improving the quality
of the flint glass made at Whitefriars, and attaining
perfection of colour in the glasses. These have led to
the magnificent results seen in the windows of the
cathedrals of Salisbury, Liverpool, and New York, and
in those of many churches in this country and abroad.
He not only improved the nature and colour of the
glass, but he was a designer of the first rank. Few of
the art museums of this country are without specimens
of his artistic shall.
Mr. Powell was well known to most scientific men,
and was always ready to put his knowledge and
technical skill at their disposal. The vacuum flask,
the idea of which was conceived by Sir James Dewar,
was made first by him, and it was to his experiments
that the success of Sir William Crookes’s cerium glass,
for cutting off the ultra-violet and heat rays, was
mainly due. At the outbreak of war, foreseeing the
shortage of glass for chemical purposes, he w orked out,
in conjunction with his son-in-law, a soda-lime glass
with very great resistance to changes of temperature >and
action of water. This glass was used by the Admiralty
for the construction of ‘the horns of submarine mines.
Mr. Powell retired from the business three years ago,
and devoted his time to an attempt to make generally
known the results of his knowledge and experience.
He worked up to the last, the final revision of a book,
“Glass-making in England,” and of an article for
Sir Richard Glazebrook’s ‘ Dictionary of Applied
Physics,” in which he propounded a new theory of the
origin of colour in glass, being completed only a few
days before his death.
By the death of Dr. Herbert Langton on October 12,
in his seventieth year, the Museums Association loses
its honorary treasurer, the museum sub-committee
of Brighton its chairman, and the British Ornithological
Union a valued member. A portrait appears in the
Museums Journal for November.
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
743
Current Topics and Events.
Tue dyeing of artificial silk at one time presented
many difficulties, which have, however, been over-
come so far as the silk made by the Chardonnet
and Viscose processes is concerned. On the other
hand, the new “‘ acetate silk’’ does not lend itself
with equal readiness to the dyeing operation and,
hitherto, some difficulty has been experienced in
producing an adequate range of fast and pleasing
colours. The “acetate silk’’ arose as an outcome
of the war, when the general opinion was reached
that the method of the Dreyfus Brothers for producing
aeroplane dope from acetyl cellulose was the best.
The large factories which were then built for the
preparation of this substance had, when the war
ceased, to turn their energies for the most part into
other directions, and the manufacture of artificial
silk was one of these. The silk is of great lustre
and beauty, but as the composition of the acetyl
cellulose remains unaltered even in fibre form, it
does not possess any marked affinity for that large
and important class of colouring matters which are
substantive to cotton. This affinity can, however,
be imparted to the fibre if conditions are present
which cause it to undergo hydrolysis in the dye-
bath, and Prof. A. G. Green, working in the Research
Laboratories of British Dyes Ltd., has now succeeded
in isolating a new and curious series of colouring
matters which are apparently particularly suited
for the purpose of dyeing acetate silk. These colour-
ing matters belong to a class of compound which is
readily hydrolysed in solution, and in that form can
be fixed on the acetate silk. Moreover, the “ Ion-
amines,’’ as Prof. Green has named the new colours,
can be made to possess a diazotisable amino group,
and many beautiful shades can be obtained by
diazotisation and development on the fibre. It
follows also that, since the ionamines possess no
affinity for the cotton fibre, it is possible to dye a
fabric composed, for example, of cotton and acetate
silk, two colours in one bath. Thus, in a bath
containing a mixture of chlorazol green BN (a
substantive cotton dye) and ionamine KA, the
cotton will be dyed green and the acetate silk red.
The effects, which are very striking, should go far
to render the new silk popular.
Aw International Aeronautical Exhibition will be
held at the Grand Palais, Paris, during the second
half of this month, commencing on December 15.
As is to be expected in view of the great interest
aroused by the remarkable records set up during
the past few months, particular attention will be
devoted to motorless or wind flight. Gliders that
were used in the recent contests will be exhibited,
including the machine in which Maneyrol so dramatic-
ally beat the German duration record, just at the
end of the gliding week on the South Downs. A
particularly interesting feature of the exhibition will
be the attempt to illustrate the scientific principles
underlying wind-flight, both as regards the results
already achieved and the problems that yet remain
to be solved. Thus, in addition to showing the wings
NO. 2770, VOL. TIO]
of such birds as the albatross, eagle, condor, etc.,
the promoters will illustrate the way in which the
presence of wind renders motorless flight possible.
Such winds are (1) vertical convection currents in
the air due to the sun’s heat; (2) upward currents
due to the existence of undulations in the ground,
like hills and valleys, the main feature of the flights
executed during the past few months; and (3) varying
horizontal currents, which are known to aid motorless
flight. Some use of the latter appears to have been
made in a recent flight in Germany.
A ¥FiLm record of the Mount Everest Expedition
of 1922 was shown for the first time at a joint meeting
of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine
Club held on Tuesday, November 21, at the Central
Hall, Westminster. The film, which is one of ex-
ceptional interest and permanent value as a record
of life in Tibet and the conditions of mountain
exploration in 1922, is the work of Capt. J.-B. L.
Noel, who succeeded in operating his kinematograph
at an altitude higher by many thousands of feet
than any to which such an instrument has previously
been carried. He made sure of good results by
developing his films, under great difficulties, partly
in a tent by the Rongbuk glacier torrent at a height
of 16,500 feet, and partly in a dark room he built
in the old fort at Gyantse. The conditions were
such that when the film was wet it froze; when dry
it sparked with the slightest friction and could not
be kept free from dust. In spite of these difficulties,
however, a good film-record was obtained. The
subjects of the film include the scenery of the forest
belt beyond Darjeeling; the bare and dry plateau
of Tibet; the mode of life of the Tibetans; the
Rongbuk monastery with its sacred Lama and ritual
dances; the approach to Mount Everest along the
Rongbuk glacier; and the assault on the mountain
by the climbing parties, by way of the North Col.
The effects of the terrible wind, flinging clouds over
the North Col and tearing the snow from the moun-
tain, were well shown on the film. Capt. Noel took
his kinematograph to Camp III. (21,500 feet), and,
using a telephoto lens, photographed the descent of
the first climbing party, who had discarded oxygen
and reached a height of nearly 27,000 feet. He
ascended to Camp IV. (22,500 feet) on the North
Col with the second party, who carried oxygen,
and photographed them next day during the first
2000 feet of their ascent to 27,235 feet, the highest
point reached. The Mount Everest Committee has
arranged for the film to be shown to the public for
a season at the Philharmonic Hall, as well as in the
principal cities of Great Britain. The proceeds will
be devoted to the cost of a third expedition.
IN his interesting and suggestive presidential
address to the Surveyors’ Institution on November
13 Mr. J. McClare Clark discusses the effect of post-
war conditions on agriculture and shows that the
sequence of events since 1918 is exactly parallel
to that after 1818, and that in many respects events
of 1922 closely resemble those of 1822. During the
744
OWA TORE
[DECEMBER 2, 1922
Napoleonic wars the prices of wheat rose enormously ;
in 1800 it was 113s. tod. per Imperial quarter.
Under this stimulus farmers made great efforts to
increase production, and in spite of depleted supplies
of labour they kept the country provided with food.
Soon after the peace, however, there set in a severe
break in prices due to the general financial dislocation.
Unemployment was rife in all parts of the country
and Poor Law methods added to, rather than miti-
gated, the difficulties. To make the resemblance
between 1822 and 1922 even closer, there was a
remarkable similarity in the seasons. The history
of the years following 1822 affords hope for the
future. Agriculture improved with the gradual
readjustment in the financial and commercial position,
while the introduction of railways proved of enormous
benefit. From 1836 onwards progress was un-
mistakable, while the founding of Rothamsted in
1843 and of the Royal Agricultural College, Ciren-
cester, in 1845 marked the introduction of scientific
methods which completely revolutionised British
agriculture and opened up an era of prosperity that
closed only when the new countries of the West
flooded our markets with produce at prices with
which the British farmer could not compete. It is
a hopeful augury for the future that the scientific
organisation is already well developed. Colleges and
new research stations have been opened, Rothamsted
has been reorganised and greatly extended during
the last few years, while Cirencester was reopened a
few weeks ago.
Ir is difficult for any one who has received a scientific
training to believe that anything can be said in favour
of our cumbersome and complicated system of weights
and measures, or to understand the difficulties which are
advanced against the adoption of the metric system,
which has become the international language of
quantity. In his presidential address to the Decimal
Association on November 23, Sir Richard Gregory
pointed out that in forty-six countries of the world
the system is now obligatory, the latest addition
being Japan, which adopted metric measures in April
last. The United States and the British Empire are
the only two civilised nations which remain outside
this circle, and they must come within it eventually,
as there is no possibility of the Imperial system being
adopted internationally. With every development of
electrical science metric measures come into increasing
use; for all the units employed are based upon the
metric system. In wireless communication, and for
broadcasting, wave-lengths are expressed in metres,
and in aviation international regulations are similarly
described. Even among English-speaking peoples
there is much diversity in the weights and measures
employed. The standard gallon in the United States
is the old wine gallon of 231 cubic inches instead of
the Imperial gallon of 277:274 cubic inches; the
hundredweight there and in Canada is the cental of
100 lb. instead of the Imperial cwt. of 112 lb.; and
the ton is the short ton of 20 centals or 2000 lbh
instead of the ton of 2240 lb. The simplest way to
avoid the confusion consequent upon these and other
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
diversities would be to adopt the metric system,
and the Decimal Association and American Metric
Association working for this end may be assured
that their efforts must finally achieve success.
In order to demonstrate some of the minor uses
of home-grown timber a special exhibit is on view
in Museum iv, in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
of requisites commonly used in kitchen, laundry, and
dairy. Among them are bread boards, rolling-pins,
towel rollers, measures, scoops, bowls for milk and
pastry, butter knives and pats, butter prints, dishes
for skimming milk, potato mashers, steak beaters,
brushes and brush backs, spoons, mangle rollers, a
washing dolly, egg-cups, a plant-tub, and some wood
wool. The last-named is a most useful substance for
packing fruit, glass, and crockery. The principal
woods used for these articles are beech, lime, syca-
more, birch, elm, poplar, and willow. A number of
articles are shown in various stages of manufacture,
thereby demonstrating the immense amount of work
that is required to produce a common utensil that
may be purchased for a few pence, and at the same
time indicating what an important part is played by
the manufacture of home-grown timber, even into
minor articles, in the provision of employment for
large numbers of men and women. ;
SOME interesting figures are given in the issue of
the Engineer for November 17, which show the relative
costs of transport by different agencies working at
their normal speeds. The list opens with the barge,
with a speed of 1 mile per hour at an estimated cost
of o-o004/. or ~sd. per ton-mile, and at the other ex-
treme is the maximum expenditure per ton-mile of
the R.A.F. in England, with the cost for a speed of
100 miles per hour of 9-3/. or 2232d. Between these
extremes are some surprising results, some of which
are based on official figures while others are estimates.
The London motor omnibus at 10 miles per hour
costs o-o16/. or 4d. perton-mile. An electric passenger
train (3rd class) at 25 miles per hour costs o-o18/. or
4d. per ton-mile, while the corresponding steam train
at 4o miles per hour costs 0-024/. or 6d. With these
figures can be considered the cost per ton-mile at 12
miles per hour of a liner (1st class), which is 0-221.
or 53d., though for the liner (3rd class), itis only o-1/. or
24d. The London-Paris passenger aeroplane service,
assumed to travel at too miles per hour, at present
rates costs 0-33/. or 80d. per ton-mile, though the
estimate of the Advisory Board for Civil Aviation is
o-7l. or 168d. The cost of running a Rolls-Royce car,
assuming a speed of 22 miles per hour, is estimated,
at the maximum, to be 1r-o/. or 240d. per ton-mile.
Turning now to carrying services, it is interesting to
find that parcel post, for a speed of 12 miles per hour,
costs 0-07/. or 17d. per ton-mile, while letters, at 17
miles per hour, cost 0-55/. or 132d. per ton-mile, and
the postman himself, travelling at 3 miles per hour, is
estimated to cost 4°85. or 1164d. per ton-mile. Esti-
mates for the rigid airship vary from o-o16/. or 4d. per
ton-mile at 80 miles per hour to 1-8/. or 432d. per ton-
mile at 40 miles per hour, the latter figures referring
to a machine assumed to carry a load of 10 tons.
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
745
THE issue of Science for November 3 contains a
paper by Dr. J. R. Schramm of the National Research
Council on “‘ The Abstracting and Indexing of Bio-
logical Literature,’ which is of interest as it shows
that in the United States the subject of the organisa-
tion of bibliography is entering the field of practical
politics. Dr. Schramm’s paper is eminently business-
like. He first investigates the wants of the research
student and decides in favour of sufficient abstracts
published in book-form, with adequate indexes—‘ the
complete subject index being perhaps of the greater
importance.’’ He then turns to the publishing aspec t
and points out that with adequate support in the
shape of a guaranteed circulation, the cost of com-
position is a relatively small matter—each copy cost-
ing little more than the cost of paper, machining,
binding, and distribution. From these data he goes
on to advocate publication on the lines of Chemical
Abstracts. The federation of the Biological Research
Associations of the United States is, of course, a
necessary preliminary, but here the first steps have
already been taken under the egis of the National
Research Council. A committee has been formed to
draft a constitution and to report on the whole ques-
tion. Dr. Schramm does not underrate the diffi-
culties before him, but we think that he under-
estimates the volume of literature with which the feder-
ated body will have to deal. If the statistics of the
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature afford
any guide, the federation will have to deal with an
output at least double that of pure and applied
chemistry. The order for the output of the Inter-
national Catalogue for 1901-13 was (1) physiology,
(2) zoology, (3) chemistry, (4) botany, (5) bacteriology.
It is, however, premature to discuss a scheme which
has not yet been definitely forwarded. We shall be
content to express a hope that we may be favoured
with a copy of any further report of the committee’s
activities.
THE Iron and Steel Institute, 28 Victoria Street,
S.W.1, is prepared to receive before the end of
February next, upon a special form obtainable from
the secretary, applications for grants from the Andrew
Carnegie Research Fund in aid of research work on
the metallurgy of iron and steel.
Carr. H. RIALL SANKEy will deliver his presidential
address to the Junior Institution of Engineers on
Tuesday, December 12, at 7.30, taking as his subject
“The Utility of Theory to the Practical Man.”’ The
address will be given at the Royal United Service
Institution, Whitehall.
A courRsE of twelve free public Swiney lectures
on “ Fossils and what they teach’ will be given in
the lecture theatre of the Imperial College of Science
and Technology, South Kensington, by Prof. T. Ae
Jehu at 5.30 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays,
beginning on Tuesday, December 12.
Tue gold medal of the Ramsay Memorial Fund,
which the Prince of Wales would have received after
unveiling the memorial in Westminster Abbey if he
had been able to be present, was presented to him
NO. 2770, VOL. IIO]
on November 22 by the French Ambassador, the
Comte de Saint-Aulaire, who was accompanied by
the officers of the memorial fund.
IN connexion with the Institute of Industrial
Administration a lecture on ‘‘ Standardisation of
Repairs in Relation to Industrial Economy ”’ will be
delivered at the London School of Economics, Hough-
ton Street, Aldwych, on Tuesday, December 12, at
8 o'clock, by Mr. R. Twelvetrees. The meeting will
be open to all, and the lecture will be followed by a
discussion.
THE council of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers of London at the last meeting announced
that Dr. J. A. Fleming had been elected an honorary
member of the Institution. Dr. Fleming has accepted
the invitation to give the fourteenth Kelvin lecture
to the Institution in May next. The Royal Society
of Arts recently awarded Dr. Fleming a silver medal
for the fifth Henry Trueman Wood lecture he delivered
on November 23, 1921, ‘“‘ On the Coming of Age of
Long-Distance Wireless Telegraphy and some of its
Scientific Problems.”
THE Committee of the Norfolk Agricultural Station,
Norwich, will shortly appoint a director and solicits
applications for the post, which will be of the annual
value of 600/., plus travelling and incidental expenses.
In the first instance the appointment will be for
one year only. Applicants must possess a modern
scientific training in agriculture, with university
degree or diploma, practical knowledge of mixed
farming, organising ability, and be qualified to lecture.
Applications, with testimonials, must reach the honor-
ary secretary of the committee, 32 Prince of Wales
Road, Norwich, by, at latest, Saturday, December 9.
Tue first country meeting of the Association of
Economic Biologists since pre-war days will be held
in the Botanical Department of the University of
Manchester on Friday, December 15, when Dr. W.
Lawrence Balls will open a discussion on “‘ Genetics
in Relation to Applied Biology.”” Dr. S. G. Paine
will read a paper on “ Internal Rust Spot (Sprain and
Net Necrosis) in the Potato and the Possible Associa-
tion of this Disease with Leaf Roll,”’ followed by in-
formal discussions on “The Place of Applied Biology
in Universities,’ and ‘“‘The Relation of Biology to
Medicine.’”’ On Saturday, December 16, a visit will be
paid to the British Cotton Industry Research Associa-
tion, Shirley Institute, Didsbury.
THE suggestion made by Mr. F. Gill, president of
the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in his recent
address, that an international European conference
should be held with the view of establishing on a
commercial basis a practical system of long-distance
telephony in the European trunk lines, has now been
realised by M. Paul Laffont, the French Minister of
Telegraphs and Telephones. He proposes to invite
a conference at Paris of the technical administrators
of the Western European countries, and he urges
that France would naturally be the centre of the
vast telephone system formed by combining the
systems of these countries. The long - distance
746
NATURE
[DECEMBER 2, 1922
telephone calls in daily use in America show that,
from an engineering point of view, the scheme presents
few difficulties. Thus the New York-San Francisco
call (3000 miles) is equivalent to gommunication
between London and Baghdad; the Key West
(Florida) and Los Angeles call via New York and
San Francisco is equivalent to a London-Delhi
communication. English engineers all welcome the
conference, as they have good hopes of arriving at a
satisfactory international agreement.
THE Quarterly Summary of the Royal Botanic
Society, “Regent’s Park, for October contains a list
of some of the recent interesting accessions to the
gardens, and a short account of the experimental
work in genetics being carried out there. Another
item of interest is an account of the Indian Mahwa
tree, Bassia latifolia, a member of the Sapotacee,
the flowers of which have the remarkable property
of showing no deterioration even after being stored
for a year or two in England, nor are they attacked
by moulds. They contain quantities of sugar and
have been suggested as a source of alcohol, but their
peculiar preservative powers have apparently not
been investigated.
A NOTEWORTHY departure was taken at the meeting
of the Royal Institute of British Architects on Nov-
ember 20, when a paper on “ Illuminating Engineer-
ing in Relation to the Architect’’ was read by Mr.
L. M. Tye. A vote of thanks to the lecturer was
proposed by Sir John Herbert Parsons, president of
the Illuminating Engineering Society, who referred to
the good results that had followed from the co-
operation of the medical profession and the lighting
expert in dealing with the effects of light on the eye,
and expressed the conviction that similar benefit
would be derived from the concerted efforts of archi-
tects and illuminating engineers. Mr. L. Gaster
suggested that courses of instruction on artificial
lighting should be included in the curriculum of
architectural students, and Mr. Paul Waterhouse, who
presided, received these suggestions with sympathy.
There is no doubt that the lighting of many public
buildings, schools, etc., would gain by closer co-
operation of this description, and the Illuminating
Engineering Society should do good public service by
its efforts to enlist this new ally in its campaign for
more scientific methods of lighting.
THE opening meeting of the session of the Illuminat-
ing Engineering Society took place on November 14,
when Mr. L. Gaster read the usual report of progress
during the vacation. An event of outstanding
importance has been the third Report of the Home
Office Departmental Committee on Lighting in
Factories and Workshops. Mr. Gaster directed
attention to an important “‘ access of light and air ”’
judgment in Bradford, which illustrated the import-
ance now attached to scientific measurements of
daylight illumination in such cases. It was mentioned
that a commission on illuminating engineering has
now been formed by the Central Electrotechnical
Council in Russia. In accordance with custom,
there were a series of exhibits illustrating develop-
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
ments in lighting. A new and simple illumination
photometer was exhibited by Capt. Stroud, and an
improved form of inspection lamp for use in hospitals
by Mr. Hobson. Mr. S. O. Pearson demonstrated
an interesting ‘‘ blinking ’’ phenomenon when neon
lamps are shunted by a condenser on direct-current
circuits, and Capt. W. J. Liberty presented some
photographs showing the artificial lighting arrange-
ments at the new Port of London building. Some
novel forms of illuminated signs, based on total °
internal reflection in a sheet of plate glass, were
exhibited by Mr. E. T. Ruthven Murray.
At the Royal Academy, on November 22, Prof.
A. P. Laurie, in a lecture on ‘‘ The Preservation from
Decay of Stone on Buildings,” dealt with the general
causes of stone decay. He showed by experiments
the distinctions to be made between limestone, sand-
stone with a calcite cement, and sandstone with a
silica cement, and described the different methods
necessary to make complete laboratory tests with a
suggested preservative, and illustrated by photographs
some of the difficult problems which have to be faced.
Prof. Laurie described a new preparation recently
discovered by him, which deposits hydrated silica as
a cement between the particles of the stone, and he
stated that, while not solving the problem of the
preservation of limestones, he hoped that it would
prove successful in the preservation of sandstones.
He further suggested that the Royal Institute of
British Architects might find it worth while to experi-
ment with this new preservative.
THE annual Progress Report of the Geological
Survey of Western Australia for the year 1921
contains a useful summary of economic minerals
known to exist in that State. Among these are,
in the first place, gold, then copper ores, lead ores,
tin ores, iron ores, and manganese ores, together
with a number of rarer minerals such as wolfram,
scheelite, stibnite, barytes, monazite, tantalite,
glauconite, salt, gypsum, etc.; coal of different
geological ages is known, although only permo-
carboniferous coal has been worked to any extent.
SOME papers of much interest to marine biologists
are contained in the recently issued number of the
Journal of the Marine Biological Association (vol. xii.
No. 4, October 1922). Mr. R. S. Clark gives descrip-
tions, illustrated by beautiful photographs, of the
egg capsules and young of various species of rays
and skates. This work was badly wanted. Miss
Lebour and Mr. Andrew Scott write on the food
organisms of young edible fishes, and Miss Lebour
and Mr. R. Elmhirst make a very useful contribution
to parasitology in the form of an account of the life-
history of Payvorchis acanthus, a trematode inhabit-
ing the herring gull.
In further reference to the obituary notice of Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell in Nature of August 12,
p. 225, Mr. F. De Land, of the Hubbard Memorial
Hall, Washington, writes, giving us quotations from
English papers of 1877, of telephone transmission over
distances greater than 100 miles. He also gives a
quotation from our own columns (November 15, 1877,
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
WATORE
747
vol. 7, p. 49) of a report of a lecture by Graham Bell,
stating that on one occasion the lecturer had been able
to converse over a distance of about 250 miles. Our
reference, however, in the obituary notice of Graham
Bell, was to commercial telephony. In the Journal
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, April 1922,
p. 429, Mr. Kingsbury gives the following quotation
from the first business circular issued by Graham Bell
and his associates. They state that they were “ pre-
pared to furnish telephones for the transmission of
articulate speech through instruments not more than
20 miles apart.”
Pror. H. E. ARMSTRONG asks us to say that in his
letter published in Nature of November 25, p. 700,
he wrote Babelonian, which was altered without his
approval to Babylonian—thus obliterating his point.
AmonG the books to be published by the Cambridge
University Press during December is ‘‘ Prolegomena
to Analytical Geometry in Anisotropic Euclidean Space
of three Dimensions,’ by E. H. Neville, the first half
of which will be an account of the principles under-
lying the use of Cartesian axes and vector frames in
ordinary space. The second half will describe ideal
complex Euclidean space of three dimensions and
develop a system of definitions in consequence of
which the geometry of this space has the same
vocabulary as elementary geometry, and enunciations
and proofs of propositions in elementary geometry
remain so far as possible significant and _ valid.
The same publishers also promise for this month
“A Summer in Greenland,’’ by Prof. A. C. Seward.
It will contain some 30 maps and illustrations.
Our Astronomical Column.
PossIBLE RECURRENCE OF A METEOR SHOWER.—
On the morning of December 5, 1921, there was
observed a very rich shower of meteors from Leo
Minor at 156°+37°. The event was witnessed at
_ the Astronomical Observatory at Tokyo by the
observers there, who recorded 44 meteors in 55
minutes, radiating from the special shower alluded
to. The position in the N. part of Leo Minor from
which the meteors were directed has been known
for many years as the centre of a rich shower of
swift, streaking meteors in October, November, and
the first half of December. It was well observed at
Bristol in 1876, November 20-28, from the point
I55° +36° (21 meteors), and is especially described as
a possibly new and very active shower in NATURE
for December 21, 1876, p. 158. Should this meteoric
display recur in the present year it may be looked
for in England at about midnight and the two hours
immediately following, on December 4. The moon
will, however, be nearly full and will moderate the
character of the display. It will certainly be
important to observe it if possible, and it is hoped
that the sky will be attentively watched on the date
in question.
CALENDAR REFORM.—Mr. Charles F. Marion, of the
U.S. Weather Bureau, has published a leaflet strongly
urging the adoption of a 13-month calendar, each
month to consist of 4 weeks exactly. One day in the
year, preferably the last, would be outside week and
month. In leap-year there would be another such
day, which might conveniently precede the first day
of the seventh month. The names “ Sol”’ or “ Mid-
year ’’ are suggested for the seventh month, the other
months having their names unchanged. It is pointed
out that meteorology would be greatly simplified by
such a system, since records at present are complicated
by the unequal months. Further, since each par-
ticular week would then always occupy the same place
in the solar year, monthly records could be supple-
mented by weekly ones.
The chief objection brought against the 13-month
year is that it does not divide into quarters. But it is
to be noted that the existing quarter-days are not at
the ends of months. To place them after the first
week of the fourth month, the second of the seventh
month, etc., would be very little more complicated
than the present system. Monthly payments would
be made 13 times per annum instead of 12, and the
anomaly of paying the same for 28 days as for 31
would be removed.
Astronomers would welcome the equalisation of the
months and the removal of leap-day from its present
awkward position. The year 1928 begins with a
NOw 277OnVOL, 10)
Sunday, so the change might then be made with a
minimum of dislocation.
A bill has been introduced into the United States
Congress authorising and requesting the President to
call an international conference on the subject in
1923. It is suggested that the dates of religious
festivals are best left to the religious bodies to deter-
mine: it introduces needless difficulties to superpose
these questions upon changes in the civil calendar.
THE BRIGHTNESS AND ROTATION OF URANUS,—
Astr. Nachr. No. 5184 contains a paper on this subject
by C. Wirtz. He has made a very careful series of
magnitude determinations with a Zeiss field-glass from
July 1921 to January 1922. The mean magnitude,
reduced to mean opposition, is 5°64. The magnitudes
of the six comparison stars were taken from Harvard ;
small corrections, leaving the mean magnitude un-
changed, were deduced from his own observations. The
author is evidently a skilled observer and the probable
error of each night comes out as o-o4™, that of the
mean being less than o-o1™. He has grouped them in
accordance with the rotation period of 10? hours
given by the spectroscope, and finds a sine-curve with
an amplitude of 0-02™, which he regards as too small
to receive with confidence; in 1917, L. Campbell
found a curve with an amplitude of o-15™, but if the
physical state of Uranus is like that of Jupiter, changing
spots might well alter the amplitude.
Wirtz suggests that it is worth while to keep up
the investigation of the magnitude of Uranus from
year to year, as it may throw light on the oblateness
of the disc. He estimates that when the pole is near
the centre, the magnitude should be about o-1™
brighter than when it is on the edge; this is an
amount within the reach of delicate photometry. He
thinks, however, that the apsidal motion of the inner
satellite Ariel should give a more trustworthy value.
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT RELATIVITY.—Since the
verification of the Einstein bending of light by
gravitation in 1919, many speculations on the subject
have appeared in astronomical publications. A letter
in the Journal of the R.A.S. of Canada (September—
October 1922) suggests that the Gegenschein is the
result of the bending of sunlight by the earth’s
attraction so as to come to a focus. The amount
of bending of a grazing ray is proportional to
mass/radius, so that the bending at the earth’s
surface is 1”-75/3000 or 1/1900 of a second of arc.
It is manifest that such an infinitesimal bending could
produce no discernible optical effects, and it seems
inadvisable to print such suggestions without com-
ment, since their appearance in such a weighty journal
is calculated to mislead.
748
Ie TORE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
Research Items.
SomME ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.—TIwo articles in the
Journal of Roman Studies (Part 1, vol. 10 for 1920)
refer to antiquities in England. In the first, Mr.
A. M. Woodward describes a decorative bronze
Silenus mask found at Ilkley during excavations
conducted by the Yorkshire Archeological Society.
This was probably used as a jug-handle, and that
a bronze vessel so elaborate should be found at the
quarters of an auxiliary cohort is at first surprising.
But the site seems to have been long occupied, and
the inhabitants included a civilian settlement. The
vicinity of York, a great military station, may have
led to the introduction of articles of luxury. In
the second paper Mr. C. D. Chambers remarks that,
although the Romans valued pigeon manure, it is
strange that so few dovecots of that period have
been discovered. Though octagonal foundations like
those of medieval dovecots have been found at
Great Witcombe and Stroud, rectangular dovecots,
though probably numerous, cannot be identified
with certainty, except where the pigeon-holes actually
exist, as at Caerwent. If excavators were to look
for dovecots rather than shrines, it is not unlikely
that further evidence would be forthcoming.
Tue Piruirary Bopy.—A paper by Bailey and
Bremer (‘‘ Experimental Diabetes Insipidus,”’ “ Ar-
chives of Internal Medicine,’”’ vol. 28, p. 773) serves
as a timely warning against hasty conclusions of the
existence of internal secretions when the results
have been brought about by injury or disease supposed
to be limited to a particular organ. There are three
symptoms supposed to be produced by injury of the
pituitary body—increased urinary secretion, hyper-
trophy of fatty tissue, and atrophy of the testis.
Camus and Roussy had already brought evidence
that these effects were due to injury of that part
of the brain, the hypothalamic region, in close
contact with the pituitary body, but they do not
appear to have been altogether successful in avoiding
some injury to the latter also. The work of Bailey
and Bremer was done in the laboratory of Prof.
Harvey Cushing, and the pituitary region was reached
by a slight modification of the operation described
by Crowe, Cushing, and Homans. The pituitary
body itself and the neighbouring parts of the brain
can be clearly seen, and it was found that a small
injury to the hypothalamus, leaving the pituitary
completely intact, was sufficient to bring about the
three symptoms above mentioned, which are supposed
to be due to injury to the pituitary body itself.
STERILITY IN SPECIES-CRoSSES.—Results have been
accumulating for a number of years, showing that
in species-crosses in various animals one sex is either
absent, rare, or sterile. Such disturbances of the
sex-ratio, or sterility of one sex in the hybrids,
have been observed by Tutt, Harrison, Goldschmidt,
and others in Lepidoptera, by Whitman, Riddle, and
others in birds, by Sturtevant in Drosophila. Among
mammals, guinea-pigs and Bovide show similar
distortions of the sex-ratios. Mr. J. B. S. Haldane,
in an interesting review of all these and similar
results (Journ. of Genetics, vol. 12, No. 2), shows that
in every case it is the heterozygous sex which is
deficient in numbers or sterile in such species-crosses.
Thus in mammals and flies this applies to the male
sex, which is the heterozygous sex, while in birds
and butterflies it applies to the female sex, which is
known from breeding experiments and cytological
study to be the heterozygous sex in these groups.
CHROMOSOMES OF THE “‘ MILLIONS ”’ FisH.—In two
papers on the cytology and genetics of the little
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
“millions ” fish, Lebistes, Dr. O. Winge (Jowrn. of
Genetics, vol. 12, No. 2) finds the number of chromo-
somes to be 46 in both sexes, and concludes that the
males must therefore have an XY pair of sex-
chromosomes. In extending the breeding experi-
ments of Dr. J. Schmidt, who showed that certain
colour markings of the males are inherited only
from male to male (hence through the Y-chromo-
some), he finds four such colour-marking factors in
the Y-chromosome of different races of this fish.
In addition, Dr. Winge makes the interesting
discovery that in the ‘Magdeburg race” the
X-chromosome contains a factor which gives a
sulphur-yellow colour to various parts of the body
and a red colour to the lower margin of the caudal
fin. This factor is inherited in the usual fashion of
sex-linked factors, except that all these characters
are invisible in the females. Some evidence is also
obtained of crossing-over between these factors in
the X- and Y-chromosomes. This, if confirmed,
will furnish an interesting extension of our knowledge
of sex-linked inheritance. When colour-marking
factors are present in the X- and Y-chromosomes of
a male they both show in its visible pattern, but
one is transmitted, like the X-chromosome, through
the daughters to their sons, while the other is trans-
mitted (in the Y-chromosome) directly from father
to son.
Cotton RESEARCH IN Eaypt,—the second annual
report, for 1921, of the Cotton Research Board, issued
by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture, indicates
clearly that the improvement of the cotton crop, with
which the prosperity of Egypt is so closely connected,
is being seriously dealt with by methods of research.
The Board has given special consideration, among
other matters, to the decline in yield, two-year v.
three-year rotations, and control of seed used for
sowing. A summer fallow appears to be of great
value in maintaining the fertility of the soil, as the
temperature of the surface soil rises sufficiently high
to have a partial sterilisation effect by suppressing
the harmful factor which has been shown to exist in
Egyptian soils. The value of Nile silt as a fertiliser
seems hitherto to have been exaggerated. Yield may
not be much affected by reduced watering, but
quality may be adversely influenced. Work is being
done on the extraction of pure lines, propagation of
selected strains and field tests of commercial varieties,
in order that types may be selected that shall be most
suitable for the purpose required. Special efforts
have been made to find a method of controlling
the sore-shin disease, the usual means being in-
effective or impossible of application on a large scale.
Various reagents have been used for soaking the
seeds, and the effect of sowing on different dates
has been tested, but no conclusive results are yet
available. Insect pests are also receiving attention,
pink boll-worm and cotton-seed bug being under
investigation.
THE CRANIAL MORPHOLOGY OF FISHES.—Iwo
important papers on the anatomy and morphology
of fishes appear in the Journal of Anatomy (vol. 56,
Pts. 3 and 4). In the first of these Mr. E. Phelps
Allis, junior, describes in great detail the cranial
anatomy of Polypterus, illustrated by twenty-two
beautifully executed plates, all except two of which
are in colour, In the second paper Dr. H. Leighton
Kesteven strongly criticises Huxley’s interpretation
of the bones in the palate and upper jaw of bony fishes
and offers a new concept of their significance and
homologies. He regards the premaxilla and maxille
of the majority of teleostean fishes as constituting
DECEMBER 2, 1922 }
NATE FE
749
an adventitious jaw which is homologous, not with
the similarly named bones in other vertebrates, but
with the labial cartilages well developed in most
Elasmobranchs, present in Polypterus and evanescent
in the Amphibia. The vomer, anterior portion of
the parasphenoid and palatine of the teleostean skull
are regarded as homologous respectively with the
premaxilla, vomer, and maxilla of other vertebrates.
This new interpretation of the upper jaw of the
teleostean fishes necessitates changes in the concept
of the homologies of other bones in the palate of
these fishes, which the author states briefly and
analyses in detail. The quadrate bone of teleosteans
is the only bone which the author regards as correctly
homologised.
JAPANESE GEoLoGy.—-The National Research Coun-
cil of Japan has instituted a Japanese Journal of
Geology and Geography, of which the second number
lies before us. In addition to various abstracts it
contains two original papers. The first, by Prof.
I. Hayasaka, treats of ‘Some Permian Brachiopods
from the Kitakami Mountains.’ Only six species are
described, none being new to science, but there is a
promise of more when the additional material shall
have been worked out. The second paper is on
“ Uhligina, a New Type of Foraminifera found in the
Eocene of Japan and West Galicia,’ by Prof. H.
Yabe and S. Hanzawa. The authors consider this
new form to be a close ally of the Carpathian species
Rupertia incrassata, Uhlig, and since both differ in
important characters from Rupertia, the new genus
Uhligina, having as genotype U. boninensis, n.sp.,
from the Middle Eocene nummulitic tuff of Oki-mura,
is established for their reception.
WIND VELOCITY AND DruRNAL RANGE OF TEM-
PERATURE.—A discussion on diurnal variation of
temperature as affected by wind velocity and cloudi-
ness, Professional Notes, No. 30, has just been issued
by the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry.
The observations from the Eiffel Tower have been
used in conjunction with those at Pare St. Maur by
Captain J. Durward. The object of the discussion
is to get an idea of the magnitude of the rise and ;
fall of temperature at different levels under different
weather conditions. Observations are compared for
the five months, May to September, and for the five
years, 1905 to 1909. The respective heights above
sea-level of the thermometers at the two stations
are 335 metres and 50 metres, a difference of 285
metres or 935 feet. The lower station, Pare St.
Maur, is 11-5 km. to the east-south-east of the centre
of Paris. Among the principal results may be
mentioned the temperature distribution on fair
nights. When the radiation is unimpeded the layer
of air in contact with the ground is cooled more
quickly than the layers immediately above, and being
cooled it tends to remain near the earth’s surface.
This leads to an inversion in the lower layers of the
atmosphere, the magnitude depending on the wind
velocity, as the layers not in immediate contact with
the ground are cooled greatly by turbulence; the
results are given in a table.
OIL-DRILLING IN GaticriA.—Mr. Albert Miller’s
recent paper read before the Institute of Petroleum
Technologists dealt with the Canadian pole-tool
system of drilling for oil, as almost exclusively
employed in Galicia at the present time. Notwith-
standing the increasing popularity of the rotary
system in other oil-fields, this system has proved
unsatisfactory in Galicia, where the formations to
be penetrated frequently change with surprising
rapidity within a small vertical distance ;
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
necessitates a high degree of flexibility of drilling
plant. The paper included details of the tackle in
use, and the different types of drilling-bits and fishing-
tools were discussed, particular stress being laid on
the need for standardisation of tool joints, the lack
of which had proved almost disastrous in the past.
Some useful information was given in connexion
with casing and with its recovery when “ frozen ”’
in a well; a somewhat novel method of overcoming
such freezing is to insert tubing connected to the
steam-line and thus heat the casing for twenty-four
hours ; by this expansion, with subsequent contrac-
tion on cooling, the casing can often be moved ;
this method is also applicable in cases where ac-
cumulations of paraffin wax are the cause of such
freezing. Methods of production of oil in Galicia
were also considered, and these included, besides
flowing wells, both deep-well pumps and “ swabbing.”’
This last practice is specially useful in wells that
have stopped flowing, and in deep wells having small
diameter casings but producing from compact sand-
stone. The swab consists of a plunger fitted with
a ball-valve which works up and down inside the
casing barrel; rubber packing rings are employed,
and thus the swab has a suction effect on the well ;
an average vacuum of eight pounds can be obtained
with fast running on the upward journey of the
swab, and in this way several tons of oil may be
won which would otherwise be left in the reservoir.
AspHALT.—The report on the asphalt and related
bitumen industries in the United States for the year
1921 has just come to hand (Asphalt and Related
Bitumens in 1921, United States Geol. Sur., Mineral
Resources, Pt. II.). In that year the United States
marketed close on 300,000 short tons of natural
asphalt (including grahamite, gilsonite, wurtzilite,
impsonite, and bitumenous rock). By far the larger
quantity of asphaltic material, however, is manu-
factured from crude petroleum during the process
of refining the oil, the basis of this material being
the residue resulting from distillation. The material
is of two distinct kinds, asphalt and flux, the
former comprising all the solid and semi-solid pro-
ducts of less than 200 penetration. The flux is
utilised for softening natural asphalt or the synthetic
product, especially for roofing purposes ; it also includes
the so-called “‘ road-oil’’ used for spraying on the
surface of metalled roads. For paving it is produced
as sheet asphalt, or as asphalt concrete, or as a cement
or filling for road and pavement blocks ; the roofing and
water-proofing material is manufactured by saturating,
coating, or cementing felt or suitable fabric ; in the
rubber industry it is employed in many cases
where a durable binding or cement is required. In
other directions asphalt finds considerable use in the
manufacture of insulating materials, acid-resisting
compounds, mastic, paint, and varnish. In the
United States, both domestic and Mexican petroleum
are used as sources of the manufactured asphalt, the
latter rather more than the former; in 1921 more
than 600,000 tons of asphaltic material were pro-
duced from domestic petroleum, this representing
about two-thirds of the amount obtained from im-
ported oil from Mexico. The report also makes brief
mention of the importation of natural mineral waxes,
such as ozokerite, into the United States (which during
the year under review increased more than roo per
cent.), while the manufacture of ichthyol compounds
from a Texas oil is a noteworthy development.
Ichthyol (a sulphonated hydrocarbon largely used in
medicine) has in the past been produced from treat-
ment of a fossiliferous deposit in the Austrian Tyrol;
its manufacture from natural petroleum constitutes
this | a factor of more than mere commercial interest.
NATURE
[DECEMBER 2, 1922
The Society of German Men of Science and Physicians.
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS AT LEIPZIG.
T is a hundred years since the Society of German
Men of Science and Physicians held the first
meeting, also in Leipzig, on September 18, 1822.
Only eighty-seven meetings have taken place in this
period, as in the years of great national calamities,
such as war or epidemics, no meetings were held.
Though the first meeting after the World-War, at
Munich in 1920, was well attended, the society resolved
to meet only every two years, so long as the present
economic distress in Germany prevails.
Among the scientific workers who attended this
year’s meeting there were represented not only the
great seats of learning of Germany and the German-
speaking countries, but also most of the countries
who had in former times sent their representatives
to this meeting. The president was the distinguished
Berlin physicist, Prof. Max Planck, Nobel prizeman in
1918 for physics. The committee included, among
others, Prof. Palthauf, the great Vienna pathologist ;
von Dyck, the Munich mathematician ; Profs. Gottlieb
(Heidelberg), Willstatter (Munich), His and Bonhéffer
(Berlin), Rinne (Leipzig); Privy Councillor Duisberg
(Leverkusen). The arrangements for the meeting
were carried out under the supervision of Prof. von
Struempell and Prof. Wiener, both of Leipzig.
After the opening address by Prof. von Struempell,
on September 18, in which he expressed his satisfaction
at the great new tribute paid to German science,
addresses were given by representatives of educational
authorities, teaching institutions, and learned societies.
Among the foreign representatives were : Prof. Becke
(Vienna), Prof. Schlosser (Prague), Prof. Hagenbach
(Basel), Prof. Sigrist (Bonn), Dr. Sven Hedin and
Prof. Svante Arrhenius (Sweden), Prof. Goldschmidt
(Christiania), and Prof. Bokay (Budapest). Con-
gratulatory messages were also sent from Holland,
Spain, U.S.A., and other countries.
After expressing his thanks for the addresses and
messages Prof. Max Planck gave a survey of the
development of German science during the past
hundred years. Referring to the World-War, he said
that one possession has not been lost by the German
nation, namely, its national unity. The reconstruction
of Germany’s prosperity and the rebirth of German
culture are not possible without German science,
Many of the most important inventions which are
used in modern industrial life, such as wireless
telegraphy, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, the
R6ntgen rays, had been discovered in purely scientific
laboratories. It is necessary to spread among all the
nations of the world the conviction that the preserva-
tion and extension of purely scientific research in
Germany is as necessary for the welfare and happiness
of that country and the whole world as the develop-
ment of industry and the production of raw materials.
Scientific work is international in its nature, and
therefore well fitted for creating and furthering mutual
understanding and peaceful co-operation among the
peoples of the world. The German men of science
and physicians were ready to respond to frank and
honest approaches made by foreign fellow-workers,
but they would naturally not think of begging for
admission where they were not wanted.
The subject of the first general address was the
theory of relativity. Prof. Einstein himself had
originally intended to be present, but he was pre-
vented from appearing by his journey to the East.
It may be mentioned that a protest against this
subject, as not yet ripe for scientific discussion, had
been lodged by a number of well-known men of
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
science of Germany and other countries. The
lecturer was Prof. von Laue (Berlin), and he stated
that the questions with which the theory of relativity
is concerned are as old as science and _ scientific
research. The modern problem is whether it is possible
to ascertain an absolute velocity of any moving body.
The transmission of light and electricity through
space, even in a vacuum, has led to the assumption
of an ether. All experiments, however, which have
been made in order to discover how great is the
velocity of the earth with respect to the «ether have
failed. The special or restricted theory of relativity,
which maintains that it is impossible to ascertain
any absolute velocity, has therefore been generally
accepted by physicists.
It is a different question with the much more
complicated and difficult general theory of relativity
of Einstein. This is concerned with the old problem
of the force of gravitation. Here mathematical
processes have to be introduced which no physicist
had thought of applying before Einstein. Though
this part of the relativity theory has not yet been
established so as to exclude every possibility of
doubt, it can be regarded as an extremely valuable
stimulus to further research.
This lecture was followed by an address by Prof.
Schlick (Kiel) on the philosophical importance of
the theory of relativity. He stated that the theory,
though originally devised only to explain physical
phenomena, has a great philosophical importance.
The philosophical tendencies of Einstein’s thinking
pointed to a kind of positivistic philosophy, a phil-
osophy of pure experience which takes no account
of so-called elements or substances, and regards as
the ultimate facts of all happening the observed
events themselves. We may say that the period of
the: separation of philosophy and science is ended
and that they are beginning to approach each other
again.
On September 19 the first subject treated was that
of heredity, and Prof. Johannsen of Copenhagen
gave a survey of the work done during the past
century in this field. The conclusion he comes to
is that no positive result has been obtained in regard
to the great questions of the origin of species: and
their evolution. A destructive criticism, however, of
the chief ideas of both Darwin and Lamarck has
been achieved, and the belief in natural selection
as well as in a gradual fixation by heredity of qualities
obtained by adaptation has been thoroughly shaken.
Prof. Meisenheimer of Leipzig showed the results of
experiments in crossing flowers, insects, and guinea-
pigs. He explained the various connecting links, the
mixed types, and described cases of reversion. His
conclusion is that the experiments are subject to
many chance influences and not very certain. It
has been impossible, so far, to carry out all the
calculable experiments ; in many cases it will be neces-
sary to resort to statistics.
Great interest was aroused by the lecture of Dr.
Lenz of the University of Munich, on heredity in the
human race. In this field, he stated, no experiments
are possible. The only materials available are com-
parative observation of animals and plants and
vital and genealogical statistics. The validity of
Mendel’s law has also been proved in the case of man ;
further, it is certain that no acquired qualities are
inherited. In regard to the determination of the
sex of unborn children, Dr. Lenz said that we can
to-day already predict with a great degree of accuracy
DECEMBER 2, 1922}
NATURE
751
the inherited qualities of children. There is no
spontaneous degeneration and no ageing of a race,
though the transmitted substance may be damaged
by such poisons as alcohol and tobacco. Race-suicide
among the educated classes is threatening the con-
tinuance of our civilisation. In order to lead to
practical results in improving the race, racial biology
must be supported by the State.
A very interesting series of lectures was given on
the action of electroly tes on the organism. The first
of these, entitled ‘‘ Colloids and Ions,’’ was delivered
by Prof. Wo. Ostwald of Leipzig, and it provided
the starting-point for a number of addresses. Prof.
Hoeber, Kiel, dealt with the effect of the ions on
physiological surfaces. We know to-day that no
organ of the human or animal body, no plant, and
no micro-organism reacts normally if the ions in the
neighbourhood of the cells are not present in the
proper proportions. The heart beats abnormally if
it is surrounded by a minute excess of potassium ions
or calcium ions. The corpuscles of the blood, in the
Same circumstances, may perish prematurely, or
in the plant, growth may be abnormal. The ions
are carriers of electric charges and they are active
in all processes of stimulation of living tissues by
means of electric currents. Their movements are
also the cause of the curious electric currents which
all living beings are capable of producing, and which
represent the highest degree of excitement. The
explanation of the nature of the effect of the ions
is of the greatest importance for the proper under-
standing of the phenomena of life.
It is a curious fact that the ions need not penetrate
into the living cells themselves. The conclusion is
that they react with the surfaces of the cells, the
“ physiological boundaries.’’ Three groups of pheno-
mena were discussed. In the first instance, the cells
themselves carry electric charges, and they interact
with the charges of the ions. A result of this may be
clotting, or “‘ agglutination,’ as, for example, in the
well-known case of the clotting of the blood-corpuscles
during pregnancy. Secondly, the interaction of the
salt-ions and the cell-surfaces produces the bio-
electric currents which have been referred to above.
In a model the substance of the cell-surfaces may be
replaced by organic oils, and by bringing these oil
films in contact with various salts the electro-physio-
logical phenomena may be well imitated. Thirdly,
a change in the composition of the normal mixture
of ions on the surface of the cells alters the power of
transmission of the surface, so that the normal
diffusion between the inside of the cell and the
surrounding fluid is disturbed. These results show
that medical science will have to study these purely
physico-chemical phenomena in order to be able to
ae fully and deal properly with the processes
of life.
Prof. Spiro of Basel, in dealing with the same
subject, stated that every electrolyte seems to play
a special part in the organism. Especially the effect
of the small ions of water and of the colloid electro-
lytes must be studied. For health there must be a
proper equilibrium of all the necessary ions.
Quite a sensation was caused by the lecture of
Prof. Mayer of Hamburg on the new preparation
against trypanosome diseases, “‘ Bayer 205,’’ pro-
duced and manufactured by Friedrich Bayer, Lever-
kusen (near Cologne). This new drug, which is
said to contain neither arsenic, antimony, mercury,
nor any other inorganic therapeutic reagents, has
been extensively tested, both in Europe and tropical
countries, and found to give excellent results in
advanced stages of sleeping-sickness and other
trypanosome diseases. A station for further ex-
periments has been fitted up in South Africa.
In the geographical section Dr. Sven Hedin lectured
on his travels in Tibet, summarising the results
contained in his various works and producing a great
number of fine lantern-slides. The lecture was
enthusiastically received.
A great number of papers was read by eminent
medical workers on special subjects. Prof. Flechsig
gave a survey of his well-known studies in mental
pathology in a lecture on the localisation of the
brain functions. Many lectures were also delivered
on technical and industrial subjects, such as workshop
control by means of optical measuring instruments
and modern methods of rapid reception and despatch
of wireless messages.
The two lectures on enzymes, by Profs. Willstatter
of Munich and von Euler of Stockholm, were well
attended and full of interest. Prof. C. Neuberg of
Berlin lectured on recent advances in the study of
fermentation.
A special feature of the congress was the lecture
by Prof. Wilhelm Ostwald of Leipzig on his new
methods of quantitative determination of colours.
Based on the Law of Fechner, his system of colours
includes the dull colours which Helmholtz excluded.
The colours of our environment cannot be measured
by wave-lengths, but only by means of revolving
coloured discs with a variable black sector. New
was the communication that we nowadays no longer
distinguish six principal colours, but must assume
eight, which number agrees with Fechner’s Law.
Space forbids more than a short reference to the
valuable lecture by Prof. Svante Arrhenius of
Stockholm on physical law in the cosmico-chemical
processes, by Prof. V. M. Goldschmidt of Christiania
on the metabolism of the earth, and by Prof. Nernst
of Berlin on photo-chemical processes. In the last
of these it was stated that Einstein’s law of photo-
chemical equivalents no longer holds good. Light
does not produce a primary splitting up of the
chemical substance, but an addition of energy. Our
photographic plates would have to be 6000 times
more sensitive in order to approach to the ideal.
Many more valuable lectures on special subjects
were delivered. The town of Leipzig showed its
splendid hospitality and provided entertainments
and many occasions for social and personal inter-
course. B. Rassow.
The Present Position of Darwinism.
NE of the discussions which aroused most
interest during the British Association meeting
at Hull was that held jointly by the botanical and
zoological sections on ‘The present position of
Darwinism.’’ There was a large attendance, the
discussion being presided ONeE by Prof. H. H. Dixon,
who was supported by Dr. E. J. Allen. The theory
of the origin of species by natural selection, which has
already been assailed by the geneticists, was attacked
NO! 27:70, VOL. X10]
from a different point of view by Dr. J. C. Willis
and Mr. Udny Yule, who treated the subject with
special reference to geographical distribution and
the statistical analysis of genera and species. During
the discussion the older view as to the significance
of natural selection was stoutly maintained by some
speakers.
After a few introductory remarks by Prof. Dixon,
the discussion was opened by Dr. J. C. Willis, who
752
tyead URE
[| DECEMBER 2, 1922
spoke of ‘‘ The inadequacy of the theory of natural
selection as an explanation of the facts of geographical
distribution and evolution.”
that Darwin’s immortal service to science consisted
in the firm establishment of the doctrine of evolution.
This was effected by devising the mechanism of the
natural selection of infinitesimal variations, the
principle usually known under the name of Darwin-
ism. This theory involves many assumptions :
among others, that such variations are (1) continuous,
(2) hereditary, (3) differentiating, (4) selected, and
(5) that the necessary differentiating variations for
the associated characters appear together. For all
of these the proof is as yet insufficient.
Dr. Willis proceeded to consider the extent to
which natural selection of small variations could be
held to explain the facts of geographical distribution,
morphology, and evolution, special reference being
made to the grasses and to the Chrysomelid beetles.
It was then pointed out that natural selection was
helpless to explain the differences in distribution of
closely related species, which, on the other hand, could
be explained on the hypothesis of “‘ Age and Area ’’—
i.e. that the area occupied by any group of allied
species (at least ten) depends chiefly upon the ages
of the species. On this hypothesis predictions could
be made which were found to be justified by facts.
Dispersal of species is held to be mainly mechanical :
so much dispersal in so much time. This suggested
the further hypothesis of ‘‘ Size and Space’’; that,
in groups of ten allied genera, the total space occupied
goes with the total number of species. If this be
true, whatever phenomena are shown by “ Area ”’
should also be shown by “ Size.’”’ This in fact is
shown to be the case when the number of allied
species occupying areas of increasing size and the
number of species in allied genera are plotted in the
form of curves. The shape of the curves is invariably
uniform. But sizes of genera are clearly the result
of evolution. According to the theory of natural
selection, the sizes of genera must depend upon their
success, and it is, therefore, inconceivable that they
should show such uniformity of expression. Such
facts, however, are easily explained by the hypothesis
that geographical distribution and evolution extend
with age—z.e. that the factors causing them act at a
more or less uniform rate. Natural selection, which
is essentially differentiating, cannot explain these
facts. 7
In consequence, however useful it may be to
explain details of certain adaptations, and although
everything at birth must pass through the sieve of
natural selection, it seems that the latter principle
must be abandoned as an important factor in geo-
graphical distribution and evolution. Finally, Dr.
Willis considered it necessary to accept large muta-
tions as being of greatest importance in evolution.
In his opinion Guppy’s theory of differentiation
should replace the Darwinian position that evolution
has proceeded from individual through variety to
species, genus, etc., for the theory of ‘‘ Age and Area ”’
showed clearly that the family is older than the
genus, and that the genus is older than the species.
Mr. G. Udny Yule spoke upon ‘‘ A mathematical
conception of evolution based on the theory of Age,
Size, and Space.’’ He suggested that if the size of
the genus be considered an index of its age, species
might be regarded as thrown by the genus much
as offspring are thrown by a stock, and that the
number of species originating from a given initial
species will-increase in geometric ratio with the
time. The forms of frequency distribution for
numbers of genera with numbers of species were
shown to be in accordance with the facts, and the
possibility was suggested of determining from such
NO. 2770, VOL. I10]
Dr. Willis pointed out |
distributions the ratio between the rates of increase
of genera and species and the age of the family in
terms of the doubling period for species.
Mr. C. Tate Regan stated that in his special study
of fishes he had formed conclusions as to the origin
and relationships of species and genera which were
quite different from those of Dr. Willis. He pointed
out that the hollow curves of the previous speakers
were extreme types of asymmetrical curves which
could also be obtained from many sorts of data—e.g.
by plotting graphically the wealth of the community,
grading from many poor to few very rich, or from
the numbers of occurrences of surnames in the
London Telephone Directory. All these curves were
simply graphic representations of certain facts the
meaning of which could be ascertained only by
detailed analysis. According to his own view, the
first step in the origin of a species had been not a
change of structure but some form of isolation.
The extreme mutationists, who thought that adapta-
tions originated as large transformations without
relation to use or environment, seemed to have returned
to the special creation theory. Darwin’s theory of
evolution was that species had been modified by the
natural selection of slight variations, aided by the
inherited effects of use and disuse, and, in an un-
important manner (so far as adaptations were con-
cerned) by the direct action of the environment.
That theory was put forward by a man who knew
the facts to be explained. Mr. Tate Regan claimed
that Darwin’s theory explained them and that no
other theory stood the test.
Prof. W. Johannsen spoke from the point of view
of a geneticist. He pointed out that selection could
not produce anything, but it should be borne in mind
that Darwin’s belief in a productive power of selection
was fully logical from the naive view of his time.
The mutations which we knew did not explain the
nature of evolution or the origin of large differences
such as the differences between families. Modern
genetics could scarcely contribute to a solution of the
main problems of evolution, but it seemed to have
cleared the ground from the erroneous Lamarckian
and Darwinian views. He himself and, he thought,
most geneticists were agnostics as to the mechanism-
of evolution,
Mr. T. Cunningham thought that natural
selection was ‘‘ as extinct as the dodo,’’ and that the
origin of species was due to mutations. Specific
characters were for the most part useless, but other
groups might be distinguished by adaptive and non-
adaptive characters. He discussed adaptation, which
he considered to have arisen in a Lamarckian manner.
Modern discoveries concerning internal secretions
showed how many adaptations exhibiting recapitula-
tion might have been produced by stimuli and
functional exercise.
Dr. H. Wager urged that there was more in the
theory of natural selection than was implied by
Dr. Willis and Mr. Cunningham. Fluctuating varia-
tions were dismissed from having evolutionary
significance, but mutations were not necessarily
large. He reminded the audience that an alternative
title given by Darwin to ‘“‘ The Origin of Species by
means of Natural Selection ” was ‘‘ The preservation
of favoured races in the struggle for life,’ which
might be interpreted in modern terms as “ The
preservation of favourable mutations.”’
Prof. E. B. Poulton discussed the theory of “‘ Age
and Area”’ in relation to mimicry, and pointed out
that in certain African butterflies the younger form
is distributed over a much wider area than the
ancestral type.
Dr. Chalmers Mitchell supported Mr. Tate Regan,
and considered that Dr. Willis had presented merely
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATUR
Les
a caricature of natural selection.
the study of individual life forms.
Prof. A. C. Seward considered that the great
uniformity of the curves presented by Dr. Willis
and Mr. Udny Yule was suspicious, for Nature had
not been uniform. He pointed out that, as regards
conifers and ferns, study showed that the forms
existing now in restricted areas were the oldest and
not the youngest.
Mr. Julian Huxley contended that many factors
played a part in evolution. Species characters should -
be analysed by the methods of genetics and physiology
before it could be said which were useless. Apparently
useless characters in the Gipsy moth were correlated
with physiological differences, such as rate of growth,
which harmonised with the environment.
Prof. R. Ruggles Gates considered that Dr. Willis’s
view was a corollary of the mutation hypothesis, and
emphasised the importance of the extinction of forms
as a factor in evolution.
Prof. W. J. Dakin suggested that biologists were
on the threshold of a new line of study of evolution
from the physico-chemical side. He believed that
the faculty of evolution was as much a character of
He appealed for
the organism as irritability or reproduction, and
pointed out that natural selection was really natural
elimination, the production of characters being
inherent properties.
Dr. A. B. Rendle said it was almost impossible
to say what characters were useful or not, and, in
view of the limited space available, considered that
the multiplication of genera and species in geometrical
progression was unlikely. ~*
Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner agreed that evolution
was an inherent property of protoplasm, and raised
the question as to why forms of life died out. He
pr bueesed approval of the main thesis of “‘ Age and
Area.”
In reply, Dr. J. C. Willis pointed out that there
must be some reason for the uniformity of expression
as given in his statistical work. He accepted the
phrase ‘‘ Natural Elimination ’”’ instead of ‘* Natural
Selection.”
In concluding the discussion, Prof. H. H. Dixon
pointed out that both “ Natural Selection ’’ and
“Age and Area ’’ were essentially truisms, but none
the less required explicit statement and demonstra-
tion.
Effects of Local Conditions
pee methods used for finding the direction in
which Hertzian waves are incident at a radio
station have now attained a high accuracy, the
maximum error being well under one degree. It
does not follow, however, that the methods give the
direction of the sending station to the same accuracy.
The waves sent out may have suffered reflections
from all kinds of conductors before they reach the
receiving station. Hence, especially at night-time,
the apparent direction generally differs very appreci-
ably from the true direction. A preliminary report
on this subject, communicated by the Radio Research
Board, was read on November 8 to the Radio section
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers by Messrs.
Smith-Rose and Barfield. They classify the causes
of distortion under two heads: First, those which
are vaguely classed as night-effects and occur
between sunset and sunrise. They are sometimes
as large as 20°, and little is known as to their cause.
Hence in practice radio-direction finding is restricted
to day-time. The second causes of error are those
due to conducting substances in the immediate
neighbourhood of the search coil. In one experi-
ment a metal tube 50 ft. long, semicircular in
cross-section, and of radius 3 ft. 6 in. was used.
When the coil was at a distance of 15 ft. from
either end errors became appreciable, and when
placed 15 ft. inside the tube the error was as great
asizor.
Experiments were also made on board ship, as
radio-direction finding is of great value in navigation.
on Radio Direction-finding.
It was found that when the waves came fore-and-aft
or athwart the ship there was no error, but that in
intermediate positions the errors were sometimes as
great as 22°. As these errors are approximately
constant, corrections can be applied as in the case
of the magnetic compass. Curiously enough it was
found that underground metal work in the neighbour-
hood had a very appreciable effect on the apparent
direction of the incoming waves. The Aberdeen
University direction-finding station, for example, was
erected on what was thought to be a favourable
site. The errors found, however, indicated the
existence of a long strip of metal in the neighbourhood
in a definite direction. The authors investigated
the cause and found that a sewer in the neighbourhood,
which was in the given direction, was supported by
a strip of steel 6 ft. wide, 300 ft. long, and 8 ft.
below the surface.
Overhead wires also caused appreciable but variable
errors, which the authors traced to’ variations of the
telegraph and telephone circuits when in use. They
investigated the errors produced by tuned aerials
and trees. Trees when damp have small resistance,
and so the oscillations set up in them affect the
direction of the waves. A row of damp trees forms
a very good conducting screen. It was noticed that
the waves showed a tendency to move round large
conductors. Owing to variable meteorological condi-
tions a very large number of experiments had to be
made before definite results were obtained. The
authors are continuing theri investigations.
New X-ray Department at Manchester.
IR HUMPHRY ROLLESTON, president of the
Royal College of Physicians and of the Rontgen
Society, opened on November 18 the new X-ray
department of the Manchester Royal Infirmary,
which is probably the most completely equipped
department of its kind in this country. This has
been made possible by two separate gifts of 5000l.,
one by Mr. Robert McDougall and the other by an
anonymous benefactor.
The occasion coincided with a joint provincial
NOW 770. VOL. 110]
meeting at Manchester of the R6ntgen Society and
the Electrotherapeutics Section of the Royal Society
of Medicine ; and a considerable number of members
took the opportunity of inspecting the new equip-
ment, which has been installed by Messrs. Watson
and Sons under the direction of Dr. A. E. Barclay,
senior radiologist to the Infirmary
The new department is on the ground-floor, is well
lighted and ventilated, possesses generous head room,
and is cheerfully decorated, all features which are
754
NATURE
| DECEMBER 2, 1922
stressed in the recommendations of the X-ray and
Radium Protection Committee. Indirect lighting
is employed, the ceilings being painted with white
enamel.
Throughout the building high-tension wires are
abolished. They are replaced by stout aluminium
tubing, which eliminates brush discharges and
prevents the formation of ozone, now known to be
prejudicial to the health-of the operators.
Most of the X-ray bulbs are contained in boxes
which are covered with an adequate thickness of
sheet lead. In addition, the walls are coated with
a plaster containing a large admixture of barium
sulphate, the result being a wall giving protection
equivalent to that of about 8 mm. of lead.
Coolidge tubes and closed-core high-tension trans-
formers are the order of the day, except in the treat-
ment department, where the existing induction coils |
have been brought up-to-date.
In the screening-room a Sunic 10 K.V.A. oil-
immersed transformer is installed. The new intensive
deep therapy treatment of cancer is catered for by
two separate 200,000-volt outfits, each of the twin-coil
type—one a German set with dry insulation by
Maison Schaerer, the other of the oil-immersed type
by Newton and Wright.
There are a number of unusually elaborate screen-
ing-stands and couches, a novel development being
the Potter Bucky couch, in which a lead grid is
inserted between the patient and the photographic
plate. The grid, while allowing direct X-rays from
the bulb to pass, prevents the majority of the
scattered radiation from reaching the plate, to the
marked benefit of definition. A special portable
X-ray equipment is provided for use in the wards
of the hospital in cases where it is inadvisable to
move the patient.
The lay-out of the department is well-nigh a
model of its kind, being arranged so that the work
progresses automatically to its finality. The day of
black-painted walls for dark rooms is over ; instead,
we find a cheery lofty room which can readily be
fooded with daylight when the room is not in use.
Thermostatic control of the developing and fixing
solutions, etc., is provided. There is also a fully-
equipped demonstration room, so that doctors and
students can watch the examination of cases without
hampering the work. This demonstration room is
also provided with a stereo-motorgraph, an ingenious
instrument which automatically changes lantern
slides by a press-button, so that the lecturer is in-
dependent of a lantern operator. The proportion
of infirmary patients requiring X-ray examination
is one in five, so that business-like and orderly
arrangements are very essential.
At the joint meeting Prof. Jacobaeus of Stockholm,
Prof. W. L. Bragg and Prof. A. V. Hill, among others,
contributed papers; and the enterprise of the two
societies in departing from precedent by holding a
meeting in the provinces met with great local apprecia-
tion and support.
University and Educational Intelligence.
ABERDEEN.—Dr. A. W. Gibb has been appointed
to the newly founded Kilgour chair of geology. This
foundation is derived from a bequest under the will of
the late Dr. Alexander Kilgour of South Loirston,
supplemented in the will of his son, through whose
death it has now become available. In accordance
with the terms of the trust deed, junior and senior
scholarships in natural science have also been insti-
tuted. Prof. Gibb, who has an intimate knowledge
NO. 2770, VOL. I10|
of the geology of the north of Scotland, has been in
charge of the teaching of the subject since 1899, first
as a member of the staff of the natural history depart-
ment, and since 1908 as head of an independent
department of geology. The teaching of the subject
in Aberdeen is associated with the names of James
Nicol and Alleyne Nicholson.
Prof. E. W. Hobson has completed, during the
present month, his second series of Gifford lectures
on ‘“‘ The Domain of Natural Science.’’ In this series,
which concludes the course, he has reviewed the whole
field of natural science, and has dealt with its relation
to general thought and to theism. The lectures will
appear in book form.
LivERPOooL.—We understand that Prof. F. Carey
is to retire at the end of the present session. Prof.
Carey is head of the department of pure mathematics
at the University, and was one of the original
professors on the first staff of the University College.
THE Strasbourg correspondent of the Times states
that the diploma of doctor honovis causa of the
University of Strasbourg has been conferred upon
Sir James Frazer, author of ‘‘ The Golden Bough.”
ACCORDING to the Paris correspondent of the Times,
the degree of doctor honoris causa of the University of
Paris has been conferred on the following: Prof.
Bordet, professor of bacteriology in the University of
Brussels ; Prof. M. Lugeon, professor of geology in the
University of Lausanne; and Prof. A. Michelson,
professor of physics in the University of Chicago.
By the will of Sir William Stevenson Meyer, High
Commissioner for India and formerly Chief Secretary
to the Government of Madras, who died on October 19
last, sums of 3000/. each are bequeathed to University
College, London, ‘for the encouragement of pro-
ficiency in European history and in the history and
geography of India,’’ and to the University of Madras
“ for promoting the study of history and economics.”
A CONFERENCE on the teaching of science in schools
and colleges, which owed its initiation to Miss Winifred
Smith, president of the Association of University
Women Teachers, and its organisation to the joint
efforts of the Association of Science Teachers and the
A.U.W.T., was held on Saturday, November 25, at
University College. During the morning session,
with Miss Smith in the chair, the more general aspects
of science teaching and the relationship between the
work in the school and in the university were discussed.
In the opening paper Sir William Tilden dealt with
science in the school and raised a plea for work of
wider and less specialised type, with a place for the
history of the growth of knowledge. His personal
reminiscences added much to the interest of the paper.
Sir William Bayliss and Prof. J. R. Partington both
expressed themselves in hearty support of wider range
in the science work. The last speaker, from the point
of view of university work, considered that the more
specialisation was pushed in the school, the worse the
result later. The condemnation of specialisation was
continued in the papers of both Miss Thomas and of
Miss Drummond. The first speaker dealt with the
preparation of the student for the work of teaching
science and deplored the tendency to specialise too
early at the university; she considered the con-
ditions of the Burnham scales enhanced this. The
afternoon session included a paper upon the teaching
of biology by Mr. A. G. Tansley, and papers upon
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NA TORE
schemes of work in physics and nature study by Miss
Lees and Mr. Latter respectively. The duty of the
school to imstruct future citizens regarding the
functions of their own bodies was raised by several
speakers. During the day, through the kindness of
the college authorities, there was an opportunity to
visit the laboratories, which was greatly appreciated
by the members of the well-attended conference.
THE Chemiker Zeitung of September 28 publishes
particulars as to the number of students in German
universities. The total number had increased from
40,000 to 60,000 at the outbreak of war. At the end
of the war the number was 90,000, and in the summer
of 1921 it was 87,147. At present it is 82,668. The
Technischen Hochschulen had 12,000 students before
the war, in 1920 they had 22,976, and last winter
25,550. The division into faculties has undergone
changes; the warnings of overcrowding in some
faculties have had some effect but the stream of
superfluous students has mainly been diverted into
other faculties, which are also now hopelessly over-
crowded. The following comparison is given with
pre-war conditions :
Faculty. IQI4. 1922.
Evangelical Theology . 4,37° 2,974
Catholic Theology 2,050 1,795
Legal Science 9,840 16,834
Medicine - 16,048 15,110
Dentistry . : 3 976 4,167
Philosophy and Philology - 14,400 12,823
Mathematics and Natural Sciences 85132) 9 0)257
Pharmacy é : 1,100 ttre)
National Economy 3,836 17,714
Forestry ey: 490
The following refer to technical students :
Faculty. 19T4. 1922.
Architecture . & o 9 2,193 1,811
Constructional Engineering 2,767 3,311
Mechanical Engineering 3,118 8,306
Electrotechnics . : 5 6 1,307 5,129
Mathematics and Natural Sciences 1,544 3,735
Mining and Metallurgy 576 1,234
Naval Engineering 234 365
General . a < 493-1483
It is further stated that the present-day student
does not tend to the same extent as before the war to
study in the large cities.
Lire in the universities of Russia to-day is de-
scribed by Harold Gibson, Chief Administrator,
International University Relief in Russia, in a brief
note circulated for the purpose of obtaining further
help for their professors and teachers. While
conditions in Moscow and Petrograd are said to have
improved materially during the past year, they are
still deplorable in the provinces. Professors and
teachers have been receiving from the Government
food packets (academical pyok), but it is doubtful
whether this supply, inadequate and irregular during
the summer, will not cease altogether during the
winter. In addition they receive, but not regularly,
pay on a scale sufficient to provide food (millet
gruel with sunflower oil, soup made from salt fish,
and potatoes fried in oil) for about one week per
month. All clothing they could possibly do without
during the summer is said to have been sold. As
for housing, it is seldom that a professor’s family
has more than two rooms to live in and very frequently
they have only one, while in some universities the
professors live in their lecture-rooms or laboratories.
It is astonishing that under such conditions work
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
of any value can be done, but we are assured that
not merely is a respectable standard of instruction
maintained but valuable research work has been
done. An appeal by the Universities Committee of
the Imperial War Relief Fund issued in September
last met with an immediate and generous response,
but much more is needed urgently—money, gifts in
kind of food, clothing, and clothing material, books,
scientific journals, and laboratory equipment. Full
particulars can be obtained from Miss Iredale,
Organising Secretary of the Committee, General
Buildings, Aldwych, London, to whom cheques
made payable to the Hon. Cecil Baring should also
be sent.
Tue Council of the League of Nations has approved
and published a report on ‘‘ The condition of in-
tellectual life in Austria,’ specially prepared by Prof.
de Reynold, of the University of Berne, during the
month of August. It describes a struggle for exist-
ence carried on in circumstances of increasing difficulty
which threaten to overwhelm completely Austrians
who are dependent for their means of livelihood on
intellectual work. “‘ The winter of 1922-1923 will
without a doubt be decisive.’”” The University of
Vienna is at present saved from having to close its
doors by a Government subsidy of 1000 million
crowns (the purchasing power of which is about one-
twentieth part of the subsidy it was receiving before
the war), but all practical scientific work has become
impossible owing to lack of funds for the purchase
of essential requisites. The Universities of Graz and
Innsbruck and other institutions of higher education
are in a similar or worse plight. Innsbruck formerly
attracted many foreign students, but last year none
except Austrians attended, and there is talk of closing,
if not the whole university, at least the school of
medicine. Academies and scientific societies con-
tinue to meet but are unable to publish reports except
when, as occasionally happens, a foreign patron pro-
vides funds for the purpose. The monthly salary of
a university professor is on an average about enough
to live on for twenty days, and he may receive students’
fees up to a sixth of his salary. Lectures go on in
Vienna up to Io P.M. to enable students to earn
money by manual work (the only kind that is well
paid) during the day. In the circumstances it is
surprising that last year the University of Vienna still
had nearly 10,000 students.
In ‘Home Economics in Rural Schools” and
“Modern Equipment for One-Teacher Schools ”’
(Home Economics circular 13 and Rural School
leaflet 3, 1922, of the Bureau of Education, Wash-
ington) a prominent place is given to the provision
of hot lunch for the pupils. It has been found that
in such schools the most satisfactory method of
imparting a knowledge of foods and household
sanitation and inculcating right health habits is in
connexion with the preparation and service by groups
of children of a hot lunch for the whole school. It
is claimed that the time taken from the regular
school work is not more than ten minutes daily, and
that the beneficial physical effects of the hot food
itself, and the moral effect of the co-operative social
activity involved, have been very marked. It is
recommended that the instruction in home economics
should be related to the geography, arithmetic, and
physiology lessons. In “ Reorganization of Home
Economics in Secondary Schools ”’ (Bulletin 5, 1922)
it is stated that the most satisfactory and economical
management of the school lunch in any school, large
or small, is attained by placing it under the direction
of the head of the home economics department.
756
eA PO Ke
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
December 3, 1863. John Watkins Brett died.—A
pioneer of submarine telegraphy, Brett obtained
permission in 1847 from Louis Philippe to establish
connexion by cable between England and France, a
project which was first carried out in 1850.
December 4, 1804. Philippe Le Bon died.—In
France, Le Bon is regarded as the inventor of lighting
by gas. Educated for the Government service, in
1794 he became a professor in the Ecole des Ponts
et Chaussées. Three years later he was able to light
his house at Bruchay by the distillation of wood, and
in 1799 he was granted a patent. On December 4,
1804, he was found in the Champs-Elysées murdered
by an unknown hand.
December 6, 1777. Johann Andreas Cramer died.—
Regarded as the greatest assayer of his time, Cramer
was born in Quedlinburg in 1710, taught assaying in
Leyden and London, and afterwards was councillor
of mines and metallurgy at Blankenburg. His
“ Docimasia’’ was published in 1736 and _ his
“ Elementa Artis Docimastice ” in 1739.
December 6, 1892. Werner von Siemens died.—
The eldest of the famous Siemens brothers, Werner
Siemens was born at Lenthe, Hanover, on December
13, 1816, and in 1838 became an artillery officer.
Distinguished for his scientific attainments, with
John Georg Halske- (1814-1890) he founded in 1847
the firm of Siemens and Halske at Berlin, and the
following year with Himly laid the first telegraph
line in Germany. He made many discoveries in
electricity, in 1866 gave half a million marks for the
founding of an Imperial Institute of Technology and
Physics, and in 1888 was ennobled.
December 7, 1880. Henry R. Worthington died.—
The original inventor of the direct-acting steam
pump, of which many thousands of various types are
manufactured annually, Worthington took out his
first patent in 1841, and in 1845 founded the Worthing-
ton Hydraulic Works of New York, which became the
leading establishment for the construction of steam-
pumping machinery in the United States.
December 7, 1894. Ferdinand Viscomte de Lesseps
died.—The originator and constructor of the Suez
Canal, one of the great engineering works of last
century, de Lesseps was born at Versailles in 1805,
and at the age of twenty joined the French diplomatic
service. Among other places he served at Cairo
and Alexandria. Obtaining a concession from Said
Pasha in 1854, he started the canal in 1858; a vessel
of 80 tons passed from the Mediterranean to the Red
Sea in 1867, and on November 17, 1869, the canal
was formally opened. A colossal statue of de
Lesseps stands at Port Said. De Lesseps also
launched the scheme for the Panama Canal, and
when an old man of eighty-eight was with the
other directors found guilty of mismanagement and
sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which, however,
was not enforced.
December 8, 1870.
period when railways were first coming into extensive
use, Brassey with various partners carried out some
hundreds of important contracts including railways
in England, France, Italy, Canada, Australia,
Argentine, and India.
December 9, 1814. Joseph Bramah died.—Known
for his invention of a safety lock, a beer engine, the
hydraulic press, and a machine for numbering and
dating banknotes, Bramah was a native of York-
shire, but for many years was one of the leading
mechanicians in London. 13... S;
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
Thomas Brassey died.—At a |
[DEcEMBER 2, 1922
Societies and Academies.
Lonpon.
Linnean Society, November 2.—Dr. A. Smith
Woodward, president, in the chair.—A. B. Rendle:
Early specimens of the dahlia and chrysanthemum
from the Banksian Herbarium.—J. S. Huxley: The
courtship of birds.—B. Daydon Jackson: The use
of the name Forstera or Forsteria. Both names were
used by Linne on a sheet in his herbarium with his
note Fosieva vaginalis on a sheet which formerly
had a grass-like plant glued upon it and therefore
was widely separated from the Stylidiaceous genus
which at the present day bears the name Forstera.
Aristotelian Society, November 6.—Prof. A. N.
Whitehead, president, in the chair.—A. N. Whitehead:
Uniformity and contingency (presidential address).
Our awareness of Nature consists of the projection of
sense-objects into a spatio-temporal continuum either
within or without our bodies. But “ projection ”’
implhes a sensorium which is the origin of projection.
This sensorium is within our bodies, and each sense-
object can be described as located in any region of
space-time only by reference to a particular simul-
taneous location of a bodily sensorium. The process
of projection consists in our awareness of an irreducible
many-termed relation between the sense-object in
question, the bodily sensorium, and the space-time
continuum, and it also requires our awareness of
that continuum as stratified into layers of simul-
taneity, the temporal thickness of which depends on
the specious present. If this account of Nature be
accepted, then space-time must be uniform, for any
part of it settles the scheme of relations for the whole
irrespective of the particular mode in which any
other part of it, in the future or the past or elsewhere
in space, may. exhibit the ingression of sense-objects.
Accordingly, the scheme of relations must be ex-
hibited with a systematic uniformity. We have here
the primary ground of uniformity in Nature.
Mineralogical Society, November 7 (anniversary
meeting).—Dr. A. Hutchinson, president, in the
chair.—W. A. Richardson: The frequency-distribu-
tion of igneous rocks in relation to petrogenic theories.
The distribution of igneous rocks shows a separation
into two primary types, probably corresponding to
two primary earth shells, which have originated
under early planetary conditions. All other rocks
are normally distributed about the two primaries,
and the probable cause of such a distribution is
fractional crystallisation. The frequency-distribu-
tion likely to result from different petrogenic processes
is examined and discussed.—Miss I. E. Knaggs:
The connexion between crystal structure and chemical
constitution of carbon compounds. In certain simple
substitution products of methane, the crystal sym-
metry may be predicted from the known configura-
tion of the chemical molecule. The symmetry of a
molecule of the type CX, is that of a regular tetra-
hedron, X being either a univalent atom or a group
of atoms, which does not destroy the trigonal
symmetry about the bonds from the central carbon
atom. Compounds of this type crystallise in the
cubic system. Compounds in which X is a more
complex group, but sufficiently symmetrical to main-
tain tetragonal symmetry, crystallise in the tetra-
gonal system, most frequently in the holohedral
class, in which case the crystal is considered to be
built up of cells each containing eight molecules.
Molecules of the type CX,Y have one axis of trigonal
symmetry, and this symmetry is preserved in the
crystal, except when X is hydrogen. The ortho-
rhombic symmetry of molecules of the type CX,Y,
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
NATURE
iS
is maintained in the crystal—Dr. G. T. Prior: The
meteoric iron of Karee Kloof, Cape Province, and
the meteoric stone of Leeuwfontein, Pretoria, South
Africa. The meteoric iron, of which a mass of 92
kgm. was found at Karee Kloof, is a coarse octa-
hedrite containing 8-27 per cent. nickel ; the Leeuw-
fontein meteoric stone of 460 gm. which fell on
June 21, 1912, is an intermediate chondrite.
Zoological Society, November 7.—Prof. E. W.
MacBride, vice-president, in the chair.—C. S. Elton:
The colours of water-mites.—E. B. Poulton: Com-
mensalism among Crustacea. An account of ex-
periments conducted at the Laboratory of the
Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, in 18go,
showing commensalism may be beneficial to Crustacea.
—G. M. Vevers: Nematode parasites of mammals
from the Zoological Society.—W. J. Kaye: New
species of Trinidad moths.—C. F. Sonntag: On ‘the
myology and classification of the wombat, koala,
and phalangers.—E. G. Boulenger: Description of
a new lizard of the genus Chalcides, from the Gambia,
living in the Society’s Gardens.
Geological Society, November 8.—Prof. A. C.
Seward, president, in the chair—R. D. Oldham:
The earthquake of August 7, 1895, in Northern
Italy. This earthquake, although nowhere more than
a feeble shock, was felt over an area measuring about
160 miles across and covering some 15,000 to 20,000
square miles in Lombardy and Tuscany. There is
no indication of a central area of greatest intensity ;
reports indicating an intensity of 1V° (Mercalli scale)
are scattered over the whole area, and reports of
sounds and of noticeable vertical movement are
similarly distributed. The nature of the disturbance
was akin to that in the outer parts of the seismic
area of great earthquakes. The depth of the ultimate
origin of the earthquake must have been of the order
of 100 miles or more.—R. D. Oldham: The Pamir
earthquake on February 18, 1911. This earthquake
was felt over an area of about 250 miles in diameter ;
the region included by the VIII° R.F. isoseist
measured about 40 miles across. Over the greater
part of this area destruction was extreme, and the
hillsides were seamed with landslips. Aftershocks
were recorded, providing further evidence that the
earthquake had its origin at a considerable depth
below the surface. The great landslip, though
determined by, and not determining the earthquake,
as has been thought in the past, may have influenced
the distant seismograms by setting up surface-waves
. which, superimposed on those directly due to the
earthquake, may account for the unusual size of the
long (or surface-) waves, as compared with the
preliminary tremors.—F. Dixey: The geology of Sierra
Leone : About half of the Protectorate of Sierra Leone
is composed of potash-bearing granites and granite-
gneisses, while the remaining areas are occupied
equally by older schists and gneisses and the ancient
sedimentary Rokell River Series. The older schists
and gneisses, including a charnockitic series similar
to that of the Ivory Coast, represent a complex of
highly metamorphosed sedimentary and_ igneous
rocks. The Rokell River Series has a lower con-
glomeratic division that rests unconformably upon
the crystalline rocks. The rocks of the series are
usually much disturbed, and show every gradation
from slight deformation to intense dynamic meta-
morphism. The southern margin of the great series
of horizontal sandstones of French Guinea forms,
near the Anglo-French boundary of the Protectorate,
the Saionia Scarp, and thus the formation within the
Protectorate bears the name Saionia Scarp Series.
It rests alike with striking unconformity upon the
Rokell River Series and the crystalline rocks.
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
Association of Economic Biologists, November 10.
—E. S. Russell: The work of the Fisheries Labora-
tory at Lowestoft. The main task of the past two
years of the Laboratory and research ship George
Bligh has been the working out of the life-history
and food supply of certain economic fishes. In-
vestigations on plaice in the North Sea have shown
that there are more plaice than before and they
were markedly larger and older than the pre-war
plaice. In connexion with cod and herring in-
vestigations a quantitative study of the bottom
fauna, carried out by Petersen’s method on an
area of the Dogger Bank, showed that the food
supply was very patchy. Large patches of Mactva
(Spicula) subtruncata, which is a plaice food, were
found. The fauna belonged generally to the Venus
community, with a tendency to deep Venus. In-
vestigations of the early stages of the herring led to
searching for spawning areas. Useful pointers have
been the catches of spawn-gorged haddocks landed
on the East Coast. Larval and post-larval forms
were secured chiefly by using the Petersen young
fish trawl. There is a spawning ground off the
Lincolnshire coast, and others off the Northumberland,
coast, on the W. edge of the Dogger, and in the
Southern Bight, etc. At an early stage young
herring concentrate in inshore waters and go in
shoals, which complicates quantitative investigations.
The failure of last year’s herring fishery on the E.
coast of England is thought to be related to an
abnormal influx of Atlantic water into the N. Sea.
Concomitantly, changes occurred in temperature,
salinity, and plankton fauna. Very young herring,
even before the yolk sac is absorbed, prefer Pseudo-
calanus as food; a later stage takes Temora, and
herring of whitebait size take Eurytemora.—s. F.
Harmer: The present position of the whaling in-
dustry.
Linnean Society, November 16.—Dr. A. Smith
Woodward, president, in the chair.—A. J. Wilmott :
Orchis latifolia, Linn. (marsh orchis) from the Island
of Oland, Sweden, obtained from the station in
which it was found by Linnezus in 1741. O. latifolia,
L., 1753, was a general name for marsh orchids, but
in 1755 this name was limited without varieties, and
separated from O. incarvnata and O. sambucina.
The diagnosis is general, and comes from Linnzus’s
article in Act. Upsal. 1740, where it applies mainly
to unspotted-leaved plants. Linnzeus, referring to
O. latifolia in 1755, says that the leaves are slightly
spotted. This may refer to the decay spots on the
plant in his herbarium, or to the hybrid forms with
spotted leaves which occur where O. pre@termissa
and O. maculata occur together.—T. A. Sprague:
Twin-leaves and other abnormalities in the common
ash, Fraxinus excelsioy. Specimens were shown with
fasciated stems, bud-variation, accessory leaflets,
confluent leaflets, twin-leaves and triplets, and other
abnormalities. Twinning is probably caused by
hypertrophy. Complete or partial suppression of
one leaf of a pair does not necessarily disturb the
opposite-decussate phyllotaxy.
Faraday Society, November 20.—Sir Robert
Robertson, president, in the chair—T. M. Lowry:
Intramolecular ionisation. The introduction of elec-
tronic formule based on the theory of octets has
made it necessary to postulate a condition of intra-
molecular ionisation in a large number of compounds
where the charges on the nuclei are not balanced by
the enveloping electrons. Stability in oxy-acids
depends on the presence of a positive charge on the
central atom of the ion. This also increases the
strength of the acid. A maximum of stability and
758
of strength is reached in acids containing four atoms
of oxygen round the central atom of the ion—C. J.
Smith: On the viscosity and molecular dimensions
of hydrogen selenide. Attention has recently been
directed to the relations which exist between the
molecular dimensions of those gaseous hydrides which
have the same molecular number. In the series
krypton, hydrogen bromide, hydrogen selenide, and
arsine there were no data for hydrogen selenide.
Two factors are necessary for the proper estimation
of dimensions of a gaseous molecule, namely, the
coefficient of viscosity, and its rate of variation with
temperature. The viscosity of hydrogen selenide at
atmospheric temperature has been measured, but
the almost complete decomposition of the gas at
steam temperature has prevented any trustworthy
experimental determination of the temperature varia-
tion being made. The numerical results obtained
confirm the supposition that the gaseous molecules
HBr, H.Se, and AsH, have a central atom which
resembles an atom of krypton, and that the increase
in A in passing along the series is to be attributed to
the hydrogen nuclei which have become attached to
the central atom. As the hydrogen atoms in the
molecule multiply, the distance of each hydrogen
nucleus from the centre of the molecule increases
more and more rapidly.—W. R. G. Atkins: The
hydrogen concentration of natural waters and some
etching reagents in relation to action of metals.
The results obtained are summarised as follows:
Natural waters are usually between pH6 and pH8-3,
unless when rendered more acid by oxidation of
sulphur from pyrites or by metallic salts. Bog pools
may be as acid as pH5. Photosynthesis increases
the pH value. Ferrous salts in solution become more
acid on standing, with precipitation of ferric hydroxide.
The latter is completely precipitated before ferrous
hydroxide, as the solution is made progressively
more alkaline. Even at pH7-1 the precipitation of
ferrous hydroxide is incomplete. Hence a trace of
acid suffices to attack iron, and the hydroxide
produced through hydrolysis is oxidised and _pre-
cipitated. The hydrolysis equilibrium is thereby
upset and acid is regenerated. Buffer mixtures and
acids of relatively low hydrogen ion concentration
might be used as etching agents.
CAMBRIDGE.
Philosophical Society, October 30.—Prof. A. C.
Seward, president, in the chair—H. Hartridge and
F, J. W. Roughton: Determinations of the velocity
with which carbon monoxide displaces oxygen from
its combination with the blood pigment haemoglobin.
The velocity of the reaction, which is considerable,
was measured by utilising the fact that light displaces
the system from equilibrium by reducing the amount
of the carbon monoxide hemoglobin in a solution
of hemoglobin containing oxygen and carbon mon-
oxide. The relationship between the amounts of the
oxy- and carbon monoxide hemoglobin at any
moment was determined by the reversion spectro-
scope, which makes use of the fact that the wave-
length of the a band of the mixed pigment varies
with the relative concentration of the pigments.
Two methods of measuring the velocity of reaction
were employed :—(z) The solution was caused to
flow turbulently from a glass tube exposed to light,
down a second glass tube in the dark. In this tube
the equilibrium returned toits ‘“‘ dark ’’ position, and
from the rate of flow measurements by the spectro-
scope give the relative amounts of oxy- and carbon
monoxide hemoglobin at any moment. (b) The
solution remained in one vessel, the exposure to
light being suddenly cut off, and the time measured
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
NATURE
| DECEMBER 2, 1922
with a chronometer for the relationship between the
oxy- and carbon monoxide haemoglobin to reach a
definite value as shown by the spectroscope. Velocity
constants were calculated, assuming the reaction to:
be expressible by a simple chemical equation. The
temperature coefficients calculated from the results
obtained at other temperatures agree closely, the
mean value being 2-5. These results fit in with the
view that the combinations of oxygen and carbon
monoxide with hemoglobin are of a simple chemical
nature.—G. H. Hardy and J. E. Littlewood: Some
problems of Diophantine approximation.—J. Chadwick
and C. D. Ellis: A preliminary investigation of the
intensity distribution in the 6-ray spectra of radium
B and C.—C. G. Darwin and R. H. Fowler: Parti-
tion functions for temperature radiation and the
internal energy of a crystalline solid.—J. E. Littlewood
and E, A. Milne: On an integral equation.—E. V.
Appleton: The automatic synchronisation of triode
oscillators.—P. L. Kapitza: Note on the curved
tracks of 8-particles.—G. T. Walker: Meteorology
and the non-flapping flight of tropical birds.—Major
P.A. MacMahon: Thealgebra of symmetric functions.
DUBLIN.
Royal Irish Academy, Novembe1 13.—Prof. Sydney
Young, president, in the chair.—-S. Young: A note
on azeotropic mixtures. It is now possible to predict,
either with certainty or with considerable confidence,
whether an alcohol of the methyl alcohol series not
yet investigated can or cannot form a binary mixture
of minimum boiling-point with hexane, benzene, or
toluene, or a ternary azeotropic mixture with one
of these hydrocarbons and water.
Paris.
Academy of Sciences, November 6.—M. Albin
Haller in the chair.—The president announced the
death of E. Bouty.—L. Lindet: Concerning the
coagulation of latex. Remarks on a communication
by M. Vernet on the effects of adding calcium chloride
solution to the latex of rubber plants. In ro1q the
author published an account of a similar action
of calcium chloride in the coagulation of milk casein.
—Jean Effront: The absorption of pepsin and
hydrochloric acid by foods. Starting with the
observation that certain filter papers proved to be
active absorbents of pepsin, experiments have been
carried out on the absorptive powers of various fruits
and vegetables for pepsin and also for hydrochloric
acid. The amounts absorbed were considerable, and
vary with the fruit and with the acidity of the
medium. The therapeutical aspects of these facts
are discussed.—Serge Bernstein: The asymptotic
development of the best approximation by poly-
nomials of rational functions of degrees indefinitely
increasing.—Birger Meidell: A problem of the
calculus of probabilities and of mathematical statistics.
A discussion of Tchebycheff’s theorem on the proba-
bilities of errors greater than the average error with
special reference to the calculus of probabilities and
mathematical statistics.—P. J. Myrberg: The singu-
larities of automorphic functions. A correction to
the note of October 23 on th2 same subject.—J.
Le Roux: Gravitation in classical mechanics and in
Einstein’s theory.—Louis de Broglie: Interference
and the quanta theory of light——Paul Pascal: The
magnetic analysis of silicates and the silicic acids.
From measurements of magnetic susceptibility of
silicic acid in varying degrees of hydration it is
concluded that all the forms of “ hydrated silica ”’
studied behave magnetically as mixtures of anhydrous
DECEMBER 2, 1922]
silica and water. There is no evidence in favour of
the existence of any definite silicic acids in the
hydrated silica—André Brochet: The preparation
of active nickel for organic catalysis. Three methods
are described, the reduction of black nickel oxide
by electrolytic hydrogen at 350° C. (an operation
requiring 48 hours), or by heating either nickel
formate or nickel oxalate to 250°—300° C. These
three varieties of active nickel possess practically
identical catalytic properties—A. Aubry and E.
Dormoy : Anarsenical glucoside : diglucosidodioxydi-
amino-arsenobenzene. The compound “606” has
been made to combine with glucose and the reactions
of the diglucoside formed are given. For thera-
peutic purposes the glucoside has the advantage as
compared with “606” of being very soluble in
neutral medium : it is also less alterable in air than
the dioxydiamino-arsenobenzol.—Pereira de Sousa:
The eruptive rocks of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic
border of Algarye and their geological age.—C.
Kilian: General sketch of the structure of the
Tassilis of Ajjer—Albert Baldit: Magnetic measure-
ments in the south of France.-Sabba Stefanescu :
The velocity of evolution and the general plan of
structure of the crown of the molars of mastodons
and elephants.—Marc Bridel and Camille Charaux:
Centaureine, a new glucoside, extracted from the
roots of Centaurea jacea. Details of the extraction
and properties of the new glucoside are given. On
hydrolysis, centaureine gives 33:7 per cent. of
glucose (and no other sugar) and 70-8 per cent. of
centaureidine.—E. and G. Nicolas: The action of
hexamethylenetetramine on the higher plants.—
Marin Molliard: The influence of salts of copper on
the yield of Stevigmatocystis nigra—Adrien Davy
de Virville and Fernand Obaton: The opening and
closing of persistent meteoric flowers. Persistent
meteoric flowers are defined as those the floral parts
of which show opening and closing movements during
several days. These movements depend almost
entirely upon the temperature. A reduction in the
relative humidity of the air favours the opening of
the flowers, but the effect is slight. Contrary to the
views expressed by some physiologists light is without
action.—Alphonse Labbé: The variations in the
concentration of hydrogen ions in the salt marshes,
considered as a biological factor.—M. Bezssonoff :
The effect on guinea-pigs of an antiscorbutic pre-
paration.
SYDNEY.
Linnean Society of New South Wales, August 30.—
G. F. Hill: A new species of Mordellistena (Cole-
optera, Mordellide) parasitic on termites. Descrip-
tion of a new species from Palm Island, N. Queensland,
distinguished from all other Australian species of the
genus by its large size and bright red prothorax.
It is improbable that this parasite, of which the only
known host is Calotermes (Glyptoterymes) nigrolabrum
Hill, could become a factor in controlling injurious
species of termites.—W. W. Froggatt: Description
of a new Phasma belonging to the genus Extatosoma.
A female obtained at Gosford, N.S.W., differing from
Extatosoma tiavatum W. S. Macleay, in its much
more slender form, many more spines, different
flanges on abdomen, and shape of legs.—W. A.
Haswell: On Astacocroton, a new type of acarid.
It is a parasite of the common spiny crayfish ( Asta-
copsis sevvatus) of the rivers of New South Wales.
It lives permanently in the gill-cavities of its host,
and the mature females become permanently attached
to the gills and incapable of active locomotion. The
NO. 2770, VOL. 110]
NATURE
RO
food consists solely of the blood of the crayfish. In
structure Astacocroton is related to the hydrachnids,
but shows certain special features, particularly in the
female reproductive apparatus.—Vera Irwin-Smith :
A new nematode parasite of a lizard. It possesses
an asymmetrical row of spines down one side. Nothing
like it has been found previously in reptiles. It is
assigned, provisionally, to the genus Rictularia, a
genus recorded, hitherto, only from mammals. Only
two females have been found.—A. J. Turner : Revision
of Australian Lepidoptera: Saturniade, Bombycide,
Eupterotide, Notodontide. Of the first three
families only fifteen Australian species are at present
known. The fourth family, the Notodontide, is
enlarged by the inclusion as a subfamily of the
Cnethocampine, a small natural group of which the
European Procession Moth is the type. Nearly
seventy Australian species are recognised.
September 27.—Mr. J. J. Fletcher, vice-president, in
the chair.—T. Steel: Chemical notes: General. Some
curious ferruginous concretions surrounding twigs,
leaves, and fruit of Hakea, from a chalybite pool near
Fitzroy Falls, N.S.W., are described and figured, and
an analysis given ; also stalagmite from a grotto at
Wentworth Falls, having a_ similar composition.
Analyses are given of cubical pseudomorphs of
pytites, from Western Australia, called locally
“ Devils’ Dice”; of lime prepared by the Fijians from
coral and used for plastering the hair; of the shells
of Helix aspera, the urinary secretion of birds and
reptiles, the fruit of the banana, and milk of unripe
coconuts.—Margaret H. O’Dwyer: A note on protein
precipitation in grasses. Stiitzer’s reagent (copper
hydroxide), tannin salt solution, Barnstein’s reagent
(a variation of the copper hydroxide method) and
alcohol (85 ‘per cent.) were used as precipitants.
Tannin salt solution and alcohol appear to give the best
results.—Margaret H. O’Dwyer: Further report on
the nutritive value of certain Australian grasses.
Analyses are given of grasses at the early flowering
period and when the seed is set. The protein present
decreases with the age of the grass, while crude
fibre is higher in the older stages. Diseased grasses
showed slight divergences from normal.—W. B.
Blakely: The Loranthacee of Australia (contd.),
Pt. iii. Eight species and five varieties of the sub-
genus Euloranthus, of which one species and three
varieties are new, are described.—M. B. Welch:
The occurrence of oil-glands in the barks of certain
Eucalypts. Oil-glands occur in the secondary bast
of certain species of Eucalyptus (stems and roots).
The contents of the secretory cavities become
resinous and insoluble towards the outside of the
bark. The function of the glands is probably pro-
tective.
Royal Society of New South Wales, October _4.—
Mr. C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chain-—E. Ge
Smith: On the occurrence of levo-phellandrene in
the oil of Melaleuca acuminata. The species occurs
in South Australia and is locally known in Kangaroo
Island as ‘“‘ Lavender bush.’ The yield of oil is
about 2 per cent., and this consists principally of
phellandrene and cineol, the latter to the extent of
44 per cent.—A. R. Penfold: The essential oils of
two varieties of Leptospermum flavescens. The
northern form of this species, var. microphyllum, was
obtained from Frazer Island, and the other new
variety, called leptophyllum (Cheel), from Narrabri.
Both oils consist essentially of alpha and beta pinene,
sesquiterpenes, and sesquiterpene alcohols, with small
amounts of cineol; terpineol is present in the latter
oil.
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 2, 1922
Official Publications Received.
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Part 3 (Easter Term, 1922), Pp. 129-296. (Cambridge: At the
University Pr 7s. 6d. net.
Proceedings, Asiatic Society of Bengal. (New Series.) Vol. 17,
1921, N Proceedings of the Eighth Indian Science Congress.
Pp. lx cexlvili. (Caleutta.)
Observations made at the Royal Magnetical and Meteorological
Observatory at Batavia. Vol. 40, 1917, containing Meteorological
and Magnetical Observations made in 1917. Pp. xx+106. (Batavia.)
Records of the Indian Museum. Vol. 21: Catalogue of the Planor-
bide in the Indian Museum (Natural History), Calcutta. Part 2.
By Louis Germain. Pp. 81-128. (Calcutta: Zoological Survey.)
2 rupees.
Uganda Protectorate. Annual Report of the Department of Agri-
culture for the Year ended 31st December 1921. Pp. 87. (Entebbe.)
Vol: 21,
Diary of Societies.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4.
VicTORIA INSTITUTE (at Central Buildings, Westminster), at 4.30.—
Rey. C. Gardner: Romance and Mysticism.
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL Soctmtry (Geophysical Discussion), at 5.—
A Twenty-one Minute Period.in Earthquakes. Chairman: Prot.
H. M. Macdonald. Speakers: Prof. H. H. Turner; Dr. J. H.
Jeans.
RoOyAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 5.—General Meeting.
Socrety OF ENGINEERS, INC. (at Geological Society), at 5.30.—W.
Dinwoodie : Wave-Power Transmission.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (Informal Meeting), at 7.—
F. A. Sclater, and others: Discussion on an Electrical Installation
at a Model Farm.
ARISTOTELIAN SocreTy (at University of London Club), at 8.—G.
Cator : The One and the Many.
Royal Society or Arts, at 8.—Prof. W. A. Bone :
Lignites (Cantor Lecture).
Society OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY (London Section) (at Engineers’
Club, 39 Coventry Street), at 8—Dr. G. S: Robertson and F.
Dickinson: The Valuation of Insoluble Phosphate by Means of a
Modified Citric Acid Test.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Tropical Diseases and Parasitology
Section) (Informal Meeting), at 8.30.—Prof. R. T. Leiper : Kinemato-
graph Film of British Guiana: Its People, Natural History, and
Scenery.
Brown Coal and
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5.
Roya Society OF ARTS (Dominions and Colonies Section), at 4.30.—
Major O. Rutter: North Borneo.
RoyaL Socrmry oF MeEpicine (Orthopedics Section), at 5.30.
H. A. T. Fairbank and others : Discussion on The Operative Treat-
ment of Dislocation of the Hip, Congenital and Pathological.
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, at 6.
‘BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Annual General Meeting) (at London
Day Training College), at 5.30; at 6.—Dr. E. O. Lewis : The Memory
of Feeble-minded Children.
INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERS, INC., at 6.30.—A. J. Brown:
Marine Diesel Engines.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 7.—C. L.
Hind : The Lesson of Photography.
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 8.15.—Miss E. Kemp: The
Aborigines of Western China.
RONTGEN SOCIETY (at Institution of Electrical Engineers), at 8.15.
RoyaL SocreTy OF MEDICINE (Pathology Section) (at St. Mary’s
Hospital), at 8.30.—Sir Almroth Wright: Immunisation in Vitro.
—Dr. J. Freeman: Protein Sensitisation Experiments.—C. G.
Schoneboom: Intertraction—A. F. Hayden: Classification of
Acne Bacilli—Dr. A. L. Punch: Tubercle Complement Fixation
with Cow’s Serum.—Dr. A. Fleming, C. B. Dyson, and VY. D. Allison :
Anti-bacterial Properties of Egg White-——W. D. Newcomb and Dr.
J. M. Ross: Demonstration of Pathological Specimens.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER b.
GEOLOGICAL SocreTY OF LONDON, at 5.30.—H. A. Baker: Final
Report on Geological Investigations in the Falkland Islands. _ Prof.
a Ea Seward and J. Walton: Fossil Plants from the Falkland
Slands.
ROYAL SocteTY OF MEDICINE (Surgery Section), at 5.30.—The Pre-
sident and others: Discussion on Mistakes in Diagnosis and Treat-
ment and the Lessons to be Learned from Them.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (Wireless Section), at 6.—
E 8B. Moullin; A Direct-Reading Thermionic Voltmeter, and its
Applications.
WOMEN’S ENGINEERING Soctnety (at 26 George Street, Hanover
Square), at 6.15.—E. $ ndrews : Patent Work for Women.
Society OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS AND OTHER ANALYTICAL CHEMISTS (at
Chemical Society), at 8.—E. W. Blair and T. 8. Wheeler: A Note
on the Estimation of Form- and Acet-aldehydes.—C. H. D. Clark :
A Sliding Scale for the Convenient Titration of Strong Liquids by
Dilution and Use with Aliquot Parts.—H. A. Peacock: Note on
the Presence of Sulphur Dioxide in Cattle Foodstuffs after Fumiga-
tion—D. W. Steuart: Some Observations with regard to the
Unsaponifiable Matter and Sterols of Edible Fats.——N. Evers and
H. J. Foster: Note on the Sulphuric Acid Test for Fish Liver Oils.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8.—H. E. Chubb: Recent Developments
in the Manufacture of Safes and Strong Rooms.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7.
ROYAL Soctpty AT 4.30,— Probable Papers.—Lord Rayleigh : Spectrum
of Active Nitrogen as affected by Admixture of the Inert Gases.—
NO. 2770, VOL. I10]
Dr. G. H. Henderson: Changes in the Charge of an a Particle
passing through Matter.—W. T. Astbury : The Crystalline Structure
and Properties of Tartarie Acid—J. N. Mukherjee: Sources of
Error in the Measurement of the Hlectrical Charge of Colloidal
Particles by the Method of Moving Boundaries. An improved Method
based on a Direct Measurement of the Potential Gradient across
the Boundary.—J. Heyrovsky : The Significance of the Electrode
Potential—A. M. Mosharrafa: On the Quantum Theory of the
Simple Zeeman Effect.—Dr. S. Brodetsky: Discontinuous Fluid
Motion past Circular and Elliptic Cylinders.
ROYAL AERONAUTICAL SOCIETY (at Royal Society of Arts), at 5.30.—
Prot. C. F. Jenkin: Fatigue in Metals.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—A. M. Taylor: The
Possibilities of Transmission by Underground Cables at 100,000/
150,000 volts.
CHEMICAL Society, at 8.—S. O. Rawling and W. Clark: The Iso-
electric Condition of Gelatin—H. J. 8. Sand, E. J. Weeks, and
S. W. Worrell: Studies on Metal Hydrides. The Electrolytic
Formation of Stibine in Sulphuric Acid and Caustic Soda Solution.
ROYAL Society Or MEDICINE (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Thera-
peutics and Pharmacology Sections), at 8.—Dr. H. H. Dale: The
Value of Ergot in Obstetrical and Gynecological Practice, with
Special Reference to its Present Position in the British Pharma-
cope@ia. To be followed by a discussion.
CAMERA CLUB, at 8.15.—B. Cox : Landscape—a Pot-pourri.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8.
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF EN@LAND, at 5.—Sir William Thor-
burn: The Surgery of the Spinal Cord (Bradshaw Lecture).
ROYAL Socmmty OF MEDICINE (Clinical Section), at 5.30.—J. E. H.
Roberts: Thrombo-angeitis obliterans.—Dr. G@. Evans: Thrombo-
angeitis obliterans.
MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON (at Linnean Society), at 6.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30.—J. Ward: The Michell
Thrust Bearing.
PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON (at Imperial College of Science and
Technology), at 5.— G. Shearer: The Relation between Molecular
and Crystal Symmetry as shown by X-Ray Crystal Analysis.—
Dr. E. A. Owen and G. D. Preston: Modification of the Powder
Method of determining the Structure of Metal Crystals. — Dr.
A. B. Wood: The Cathode Ray Oscillograph—A Demonstration
of a low-voltage Oscillograph will be given by the Western Electric
Company.
INSTITUTION OF HEATING AND VENTILATING ENGINEERS, INC. (at
Engineers’ Club, Coventry Street), at 7.—Prof. A. H. Barker:
Centrifugal Pumps as Applied to Heating Installations.
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS (Informal Meeting), at 7.
RoyaL PHOTOGRAPHIC Society OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 8.—C. P.
Crowther : The Man Behind the Camera and the Making of Portraits.
ROYAL Society OF MEDICINE (Ophthalmology Section), at 8.30.—
Continuation of discussion on the Significance of Vascular and other
Changes in the Retina in Arterio-sclerosis and Renal Disease.
PUBLIC LECTURES.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—Dr. E. Marion Delf
Vitamins and Health.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4.
RoyaL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, at 5.—Prof. T. Madsen :
Antitoxie Treatment (Harben Lecture).
Crty OF LONDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Gen. W. W.
Ogilvy Beveridge : The Physique of the Nation.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5.
Roya INsviTuTe oF PuBLIC HEALTH, at 5.—Prof. T. Madsen:
The Influence of Temperature on Antigen and Anti-bodies (Harben
Lecture). , :
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5,15.—A. J. Davis:
Architectural Planning.
The Principles of
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6.
University COLLEGE, at 5.30.—T. G. Hill: Illustrations of Books.
Succeeding Lecture on December 13.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7.
BARNES HALL, ROYAL Socrery OF MEDICINE, at 5.15.—Sir Arthur
Newsholme: Relative Values in Public Health (Chadwick Lecture).
(1) Value of Vital Statistics, Sanitary Surveys and Professional and
Popular Education. Historical Influence of General Sanitation,
Specific Sanitation and Combined Action.
Ciry oF LONDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Prof.
H. ©. H. Carpenter ; What Metals Look Like Inside.
CENTRAL LIBRARY, FULHAM, at 8.—Prof. C. N. Bromehead: A
Geologist’s History of London.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8.
LEATHERSELLERS’ HALL (St. Helen’s Place), at 2.15.—Prof. G. H.
Carpenter: The Warble Fiy: Its History, and Methods of Exter-
minating it. é ay A
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5.15.—Sir William H. Beveridge : The
Civil Servic: :
BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, at 5.30.—Prof. H. E. Butler: Timgad :
The North African Pompeii.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9.
HORNIMAN Musrum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—Miss M. A. Murray :
Ancient Egypt and the Bible.
A’ WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
“* To the solid ground Geran W PI A
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.” —WongworTH. s
4
No. 2771, VOL. 110] |
Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.]
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, #22 EPaice, ONE SHILLING
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celxxxvi
SWINEY LECTURES ON GEOLOGY,
1922-23.
Under the direction of the TRUSTEES of the BRITISH MUSEUM.
lectures on *‘ Fossits AND WHat THEY TEACH
delivered by Professor T. J. JEHU, M.D., F.R.S.E., iuethe
Theatre of the Imperial College of Science (Royal College of
i Old Buildings), Exhibition Road, South Kensington, on Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Fridays, at 5.30 p:m., beginning Tuesday, December 12,
1922, and ending Friday, January 12, 1923. The Lectures will be illus-
trated by Lantern Slides.’ ADMISSION FRER.
British Museum (Natural History), °
Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7.
A course of twelve
BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC.
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Principal—RosBert H, PicKarD, D,Sc., F.R.S.
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Students prepared for University of London Internal Degrees, A.I.C.
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Full-time day courses in Engineering (Mec
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Particulars on application to the PRINCIPAL.
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Bursaries of not more than £35, tenable for three years, will be offered for
competition in April 1923.
For further particulars apply to the SECRETARY, Royal Holloway
College, Englefield Green, Surrey.
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL.
The UNIVERSITY inyites applications for the CHAIR
OF PHILOSOPHY, which will be vacant on July 31, 1923.
Salary, 4800 per annum.
Applications should be lodged, on or before February
3, 1923, with the REGISTRAR, from whom further par-
ticulars are obtainable.
i
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.
Applications, accompanied by testimonials, record of degree or degrees
obtained, published work, and teaching experience (if any), are invited for
the above post. Salary £300 per annum. Physicists who possess a know-
ledge of Chemistry, as well as Chemists, are eligible for the post. Appli-
cations to be sent as soon as possible, and not later than December 20, to the
undersigned, from whom further particulars can be obtained.
: ' WALTER W. SETON,
University College, London, Secretary.
Gower Street, W.C.1. ;
ee
HARPER ADAMS AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE.
NEWPORT, SALOP.
Applications are invited for the post of ADVISORY MYCOLOGIST.
Particulars of the appointment may be obtained on application to the
PRINCIPAL, to whom all applications, together with copies of three recent
testimonials, should be addressed not later than December 18, 1922.
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
CHELSEA POLYTECHNIC,
CHELSEA, S.W.3.
Day and Evening Courses in Science under Recognised Teachers
of London University.
I. INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT.
Technical Courses in Analytical and Manufacturing Chemistry,
Pharmacy, Food and Drugs, A.I.C. Courses, Metallurgy, Assaying,
Foundry Work, Research.
Il. INDUSTRIAL PHYSICS DEPARTMENT.
Practical work in General Physics, Applications to Industries,
Metrology, Calorimetry, Illumination, Acoustics, Electrical
Measurement, Research.
lll, BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
Courses for B.Sc., etc., in Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology,
Special Courses in Bio-chemistry, Bio-physics, Bacteriology,
Physiology, Hygiene, Entomology, Plant Pathology. Course for
Tropical Planters, Research. :
Lent Term begins Jauuary 9, 1923.
SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A.,
Telephone: Kensington 899. Principal. .
UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS.
CHAIR OF CHEMISTRY.
The PROFESSORSHIP of CHEMISTRY in the University will fall
vacant at the end of the present session upon the resignation of Professor
SmiTHELLs, F.R.S. A new appointment, taking effect on October 1, 1923,
will be made in due course. The salary attached to this appointment will
be £1200a year, Further information may be obtained from the REGISTRAR,
The University, Leeds.
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Applications are invited for the position of additional INSTRUCTOR
in HORTICULTURE. Salary £230. Applications will be received up
to December 20, 1922, and should be addressed to the ReGisTRAR, The
University, Leeds, from whom further particulars may be obtained.
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NATORE 761
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1922.
CONTENTS.
A Suggested Royal Commission on Museums .
PAGE
761
Meteorological Theory in Practice. hoes Sir Napier
Shaw, F.R.S. . ¢ : :
Parker and Haswell’s “Zoology”.
Cancer and the Public. By A. E. B.
Empire Water-Power. Py Dr. ee Cunningham
Our Bookshelf
Letters to the Editor :—
Spectrum of the Night Sky.—The Right Hon. Lord
Rayleigh, F.R. Ss:
Medical Education. Sir G. Archdall Reid, K.B.E.
Divided Composite Eyes. (///ustvated. )—A. Mallock,
BRSS,
Action of Cutting Tools. (With Diagram: “i. T.
Rowell
An Empire Patent.—Ernest E. Towler
The Movement of the Positive After-image. —Dr.
F. W. Edridge-Green
Acoustic Research. Prof. Theodore Lyman
Separation of the pastors of Zinc.—Alfred C.
Egerton
A Curious Feature in the Hardness of Metals. —
Hugh O’Neill and Dr. F.C. Thompson .
The Use of a Pancreatic Extract in Diabetes. By
Sir C. S. Sherrington, G.B.E., P.R.S.
The West Indian College of Tropical Agriculture.
By Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S. :
The Flow of Steels at a Low Red Heat
The Manufacture of Acids curing the War. By ‘Prof.
T. M. Lowry, F.R.S.
Prof. Max Weber—CELEBRATION OF OTH “BIRT HDAY
Obituary :—
H. J. Elwes, F.R.S. . 5 ; 2
6 JK Gurney. By W. E. c : . 0
Current Topics and Events - Brake :
Our Astronomical Column . ; c 3
Research Items . A
The Royal Society Anniversary Meeting .
Live Specimens of Spirula. (Lilustrated. )- By Dr.
Johs. Schmidt . :
Solar Radiation at Helwan. Observatory 7
Natural Gas Gasoline. By H. B. Milner . c
The Teaching of Physics to Engineering Students
University and Educational Intelligence . .
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . :
Societies and Academies. ; : 4 :
Official Publications Received . 0 5
Diary of Societies . : : é :
762
765
766
767
767
769
769
770
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
Advertisements and business letters should be
addressed to the Publishers.
Editorial communications to the Editor.
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON.
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830.
NO. 2771, VOL I10]
A Suggested Royal Commission on
Museums.
ROM time to time there appear in NaTuRE and
elsewhere notes and articles that afford con-
clusive evidence of the valuable work done by our
museums in scholastic education, in aid of industry
on its technical as well as its artistic side, in the pre-
vention of plant, animal, and human disease, in the
general spread of beauty, and in the advancement of
learning. But the work that is done is sparsely
scattered through a large number of museums, and
the isolated examples serve rather to show what might
be accomplished than to give us cause for self-gratula-
tion. There are in the British Isles about a score of
national museums (supported, that is, in large part
by Imperial taxation) and probably more than 350
museums and galleries supported mainly by local
contributions. It would be no great exaggeration to
say that scarcely two of these establishments are
maintained and governed in quite the same way.
Like so many other of our institutions they have
originated at haphazard and have just “ growed,”
generally by unorganised accretion. Consequently,
while some have the desire and the means to be of
use in one or other of the ways enumerated, more have
the desire without the means, and many have neither
the desire nor the means. In no case has a museum
the power and the funds to make all that use of its
treasures which could be made, and which its guiding
spirits probably wish to see.
For some time past there have been efforts from
various quarters to remedy the waste of material,
waste of money, and waste of effort that are the
consequences of overlapping, competition, lack of co-
ordination, inappropriate administration, unequal dis-
tribution of funds, and all the other evils inherent in
this disorder. The Ministry of Reconstruction tried
to bring all the municipal museums, if no others, under
the Board of Education, but the museums protested.
An important committee of the British Association
produced a valuable report on museums and education.
Lord Sudeley by pegging away has induced the Govern-
ment to pay for guide-lecturers in several of itsmuseums,
and has advocated with some success the sale of
picture-postcards. The Museums Association, which
represents the views of museum officials themselves,
urges, among other reforms, that museum curators
must be highly trained men and women of broad
education, and recognises that the only way to get
such people is to offer an adequate salary.
These movements are very well, but if we are to
make the best use of our museums something larger
is required. Mr. Bailey, in a paper read at the recent
762
conference of the Museums Association and now pub-
lished in the Musewms Journal (October 1922), supports
Lord Sudeley in his demand for a Royal Commission.
Mr. Bailey, who, as sometime secretary for the Circula-
tion Collections at the Victoria and Albert, Museum,
knows the provincial museums on their art side better
than most men, has no difficulty in making out a case
for reform. He is particularly strong on the unjust
and unequal incidence of the aid which, though
diminished, is still given to local museums by the
The
officers of the Government establishments, always so
willing to help, would doubtless be glad to see the way
made clearer for them. Mr. Bailey’s criticism on these
and other weaknesses is destructive. There are schemes
enough in the air, and he does not add to them. He
asks, and he has induced the Museums Association to
ask, for a Royal Commission, so that any recommenda-
tions may ultimately be based on the fullest possible
knowledge. We agree fully that there is need for
reorganisation, and we believe that a large amount of
reform might be effected without material increase of
expenditure ; indeed, some of the obviously desirable
reforms would tend to economy. But, while we
sympathise with the request of the museum folk for
a Royal Commission, we fear that they are not now
very likely to get it. The subject, indeed, deserves
serious discussion and it would be well to have various
proposals compared and investigated, so that when
changes are effected they may be guided by a definite
policy. Some inquiry, less expensive than that by a
Royal Commission, might elicit the information and
put forward an accepted ideal towards which all could
work.
Any such inquiry should, however, approach the
subject on the broadest possible lines. The resolution
passed by the Museums Association asks for a “ report
upon the work of the museums of the United Kingdom
in relation to industries and general culture.” The
importance of museums on the industrial side has been
recognised by the Federation of British Industries in
a recent report. ‘‘ General culture” is an expression
that may include much or little; presumably it is
intended to comprise scholastic education. But there
are the numerous activities of museums that aid the
extension and application of knowledge in ways that
do not seem to fall under these heads. Whatever their
subject-matter, and whatever their immediate and
distinctive aim, all museums work by the same method
—the accumulation, preservation, and demonstration
of concrete objects; they are guided by the same
broad principles, and need the same kind of assistance.
Though they may be co-ordinated with other social
activities—industrial, educational, artistic, and the rest
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
State through some of the national museums.
NATURE
{ DECEMBER G, 1922
—they must not be confused with them. Any inquiry
therefore must deal with museums as such, in relation
to all their multifarious aims and activities, and must
seek to bring all into one harmonious collaboration
for the common weal.
Meteorological Theory in Practice.
(1) Weather Prediction by Numerical Process. By
Lewis F. Richardson. Pp. xii+236. (Cambridge :
At the University Press, 1922.) 3os. net.
| (2) Forms whereon to Write the Numerical Calculations
described in ‘‘ Weather Prediction by Numerical
Process.” By Lewis F. Richardson. 23 forms.
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1922.) 2s.
le the book under notice Mr. L. F. Richardson
presents to us a magnum opus on weather pre-
diction. The numerical manipulation of the dynamics
and physics of the atmosphere is its mainspring ; but
there is a fine display of other works of an intricate
character. Its avowed object is nothing less than the
calculation of future events in weather; and this by
inserting numerical values in seven fundamental
formule, which, taken together, embody the essential
analysis of the sequence of weather. Three of the
equations express the time-rate of change of the
easterly, northerly, and vertical eomponents of the
momentum of the air; other three express the time-
rate of change of its density, water-content, and heat-
content respectively. The seventh is the characteristic
gas-equation for air; it contains no differentials.
The whole history of the atmosphere is to be unrolled
on computing by finite differences the changes in the
elements in terms of the changes of four independent
variables representing space of three dimensions
and time. The formule all relate to an individual
sample of air in a column at a single point ; but the
calculation has to say what will happen to the whole
mass in the neighbourhood of every specified locality
within the region of observation. Hence representative
points are chosen for which the changes of the variables
are to be computed at a sufficient number of levels
to give a working idea of the changes in the weather.
The points are grouped in a lattice or chess-board
with each square 200 kilometres long, 3° of latitude
broad, and 2 decibars of pressure thick: the whole
atmosphere is thus treated as made up of 16,000
slab-units each weighing about half a billion tons.
What we call weather is represented by the physical
changes in the slabs. The standard time-interval
over which uniformity of change is preserved is six
hours. Observations of pressure and temperature are
taken for the centres of the “ red ” slabs of the chequer,
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
which lie in columns of five deep; observations of
momentum at the centres of the “white.” The
changes in any one slab are computed with the aid
of the known conditions of the surrounding slabs :
hence the calculation for any arbitrary area is limited
to the interior slabs, and the area amenable for com-
putation diminishes with each step of the process.
There is a great amount of original and ingenious
scientific speculation and discussion in the description
of the process.
Nearly a hundred separate algebraical symbols are
employed. The author sketches a fancy picture of
the process of computation going on for the weather
of the whole world in a great theatre or forecast-
factory in the form of a hollow globe. A spherical
orchestra of computers calculates the future weather
from the information supplied by 2000 stations under
the direction of a conductor at the centre of the globe.
In order to keep pace with the weather the orchestra
would consist of 64,000 performers on the slide-rule
or calculating machine ; and even then, with a space
unit of 200 kilometres, phenomena on the small scale,
such as tornadoes or local thunderstorms, might be
missed. Part of the appeal of the book is for a dis-
tribution of stations to be arranged so as to give the
process of calculation a better chance than the existing
distribution in Europe affords.
There are twelve chapters of very unequal length.
Chapter I. is a brief summary of the contents of the
book ; Chapter II. is a simplified example of the
method of calculation by finite differences which is
to be used. This preliminary canter shows incidentally
that a distribution of pressure according to an assumed
geometrical law, and a universal geostrophic wind
corresponding therewith, lead to the conclusion that
a vast system of high pressure over the Eurasian
continent, covering one half of the Northern hemisphere
east of the meridian of Greenwich, would result in
an increase of pressure over England, which lies on
the margin. This result is regarded as axiomatically
contrary to fact, because “‘ cyclones”? are known to
pass eastward. We are therefore invited to conclude
in passing that the geostrophic idea is inadequate.
That is certainly a possibility but not the only one.
Since the geostrophic idea is based upon our experience
of natural distributions of pressure we might with
equal justice conclude that the assumed geometrical
distribution is a non-natural one. Or better still, we
might say.that Mr. Richardson’s preliminary canter
has given a ngorous dynamical explanation of what
is meant by “an anticyclone resisting the advance of
a cyclone,” a very common statement of meteorological
phenomena. The reviewer preserves in memory two
natural pictures of an Atlantic cyclone kept at bay by
NO. 2771, VOL. I10]
NATURE
763
a current from the east and presenting an appearance
grotesquely like a revolving ball balanced on a water-
jet: A notable feature of our northern winter is a
vast anticyclone over Asia which dominates the
northern half of the eastern hemisphere like Mr.
Richardson’s pattern, although the distribution over
the other quadrants of the globe is not at all like
the pattern. As a matter of experience the anti-
cyclone does frequently spread from the east over
England. Our weather might not inaptly be described
as a conflict between the effect which Mr. Richardson
repudiates as contrary to experience and the eastward
travel of cyclones which he regards as axiomatic.
Not infrequently, the result of the conflict is that
the cyclones, instead of going eastward over us, are
headed off to the north along the Norwegian Sea—
“ which nobody can deny.”
In view of our inadequate knowledge of the structure
and circulation of the atmosphere caution in drawing
conclusions is always desirable, and in this case specially
so in the interests of justice, because the alleged failure
of the geostrophic principle to anticipate the changes
at the surface in Chapter IT. reappears in Chapter VI.
as the record of a previous conviction, and gets
the prisoner another sentence for what is perhaps
not his fault. Mathematicians in dealing with the -
elusive atmosphere are not infrequently inspired by
Jabberwocky,
One two, one two, and through and through,
The vorpal blade goes snickersnack ;
but they ought to make sure that they get the right
Jabberwock by the neck before ‘‘ galumphing back ”
with his head.
Chapter III. reinforced by Chapter VII. explains
a suitable organisation of what are called co-ordinate
differences, the principles of the chess-board or lattice.
Chapter IV., a very important one, occupies more than
one-third of the whole book. It is devoted to the
fundamental equations and the information which is
necessary in order to assign numerical values for the
variables. It takes the form of about thirty short
essays on great subjects, such as the effects of eddy-
motion, radiation, conduction of various kinds, the
flow of heat to the air from the sea, or from the ground,
or from vegetation, the smoothing of observations,
and many others. Chapter V. deals with the evaluation
of vertical velocity, a very vital subject. Chapter VI,
deals with the special conditions for the stratosphere
and its equations. Chapter VIII. reviews the numerical
operations to be performed and gives the final prepara-
tion for Chapter IX., which provides a “ full-dress
rehearsal ’’ of the process of computation. By its aid
764
the changes of pressure and temperature for a point
near Munich and the changes of momentum at a
point between Munich and Hamburg are calculated
for the interval of six hours centred at 1910 May 2od.
7h. G.M.T. That day was chosen for displaying the
method because a set of data for the surface and upper
air was available in the publications of the Geophysical
Institute of Leipzig issued by Professor V. Bjerknes.
Although not quite adequate for the purpose it is an
unusually full set.
The calculation occupied “the best part of six
weeks ” ina rest-billet in France. It included, however,
the preparation of the forms which are now issued in
blank for the use of others who may be attracted by
the prospect of submitting the course of Nature to
the process of numerical calculation. Every assistance
is given by the forms and by suggestions for improving
the accuracy, smoothing the data, and many other
technical points of manipulation.
The trial specimen is not such a good example of
the art of forecasting that it tempts the reader forth-
with to become one of the great orchestra. The change
of pressure at the surface works out at 145 millibars
in six hours. Our barometers allow for a range of
too millibars at most ; and, as a matter of observation,
the change in the region in question was less than
a millibar: the wildest guess, therefore, at the change
in this particular element would not have been wider
of the mark than the laborious calculation of six
weeks. Nor is that all. Many of the chapters end
in parenthetic expressions of regret or of suggestions
for improvement. ‘There are also many supplementary
paragraphs which indicate that when the author comes
to make another edition, as he or some one else un-
doubtedly will, he will write somewhat differently.
And the reader will not be sorry, for in many ways
the book makes hard reading. It is full of mathe-
matical reasoning, a good deal of which is conducted
“by reference.” The reader who wishes to follow
it must have a very handsome library and a few step-
ladders which Mr. Richardson does not provide.
A reviewer with less than the ordinary sufferance
of his tribe might easily murmur: forecasting by
numerical process seems so arduous and so disappoint-
ing in the first attempts that the result is a sense of
warning rather than attraction. He might also wonder
for whom the author is writing, and regard the book
as a soliloquy on the scientific stage. The scenes are
too mathematical for the ordinary meteorologist to
take part in and too meteorological for the ordinary
mathematician. But such complaint would be as
misleading as the computed forecast. On the road
to forecasting by numerical process nearly every
physical and dynamical process of the atmosphere
NO. 2771, VOL. II0]
NATURE
[DecEMBER 9, 1922
has to be scrutinised and evaluated ; the loss of view
into the future from the first summit is compensated
many times by the insight which one gets into the
working of Nature on the way. For example, the
author draws from the miss of his forecast the con-
clusion that the observations of velocity used are a
real source of error. Whether that conclusion is true
or not, its further consideration is of the greatest
importance in view of the multiplicity of observations
of winds in the upper air and of the difficulties which
their interpretation presents.
The essential obstacle in the way of bringing the
facts of weather into mutual co-ordination by recognised
methods of dynamics and physics is that there are
so many of them, so many elements, so many variables,
so many causes of perturbation. Some meteorologists
look for a general solution of the problem in the dis-
covery of new physical laws, at present unthought of,
that will make things clear. Yet, even when we revel
in the proud consciousness of being familiar with all the
ultimate dynamical and physical laws to which the
atmosphere is subject, we may yet fail in an endeavour
to relate the conditions of the moment to those of
the past or to anticipate the future from the present
by lack of method in the arrangement of the
facts.
When we look back at the triumphs of calculation
of the historic past we find always that the skilful
calculator has substituted an ideal, upon which it is
possible to operate, for the intractable reality. The
late Lord Rayleigh made the general position clear
in his first volume on ‘ Sound,” where he pointed
out that in order to study sound as vibration we
imagine the sounding body to be completely isolated,
though, if it were so, there would be no sound. Mr.
Richardson in his preface properly cites the Nautical
Almanac as an alluring example of forecasting by
numerical process. We are reminded of Plato’s maxim,
““ We shall pursue astronomy with the help of problems
just as we pursue geometry, but we shall let the heavenly
bodies alone if it be our desire to become really
acquainted with astronomy.” Perhaps astronomers
have been disposed to press this maxim to the extreme,
yet we must admit that the Nautical Almanac owes
much to the ellipse in substitution for the actual
orbits of the heavenly bodies. It would perhaps be
difficult to imagine anything more unreal than the
latest ideal of the atom.
Hence we might argue that the first step in meteoro-
logical theory should be to group the facts in such
a way as to replace the reality by a reasonable and
workable ideal. That view underlies the work of
Hildebrandsson and Teisserenc de Bort in ‘‘ Les Bases
de la météorologie dynamique,’ in which they
—<—— EE
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE 765
endeavoured to present the ascertained facts in a
collected form in order to lead up to a working ideal,
believing that premature analysis had always proved
unfortunate. For two generations now the general
ideal of our atmosphere has been that of a succession
of travelling cyclonic vortices and anticyclonic areas.
Hildebrandsson and Teisserenc de Bort provided a
normal permanent circumpolar vortex in which travel-
ling cyclones might be formed. But the ideal presented
is still inexcusably vague and undeveloped: there is
much to be done before we can say even what we ought
to look for in a map if we wish to identify a vortex
travelling under thenormal conditions of theatmosphere
and we are not yet ready to do justice to that ideal.
Prof. Bjerknes on the other hand has set out to
prove that our maps can be simulated or stimulated
by wave-motion on either side of a surface of dis-
continuity which separates equatorial air from polar
air. Here we may note a tendency to follow
another Greek maxim, this time of Aristotle, “ for
those things which escape the direct appreciation of
our senses, we consider we have demonstrated them
in a manner satisfactory to our reason when we have
succeeded in making it clear that they are possible.”
In ‘Weather Prediction by Numerical Process ”
Mr. Richardson follows a line of thought which differs
widely from either of these. His main simplifications
are to divide the atmosphere into his 16,000 slabs
and to ignore perturbations which are on a smaller
scale than a hundred miles. The rest is rigorous.
The principle which lies at the bottom of his treatment
of the subject is that the known laws of dynamics
and physics as applied to the changes which take
place are inexorable and are sufficient. The future
can therefore be derived from the present by their
application. They can be applied by the step by step
method of finite differences with sufficient accuracy to
obtain the general consequences of the present condi-
tions. The illustration of the process is a most valuable
contribution to meteorology and indicates a wholesome
course of practical physics and dynamics of the atmo-
sphere which may prove the basis of future teaching.
Thus it will not only provide an acid test of meteoro-
logical theory but also be a valuable guide to the
organisation of new meteorological observations.
Finally, perhaps the most important aspect of this
contribution to meteorological literature is that a
rigorous differential equation is not necessarily useless
because it cannot be integrated algebraically. It opens
the way to useful exercises less stupendous than
calculating the weather, and indeed, whenever meteor-
ology comes to be taught and learned, the book will
be a rich quarry for the teacher and examiner.
NAPIER SHAW.
NON27 71, VOL.) 110]
Parker and Haswell’s “Zoology.”
A Text-book of Zoology. By the late Prof. T. J. Parker
and Prof. W. A. Haswell. In Two Volumes. Third
Edition. Vol. I., pp. xl+816. Vol. Il., pp. xx
+714. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.)
50s. net.
HEN a demand arises for a new edition of a
general text-book on some branch of science,
the problem before the editor is to decide whether the
new wine of recent discovery will go with safety into
the old bottle. The solution depends largely upon the
adaptability of the original scheme. When the treat-
ment has been dominated by one aspect of the subject-
matter, or when the science has entered on a new
transitional phase of discovery involving new points
of view, the new wine requires a new bottle.
Parker and Haswell’s ‘‘ Text-book of Zoology’
illustrates this difficulty. Its outlook on the great
and varied theme of animal life is fixed on the static
anatomical aspect, on the intensive analysis of indi-
vidual structure, and on the grouping of animals
in classes according to structure. So fascinating and
so adaptable to educational discipline is this pursuit
that the anatomical aspect is only too apt to dominate
other and equally important methods and aspects of
animal study. It is against this over-emphasis of
descriptive anatomical detail that teachers of zoology
have been protesting for many years, with the result
that in practice there is a more balanced consideration
of the dynamical as opposed to the statical aspect of
,
zoology.
In this respect the new “‘ Parker and Haswell” is
disappointing. The rigidity of its structure has pre-
vented its editor from adapting the text of these two
volumes to modern requirements, or from embodying
more than a very small amount of the new matter and
none of the new points of view that zoologists have
discovered in the last twenty years. The chief revision
is limited to three groups of Invertebrates—the Nema-
todes, Polyzoa, and Annelids—while the whole of the
second volume—the Vertebrates and the philosophy
of zoology—has, so far as can be readily ascertained,
undergone little change.
Ungrateful as is the task of adverse criticism, it must
be acknowledged that this revision has not gone far
enough. In contrast to the vigorous handling of the
Platyelmia and Annelids, the loose treatment of the
Nematoda is very pronounced. The account of
the life-history of the common Ascaris is both wrong
and misleading, and the description and figure of the
hook-worm are most inadequate. In fact, in regard to
parasitology generally, one has but to compare the
little book recently published by M. Caullery and
2A 1
766
NATURE
{| DECEMBER 9, 1922
reviewed in this journal with the scattered references
to various parasitic groups in the present text-book,
to realise the inadequacy of the method to which
Parker and Haswell are bound by the rigidity of their
scheme. The medical and pathogenic significance of
the Protozoa and the occurrence of soil- Protozoa
deserve more than the passing mention given to them
on p. 51, or than the reference in vol. 2, p. 617, “a
terrestrial Amceba has been described.”” The treatment
of fresh-water meduse is also inadequate, and the
structure of the common starfish (Asterias) should
have been followed by an account of its development
now that Dr. Gemmill’s account is fully accessible.
The account of the Vertebrata is in need of more fresh
and vigorous handling, especially from the embryo-
logical point of view. For example, to state without
comment that a bird has three pancreatic ducts, as is
done here, is to miss a fine opportunity of showing the
fertilising effect of embryological interpretation. In
the chapter on zoological philosophy, the barest indica-
tion is given of developmental mechanics and of
regeneration, but not of the new point of view raised
by American work on Drosophila. The text-book
remains, in fact, a useful and well-illustrated account
of exemplary anatomy. What students want is a series
of small monographs on special subjects. Zoology is
too big a subject to be treated adequately in a single
work.
Cancer and the Public.
New Growths and Cancer. By Prof. S. B. Wolbach.
(Harvard Health Talks.) Pp. 53. (Cambridge,
Mass. : Harvard University Press ; London: Oxford
University Press, 1922.) 4s. 6d. net.
HE lay public nowadays is very much interested
in having healthy bodies, and its will to give
active co-operative help to the medical profession in
achieving this ideal is one of the few features of the
new post-war Jerusalem that does not find itself in
ruins. Medicine has ceased to be a cult of priests
practising some mystery beyond the understanding of
common people, and the abandonment of a professional
dress means, not so much a recognition that a soft hat
and tweeds are more comfortable than a tall hat and
black coat, as an open expression that medical men and
the lay public are fellow-workers for the common good.
How much may be attained by intelligent and
interested lay folk working jointly with doctors has
been illustrated lately very clearly by the disappearance
of summer diarrhoea and the general decrease in
infantile mortality—results, not of the direct applica-
tion of assured scientific knowledge to practical life,
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
but of the devotion of common-sense men and women
in schools for mothers and similar organisations, which
followed quickly enough on the conviction that it was
shameful that a child should be ailing or should die.
It has been said, too, that the problem of venereal
diseases was solved the day that “ syphilis’ appeared
in the headlines of a reputable daily paper. It is,
indeed, clear that real progress in healthiness is as
much a question of laymen as of doctors. William
James says somewhere that a good deed can be perfect
only if it is well received as well as well done ; it is,
indeed, to this co-operation of both parties that we
must look for further advance.
The knowledge of “medical” matters already
enjoyed by the public in general is very much greater
than it was even a few years ago. It is obviously a
project of high importance that it should be enlarged
and extended, and this is the purpose of the “ Harvard
Health Talks ” of which the present small volume is
one. It deals with cancer and new growths, and in
53 pages presents a great deal of information. So
excellent is the purpose, that it is with some regret
that we find the performance disappointing. The book
fails in the way that some other books of the same kind
have failed. The author has not realised the abyss
which separates his training and terminology from
those of his audience, and has presented them with an
abbreviated version of a set of lectures to professional
students rather than a discourse starting from their
point of view instead of from his own. With the
heartiest appreciation of the intelligence of the in-
habitants of Boston and Cambridge, it is difficult to
believe that they will get a good start in understanding
cancer from ‘‘ the unit of structure of living matter is
the cell”? and the rest of the conventional paragraphs
of dogmatic biology that form the opening chapter :
it is useless as well as unnecessary to ask the educated
man in the street to begin a new subject from a point
of view and in a terminology which are as Greek or
worse to him, The author has evidently never
wondered how the man who sits next to him in the
street-car would describe the facts if he knew them.
Technically, too, there is room for substantial
difference of opinion. Pigmented congenital moles
are certainly not universally accepted as examples of
“embryonic rests,” and the sentences on p. 35 attribut-
ing irritation of the bladder to the “embryos” of
Bilharzia are misleading. The practical directions
with which the lecture concludes are, however, admir-
able: do not bother about cancer being supposed to
be hereditary, avoid irritations, consult a medical man
at the first suspicion of anything amiss, and “never
select a doctor that you would not accept as a friend.”
Jay 195, 18h
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
Empire Water-Power.
Water-Power in the British Empire. The Reports of
the Water-Power Committee of the Conjoint Board of
Scientific Societies. Pp. ix+54. (London, Bombay,
and Sydney: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1922.)
3s. 6d. net.
T is just about twelve months since reference
was made to the third and final Report of the
Water-Power Committee of the Conjoint Board of
Scientific Societies (NAtuRE, December 8, 1921,
p. 457). In the little book before us the whole
of the results of the investigations made by the
committee, as set forth in the three successive reports,
are embodied. This compact statement of the present
position of the British Empire in regard to the develop-
ment of its water-power resources will be welcome to
all who are interested in the matter, either from a
purely scientific or from a utilitarian and practical
point of view. It represents the outcome of four years
of valuable research work, carried on with unremitting
activity by the committee under the capable direction
of the chairman, Sir Dugald Clerk, and with the
energetic and painstaking assistance of the secretary,
Prof. A. H. Gibson.
Sir Dugald Clerk contributes to the volume a preface !
of a very thoughtful and stimulating character. He
tells us that the 46 million people now living in the
United Kingdom: require an expenditure of energy of
10} million horse-power for their support, and that
while this supply of power is undoubtedly forthcoming,
for the present, from our stock of coal, yet our reserves
of natural fuel are bound to diminish, and in time to
be depleted, so that we shall be obliged to fall back
upon other agencies to make good the deficit. Taking
the United Kingdom as a whole, there appears to be
continuously available (24 hour period) a total of
1,350,000 horse-power, or if any great tidal scheme,
such as that of the Severn, be included, perhaps a
total of 1,750,000 horse-power. This is, of course,
insufficient to replace the work done by means of coal-
fired engines, but, at least, it would represent a very
substantial saving in fuel.
On the other hand, this power is not all economically
realisable, or rather the cost of obtaining the whole
of it would be higher than is justified, as yet. In
Scotland, however, some 183,000 horse-power is
immediately feasible, at a cost appreciably less than
that of coal-fired stations built and operated under
existing conditions. Even in England and Wales, a
large proportion of the quota is commercially obtain-
able. It is obviously a matter, then, of national
concern to devise means for making use of these
natural power supplies, which are running to waste,
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
NATURE
767
if only for the purpose of supplementing the work
which is at present done by our far from inexhaustible
supplies of coal.
The report covers a wider field than Great Britain ;
it embraces the resources throughout the British
Dominions, and its carefully compiled figures will be
of considerable assistance to those whose interest lies
in the promotion of water-power schemes at home or
abroad. Brysson CUNNINGHAM.
Our Bookshelf.
Modern Electrical Theory. Supplementary Chapters.
Chapter XV.: Series Spectra. By Dr. N. R.
Campbell. (Cambridge Physical Series.) Pp. viti+
110. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1921.)
ros. 6d. net.
THE work now before us is one of the supple-
mentary chapters to Dr. Campbell’s book on modern
electrical theory. This series of supplements is
planned according to an idea which might well be
used by the authors of other text-books on physics.
It is unfortunate, however, that we are unable to
commend the present book to those who, like the
reviewer, welcomed the author’s original work as a
real and vital account of the subject. The book con-
tains numerous errors which any practical spectro-
scopist would detect at once; and they reach their
culminating point when the author, in a professedly
complete list of the chemical elements the spectra of
which form well-defined series, omits oxygen, sulphur,
and selenium. The spectrum of oxygen is, almost in
a classical sense, one of the most beautiful and ideal
series arrangements known to every spectroscopist.
It has not played a part in the application of the
quantum theory as yet, which may provide the
explanation of the circumstance that the author is
unaware of this fact, as he shows more than once.
The genesis of this book is quite clear. The author
has read Bohr’s recent work on the “ Correspond-
ence Principle,” and, like every other reader, has
been very much attracted by it. He has also con-
sulted all the Danish and German writings, and he
gives a really excellent account of them in a very non-
technical style. Dr. Campbell appears, however, to
be unaware of the contribution of this country to the
subject, and of the practical details of spectra. The
second deficiency explains why all the facts of spectra
which he gives correctly are those which foreign writers
have quoted in support of the quantum theory. Follow-
ing the usual assumption that all the significant work
on the subject has been done abroad, anything written
in English is mostly ignored or misquoted. It is
difficult, indeed, to find an English name in the whole
work. A treatise on any branch of this subject
which never refers to the fundamental work of Jeans,
dismisses that of Fowler with a casual mention of his
least important contribution, credits Nicholson with
a mere suggestion that the angular momentum in an
atom might have discrete values, and finally never
mentions W. Wilson, who anticipated Sommerfeld in
the fundamental generalisation, while putting it on a
768
NATURE
| DECEMBER 9, 1922
real dynamical basis, as Sommerfeld himself has
admitted in his latest edition, excites both surprise and
regret. Except from one point of view, the work is
misleading and inaccurate in detail. What it does
give is a condensed summary of foreign work, which is
excellent if read at the same time as a compendium of
the actual experimental facts of spectra.
Air Ministry: Meteorological Office. The Weather Map.
An Introduction to Modern Meteorology. By Sir
Napier Shaw. Fifth issue (reprint of fourth). (M.O.
2251.) Pp. 1o9 + 8 plates +8 charts. (London:
H.M. Stationery Office, 1921.) rs. 3d. net.
Ir is not possible to overestimate the high value of
this work. At the present time the demand for
weather knowledge is very keen, the enthusiasm being
stimulated by the wireless broadcasting of weather
information. To appreciate fully the information
received by wireless it is essential to be able to grip
intelligently the scientific details involved. The
work under review contains much general information
on meteorology. The former edition was issued four
years ago, and the earlier copies gave much assistance
in the training of meteorological units in the army,
so essential for many interests during the war.
The publication contains specimen weather maps,
and the letterpress thoroughly explains their construc-
tion and the results which the maps provide. Weather
systems and their movements are dealt with and
explanations are given of the sequence of weather,
the travel of the centres of disturbances, and the veering
and backing of the wind. Recent research relative to
the upper air is incorporated, and a thorough under-
standing can be secured of the distribution over the
British Isles of cloud and rain consequent on the
passage of a storm area across the country. Informa-
tion is given as to averages and normals, and the
numerous tables, diagrams, and maps in the latter
half of the book are useful for reference. The cost of
the earlier editions of the work was 4d., but the charge,
1s. 3d., for the present issue is exceedingly small, and
the work should be obtained by all who would be
meteorologists. (€, Jel
Rocks and theiy Origins. By Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole.
(Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature.)
Second edition. Pp. vii+175. (Cambridge: At
the University Press, 1922.) 4s. net.
Ir speaks well for the discrimination of the readers of
popular science that a new issue of this thoughtful
introduction to the study of rocks should be called for.
Prof. Cole is equally at home in tracing the history of
the development of scientific theories and in describing
the relation of scenery to the geological structures of
the rocks that underlie it. He discusses without
too much technical detail the origin of the different
types of rocks of which the earth’s crust is composed,
and gives a very fair résumé of the controversies which
have been waged on the subject, many of which are
still as active as ever. There are a number of happily
chosen illustrations of rock scenery, mostly repro-
duced from the author’s own photographs. This little
volume is honourably distinguished from others of a
similar character by the clearness of its style and the
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
abundant references which will prove useful in direct-
ing the student’s attention to scientific contributions
that he might otherwise overlook. There are few of
our geologists who have read so widely and to such
good effect as Prof. Cole. J. W. E-
Farm Book-Keeping : The Principles and Practice of
Book-Keeping applied to Agriculture: for Agricultural
Colleges, Extension Classes, Evening Classes, and
Practical Farmers. By John Kirkwood. Pp. 224.
(Edinburgh: W. Green and Son, Ltd., 1922.)
6s. net.
One of the most noteworthy developments in the
study of agriculture is the attention which is now paid
to the economic aspects of farm working. Mr. Kirk-
wood’s book (one of the Scottish Series of Junior
Agricultural Text-books) is to be welcomed as a work
which contributes to this development.
Part I. consists of nineteen concise chapters dealing
with double-entry book-keeping in its application to
farm management. Part II. sets forth a simple cash-
book system for the benefit of those who may regard
double-entry as a complicated system, and the author
assures us that his simplified method of keeping
accounts has stood the test of actual use.
With practical handbooks of this kind on the market
there can be no excuse for the repetition of those
blunders in farm management which are the accompani-
ment of a disregard for scientific study and a blind:
adherence to tradition. :
Coal -tar Colours in the Decorative Industries. By A.
Clarke. Pp. xili+166. (London: Constable and
Com tdmo22))sxos:
Tue uses of coal-tar dyestuffs in lake-making, and in
leather, fur, wood, paper, etc., colouring—z.e. those
applications which are not covered in the ordinary
treatises on fabric dyeing—are considered in Mr. Clarke’s
work, The treatment is, naturally, wholly technical,
and very brief. A bibliography is given. To the
expert the treatment will doubtless appeal, but to the
ordinary scientific reader such sentences as the following
indicate a language even more formidable than his
own: “ The level-dyeing acid dyestuffs do not exhaust
well, but if they are topped with basic colours the
backwaters are colourless.” A glossary might have
been added for the uninitiated.
The Peoples of Europe.
Pp. rro. (London:
1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
IT was no mean task to attempt an adequate sketch of
European peoples in about a hundred pages, but
Prof. Fleure has been fairly successful. His volume
is opportune at a time when a sound scientific basis for
the discussion of the complex problems of Europe is
essential, and it is a happy illustration of the value of
a geographical foundation in the study of political
problems. The book contains not only a great amount
of information but also a wealth of ideas, and is a
genuine contribution to the vexed questions of the time.
There are three sketch maps and a short but useful
bibliography. The lack of an index is unfortunate.
RowNe ghee Be
By Prof. H. J. Fleure.
Oxford University Press,
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
IAT RF
769
Letters to the Editor.
{Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by hits correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. Wo notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
Spectrum of the Night Sky.
I HAVE now succeeded in obtaining a spectrogram
showing the general features of the spectrum of the
night sky in the south of England, with the moon
below the horizon. The exposure given was about
50 hours, beginning each night not earlier than
23 hours after sunset, and closing about midnight.
There appears, therefore, to be no possibility that
sunlight or moonlight intervened.
The spectrum shows the bright yellow-green
aurora line very strongly. There is a continuous
spectrum corresponding in distribution to the solar
spectrum, and showing the dark Fraunhofer lines
H and K. These are perfectly definite. The ex-
posure is not enough to show the other Fraunhofer
lines definitely, and, in any case, the instrument used
is only capable of showing a few of the strongest of
them.
There is no trace on this plate of the nitrogen
bands, which form so conspicuous a part of the
spectrum of the polar aurora. From some exposures
I have made in the neighbourhood of Newcastle,
three degrees farther north, I believe that the negative
bands of nitrogen are a normal feature of the night-
sky spectrum there. But more work is required
on this point. RAYLEIGH.
Terling Place, Witham, Essex.
November 25.
Medical Education.
It is stated in NaturE (November 18, p. 683) that
“The professional course has grown so full in the
training of a medical student that it has become
increasingly difficult to cover the ground and secure
qualification in a reasonable time.’’ It seems that
chemistry and physics are to be placed outside the
professional curriculum, but biology is to be retained.
A knowledge of chemistry and physics is necessary
to the doctor; and much of the recent advance in
both medicine and surgery is due to discovery in
these sciences. But can any one tell us of what
utility, practical or intellectual, is the biology which
medical students learn—facts about the classification
of plants, the vascular system of the sea-urchin, the
digestive system of the leech, the bones in the cod’s
head, and so on? No one is a better physician or
surgeon for such knowledge; and, therefore, since
it has no bearing on later study and practice, it
is forgotten as soon as the prescribed examinations
are passed.
For the medical man the intellectual value of
biology should lie, if anywhere, in interpretation.
It should cause him to think. He should learn man’s
place in Nature—how he resembles and differs from
other living beings, and how these likenesses and
differences arose. Man is in body and mind above
all the educable, the trainable, the adaptive being.
From: birth forwards he develops mainly in response
to use. He is rational and intellectual because his
mind grows through functional activity. That is his
special distinction ; that places him in Nature. The
medical student learns nothing of all this. He may
be taught, incidentally as it were, that some characters
are inborn, or acquired, or inheritable. But a year
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
or so later, physiologists and pathologists tell him
the quite indisputable truth that every character
takes origin in germinal potentiality (predisposition,
diathesis), and arises in response to some sort of
nurture—7.e. that every character is equally innate,
acquired, and inheritable. If the student thinks at
all, he must conclude, as Prof. Armstrong says very
truly in another connexion (NATURE November 11,
p. 648), ““ We are mouldering away in our laboratories
and when we seek to make known what we have been
doing we use a jargon which we cannot ourselves
understand.”
The medical student may be told that Natural
Selection is an interesting speculation, but that no
man has seen it in operation. Again, if he thinks,
he will conclude that, owing to defective opportunities
for observation, no man could see Natural Selection
in operation among the wild animals and plants
which biologists study. Nevertheless, a year or two
later he will perceive it in full swing in the case of
tuberculosis and every other lethal and prevalent
human disease, and will learn that every human race
is resistant to every human disease precisely in
proportion to the length and severity of its past
experience of that disease. There are scores of
diseases and hundreds of races and sub-races of man-
kind; and, therefore, in some thousands of instances
—whenever and wherever close observation is possible
—he will find Natural Selection causing adaptive
evolution. Moreover, he will learn that just as
human races alter gradually in powers of resistance,
so, at the other end of the scale, bacterial races alter
in virulence when removed from one kind of animal
to another, a thing quite inexplicable except on
grounds of Natural Selection.
The student may be taught that effective selection
occurs among mutations, not fluctuations. A year
or so later he will perceive tuberculosis selecting amid
all shades of difference, with the result that races
present all shades of evolution. He may be taught
that mutations segregate and that their inheritance
is alternate. A year or so later he will learn that
human mutations (e.g. idiocy, hare-lip, club-foot) are
inherited, perhaps for many generations, in a patent
or latent condition, and that only their reproduction
is alternate. Moreover, he will wonder, if mutations
segregate, how it happens that long-lost ancestral
traits sometimes reappear in purely bred domesticated
varieties (e.g. pigeon, poultry, and many plants).
He may be taught that evolution depends on mutations
and that mutations do not blend. A year or two later
he will learn that human races never differentiate
while there is inter-breeding, but diverge rapidly and
infallibly when separated by time and space; that,
though men are fond of telling about wonders, yet
in the whole of written human history (4000 years
or more) no useful human mutation has been recorded,
nor one that changed the type of a race; that all
human varieties (e.g. negro and white), like all
natural varieties (e.g. brown and polar bear), blend
perfectly when crossed in all characters except those
linked with sex; and, lastly, that “lost’’ ancestral
traits never reappear except when one of the parties
to the cross is derived from a domesticated variety.
If he thinks at all, he will conclude that Natural
Selection is founded on fluctuations, but that man,
as Darwin noted, “‘ often begins his selection by some
half-monstrous form, or at least by some modification
prominent enough to catch the eye or to be plainly
useful to him.’’ He may be taught that the doctrine
of recapitulation is doubtful. But if he thinks at all,
he will perceive that any other mode of evolution
and development is totally inconceivable. And so on.
The point I wish to emphasise is that medical
men, with an acquaintance with man infinitely more
779
intimate than any biologist can have with any
animals or plants, with abundance of direct, not
merely circumstantial evidence, have no need for
the traditional biology of biological teachers. They
are in a position to construct, and for all practical
purposes have already constructed, a biology of their
own. The traditional teaching has with them no
influence whatever except as a waste of time, and
ought to be, and before long is sure to be, eliminated
from a curriculum which has outgrown it.
G, ARCHDALL REID.
9 Victoria Road South, Southsea,
November 19.
Divided Composite Eyes.
Ir is not uncommon to find among insects in-
stances where each composite eye is divided into
two portions, so that in appearance there seem to be
four eyes instead of two. In sections, however, it is
seen that both parts are connected with the same
ganglion.
Sometimes the reason for the division is obvious, as
in the case of certain beetles which have a prominent
sort of ‘armoured belt ’’ carried horizontally round
the head. Here half the eye is above and half below
the belt, thus giving a view of the ground as well as
of objects above it.
The reason for duplication, however, is not always
so apparent. In the majority of composite eyes the
convex surface is covered with lenses of uniform size,
but in those to which the present note relates, namely,
dragon-flies, White (or Cabbage) fly, and Aphides, this
is not the case.
Among the dragon-flies—a very highly developed
type—each eye presents a continuous convex surface,
but the lenses of the upper part are much larger than
those below. The transition from large to small is
quite abrupt, but as the curvature of the surface is
continuous the line of demarcation is not noticeable
without the use of a magnifying glass.
In the White-fly (Aleyrodes proletella, etc.), where
the eyes are well divided, the relative position of
the large and small lenses is reversed, the large lenses
being below.
The eyes of Aphides present for the greater
part of their area a convex surface carrying
lenses of equal diameter, but not far from the
posterior margin there is a small prominence Dy
bearing a few lenses on its summit and sides.
The appearance of the eyes of dragon-flies is
so well known that it is scarcely necessary to give
figures, but it may be remarked that the areas
covered respectively by the large and small lenses
differ considerably both in form and extent in
different genera.
White-fly is chiefly known as a pest in green-
houses, and until its appearance in unusual
numbers in the autumn of 1921, I had never
given it any attention. Any one, however,
who examined the perfect insect with a magni-
fying glass might well be excused for taking
it (as did Linnzus) for a small moth, but if the
course of its development is followed up from the
egg to the imago it is seen to be more nearly allied to
the Aphides.
Far the best account of it is given by Reaumur
(““ Memoires,’’ Tome II.) in 1736, and having myself
repeated his observations of its transformations, I
can confirm the accuracy of his description. All
Reaumur’s specimens were apparently taken from
the leaves of Chelidonium majus, but this plant is not
abundant in the neighbourhood of Exeter.
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[DECEMBER 9, 1922
White-fly, however, feedson a great variety of leaves,
and I have taken it from cabbage, cucumber, tomato,
campanula, veronica, and from many composites.
There is a considerable difference in these cases both
in the size of the perfect insects and in the density of
the cottony down with which they are coated, which
gives them their white appearance, but whether this
implies real specific differences or is only a result of
Fic. 1.—Aleyrodes.
a, Camera-lucida sketch of A. proletelle x 25.
6, Head, side view.
c, Head, from below.
d, Head 125 (60 in the reproduction), front view to show the difference
in the size of the lenses in the two divisions of the eye. The contents
of the head and the exterior down have been removed. The specimen
was taken from cucumber. Diameter of upper lenses 0:0003 in., of lower
lenses 0-0005 in.
different food, is, I believe, considered uncertain.
Among my own specimens, those taken from cucumber
were the smallest in size and had the thinnest coating
of down. The divided eyes were closely similar in all,
and the general appearance of the insect is shown in
the camera-lucida sketches, Fig. 1. When the head
is viewed from underneath, especially when it is so
turned that only the lower pair of eyes are visible,
the face is curiously owl-like, the proboscis standing
for the beak.
Fic. 2.—Black Aphis taken from Laburnum.
a, Head, side view.
b, Head, front view x 50.
c, Eye and part of head x 125 (60 in the reproduction), seen from above.
The eyes are shown in more detail in the photo-
graph, Fig. 1.
There is always some difficulty in photographing
such objects as require large magnification, but the
structure of which does not permit of these being
flattened; and though much less detail is shown in
Fig. 1 c than can be made out by focussing each part
independently, the difference in the size of the upper
and lower groups of lenses is very apparent.
Several species of Aphis taken from various plants
were examined, and in all of them the eyes had the
DECEMBER 9, [922 }
NATURE
771
peculiar feature illustrated in Fig. 2, a, b, and c.
The prominence varied slightly in size and position in
the different species, but there was always at least
one lens on the summit and three or four round the
sides.
Divided eyes must be, or at some period have been,
of use to their possessors. Have the naturalists any
explanation of what that use is? The case of the
Aphis eyes seems especially difficult. :
In the last century Johannes Muller expressed the
opinion that in the picture formed by a composite
eye each lens contributed only one impression, e.g.
that the picture was made up of only the same
number of patches of light and shade as there were
lenses to form them, just as in the modern “‘ process
block” light and shade effects are produced by the
varying intensities of uniformly distributed dots.
In 1894 I gave (Proc. R.S.) some theoretical
‘Teasons in support of Muller’s view. This paper has
been mentioned in several more recent books, but the
theory itself is not quoted. It is, however, so simple
and, coupled with the measurements of various
composite eyes, so conclusive that it may be worth
repetition in this place.
Every one knows, or ought to know, that the image
formed by a perfect lens of a distant bright point
consists of a bright disc surrounded by faint rings,
and that the angular diameter of the disc as seen
from the optic centre of the lens is of the order \/D,
» and D being respectively the wave-length of the
light and the diameter of the Jens. This being the
case, it is evident that no advantage in definition will
be gained by providing a retina capable of distin-
guishing angular distances less than \/D, i.e. the least
distance which the lens can resolve.
If the wave-length is taken as 1/50000 of an inch,
then for a lens o-oor in. in diameter A/D is rather
more than one degree, and for a diameter of 0-ooo1
in., rather more than ten degrees.
If a number of small lenses are placed side by side
with their edges touching on the surface of a sphere
of radius R, and if the focal length of the lenses is
small compared to this radius, images of outside
objects will be formed on a concentric spherical
surface (with a radius somewhat less than R) ; in these
images, only those objects can be separated of which
the angular distance apart is greater than \/D.
If, then, the focal surface is covered by a retina
which provides only one sensitive point for each lens
to act on, the maximum definition will be secured if
the subtense of each lens at the centre of the sphere
is also \/D, that is if D/R =\/D, and this is the relation
found to hold in the most highly developed com-
posite eyes. It may be said, therefore, that the
construction of these eyes is one of the most definite
references to the wave-length of light to be found in
organic structures. The actual values of D lie between
something over oO-oor in. and a little less than
0-0003 in.1. The definition, therefore, even in the most
favourable cases, is very poor compared with that
given by the simple eyes of vertebrates, where a
single lens forms an image on a retina closely packed
with sensitive points, while in the composite eye each
retinal point is capped with its own lens.
To form a composite eye with the same defining
power as the human eye, for example, the lenses
would have to lie on a spherical surface of 18 ft.
radius.
It would be interesting to know how or why the
two types have come into existence. A. MALLock.
9 Baring Crescent, Exeter, November 7.
1 I have taken some trouble in arriving at this lower limit, measuring
directly for this purpose the values of D for the smallest Diptera (and their
parasitic Hymenoptera), Ephemera, and others.
NO. 27 711,,VOl, 110)
Action of Cutting Tools.
Ir Mr. Mallock's friction theory of cutting-tool
action is valid, and if cutting tools are ever effectively
lubricated, it would follow that the dry tool should
have an angle different from that of the lubricated
tool. But this is contrary to universal practice.
The inference would then be that either the friction
theory is unimportant and extremely incomplete, or
that lubrication as practised by engineers is very
ineffective. The latter view seems more correct, for
the following reasons.
When a tool has been cutting for some time, metal
accumulates on the point of the tool and adheres
sometimes so firmly that it cannot be removed,
without risk of breaking the tool, except by grinding.
This agglomeration of metal may be said without
looseness to be welded to the tool just as in cases
of bearing seizure the metals are welded together.
This is especially obvious in heavy work, and it can
be seen in a lesser degree in moderately light work.
When contact is so intimate and pressure so great
as to cause such cohesion it is difficult to conceive
that lubrication in the usual sense of the term can
exist at the point of a cutting tool.
Moreover, engineers in many countries have striven
to introduce lubricant to the cutting face by means of
high-velocity jets and by drilling holes in the nose
of the tools, but without success.
Lastly, the temperature at the tool face is extremely
high. Turnings which pass over the surface are hot
enough to cause serious burns, and large tool cross-
sections are necessary to conduct the heat away
from the nose of the tool. It has been observed
that modern high-speed steel will cut at a dull red
-heat; and while this is an abnormal condition, there
is evidence enough to show that the temperatures
existing in average machining work are higher than
can be met by special lubricating systems under
less strenuous pressures. These considerations seem
sufficient to rebut the idea of cutting-tool lubrication
in most cases, and to suggest that the chief value of
so-called cutting oils is in their cooling properties.
Even turpentine, which is useful in cutting hard steel,
may have much of its value in its latent heat of
evaporation. Certainly to obtain a good finish on
hard steel with turpentine often requires a spring
tool and light cuts, in which case there is the equivalent
of chatter in a mild form, and this is conducive to
lubrication.
In the discussion on Prof. Coker’s paper it was
stated that the point of the tool was not in contact
with the work, and Dr. Lanchester very trenchantly
asked, What was the good of having the tool sharpened ?
But it is well known on heavy work or with tools of
inferior temper that work must be stopped periodically
and tools reground. The idea that the point of a
tool is not in contact with the job is perhaps a natural
one, and rests on a difficulty hitherto unexplained.
It is common observation that a tool wears most
some little distance from the edge, and the edge may
last a good deal longer than the part behind it.
But this is no proof that the edge is not in contact ;
and if the edge were not in contact, the action of
cutting tools would be even more perplexing than it is.
The explanation of this point may lie in the fact
that the turning has less relative motion near the
edge of the tool than at some distance behind, and the
justification for this view is seen in a closer examina-
tion of the motion of a turning. The neutral axis
of a turning has a constant speed approximately
equal to the cutting speed, but when the turning
begins to bend there is a speed of rotation added to
the speed of the neutral axis, and this rotational
7/2
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
speed varies as the thickness of the turning. As the
turning does not begin to curl or bend until after it
passes the edge, it is not difficult to see why the edge
should wear well and give the impression that it
had not been in contact. The fact that the point
of the tool is in contact with the work may be inferred
from the fact that in many circumstances steel is
welded on to the point, and but for the greater
relative motion behind the cutting edge where the
scouring action is excessive, this deposition of metal
would probably be more extensive.
We are then driven back on another part of the
problem. Why do shavings curl? The analogy with
rivet heads is unconvincing, for shavings are universally
flat in a lateral direction, which—having regard to
variety of tool profiles—is evidence of the extra-
ordinary stresses involved and of the flow they
produce—the stress on the upper face of the tool
is of the order of 100 tons per square inch in quite
ordinary practice. A more direct and convincing
explanation is the following. Consider a piece of the
shaving as in the diagram (Fig. 1). There is the down-
wards shearing force S at the principal plane of shear
and an opposite reaction R at the tool face. These
produce a turning couple which has more than one
effect. In most cases the effect of this couple is
to distort the emerging element into a wedge the
base of which is extended by plastic flow at the tool
face and the upper part is shortened as in bending.
The tendency is to place the lower or bearing surface
of the shaving in tension as in a beam, and if the
material has a low tensile strength as in cast iron,
the shavings break, but even these brittle materials
show a slight curl in the small particles removed by
the tool. Friction at the tool face, as Mr. Mallock
points out, resists curling, but it is probably not the
governing factor. In the discussion on Prof. Coker’s
paper, Mr. H. I. Brackenbury put forward the very
important observation that slow speeds are conducive
to curling and high speeds produce straight shavings
—this in tough steel. Having regard to the fact
that cutting-tool action is a problem in plastic flow,
the viscosity of the metal is probably important ;
and as the temperatures at the moment of cutting
are very high, conductivity and tensile strength when
hot may be decisive factors. The ratio of shearing
strength to tensile strength enters into the phenomenon
of curling, but as parts of the shaving are flowing
it is not easy to get clear views on what is taking
place. H. S. Rowe tt,
Director of Research.
Research Association of British Motor
and Allied Manufacturers.
15 Bolton Road, Chiswick, W.4.
November 9.
An Empire Patent.
Mr. Hutme’s letter in Nature of November 11, p.
633, raises objections to the Empire Patent on grounds
which would occupy too much space to traverse fully,
but I would venture to question his general con-
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
demnation of the present patent system. A system
such as he proposes, which would grant a monopoly
only to such persons as were actually working an
invention, would be unjust to an inventor without
capital to exploit his ideas. Moreover, considerations
of novelty could not entirely be left out. Presumably
Mr. Hulme would leave this to be decided by the
Courts; but litigation is costly, and I imagine that
few concerned with the business side of patents
would be willing to dispense with a search for novelty
on the part of the Patent Office, the advantages of
which appear to be sufficiently obvious. The limita-
tion, for practical reasons, to British patent specifica-
tions does not detract from those advantages, for,
assuming the patent system to be of some value, it
is most likely that subject-matter of a patentable
nature will be disclosed in the first place in a patent
specification. Mr. Hulme’s objections to the search
appear to be based largely upon United States ex-
perience, but the opinion he quotes may be due to
difference of efficiency in administration in the two
countries, particularly when we consider that Ameri-
can search is theoretically not so limited as here.
The arrangements as to “ working” laid down
in the Patent Act of 1919, which ensure that any
patent granted in this country must be worked here
on a commercial scale, would, it is to be presumed,
apply to an Empire Patent.
In conclusion, may I be allowed a word of warning
on the too facile application of biological considera-
tions to human society ? Mr. Hulme’s assumption
that a flattening of the population curve is an un-
favourable symptom would not be endorsed by
sociologists, and tends to discount whatever force
there may be in his biological deductions ve Patent
Laws. Ernest E. TOWLER.
35 St. Andrews Square,
Surbiton, November 15.
The Movement of the Positive After-image.
THERE is no doubt that movement of the positive
after-image takes place without movement of the
eyes as Mr. H.S. Ryland states (NATURE, November 18,
p. 668). His experiment is complicated by the fact
that all portions of the light shown have not the same
intensity, causing a corresponding difference in the
after-image.
There appears to be, at any rate while the eyes
are being used, a steady circulation of photo-chemical
material from the periphery to the centre of the retina.
The following experiment shows very simply the
movement of the positive after-image without moving
the eyes. If two rectangular strips of white paper
about three inches long and a third of an inch wide
be placed on a piece of black velvet and separated by
a distance of an inch, definite positive after-images
may be obtained of the two strips by viewing them
with one eye, the eye being directed to a point mid-
way between the two strips of paper, the other being
closed and covered with black velvet, for the shortest
possible time, the eye being simply opened and closed.
Two clear-cut positive after-images will first be seen ;
these rapidly become blurred and gradually approach
each other, the central portions of each appearing to
bulge towards each other and to combine first; the
upper and lower portions disappear first, the two
after-images gradually combine in the centre of the
field of vision, the last phase being a white circular
blur, which slowly disappears with a whirlpool move-
ment. It will be noticed that the after-images do
not become negative. F. W. EpRIDGE-GREEN.
London, November 18.
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
Acoustic Research.
Tue editorial article on the subject of ‘“‘ Acoustic
Research,’ in Nature of October 28, p. 565, conveys
an impression which seems to need correction.
In justice to the life-long labours of the late Prof.
W. C. Sabine, now gathered into a volume of “ Col-
lected Papers on Acoustics’’ (Harvard University
Press), it should be said that the practical problem of
predicting the acoustics of an ordinary auditorium in
advance of its construction, or of correcting one
already built, was solved by Prof. Sabine some twenty
years ago. The essential feature to be considered in
such a problem is the reverberation, and Sabine’s
papers on this subject are full and complete. Other
acoustic questions are, of course, sometimes involved,
such as the transmission of sound through walls, the
effect of resonance, etc. Several of these had also
been the subject of prolonged experimental investiga-
tion by Prof. Sabine at the Jefferson Physical Labora-
tory at Harvard, but some of the results were withheld
until the work could be completed. His untimely
death interrupted this programme, and since then the
work has been continued here, and at the Acoustical
Laboratories, Illinois, under the direction of Dr. Paul
E. Sabine, as described in Mr. Munby’s article in the
issue of NATURE of October 28, p. 575.
Architects in the United States have become aware
of the importance of Sabine’s results, and scores of
cases could be cited in which the application of the
principles worked out by him has led to complete
success. The opinion that “ the laws regulating the
production of a successful building for hearing and
speaking have yet to be worked out” implies a lack
of respect for Sabine’s profoundly accurate and
thorough work, which I am sure no one will maintain
who has taken the trouble to acquaint himself with
the subject. THEODORE LYMAN.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.,
November 14.
{The intention of the article to which Prof. Lyman
refers was to promote increased attention to acoustic
research ; and we regret that a phrase in it should
be regarded by him as implying a lack of respect for the
pioneer work done by the late Prof. Sabine. While
readily admitting the value and completeness of
Prof. Sabine’s papers, the continued useful activities
of his acoustic laboratory would seem to indicate
that in the general sense intended the expression
used in reference to the need for further investigation
was justified. It may be true that rules have been
worked out upon which a perfect acoustic building
can be constructed ; the practical problem presented
to the architect, however, often takes the form of the
provision of acoustic success with prescribed limita-
tion in the matter of design, and it is in this direction
that further knowledge is needed.—EbpiTor, NATURE. ]
Separation of the Isotopes of Zinc.
PuRE zinc has been subjected to distillation in a
high vacuum, and after three fractionations of the
distillate the latter shows a lower density than the
original zinc. The residue has been reduced by
evaporation to one-twentieth of the original volume
and shows an increased density. The method of
separation is similar in principle to that of Brgnsted
and Hevesy for mercury.
Two sets of distillations have been carried out.
In the preliminary set, last winter, the distillations
of the distillate were carried out too rapidly and too
great a quantity was distilled. The results for the
distillate indicated no separation, whereas the
separation of the residue, which was effected under
better conditions, showed an increase in density.
NO. 2771, VOL. IIo]
NATURE
113
Another set of distillations was therefore carried out
this summer under improved conditions (using liquid
air condensation and a more careful regulation of
the temperature and the quantity distilled). The
final distillate is lighter and the final residue heavier
than the original zinc. The determination of the
density of a metal, as ordinarily performed, is no
criterion of the ayerage atomic mass per unit volume.
The main part of the work has therefore been directed
towards making it so; the only alternative appears
to be the determination of the atomic weight to an
accuracy of about 1 part in 10,000. The presence
of flaws, of impurities, of allotropes, and of metal in
a different physical state do not sufficiently explain
the results; the discussion of these four points will
be included in the publication of the work.
Taking the density of the initial zinc as unity, the
density of the distillate is 0-99971, and of the residue
1:00026. These numbers appear to be outside the
error of 14 determinations of the density of 7 separate
samples of the initial material, for the greatest
divergence between the numbers obtained only
amounts to o-oo015. On recasting the residue and
the distillate the difference is maintained.
The separation indicated by these figures would
imply a change in atomic weight of about 3} units
in the second place in the atomic weight. This is
considerably less than might have been expected if
the metal was composed of equal quantities of an
isotope of an atomic weight of 64 on one hand, and
of isotopes 66, 68, and 70 on the other hand.
ALFRED C. EGERTON.
The Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford,
November 21.
A Curious Feature in the Hardness of Metals.
By combining Meyer’s formula
L =ad"
with that for the ordinary Brinell test
H=L2"?(D — JDP)
the following relationship is obtained :
A es) I) Pe (ENA
H= a" LY {D+ y/ Di - (=) ie
In this the second term ceases to have a real
meaning when
I
1D =)
Ae
Beyond the load corresponding to a value
L=ab"
the hardness becomes imaginary, or, in other words,
the load will be sufficient to force the ball through
the material continuously. This fact may well be
of considerable importance in connexion with such
questions as the penetration of a plate by a projectile,
in punching operations, and even in lathe work.
In the case of a steel of 0-2 per cent. carbon and
0-6 per cent. manganese with a Brinell hardness
number of 140, using a ball of to mm. diameter, and
a load of 3000 kilograms, the values of a and n will
be about 74 and 2-29 respectively. Under these con-
‘ditions the load at which perforation of the steel will
occur will be 14,400 kilograms, when the hardness will
have fallen to 92.
Further work in this direction is being carried out
by one of us; but the fact that there is a high load at
which the ordinary hardness measurements cease to
apply, and the possible significance of the fact, seemed
sufficiently interesting to warrant early publication.
HuGuH O'NEILL.
F, C. THompson.
The Victoria University of Manchester,
November 15.
nn
e
is)
NATURE
[DECEMBER 9g, 1922
The Use of a Pancreatic Extract in Diabetes.t
By Sir C. S. SHErRiIncTON, G.B.E., P.R.S.
N the words of its charter, repeated at the admis-
sion of each new fellow, the Royal Society is
described as instituted “ for Improving Natural Know-
ledge.’ A main means for that “improving” is dis-
covery. In the case of natural knowledge the main
road to discovery must lie in research. There are
several ways in which research can be encouraged,
and one of them lies in providing suitable workers
with the means to devote their time freely to investi-
gation. The society is fortunate in possessing now, to
a somewhat greater extent than formerly, funds that
may be considered as permanently allocated to this
fundamental object ; for though its existence extends
now to more than two and a half centuries, financial
help directed to this eminently important aim has
come only relatively recently. That it should have
now begun may be a sign of the arrival of an Age in
some respects new; the beginning of a trend towards
wider public interest in and sympathy with research.
Of events in biological science in the past year
I may mention one that is attracting attention
at this time. In the Physiological Laboratory of
Toronto University has been prepared a pancreatic
extract possessing striking power over the carbohydrate
metabolism of the body. Potent as it is, experience
with it is still limited. Work of urgency is required
with what may prove to be a desired remedy ; the
first programme is further investigation of the extract’s
full properties, with caution as to raising hopes which
practice may but partly fulfil. Such are the considera-
tions which weigh with the Canadian—and the discovery
is froma Canadian university—to whom the discovery is
due. In this country the Medical Research Council has
undertaken public-spirited direction of the extract’s pre-
paration and of further determination of its properties.
The physiological steps of the discovery may be
briefly outlined thus :—Destruction of the pancreas
is well known to produce in the dog a diabetes-like
condition, rapidly fatal. The liver’s store of glycogen
is lost, and cannot be renewed by even liberal supply
of its normal source, carbohy drate food. Sugar
formation from proteins ensues, with rapid wasting
of the tissues; at the same time the blood is sur-
charged with sugar, and the tissues are unable to make
use of sugar. In a normal animal, glucose put into
the circulation raises the ratio of carbon dioxide expired
to oxygen absorbed, because the tissues consume the
sugar. But glucose similarly introduced into the de-
pancreated diabeticanimal does not raise the respiratory
quotient ; the tissues no longer consume the sugar. The
inference has long been that the pancreas produces some
substance enabling the body to make use of sugar—some
substance that in fact should control certain forms of
diabetes. At Toronto there seems to have been secured
the extraction of that substance.
The pancreas consists of two structures intimately
commingled. One, secreting cells set round ducts
into which they pour the pancreatic juice, is potently
digestive : the other, scattered in tiny islets, is seemingly
unrelated to the ducts though closely related to the
blood channels. The want of success of pancreatic
extracts in mitigating a diabetic condition might be
1 From the presidential address delivered to the Royal Society on
November 30.
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
due to disewage powers of the juice cells destroying
an anti-diabetic substance of the islet- cells. Dr. F. G.
Banting determined to avoid this possibility by
preparing extracts made from the pancreas after its
trypsin-yielding cells had been selectively brought to
atrophy by ligation of the gland ducts. He and Mr.
Best, a collaborator who joined him, overcoming
formidable difficulties of technique, succeeded in
preparing the required material, and in examining
the effect of extract upon diabetic depancreated dogs.
They found the sugar fall both in the blood and urine,
and that the animals, instead of dying in three weeks,
remained, while treated, in excellent condition.
The further prosecution of the work afterwards
engaged other collaborators: to mention them in
alphabetical order, Collip, Hepburn, Latchford, MacLeod,
and Noble ; of these Prof. MacLeod, himself director
of the Toronto Physiological Laboratory, is well known
as a skilled authority in experiments on carbohydrate
metabolism, and Dr. Collip is professor of bio-chemistry
in the University of Alberta, though’ temporarily
working at Toronto. With team work, advance has
proceeded relatively quickly, and successful extracts
are now obtained from ordinary ox and other pancreas.
Of much physiological interest is the fact that the
active principle in the extract seems one normally
controlling the blood-sugar in health, for its injection
rapidly lessens the blood-sugar in normal animals.
The extract, added to a simple perfusion fluid containing
a little glucose and streamed through the isolated rabbit
heart, increases three- or fourfold the heart’s uptake of
sugar from the fluid. The extract sometimes evokes
serlous nervous disturbances seemingly associated with
extreme fall in the amount of the blood-sugar.
Administered to diabetic depancreated animals, the
extract brings reappearance of the liver’s glycogen
store, while bringing down the sugar excess in the blood
and the excretion of sugar and acetone in the urine ;
and it enables the diabetic organism to consume
sugar. It also lessens or prevents hyperglycemia
produced in animals in several other ways.
Gratifying success has already attended the use of
this extract in the relief of diabetic patients ; much
further research is, however, yet needed for develop-
ment of the methods of extraction and of the routine
use of the active principle.
The important physiological advance thus just
reached comes as a fit reward to those who haye
achieved it. It is, of course, the striking result
of steady work pursued by many various workers
through many earlier years. Such work, we may
remember, lay often open to charge by the unenlightened
of being merely academic and fruitless, its reward
being at the time simply the intrinsic scientific interest
of the facts obtained. The Toronto investigators we may
be sure would say with Pasteur, “ To have the fruit there
must have been cultivation of the tree.” Part of the
merit of the recent successful investigation has been
its appreciation of possibilities indicated by previous
work. But that merit is after all only a preliminary to
the main achievement. The actual achievement is
the deserved success of a bold attack conducted with
conviction and determination and carried through in
the face of formidable experimental difficulties.
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE ls
The West Indian College of Tropical Agriculture.
By Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S.
ae opening of the West Indian College of Tropical
Agriculture by His Excellency Sir Samuel Wilson,
the Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, on October 16,
was an event not merely of local, but also of Imperial
interest, for it constitutes a memorable landmark in
the progress of agriculture throughout the British
possessions in the tropics.
The idea of such a college in the West Indies owes
its inception largely to Sir Francis Watts, Imperial
Commissioner of Agriculture, and the project met
with support both in the West Indies and at home by
men alive to the pressing need for improved facilities
for agricultural education and research in the tropics.
After much preliminary exploration of various
possibilities it was finally decided that the College
should be located in Trinidad, and few, if any, will
now question the wisdom of this decision. The
Government of Trinidad has presented a magnificent
site of 85 acres, at St. Augustine, which appears ample
for present and, so far as can be foreseen, for future
developments also. The site lies about 7 miles east
of Port of Spain and is situated just south of the Main
East Road, close to the junction station for the eastern
and southern branches of the railway. In the opinion
of the present writer, the College has secured the
finest site the island could offer. Not only is the land
open and well drained, but it is sufficiently exposed
to the trade wind, which blows through the greater
part of the year, to ensure an agreeable and healthy
climate.
Further important advantage accrues to the College
from its close proximity to one of the principal experi-
mental stations and farms under the control and
management of the Trinidad Department of Agricul-
ture, the director of which, Mr. W. G. Freeman, 1s also
a member of the governing body of the College. Thus,
not only will students be able to follow the raising
of such staple tropical products as sugar, cocoa, rubber,
coconuts, etc., on neighbouring estates under ordinary
plantation methods and conditions, but they will be
able to study the same crops grown experimentally,
and under rigidly scientific control. They will also
become acquainted with many other tropical products
not usually grown in Trinidad itself, such as cotton,
camphor, spices, and so on. Furthermore, at River
Estate, another large experimental station, also under
the Department of Agriculture, students will have the
opportunity of studying methods of propagation and
cultivation of cocoa and other plants under climatic
conditions sufficiently different from those prevalent
at St. Augustine as to afford valuable means of com-
parison. Apart from the intrinsic value, both economic
and scientific, of the well-planned series of experiments
at River Estate, the researches there are conducted on
a really large scale, and scale is a matter of no small
importance when starting out on agricultural investiga-
tions. .
For the present the College is housed in a building
of moderate size which was already in existence on the
site. It has been suitably altered and equipped, and
it will provide sufficient accommodation for a limited
number of students pending the erection of the new
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
permanent buildings which it is intended shall be
commenced forthwith. Residences will also be pro-
vided for the staff, and it is hoped that hostels for
students may be built if, and when, funds become
available. Recreation grounds for students and staff,
together with refectory, common-rooms and_ bath-
rooms, are already in existence on the site.
The future of the College is well assured. In addition
to granting the site, the Government of Trinidad and
Tobago have given 50,000l. towards the cost of erection
and equipment of the College, and that Government,
together with the Governments of Barbados, the
Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands, are con-
tributing an annual subvention of a half of 1 per
cent. of their revenues. The Imperial Government
is also providing the sum of 15,0o00l. spread over a
term of five years, on the understanding that the work
of the existing Imperial Department of Agriculture in
the West Indies shall be carried on by the College.
The latter gains in prestige by this amalgamation,
for the work of the department, begun by Sir Daniel
Morris and continued by Sir Francis Watts, is widely
and most deservedly appreciated throughout the West
Indies. Substantial contributions have also been
promised by Messrs. Fry and Messrs. Cadbury, the
Empire Cotton Growers’ Association, and the British
Cotton Growing Association, while special mention
should be made of a handsome private donation by
Mr. J. W. Stephens, of Trinidad. It will be seen that
the enterprise has already aroused practical interest,
and this augurs well for the future.
The value to the Empire of a College so favourably
situated to meet the present urgent demands for
training in tropical agriculture should be sufficiently
obvious to every one, and its influence will not be
limited to the West Indian islands alone, but cannot
fail to make itself felt over far wider areas. One may
perhaps be permitted to hope that this wider interest
will find an expression in returns of a practical nature.
The first year’s prospectus of the College has recently
been issued, and copies can be obtained from Mr. A.
Aspinall at the London office of the College, 14 Trinity
Square, E.C. It will be noted that the academic
year has been made to conform with that of British
universities, and it is a fortunate circumstance that
the agricultural and climatic conditions in Trinidad
happen to render such an arrangement a suitable one.
The following courses and facilities for study have been
provisionally arranged :
(1) Diploma course.
(2) One-year course in elementary agricultural
science.
(3) Courses for agricultural officers, scientific and
administrative.
(4) Post-graduate research.
The diploma course will extend over three years,
and its object will be to give a thorough training in
the science and practice of tropical agriculture to those
students intending to become either tropical planters,
investigators or experts in different branches of agri-
cultural science or technology. These students will be
required to have passed the College entrance examina-
776
NATURE
[| DECEMBER 9, 1922
tion, the standard of which is intended to be that of the
matriculation examination of an English university,
and evidence of having passed such a matriculation
examination, or other equivalent test, may be accepted
by the College in lieu of its own entrance examination.
The one-year course is intended for those who
require a less extensive acquaintance with the scientific
aspects of agriculture, and the standard required from
such entrants will be based mainly on a satisfactory
school record indicating that they are able to profit
by the instruction offered.
Special facilities will be afforded to officers selected
for the tropical agricultural services, whether under
government or otherwise, such as should enable them
to obtain (through courses planned to meet individual
needs) familiarity with the applications to tropical
conditions of the principles they will have already
acquired in Europe or elsewhere. It is difficult to
exaggerate the value and importance of such training
to men of this class before they proceed to take up the
duties of the posts to which they may have been
appointed. Hitherto there has existed a gap, largely
unbridged, between the university at home and the
work that awaits the scientific officer in his district,
where the conditions that embrace his problems and
affect their solution are so widely different from those
within the range of his previous experience. The
new College enables this hiatus to be short-circuited,
and it should now be possible for a man in a few
months to build effectively on his previous knowledge
of principles. In short, he is now in a position to
obtain easily, and under exceptionally favourable
conditions, just that kind of wide outlook over, and
reasonably intimate familiarity with, the material
and environment of his prospective problems so
necessary for ultimately attacking them with good
prospects of success.
Perhaps, however, a word of caution may not be
out of place here. In order to secure the best type of
scientific officer, whether for government or for other
services, it is fundamentally important that he should
have received that kind of broad and thorough scien-
tific training which only a first-rate and well-equipped
university is In a position to give. It is not contended,
and it must not be expected, that the training now
available for scientific officers at the West Indian
Agricultural College can replace this university type
of education. What it can and will do is to utilise the
results of that education, and to make it of more
immediate and practical value. The motto of the
College, Via colendi haud facilis, emphasises the
difficulty of agricultural problems, and they are not
going to be best attacked unless the best means are
employed in the process. The combination of the
home university and the tropical college unquestion-
ably offers the best means at present in sight.
Finally, in its provision for research students the
College is pursuing an excellent course. The West
Indies, with the fine botanic gardens of Trinidad and
Dominica, offer unrivalled opportunities to the botanist
using Trinidad as a centre, and it would be difficult
to find better facilities anywhere in the tropics. The
relative freedom from noxious pests, the absence of the
annoyance caused by the leeches of the eastern jungles,
the variety and wealth of the vegetation, together with
the striking ecological character it exhibits, combine
to form a most attractive prospect for any young man
who desires tu secure that indispensable acquaintance
with tropical vegetation without which no botanist can
be said to be fully qualified to hold one of the more
important chairs in the universities at home.
But it is, after all, by its success in promoting the
welfare of agriculture, and of the industries that arise
directly out of it, that the College will be finally judged.
In this last connexion it is well to learn that techno-
logical courses are contemplated to prepare men to
take their part in manufacturing processes. Some of
these, for example sugar, are already of considerable
importance in the West Indies and elsewhere. The
establishment of a sugar school will constitute the
first step in this direction, and gifts of up-to-date plant
and machinery have already been generously promised
by several engineering firms in Great Britain.
It will be obvious from the foregoing sketch—neces-
sarily but an imperfect one—that the institution is
making a good start. Sir Francis Watts and the
little band of professors, all of whom have made their
mark in various directions, will carry with them the
best wishes of every one interested in the success of the
great enterprise on which they have embarked. x:
The Flow of Steels
ECENT developments in chemical engineering
have called for the provision of metallic con-
tainers capable of withstanding considerable stress at
high temperatures and for long periods. The in-
vestigation of the mechanical properties of steels and
alloys at these temperatures has accordingly become
a matter of very direct practical importance. The
existing literature of the subject almost invariably
consists of graphs, in which tensile test results are
plotted against the temperature at which the test was
made, care being taken to eliminate the disturbing,
but very important, factor of time, by carrying out
each test under as nearly the same conditions as possible,
the duration of each test being at most a few hours,
with an actual loading time of a few minutes. It can-
not fairly be claimed that such information gives more
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
at a Low Red Heat.
than a general indication of the relative ability of
different materials to meet the working conditions
usually encountered by the exhaust valve of an aero-
engine or the retorts, catalyst tubes, etc., of the
engineer. Certainly it does not enable a designer to
construct a container which can be depended upon to
maintain its shape indefinitely, at super-atmospheric
temperatures when in a state of stress.
To remedy this defect in existing knowledge, Mr. J.
H. Dickenson, of the Research Laboratories of Messrs.
Vickers, Ltd., Sheffield, has carried out an experi-
mental investigation, and communicated his results
at the September meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti-
tute. His general conclusion is, that all the steels
upon which he has worked behaved very much like
highly viscous fluids at temperatures well below the
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE
777
critical range (700° C.) and cannot be said to have any
definite strength at a red heat, and that the property
of principal importance to the engineer who wishes to
subject highly heated steel to stress is the equivalent
of the viscosity of a fluid. For the solution of a problem
of immediate practical importance, he has ascertained
for each of a number of steels the temperature at which
the rate of flow does not exceed a very small and
practically negligible amount under a uniform stress
of 8-5 tons per square inch. The particular problem
was the manufacture of large catalyst tubes for a
synthetic ammonia process. These tubes were to be
maintained at a temperature of about 600° C. under
an enormous internal pressure, a long life under these
conditions being essential to the economic success of
the process. After due consideration it was decided
to make them of a nickel-chromium alloy which was
known to possess high resistance to oxidation and
deformation when under stress at high temperatures.
Laboratory tests were carried out on this alloy, on
pure carbon steels, on a high chromium steel, and a
high-speed steel. For details of the actual experiments
the original paper must be consulted. It must be
noted, however, that although the mechanical con-
ditions chosen for the tests appear to have been con-
sidered with great care, there were considerable varia-
tions in the temperature of a given test-piece which
amounted to as much as + 25° C. from a mean figure.
Tests of two kinds were carried out: (a) those at
constant load and constant temperatures, and (b) those
at constant load and uniformly rising temperature.
The extension temperature diagrams of the (A) series
show that up to 4oo° C. all the steels extended alike.
Thereafter, however, the curves diverged, a consider-
able amount of flow taking place in each case, at tem-
peratures well below that finally reached. The range
of temperature investigated extended up to nearly
1000" C.
The diagrams of the (a) series present some remark-
able results, of which perhaps the most striking was
that of the test-piece of nickel-chromium alloy (Vikro),
which extended continuously from the first day of
loading (at 625° C.) but only broke after 36 weeks.
The diagrams bring out well the enormous influence of
time in determining the temperature up to which each
type of steel can support a given load (in this case 84
tons per square inch), and by implication a load
which can be borne at any given temperature. As an
example, a nickel-chromium alloy withstood the above
stress under a rapidly applied load at 965° C., whereas
the same specimen cannot be expected to endure the
same stress for considerable periods without suffering
sensible deformation at a temperature exceeding 600°
C. Working conditions such as those outlined demand
a knowledge of the latter figure.
Mr. Dickenson concludes from his tests that the
extension and eventual rupture of the test-piece
under unvarying load is due almost entirely to viscous
flow. Whether plastic flow affects the shape of the
curves, and if so, whether the data will prove sufficient
to enable the plastic to be separated from the viscous
flow, is a question to which he has not yet found an
answer. His curves are also interesting for the light
which they throw upon the differing degrees of resist-
ance to mechanical deformation at high temperatures,
which the various steels exhibit. Moreover, in select-
ing material for resistance to stress at these tempera-
tures, the nature of the stressing action must be taken
into account.
In the second half of his paper, consideration is given
to the very important factor of resistance to “‘ scaling ”
exhibited by steels at the temperatures in question.
It has been known for some time that remarkable
resistance to oxidation is offered by certain nickel-
chromium alloys, and, in a somewhat less degree, by
high chromium steels. Mr. Dickenson has carried out
systematic experiments on eight typical steels, in nine
temperature ranges from 550°-600° up to 1075-1175. C.
The best results were given by a nickel-chromium alloy
called ‘‘ Vikro.”’ Interesting photomicrographs are
furnished, showing the varying character of the scale
in the various alloys. Mr. Dickenson’s research will
be welcomed by chemical and metallurgical engineers,
for it contains valuable information for which they
have long been waiting. It is much to be hoped that
he will see his way to continue his experiments.
The Manufacture of Acids during the War.!
By Prof. T. M. Lowry, F.R:S.
eee three technical reports before us deal with
the manufacture of sulphuric, nitric, and
picric acids during the war. The reports are compiled
on similar lines to those of the four earlier volumes which
have already been reviewed in these columns (NATURE,
April 29, 1922, p. 541); and since the methods and
workmanship of Mr. W. Macnab are now well known, it
is not necessary to describe in detail the type of in-
formation which they contain. It may, however, be
of interest to review briefly the general situation as
1 Ministry of Munitions and Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research. Technical Records of Explosives Supply, rg15-1918. No, 5:
“ Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid,by Contact Process.’’ Pp. vi+-128 +plates.
(London; H.M. Stationery Office, rg21.) 25s. net. No. 6: ‘“ Synthetic
Phenol and Picric Acid.”” Pp. vi+97+plates. (London: H.M. Stationery
Office, 1921.) 15s. net. No. 7: ‘“* Manufacture of Nitric Acid from Nitre
and Sulphuric Acid.” Pp.vi+86. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1922.)
tos. 6d. net.
NO! 2771, VOL. Ito]
regards supplies of acids which had to be met by the
Department of Explosives Supply, and the way in
which the problem was solved by the workers of that
Department, as disclosed in these three reports.
Nitric ACID.
Although oxidised nitrogen was the key of the
supply-problem in explosives—both propellant and
H.E. (just as chlorine was the basis of the supply-
problem in gas-warfare in its successive phases
of chlorine, phosgene, CCI;NO,, S(C,H,4Cl),, or
mustard gas, etc.)—the report on the manufacture
of nitric acid is undoubtedly the least important of
these three, since it is much to be hoped that this
country will never again be dependent on overseas
778
sources for its whole supply of fixed nitrogen. No
more eloquent testimony to our unpreparedness in
this direction could be given than the fact that, while
a whole volume is devoted to the manufacture of
nitric acid from nitre and sulphuric acid, there is no
corresponding report on the supply of fixed nitrogen
from the air, for the all-sufficient reason that there
never was a supply to describe. Since, however, the
two factories of Gretna and of Queen’s Ferry alone were
making during the war 1300 tons of nitric acid per
week, and since, moreover, the loss by submarines of
nitre ships from Chile was the cause of incessant anxiety,
lest the whole output of explosives should be arrested
by even a temporary stoppage of supplies, it was of
very great importance that the utilisation of the nitre
should be carried out with the highest degree of
efficiency.
As usual, detailed attention resulted in economies
which, in an earlier stage, would have appeared to be
almost impossible. Striking evidence of the elaborate
care that was called for in this very large-scale pro-
duction is afforded by the fact that twenty pages of
the seventh report are devoted to a description of
the plant and process used for washing the sacks in
which the nitre was brought from Chile! This resulted,
not only in the saying of a substantial percentage of
the precious nitre and in the elimination of a very
serious fire risk, but also gave a higher value to the bags
themselves ; thus, whereas an unwashed bag could
be sold for 2d., there were obtained, after washing,
60 per cent. of sound bags at 44d. each, 39 per cent.
of sht bags at 3d., and 1 per cent. of ragged bags at
g:251. per ton of 1400 bags.
A more obvious source of loss arose from the decom-
position by heat of a certain proportion of nitric acid
into water, nitrogen peroxide, and oxygen, especially
towards the end of the distillation. It is this factor
which gives rise to the one important complication of
the plant, namely, the provision of towers in which
the nitrous fumes can be reconverted into nitric acid
by contact with oxygen and water. Since this oxida-
tion is relatively slow, it is essential to provide adequate
space in the towers, in order that the gases may not
pass through them too quickly. Another important
point in manufacture is to secure as large a proportion
as possible of nitric acid of high strength, since, as the
distillation proceeds, more and more water comes over
with the acid. In practice the acid was collected in
two batches, the receiver being changed when the
density of the distillate fell to 1-465, while the fire was
extinguished when the density fell to 1-340, although
a little more acid distilled over from the hot charge
before the retort was tapped. In a typical case, a
series of six charges gave 5:05 tons nitric acid in the
form of go per cent. acid and 3°55 tons in the form of
8373 per cent. acid, giving a total yield of 86-6 per cent.
recovered by condensation ; to this must be added,
however, an estimated recovery of 5*5 per cent. in the
absorption towers, giving a total yield of 92 per cent.
The balance of 8 per cent. is due mainly to loss of gases
from the towers, especially during the brief period of
violent interaction which takes place at an early stage
of the distillation ; there is also a small loss of nitric
acid in the nitre-cake, from which the last traces of
acid cannot profitably be removed. In some instances,
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
however, a yield of more than 97 per cent. was reached,
the total loss being therefore less than 3 per cent.
An interesting problem arose from the production
as a by-product of vast quantities of nitre-cake. This
was sometimes thrown away, e.g., by dumping in the
sea, since it was difficult to find a commercial outlet
for it. It was therefore a profitable process, during
an early period of the war, to neutralise nitre-cake
with the poorer qualities of caustic soda, and to sell
the product to the glass-makers as a substitute for
salt-cake. At a later stage, however, manufacturers
were persuaded to make more and more use of nitre
cake in place of sulphuric acid, and the cake gradually
acquired a market value, except at the more outlying
factories. On the other hand, the direct-conversion
process for the manufacture of ammonium nitrate
from sodium nitrate and ammonium sulphate led to
the production of vast quantities of sodium sulphate
as a by-product, for which no sufficient outlet existed,
with the result that two vast glistening pyramids
were accumulated as a new object of interest to be
seen by travellers on the G.W.R. just before reaching
Swindon. Asa result of these two factors, the neutral-
isation of nitre-cake was changed abruptly from a
commercial operation, on which a useful profit might
be earned, into one in which the product was of less
value than the raw material. Under these conditions
the infant industry was abandoned as abruptly as if
the ashes of Vesuvius had fallen upon it and converted
the plants into a modern Pompeu.
SutpHuric AcIp.
The manufacture of sulphuric acid involved a
two-fold problem: first, the provision of sufficient
supplies of chamber-acid, the manufacture of which
was as well established as that of nitric acid
from sodium nitrate; and, second, the manufacture
of oleum, a far more difficult operation, which might
indeed be compared with the fixation of nitrogen,
except that the production of oleum had been carried
on during many years (although on a restricted scale
corresponding with the small normal demand for this
material), while the fixation of nitrogen was an
altogether novel enterprise in this country. Although
several new chamber plants were constructed, they
have not formed the subject of a report, perhaps
because the production of chamber-acid was very
largely left to contractors. On the other hand, new
capacity for the manufacture of oleum on a large scale
was provided in several Government factories, and
the experience gained in constructing and working
these plants is described in the fifth report of the
series.
The oleum plants were of two principal types. The
first plants (e.g. that at Oldbury) were constructed on
the Mannheim system, in which the oxidation of
sulphur dioxide to the trioxide is effected by the use
of ferric oxide and of platinum in series. In the later
plants platinum alone was used as a catalyst. The
plants at Queen’s Ferry, Gretna, and Avonmouth were
constructed on the Grillo system, in which the platinum
is supported on a base of calcined magnesium sulphate ;
but a plant on the Tentelew system, which is in some
respects intermediate between the other two systems,
since it employs platinum as the only catalyst, but in
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
the more familiar form of platinised asbestos, was
also taken over and worked at H.M. Factory, Pembrey.
The Mannheim and Tentelew plants were constructed
to burn iron pyrites ; in the large Grillo plants, sulphur
was burnt, among other reasons, in order to reduce the
size of the towers used to purify the gases. This
purification has been from the beginning the most
essential feature in the successful manufacture of
sulphuric acid by the contact process, and is substanti-
ally the same in all the different systems. It was,
however, found that, even after the most careful
purification of the gases, the proportion of sulphur
dioxide converted to the trioxide was lower in the
Mannheim and Tentelew plants than in the Grillos,
where the efficiency often reached 94 per cent. instead
of something less than go per cent.
While, however, the report describes in detail many
elaborate technical features which were essential in
order to secure high yields and efficiencies, it is of
interest to find that the apparently simple operation
of burning the pyrites provided an opportunity. for
securing improved yields, that may be compared in its
simplicity with the washing of nitre bags, since it was
found that careful attention to the method of building
up and raking the fires resulted in the reduction of
the sulphur content of the spent ore from 8 to 2 per
cent. This feature proved to be so important that,
in addition to an accurate time-table specifying
exactly when the fires were to be raked, charged, and
dropped, there was actually drawn up at the Queen’s
Ferry factory a chart to show exactly how the prong
of the rake should be dragged or pushed through the
fire in order to produce the best results, and this
diagram is regarded as of sufficient importance to be
reproduced in the report. The report also contains
a precise specification of the way in which the fire-
bars must be moved in order to remove the burnt
pyrites from the furnace. It was by attention to
such details as these that the high efficiencies
ultimately achieved in the different factories were
reached.
Perhaps one reason why chamber plants did not
receive more attention was that, even when T.N.T.
could be manufactured without oleum, it was still
found to be advantageous to supply in this form the
sulphuric acid required to make up for the losses
sustained during working, e.g., in the form of fumes
and in the various washing waters, since in this way it
was possible to avoid the final stage in the concentration
of the sulphuric acid, e.g., from 92 to 96 per cent.,
which was also the most expensive and the most
wasteful part of the process.
/
Picric Acip.
The manufacture of picric acid presented a third
type of problem. At the beginning of the war
this acid was the only approved filling for H.E.
shells, for Land Service as well as for the Navy.
The demand for the acid soon outstripped the available
supplies of coal-tar phenol, and it therefore became
necessary to make use of coal-tar benzene as the raw
material. This could*be converted into picric acid by
passing either through monochlorobenzene and dinitro-
chlorobenzene or through sodium benzenesulphonate
and synthetic phenol. In this country the latter
NO. 277i, VOL. 110]
NATURE
“process was adopted almost exclusively.
~facturers.
779
In France
the chlorination process was also used, although in
many cases the manufacture was arrested at the pen-
ultimate stage of dinitrophenol—a milder explosive,
which gave rise to many fatalities before its toxic
properties were realised and controlled with the help
of proper physiological tests.
The manufacture of synthetic phenol lends itself
to considerable variations in plant and process, and
the sixth report contains diagrams illustrating five
different variations worked out by different manu-
The subsequent conversion of the phenol
into picric acid also included a considerable range of
variants, which are set out fully in the report. It
may, however, be of greater interest to refer briefly
to the final chapters of the history of picric acid manu-
facture, in which the personal influence of the late
Lord Moulton was a dominating feature. Convinced
from a very early date that vast quantities of explosive
would be required, he had laid down as a fundamental
proposition the view that these could be obtained only
by using ammonium nitrate as the main basis of the
shell-filling programme. In this connexion the limited
supplies of T.N.T. were of particular value, since this
compound could be diluted with ammonium nitrate
to five times its original weight, and even then gave
an explosive mixture which was of greater power
‘than, although not quite so violent as, T.N.T. or picric
acid. The insensitiveness of this mixture, which
‘ultimately became one of its most valuable properties,
made it very difficult at first to secure effective detona-
tion, and a maximum output of picric acid was there-
‘fore demanded in order to secure complete detonation
of the largest possible proportion of shells.
Many
efforts were made to dilute picric acid in the same way
as T.N.T., and in France (where picric acid was adhered
to until the end of the war, in spite of its high cost)
it was diluted with a wide range of other nitro-bodies ;
but the dilution of ammonium picrate with ammonium
nitrate was never sufficiently successful to provide a
service filling.
When, therefore, the detonation of the mixture of
T.N.T. and ammonium nitrate had been improved
- until its equality with picric acid was at last established,
there was no reasonable alternative but to abandon
altogether the use of this acid, which cost three times
as much, and, moreover, required nearly eight tons of
imports, instead of less than two tons, in order to give
one ton of finished explosive. Very severe criticism
was levelled against Lord Moulton’s action in spending
more than a million pounds in erecting a factory for
the manufacture of picric acid, which was abandoned
almost as soon as it was finished ; but this criticism
was really only a proof of the ignorance of the critics,
since the policy on which it was based was one that
effected a saving of several million pounds per year,
in addition to effecting a reduction of imports which
was at the time of vital importance. In this, as in
other problems, Lord Moulton saw clearly almost
from the beginning what must be done to achieve
success, and the closing down of the Avonmouth factory
was the final vindication of the policy which he had
adopted, and then followed persistently, in spite of all
the obstacles that it had to encounter, until he had
accomplished his purpose.
IMATE ORE
[DECEMBER 9, 1922
Prof. Max Weber.
CELEBRATION OF SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY.
HERE are few living zoologists whose researches
have taken so wide a range as have those of
Prof. Max Weber of Amsterdam, whose seventieth
birthday has been celebrated in Holland during the
present week. As naturalist-traveller by land and sea
in many parts of the world, he has brought together
vast collections for study by his pupils and colleagues ;
as anatomist and histologist, he has studied the struc-
ture and elucidated the affinities of very diverse groups
of animals from flat-worms to mammals; he has
written the best text-book of mammalian anatomy and
conducted one of the most important oceanographical
expeditions of recent times ; nor has he disdained to
labour as a “‘ mere systematist ’ at the description and
cataloguing of species of Crustacea, fishes, and reptiles.
To select for mention the most significant among
contributions to knowledge so numerous and so varied
is no easy task. Among the first that come to mind
are Weber’s demonstration that the pattern formed by
the hair-follicles in the skin of various mammals can be
interpreted as derived from the scaly covering of
reptilian ancestors, and the evidence he has adduced
for the dismemberment of the order Edentata.
As a zoogeographer, Max Weber’s studies on the
fauna, and especially on the freshwater fishes, of the
East Indian Archipelago will have a permanent value,
whether or no “‘ Weber’s line ” is to replace ‘‘ Wallace’s
line” as the accepted limit between the Oriental and
the Australian regions.
An enterprise of a very different kind carried out
under Max Weber’s personal leadership was the ex-
ploration of the Malayan seas in the years 1899 and
1900 by the Dutch steamship Szboga. The stately
series of reports on this expedition, which have been
appearing under his editorship since 1902, form a
contribution to the science of the sea scarcely surpassed
in importance save by those of the Challenger expedi-
tion. Dealing with only a restricted area of the ocean,
but paying far more attention to the fauna and flora
of the shallower waters than the naturalists of the
Challenger were able to do, it is not too much to say
that the Szboga expedition has given a new aspect to
many problems of the distribution of marine animals
in tropical seas.
It remains to be added that Madame Weber (née
van Bosse) is a botanist of distinction, who has contri-
buted monographs on many of the groups of seaweeds
collected by the Szboga; she has also described the
minute algze which find a curious habitat on the hairs
of sloths. W.., Les
Prof. D’Arcy W. Thompson has sent us the following
letter signed by other British naturalists and himself :
DEAR PROFESSOR MAX WEBER,
You celebrate your seventieth bicthaay
to-day, and we, who are your colleagues and are
but a few of your many friends in England, join
together to congratulate you and to wish you many
years to come of work and happiness. By your long
life of teaching and research, by your leadership of
the Siboga Expedition, by your great handbook of
the Mammalia, and by innumerable other important
publications, you have come to be the acknowledged
leader of zoology in the Netherlands and to be recog-
nised far and wide as one of the most distinguished
naturalists of our time. Your solid learning has
upheld the great scientific traditions of your country,
your investigations have influenced and stimulated
many of us, your broad interests, your singleness of
purpose, the simplicity of your life, and your genius
tor friendship have set an example to us all.
December 5.
A. ALCOCK.
Ee). AGEEN. StDNEY J. Hickson.
Cuas. W. ANDREWS. Jas. P. Hitt.
J. H. ASHwortuH. Wo. Evans Hoyte.
W. BATESON.
GILBERT C, BouRNE.
W. T. CALMAN.
Gro. H. CARPENTER.
Wo. J. Dakin.
ARTHUR DENDy.
J. C. Ewart.
F. W. GAMBLE.
J. STANLEY GARDINER.
WALTER GARSTANG.
James F. GEMMILL.
SIDNEY F. HARMER,.
J. R. HENDERSON.
W. A. HERDMAN.
Obituary.
H. J. Exwes, F.R.S.
NM R. HENRY JOHN ELWES passed away on
i November 26, after a life full of activities spread
over seventy-six years. Born heir to landed property
and great wealth, his life at first promised to be that of
the typical English gentleman. He was sent to school
at Eton, and served for five years in the Scots Guards;
afterwards he became one of the greatest travellers of
modern times, led on by his love of natural history,
entomology, horticulture, trees, and big game shooting.
He visited Asia Minor, Tibet, Nepal, India, China,
Formosa, Siberia, Caucasia, North and South America,
and most if not all the countries of Europe. As a
NO, 2771, VOL, D10]
J. GRAHAM KERR.
E. W. MacBrive.
W., C. McInTosnH.
Doris L. MACKINNON.
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL.
C. Ltoyp MorRGAN.
EpWARD B. POULTON.
R. C. PUNNETT.
C. TATE REGAN.
G. ELLiot SMITH.
OLDFIELD THOMAS.
D’Arcy W. THoMpPson.
D. M. S. Watson.
A. SMITH WOODWARD.
landowner. he was interested in sheep, and studied all
the various breeds. He rendered important services to
entomology by his enormous collections, which are now
housed at South Kensington. He wasa keen gardener,
and introduced many beautiful and rare plants, a con-
siderable number of which are figured in the Botanical
Magazine. Tis ‘“‘ Monograph of the Genus Lilium ” is
a standard work. He aided several of the great scientific
societies In many ways, and became president of the
Royal Entomological Society of London and of the
Royal English Arboricultural Society.
Mr. Elwes wrote numerous papers on gardening,
agriculture, entomology, ornithology,and forestry. Itis
perhaps in the latter subject that his public services were
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
greatest. Fascinated by the study of trees, he brought
out the greatest work on arboriculture that has been
published since Loudon’s monumental book, which
appeared in 1838. He did much for the establishment
and maintenance of the School of Forestry at the
University of Cambridge, the fine building and wonder-
ful collection of timbers in it owing much to his
munificence,
Mr. Elwes was a man of splendid physique, endowed
with great powers of observation and organisation ;
and he was a fine naturalist. His influence was always
cast in favour of scientific methods. His many friends
mourn the loss of a splendid and stimulating personality.
J. H. Gurney.
Tue death of Mr. John Henry Gurney will be greatly
deplored by all who knew him, for he was of a singularly
lovable nature, and thought no ill of any one. By
this sad event, Norfolk loses her foremost naturalist—
one who by work and patronage has for many years
done much to advance the study of Nature in his
native county. Mr. Gurney, who was seventy-five
years of age, died at his residence, Keswick Hall, near
Norwich, after a short illness, on November 9.
Mr. Gurney came of a family intimately associated
for some generations with public affairs in Norfolk,
which has been noted also for its philanthropy, and in
some of its branches for a love of natural history.
This devotion to the study of Nature was developed
in a remarkable degree in John Henry Gurney and in
his father. The latter was, in his day, the greatest
authority on the birds of prey ; and the son at an early
age commenced to follow in his father’s footsteps by
devoting his attention to the study of birds, which
eventually became one of the main interests of a useful
life. Since the days of that remarkable man, Sir Thomas
Browne (1605-1682), Norfolk has been pre-eminent
among English counties for its succession of distinguished
naturalists interested in local faunal investigations.
Many have shared in the advance of its ornithological
knowledge, including such outstanding names as Alfred
Newton, Stevenson, Southwell, and the Gurneys, father
and son. ‘The latter was indefatigable in his researches
and made more than roo literary contributions to the
county avifauna, including 28 annual reports, each of
which brought the knowledge of the subject up-to-date;
of these, the last, dealing with 1921, appeared only a
few months ago.
We are indebted to Mr. Gurney for several books,
the chief of which was “The Gannet, a Bird with a
History ”—a valuable and exhaustive contribution
which will always remain a classic on its subject.
Another interesting volume was entitled “The Early
Annals of Ornithology.” This concerns largely the
British aspect of the subject, and includes much
NATURE 781
/
information of interest relating to birds culled from the
le Strange household accounts for the years 1519-1578.
In quest of bird-lore he visited Spain, Algeria, Switzer-
land, and Egypt, and the results of his observations
appeared in the Jbzs and the Zoologist, or, in the case
of the last-named country, in book form under the
title ‘““ The Rambles of a Naturalist.”
Mr. Gurney was one of the original members of the
Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, founded in
1869, and was its president in 1881-2, 1888-9, 1898-9,
and in 1919-20 ; he was also chairman of the Norfolk
Wild Birds Protection Committee, and a member of
the committee of the Norwich Museum, to which
institution he was a generous donor. He was a
Fellow of the Linnaean and Zoological Societies, and a
member of the British Ornithologists’ Union.
We Ea-C.
Canon EpmuND McCiure, whose death occurred
on November 18, at the age of eighty-five years, was
editorial secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge from 1875 to 1915, during which period he
controlled the great mass of publications issued by the
Society. He graduated in honours both at the old
Queen’s University, Belfast, and at Trinity College,
Dublin. He held a curacy at Belfast for ten years,
and was then collated to an honorary canonry at Bristol.
Among his scientific and historical works he published
a Star Atlas, adapted from the German of Klein ;
translations of Hommel’s ‘“‘ Hebrew Tradition,’ and
Kittel’s ‘‘ Babylonian Excavations”; he also had a
share in a history of the society which he served so
long, and in “ British Place Names.” Though he did
little original work, his influence on scientific and
historical literature was important.
Ir is announced in the Chemiker Zeitung of November
21 that Prof. Leo Tschugaeff died from typhus on
September 26 last. Dr. Tschugaeff, who was fifty years
of age, was professor of inorganic chemistry at Petro-
grad. He was well known for his researches, including
the dimethylglyoxime reaction for nickel. The issue
of November 16 reports the death on November 4 of
Prof. Alfred Mller, since 1896 director of the Forestry
Academy of Eberswalde, who was known for his work
on mycology.
WE much regret to announce the death on November
30, at sixty-nine years of age, of Sir Isaac Bayley
Balfour, K.B.E., F.R.S., late professor of botany in the
University of Edinburgh and Regius Keeper of the
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh ; also on the same
day, at seventy-five years of age, of Sir Norman Moore,
Bt., sometime Physician to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
and president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Current Topics and Events.
AT the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society
it is customary to include among the guests some
public men of distinction in other fields than those
with which scientific men are concerned. Among
such guests this year, at the dinner held on November
NO. 2771; VOL. 110]
30, were Mr. Justice Darling, who proposed the toast
of ‘The Royal Society,’ and Mr. L. S. Amery,
First Lord of the Admiralty, who responded to the
toast of ‘‘ The Guests.” If the assembly had con-
sisted of leading representatives of literature or art,
782
music or the drama, neither of these speakers would
have professed, facetiouslyv or otherwise, want of
knowledge of the functions of the institution they
honoured by their presence, or of the meaning of
subjects surveyed by it. Mr. Justice Darling, for
example, said he had heard of the Royal Society
as he had heard of the equator, and had been told
that the society ‘‘ concerned itself with medicine
and biology, and particularly natural knowledge and
natural philosophy, but the moment the knowledge
became unnatural—and so far as he could see most
of it was—then the society had nothing more to do
with it.’ Of course, the society was founded for the
promotion of natural knowledge by inquiry as against
supernatuval by revelation or authority. Mr. Justice
Darling should understand the distinction, for he
referred to Francis Bacon several times in the course
of his remarks, though always incorrectly, as ‘‘ Lord ”
Bacon. As Sir Charles Sherrington, who presided,
said, ‘‘ The field of truth which the society explores
is in the realm of natural knowledge, and the manner
of the exploration of this field is in research.” Sir
Ernest Rutherford was right when, in responding
to the toast of ‘‘ The Medallists,’ he referred to the
spirit of adventure possessed by every scientific
pioneer. In no other department of intellectual
activity is this spirit more manifest, and in none
are such fertile provinces being opened. To us it
seems strange, therefore, that so little is commonly
understood of the origin and purpose of such a body
as the Royal Society, now in its 260th year, or
of the achievements of modern science represented
by it.
DurinGc the war, when the country was short of
munitions, manufacturers at their wits’ end for
supplies of chemicals, and medical men had to use
such drugs as were available instead of those most
suitable for their patients, no one had any doubt
that the making of these things was a key industry
and that when the war was over the Government
must see to it that the importer of fine chemicals
from Germany should be replaced by the British
manufacturers of such products. After much tribula-
tion the Safeguarding of Industries Act was passed
to achieve this end; but thanks to the political
and legal discussions that have accompanied and
followed its passage and the national failing of a
short memory, many people have become doubtful
whether there is such a thing as a key industry.
Even chemists begin to wonder whether they know
a fine chemical when they see one. In these circum-
stances it is all to the good that somebody should
restate the case; and this the Association of British
Chemical Manufacturers has done in a pamphlet
entitled ‘‘ Shall the State Throw Away the Keys?”
The publication contains numerous examples of
the dependence of our staple industries on a steady
supply of fine chemicals, and shows that such national
and Imperial functions as the care of public health
and the proper administration of tropical colonies
cannot be carried on without them. Some of the
most essential of these materials are now made in
this country; but, as Sir William Pope points out in a
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
WealTORE
[| DecEeMBER 9, 1922
foreword to the pamphlet, much remains to be done,
and further developments in this direction cannot
fail “‘if public opinion realises that a flourishing
fine chemical industry is a vital necessity to the
prosperity of our Empire and insists that national
support is given to the young enterprise.’’ This
pamphlet should be of considerable assistance in
creating an intelligent public opinion on this subject.
On December 22 occurs the bicentenary of the
death of Pierre Varignon, who will be remembered
for the publication in 1687 — the year Newton’s
“ Principia ’’ appeared—of the “ Projet d’une nouvelle
mécanique,” the first treatise in which the whole science
of statics was deduced from the principle known as
the parallelogram of forces. Varignon was the son
of an architect at Caen and was born in 1654. His
bent for mathematics was stimulated by Descartes’
work on geometry. His book immediately attracted
attention, and in 1688 he was made professor of
mathematics at the Collége Mazarin and a member
of the Academy of Sciences. In 1704 he followed
Duhamel in the chair of mathematics at the Collége
de France. He suffered a good deal from ill-health,
and his larger work, ‘‘ Nouvelle Mécanique,’’ did not
appear till 1725. Of this treatise De Morgan once
wrote, ‘“‘ This work was born long after its own
death, and three years after its author’s. The
Projet of 1687 enabled all the world to act upon it ;
so that when the finished work was published it had
long been superseded. The great feature of this
work, as of the Projet, is the prominence given to
the composition of forces. Varignon and Newton
were forcing this commodity into the market at the
same time and independently.” Varignon was one
of the earliest and most powerful advocates in France
of the use of the differential calculus and was a
correspondent of Leibniz and the Bernoullis. :
Excavations at Alfoldean, near Slinfold, a camp
on Sussex Stane Street, the route by which Roman
soldiers marched from Chichester to London, are
described in the Times of November 9. Remains of
officers’ private quarters and of a canteen have
recently been found. Among other finds was a great
collection of pottery, nearly all broken, specimens of
many kinds of glass, and nine copper coins ranging
in date from Vespasian to the fifth-century Tetricus.
Mr. Winbolt, who is in charge of the excavations,
will report the results to the Sussex Archeological
Society. Another discovery, at Wisley, Surrey, is an
ancient village dating between 50 B.c. and A.D. 50,
which is recorded in the Times of November 15.
It is stated that in the hut dwellings fragments of
broken pottery were discovered. In 1904 a great
deal of pottery was discovered and the kiln in which
it was burnt, while years ago, at the foot of the
village, a dug-out canoe, evidently belonging to it
and associated with flint implements, was found.
The canoe is now in the Weybridge Museum.
Tue Elizabethan building in Croydon known as
the Whitgift Hospital, dating from 1599, is once
more threatened with destruction ; the Town Council
has given notice of a Parliamentary bill to acquire
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NMALORE
783
and dispose of the Hospital and Oratory for streets
improvements. The matter has yet to be passed,
however, by a town’s meeting and afterwards by
the burgesses, before it can proceed. Several times
during the past twenty-five years the building has
been threatened, but every effort has so far been
counteracted by the local Preservation Committee
and the Croydon Natural History and Scientific
Society. The Royal Institute of British Architects,
which has now joined forces with the local scientific
society, has adopted the view that the widening of
the main road through Croydon can be achieved
without any interference with the buildings. In
1912 a scheme to this effect was accepted by the
Croydon Council, and approved by the Local Govern-
ment Board. At a conference of interested societies
called by the Institute, the local and national im-
portance of preserving Whitgift Hospital as a
valuable relic of Elizabethan architecture was
emphasised, and it was decided to support the 1912
scheme as providing a practical and effective road
improvement which meets traffic requirements.
Steps are to be taken to place these views before the
proper authorities. It is to be hoped that the
principle of avoiding, wherever possible, interference
with historic and beautiful buildings may be in-
creasingly supported by public opinion.
For nearly sixteen years Lord Carnarvon, with the
assistance of Mr. Howard Carter, has been engaged in
carrying out excavations in part of the site of ancient
Thebes on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. Their
work has now been rewarded by an astonishing
success, the details of which are described by a corre-
spondent in the Zimes of November 30, while in the
next issue Sir E. Wallis Budge explains the import-
ance of the discovery. A sealed chamber has been
opened containing: the tomb of Tutankhamen, son-
in-law of Amenhetep IV., now better known as
Aakhenaten. The latter king, whose reign is dated
at the end of the 14th century B.c., became notorious
for his attempt to revive the ancient cult of the sun’s
disc, a movement which met with such serious
opposition from the orthodox worshippers of Amen-
Ra, king of the gods at Thebes, that he was obliged
to retire to the place now known as Tell-al-Amarnah,
where he acted as priest of Aten, or the disc. The
tomb furniture of Tutankhamen is of extraordinary
interest and value, including his magnificent State
throne, one of the most beautiful works of art ever
discovered, and a mass of splendid articles which
have been as yet only imperfectly examined. Sir
Wallis Budge suggests with good reason that a mono-
graph containing a full account of this remarkable
discovery should be published; ‘‘ Such a_ book,
carefully planned and written by Lord Carnarvon
and Mr. Howard Carter, would crown a very fine
archeological triumph, and earn the gratitude of
Egyptologists, archeologists, artists, and others
throughout the world.”’ It only remains to congratu-
late Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter on the
success that has attended their long course of excava-
tion, and has produced one of the most remarkable
discoveries made fn Egypt in recent times.
NO. 2771, VOL, 110]
A vERy remarkable and most valuable collection
of scientific instruments of historical interest is at
present on view in the Portrait Gallery of the Bodleian
Library, Oxford. This collection has been formed
by Mr. Lewis Evans and contains some two thousand
instruments, the oldest dating from the tenth century,
and among the youngest being some designed by the
great-grandfather of the present owner. Mr. Evans
has offered the whole of it as a free gift to the Univer-
sity of Oxford, on condition that suitable space and
situation, meeting with his approval, be found for
showing it. In the meantime the collection is to
remain for exhibition in the Bodleian till the end of
the summer of 1924; but it can scarcely be doubted
that this magnificent gift will be gratefully accepted.
By far the greater part of the collection consists of
astrolabes and sundials, many of the former being
of exquisite workmanship. Among them is a Persian
astrolabe made by Ahmad and Mahmud, dated
A.H. 374 (A.D. 984), suitable for finding the time of
the day by the sun or at night by 37 stars, for finding
the latitude of a place, etc. Another Persian astro-
labe, ornamented with gold and silver, is dated
A.D. 1227, while an equally beautiful one was made
at Toledo in a.p, 1067. Passing by a number of
astrolabes of European make, including one made at
Oxford about 1676, we find a great variety of pocket
dials, some of them having compass needles to be
sensitised with loadstones, in fine mountings; also
drawing and surveying instruments, and finally a
library, numbering about a thousand volumes,
dealing with dialling, astrolabes, and other instru-
ments. Further particulars about this wonderful
collection will be found in the Bodleian Quarterly
Record, No. 35.
A visir of members of the Circle of Scientific,
Technical, and Trade Journalists and representatives
of the technical press to the extensive modern repair
shops of the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., at
Chiswick, took place on November 27. These large
works, which cover more than 30 acres and deal
with the repair of a fleet of 3000 motor-buses, travel-
ling more than too million car-miles in a year, have
some most interesting features. The works can
handle 120 vehicles weekly. The whole process of
overhaul and repair is conducted on scientific lines,
each vehicle being stripped, the individual parts
distributed for repair, and finally reassembled on a
moving conveyor in a manner reminiscent of the
methods of the Ford Motor Co. One highly interest-
ing apparatus is the special washing-machine, capable
of accommodating five components such as gear
boxes at a time, a caustic washing solution being
pumped in at high pressure so as to wash out
thoroughly all grime and grit. Three such machines
are in use. There is a well-equipped canteen where
ooo men can be served with dinner in fifteen minutes,
and a model first-aid department. Following the
inspection of the works, an address on the “ Safety
First’? movement in England was delivered by
Mr. H. E. Blain, assistant managing director of the
London Underground Railways and L.G.O. Co.
group, and hon. secretary both of the London
784
NATURE
[DECEMBER 9, 1922
““Satety First ’ Council and the British Industrial
“Safety First’? movement. Mr. Blain traced the
growth of this movement which has made “ Safety
First ’’ such a familiar term in this country, describ-
ing the work of the Drivers’ Educational Committee,
which has more than 7ooo drivers entering annually
for its awards and medals, and the equally important
work done by the Schools Propaganda Committee.
Av the meeting of the Chemical Society to be held
at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Storey’s
Gate, S.W.1, on Thursday, December 14, at 8 P.M.,
Prof. C. H. Desch will deliver a lecture entitled ‘‘ The
Metallurgical Applications of Physical Chemistry.”
Tue council of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England has decided to revive the offer annually of
a gold medal for an essay giving evidence of original
research on any agricultural subject or on any of the
cognate agricultural sciences.
At a general meeting of the members of the Royal
Institution held on December 4, Sir Arthur Keith
was elected secretary in succession to the late Col.
E. H. Grove-Hills. Profs. Urbain (Paris), Ehrenfest
(Leyden), Knudsen (Copenhagen), Bjerknes (Chris-
tiania), and Dr. Irving Langmuir were elected honorary
members.
A NEw feature in the activities of the Institute
of Metals is the admission of student members.
The main qualifications required of the new class are
that they shall be between 17 and 25 years of age
and that they shall be studying metallurgy; they
will be admitted to all the usual privileges of full
members with the exception that they cannot vote
at meetings. Both the entrance fee and the annual
subscription are substantially less than those paid
by members. The new departure should do much
to stimulate and guide, by contact with older and
more mature men of science, the younger research
workers in our laboratories and works.
Ar the annual general meeting of the Faraday
Society held on November 20, the following officers
and council for the year 1922—-1923 were elected :—
President: Sir Robert Robertson ; Past Presidents :
Sir R. T. Glazebrook, Sir Robert A. Hadfield, Bart.,
Prof. A. W. Porter; Vice-Pvesidents: Prof. C. H.
Desch, Prof. F. G. Donnan, Dr. J. A. Harker, Prof.
T. M. Lowry, W. Murray Morrison, Prof. J. R.
Partington, and Dr. G. Senter; Tveasurey: Robert
L. Mond; Council: W. R. Bousfield, Cosmo Johns,
Dr. R. Lessing, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, Prof. J. W.
McBain, Dr. H. Moore, C. C. Paterson, Dr. J. N.
Pring, Prof. A. O. Rankine, and Dr. E. Kk. Rideal.
At a General Meeting of the University of Durham
Philosophical Society held on November 28, the
following officers were elected :—Pvesident: The
Earl of Durham; Vice-Presidents: Sir Theodore
Morison, Sir Charles Parsons, Profs. T. H. Havelock,
P. J. Heawood, H. J. Hutchens, Mr. Wilfred Hall ;
Secrvetavies: Messrs. J. W. Bullerwell, B. Millard
Griffiths ; Committee: Profs. H. G. A. Hickling,
H. V. A. Briscoe, J. Wight Duff, R. F. A. Hoernle,
J. L. Morison, C. J. Hawkes, F. B. Jevons, Drs. J. A.
Smythe, D. Woolacott, A. A. Hall, G. R. Goldsbrough,
Messrs. G. W. Caunt, A. W. Bartlett, J. L. Burchnall,
NO. 2771, VOL. 110] ;
S. J. Davies, S. Hoare Collins, A. D. Peacock, and
W. Clarke; Editor: Prof. G. W. Todd; Librarian :
Dr. F. Bradshaw.
Tue Frank Wood medal of the Society of Glass
Technology has been presented to Mr. G.G. Middleton,
B.Sc. Tech., and Mr. H. W. Howes, B.Sc. Tech., the
successful students in 1921 and 1922, respectively, in
the Department of Glass Technology at the Sheffield
University. In 1919 the Society decided to recognise
the services Mr. Frank Wood had rendered in
connexion with its foundation and handed over to
the University a hundred guineas, with the condition
that the income should be utilised to provide some
reward to students in the glass technology depart-
ment. It was decided that the reward should take
the form of a medal, and that it should be associated
with the name of Mr. Frank Wood, in whose honour
it had been established.
A NEw edition (No. 76) of their catalogue of
second-hand scientific apparatus has been issued by
Messrs. C. Baker, 244 High Holborn, W.C.1. The
list is divided into the customary convenient sections,
and we may direct attention in particular to two of
them, dealing with microscopes and astronomical
apparatus respectively. Both contain a large and
varied assortment of items ranging from large
modern instruments to the smallest accessories.
ANOTHER of the useful and well-arranged catalogues
of Messrs. W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, has
reached us. Its No. is 217 and it contains the titles
of upwards of 1500 works arranged under the headings
Mathematics and Physics (Journals and Transactions,
Books printed before 1800 and Books printed after
1800), Chemistry, Chemical Technology and Metal-
lurgy. Many books formerly the property of the
late Prof. R. B. Clifton are offered for sale.
Messrs. WATSON AND Sons, Ltp., Sunic Honse, 43
Parker Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2, announce
that the British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., and
the General Electric Co., Ltd., are now associated
with them. This connexion implies the development
of X-ray and electro-medical apparatus constructed
on established electrical engineering lines, and, with
the aid of the research laboratotries of these companies,
the incorporation of the most recent advances in
physics.
Wirth further reference to the remarks which have
appeared in these pages on the subject of the sense
of smell in birds, Mr. W. E. M‘Kechnie of Chepstow
Place, London, W.2, raises the question as to whether
the usually well-developed olfactory mechanism in
birds may not have quite a different sensory function,
such as the detection of fine differences in the strength,
and humidity of the air-currents
encountered during flight. This was Cyon’s theory,
but it rests on no sure foundation of fact. In their
experiments on the homing capacities of Noddy and
Sooty terns, Watson and Lashley found that these
powers were not affected when the nasal cavities
were occluded with wax and varnished over: the
birds so treated retained their remarkable faculty
of finding their way back to their nests, over an
unknown course, from a considerable distance.
temperature,
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATAO RE
785
Our Astronomical Column.
A Bricut New Srar.—A telegram just received
(December 4) from the International Central Bureau
of Astronomical Telegrams at Copenhagen, reports
the discovery of a new star on December 1, by
Zivierel of Rumania. The star is given as of
the first magnitude, and its position in R.A. 18h 48™,
and North Declination 28° 0’. It is situated just on
the border between the two constellations Lyra
and Hercules, but as many charts differ as to the
position of the actual boundary, some uncertainty
may arise as to whether the star will be called Nova
Lyre or Nova Herculis. All new stars are situated
either in or on the borders of the Milky Way, and the
present one is no exception, lying just on the border.
The Nova will easily be picked up on a fine night,
because it lies just to the south of the conspicuous
constellation of Lyra, made prominent by the brilliant
star Vega. The constellation is in the north-western
portion of the sky in the early part of the evening.
The Nova makes very nearly an equilateral triangle
with the two stars » Lyre and 8 Cygni and is brighter
than both these stars; a Lyre, or Vega, is of magni-
tude 0-14, so will approximate closely to the brightness
of the Nova, assuming that the latter is still of the
first magnitude. This Nova is the brightest which
has appeared since that of Nova Cygni, which was
discovered in 1920.
ComeEts.—A new faint comet, 1922 d, was dis-
covered by Mr. Skjellerup at the Cape on November
25, being the second that he has found this year. Mr.
Wood has telegraphed the following elements from
Johannesburg: they show a strong resemblance to
those of Comet 1892 VI., which are given for com-
‘parison; as it was under observation for three
months without deviating appreciably from a para-
bola, identity is impossible, but the two comets may
have had a common origin.
T=1923 Jan. 1:14 G.M.T. 1892 Dec. 28-1.
ij ZO00m Bie Zoo Ags
Q=261 8 264 29
U3 4: 24 47
log g=9°9759 979893
EPHEMERIS FOR GREENWICH MIDNIGHT.
ih Boe & S. Decl. log r. log A.
Dech 48; 12" 5 48 229 10% To-orAT 9:9426.
Toeere 28) 56° 25) 135
16. 12 52 32 28 39 9°9937 9°9556
Z2Ouy st3 elO) 28% 31 20
The comet should be looked for a little east of
south and very low down, just before dawn. It is
near e Coryi on December 8, subsequently crossing
Hydra into Centaurus.
The following is a continuation of the ephemeris of
Baade’s Comet for Greenwich midnight: this is still
a fairly easy object with moderate telescopes.
R.A.
i = N. Decl. log r. log A.
Dec. 11. 21 55 35 23° 33° 0°3643 0°3460
15. 22 5 27 22 44 0°3663 0°3549
ToOWwe22) 15 13 21 (57) 10736084) 1073680
230) 22) 2455 21 ql 5053707) 0:3730
Perrine’s Periodic Comet was found by Rakamuna
OneNov.1 29% (64) 50™" GMT im REA Sh! samt o8-
N. Decl. 0° 28’. Its daily motion is +16 sec.,
south 44’. The probable date of perihelion was
about Oct. 20. The magnitude of the comet is 13:0.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF
THE Paciric.—The October number of the Publica- !
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
tions of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
contains a number of interesting communications.
First there is a very clear and concise account of the
work of the late J. C. Kapteyn, whom the writer,
Mr. F. H. Seares, describes as one of the most distin-
guished astronomers of his generation. Kapteyn,
as he says, presented the unique figure of an astronomer
without a telescope, but reading through this notice
it will be seen how he formed programmes for tele-
scopic work, and how successfully he discussed the
observations made. Director S. A. Mitchell, of the
Leander McCormick Observatory, gives a list of
the trigonometrical parallaxes of a, number of stars
of spectrum types A and B (headings of the tables
reversed in error), data very much wanted for the
initial work in determining parallaxes of other stars
of the same type by the spectroscopic method. A
summary of the year’s work at the Mount Wilson
Observatory is given by the director and assistant
director, Dr. G. E. Hale and Mr. Walter S. Adams
respectively. As announced in Nature of October 7,
a 50-foot interferometer telescope is being specially
built for the Observatory, and it is hoped to determine
with it the diameters of about thirty stars brighter
than the fourth magnitude. Dr. R. G. Aitken
contributes an interesting account of the two notable
astronomical meetings, namely the International
Astronomical Union at Rome and the celebration
of the centenary of the Royal Astronomical Society.
in London. -In the notes, among other subjects,
mention is made of the success of the Crocker Eclipse
Expedition from the Lick Observatory.
ANCIENT OBSERVATIONS OF AURORA.—A.H. Swinton
directs attention in the Journal of the British
Astronomical Association to some passages in early
English chronicles which describe brilliant coloured
streamers in the night sky; in all probability
these were displays of aurore, an assumption that
is strengthened by the fact that in most cases the
dates of the displays are separated by multiples of
the sunspot cycle. They therefore become valuable
for indicating probable dates of sunspot maximum.
Working backward from the well-established maxi-
mum of 1860-1 with the two assumed periods
(A) 11¥-156 (B) 11-055, the following tabular values
are obtained. The time of year is stated in one case
only, namely, 743 Jan. 1; in the other cases the
middle of the year is assumed.
Observed | Observed minus Number of
Date, a.v. | Tabular Date. Tabular. Cycles from 1860.
A B A B A B
555°5 5549 555°6 +0°6 —O'l 117 118
567°5 5660 56677 +15 +0°8 116 127
7430 7445 7435 eto a OO Ioo Io1
7795 7780 =776°7 me ae Oe 97 «(988
794°5 789'r 7988 +54 S43 96 97
o7o7sih 9788 975°7 Geom ss 79 80
Assumption A appears on the whole to be the better ;
in neither case is 794°5 well represented ; the original
record of this does not give the year in A.D. reckoning,
but states that it was “‘ the tenth year of the reign
of Brihtrick, King of Wessex.”
Prof. Hirayama’s list of Chinese sunspots (quoted
by Prof. Turner in Mon. Not. R.A.S., vol. 74, p. 99)
indicates spots on the following dates: 499 Jan. 31
(3 spots seen), 826 Mar., 832 Apr. 25, 837 Dec. 25,
842 Jan. 3, 864 Feb., 874 Jan., 974 Mar. 6. These,
except the second and fourth, suggest dates of
maximum in fair accord with the auroral data.
Wea lURE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
Research Items.
SURVEYS IN SPITSBERGEN.—In the Geographical
Journal for November Mr. R. A. Frazer gives an
account of some work which he did on the edge of
New Friesland in company with Mr. N. E. Odell and
Dr. T. G. Longstaff in August 1921. The party
travelled north-eastward for about 25 miles from the
head of Klaas Billen Bay into the highland ice of
the interior. Crossing the watershed between the
western and eastern drainage areas, they surveyed
the salient features in a small area lying between
the Mount Svanberg group to the south and the
peaks around Mount Chernichev to the north. Weather
and travelling conditions were bad, and time was
short, but the work which was accomplished fills one
of the gaps in the skeleton survey of the Russian
Arc of Meridian Expedition of 1898-1902.
DESICCATION IN THE LAKE CHAD ReEGIon.—In an
article in the Geographical Journal for November on
the Lake Chad region, Mr. F. W. H. Migeod returns
to the much debated question of desiccation on the
southern edge of the Sahara. According to Mr.
Migeod there is abundant evidence of the advance
of arid conditions southward into the belt of fertility
in Bornu. The dry area has been steadily increasing
at a great rate for at least three-quarters of a century,
and apparently at a slower rate for many centuries.
Mr. Migeod cites evidence from the drying up of
rivers and ponds, but on the other hand he found no
personal evidence of the exhaustion of wells in the
part of Bornu which he visited. The evidence from
changes in forest growth he does not find conclusive,
but with regard to human migration, he points to the
significant fact that every successive capital of the
Bornu empire during the last six centuries has been
south of its predecessor. The general trend of
migration is southward, and whenever a new village
is founded it is always in a position south of the
previous site.
PROBLEMS OF MENDELIAN Ratios.—Mr. R. A.
Fisher gives an elaborate mathematical treatment
(Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. 42, Part 3) of certain
problems connected with Mendelian ratios. He
concludes that the ratio of frequency of the various
types in a Mendelian population will be stable only
when selection favours the heterozygote, such factors
only tending to accumulate in the stock, while other
factors will tend to be eliminated. He also develops
formule for determining the rate of mutation which
is necessary to maintain the variability of a species
under different conditions. We are not competent
to discuss his mathematics, but some of his biological
statements are perhaps open to criticism. For example,
he assumes that recessive factors tend to be harmful or
harmful factors recessive, whereas in man the majority
of harmful factors are dominant. He also repeats
the current fiction that the mutations of CGnothera
are explained by the crossing-over of balanced
lethal factors.
ABSORPTION OF WATER BY ROOT AND STEM T1Ps.—
Prof. Priestley and his students have now published
the fourth in their series of studies on the anatomy
and physiology of the endodermis and related struc-
tures in plants. The present contribution (New
Phytologist, vol. 21, No. 4) considers the water
relations in the growing root and stem tip. Experi-
ments of de Vries in forcing water into roots were
confirmed and extended, showing that the endodermis
prevents leakage of water from the stele into the
cortex. At the same time the meristematic root tip
before the endodermis is organised was shown to be
NO. 2771, VOL. T1O]|
impervious to water under ordinary pressures. This
is apparently owing to the peculiar non-cellulose
composition of the cell walls in this region, in contrast
to the corresponding region of the stem tip. The
impervious character of this region accounts for the
failure of water-leakage from root tips, and is contrary
to the views of a French worker who believes that
the root tip below the root-hair zone is an absorptive
region.
Coat IN SoutH AFRIcA.—Memoir No. 19 of the
Geological Survey of the Union of South Africa,
issued recently, forms the first volume of a study of
the coal resources of the Union of South Africa
compiled by Mr. W. J. Wybergh. The coalfields
dealt with are those of Witbank, Springs, Heidelberg,
and the coalfields of the Orange Free State; they
are all described in considerable detail, numerous
analyses are given, and the general character and
properties of the coals are fully discussed. It may
be of interest to reproduce the author's estimate of
the existing coal resources of the Union, although, as
he points out, considerable deductions may have to
be made from these figures for losses in working.
Witbank Coalfield
Springs area
Nigel area .
Vischkuil-Delmas
7,926,206,000 tons
485,000,000 ,,
: 5 - 65,000,000 ,,
area fairly
proved 5 a 0 : 218,400,000 ,,
Vischkuil- Delmas area _ con-
jectural ‘5 F 0 : I,41I,200,000 ,,
Heidelberg South Rand area . 8,064,000,000_,,
do. other areas 965,544,000 ,,
Orange Free State above I00,000,000,000__,,
Total 119,135,350,000 tons
THE NEw Braun TuBE.—Two years ago Mr. J. B.
Johnson of the Research Laboratories of the Western
Electrical Co., and the American Telephone and
Telegraph Co., exhibited to the American Physical
Society a Braun cathode ray tube operating at low
voltage, and an abstract of a more complete descrip-
tion of the tube in its present improved form will be
found in the September issue of the Journal of the
Optical Society of America and Review of Scientific
Instvuments. The cathode consists of a strip of
platinum covered with an oxide, the anode of a tube
of platinum 1 cm. long and o-r cm. diameter, only
or cm. from the tip of the cathode. Between
cathode and anode is a metal shield with a small hole
in it through which the electrons from the cathode
pass. Beyond the anode are the two pairs of de-
flector plates at right angles to each other, which can
be connected to the two sources of electromotive
force which are to be compared. The electrons
finally impinge on a fluorescent screen and their
deflection is of the order o-r cm. per volt applied to
the deflector plates. When the plates are replaced
by coils, the same deflection is obtained per ampere
turn in the coils. In the paper referred to, the
hysteresis loop for iron in an alternating field and the
characteristic curve for an oscillating valve tube -are
given. At the exhibition of the tube before the
Institution of Electrical Engineers on November 16,
the anode current and grid voltage curve of a valve
was shown. As the cathode ray has to produce
ionisation as it moves sideways, it is not possible to
obtain a sharp spot at frequencies of more than
10° per second, but below that figure the slight
pressure of mercury vapour in the tube ensures a
sharp image. With the oxide cathode an electro-
motive force of 300 volts is sufficient to run the tube.
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NALURE
“I
(oe)
N
The Royal Society Anniversary Meeting.
ON St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, the Royal
Society held its anniversary meeting and Sir
Charles Sherrington delivered the customary presi-
dential address, in the opening part of which he dealt
with matters affecting the society itself and science
generally. Speaking of research, Sir Charles Sher-
rington referred to the benefaction received last year
under the will of the late Miss L. A. Foulerton, who
by gift had already founded the Foulerton student-
ship. The utilisation of the bequest came under the
consideration of a large and representative committee,
which recommended the creation of one or more
research professorships, within the field of science
specified in the bequest.
The newly instituted research professorship, to-
gether with the Mackinnon, Sorby, Tyndall, Moseley,
and Foulerton research studentships, all of which are
of comparatively recent date, constitute something
of a scheme, although they have arisen somewhat
desultorily. The studentships with one or more
professorships now form a series, extending, at one
end, from opportunities for workers of promise to
carry their careers towards fulfilment, to, at the other
end, provision for men of proved achievement to
devote themselves unreservedly to research. A note-
worthy feature in the administration of all these
research foundations is that the recipient is in no
case restricted to a particular institution. The
Royal Society has no laboratory of its own, and in
consequence takes advantage of the facilities for
research already in existence; thus its function is
rather to supplement and reinforce work already in
progress.
Prof. E. H. Starling has been appointed the first
Foulerton professor.
Sir Richard Threlfall and Dr. D. H. Scott, on
behalf of a number of subscribers, presented to the
society a portrait of Sir Joseph Thomson by Mr.
Fiddes Watt. :
In presenting the society’s medals, Sir Charles
Sherrington referred briefly to the work of each
recipient. The awards are as follows :—
Coptey Mepar. Sir Ernest Rutherford.—Re-
cently, Sir Ernest Rutherford and his pupils have
been especially concerned with the deflections of a
particles in their passage through matter, and as a re-
sult of his experiments he has been led to the view that
the positive electric charge in the atom is confined to
a minute nuclear region in the atom, that that region
comprises nearly the whole mass of the atom, and
that it has a charge equal to the electronic charge
multiplied by the atomic number of the element. In
this work the a particles were located by the scintilla-
tions which they produced on a zine sulphide screen.
It was found that when the screen was beyond reach
of the original a particles a number, relatively small,
of scintillations still remained. In some cases these
additional effects are due to hydrogen atoms ejected
from the nuclei of the different elements by the bom-
barding a particles; this disruption takes place
at the expense of energy latent in the disrupting
atom.
Rumrorp Mepatr. Prof. Pieter Zeeman.—Prof.
Zeeman’s discovery of the splitting up of spectroscopic
lines under the influence of magnetic force had
important results, among others, that it enabled
astronomers to trace magnetic effects at the surface
of the sun. Among his subsequent contributions to
science is an investigation dealing with the propaga-
tion of light in moving bodies. In all earlier experi-
ments the dispersion of light in the medium was
neglected, and the irregularities in the flow of the
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
liquid constituting the moving body, prevented accur-
ate measurements. To obtain greater accuracy
Zeeman investigated the effects in solid substances,
such as quartz or glass, giving these bodies an oscil-
latory velocity, and applying an instantaneous photo-
graphic method, the exposure taking place when the
velocity was at its maximum.
Royat Mepar. Mr. Joseph Barcroft——For the
last twenty years Mr. Barcroft has been prominent
for his researches on the respiratory function of the
blood and its relation to the activity of the tissues.
He has with various collaborators worked out the
changes in the normal consumption of oxygen
accompanying functional activity in various repre-
sentative organs—salivary gland, kidney, cardiac and
skeletal muscle, and liver. He has also worked out
and thrown new light on the meaning of the dissocia-
tion curve for oxygen exhibited by blood and by pure
hemoglobin, and on the influence of dissolved salts
upon that curve.
Royart Mepavr. Mr. Charles Thomas Rees Wilson.
—FPrevious work having shown the important part
played by dust particles in the condensation of super-
saturated vapour, Mr. Wilson showed that the ions
produced by the passage of X-rays act in a similar
manner, thus showing the discrete nature of the
ions apart from their electrical effects. Later, he
was able on the same principles to render visible,
and to photograph, the actual path of an a particle
through a gas. More recently, while studying the
phenomena of atmospheric electricity, he has measured
the surface electrification of the ground, and thence
the potential gradient, at any moment, and has also
recorded its variation from instant to instant.
Observations during the progress of thunderstorms
have enabled him to estimate the amount of electricity
passing in a lightning flash.
Davy Mepav. Prof. Jocelyn Field Thorpe.—Ethyl
cyanoacetate has been investigated by Prof. Thorpe
very fully. As a result there appeared an illuminat-
ing series of papers on the formation and reactions
of imino compounds, giving rise to a variety of
derivatives of naphthalene, hydrindene, pyridine,
etc., and on the isomerism displayed by the glutaconic
acids. His paper on “ Spiro Compounds ’”’ was the
first of a series dealing with the effect produced by
the alteration of the tetrahedral angle, consequent
on ring formation, on the formation and stability
of a second ring joined to the existing ring by a
quaternary carbon atom common to both.
DarwIN MepAt. Prof. Reginald Crundall Punnett.
—Prof. Punnett was the first to find the correct inter-
pretation of ‘ coupling and repulsion” in inheritance,
now termed “‘linkage.’’ It was known that sometimes
factors belonging to distinct allelomorphic pairs were
transmitted as if partially linked, but that also in
other families the same factors might show repulsion.
Prof. Punnett conceived that these two phenomena
must depend on parental combination. Most of the
modern interpretations of sex-limited inheritance
have grown out of this discovery.
BucHANAN Mepat. Sir David Bruce.—Tyrypano-
soma Brucei, the causal organism of tsetse-fly disease,
is so named after its discoverer, Sir David Bruce,
who likewise first showed its causal connexion with
that disease and with nagana. Bruce took a leading
part in the elucidation of trypanosome infections,
and in the adoption of counter measures against
them, and also traced the incidence in man of
Mediterranean fever to transmission through the
milk of goats. During the war he carried out the
collection and analysis of data regarding tetanus on
788
WALTORE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
a scale never previously attained, and later was instru-
mental in establishing the origin of trench fever and
its transmission by lice.
SYLVESTER Mepat. Prof. Tullio Levi-Civita.—
The investigations by Levi-Civita in pure geometry
were the necessary foundations for the important
physical discoveries of Einstein and Weyl. Levi-
Civita has also shown himself one of the most fertile
and original of investigators in differential geometry
and theoretical mechanics.
HuGHEes Mepar. Dr. Francis William Aston.—
Dr. Aston, by the use of an ingenious method of
focussing positive rays, has shown that a large
number of the elements are complexes consisting of
two or more kinds of atoms, having identical chemical
properties but differing in atomic weight by one or
more units. Except in the single instance of hydrogen
the atomic weight of each constituent is, to the limit
of accuracy, a whole number on the basis of oxygen
= 11/0).
Live Specimens of Spirula.
By Dr. Jous. Scumipt, Leader of the Dana Expeditions, Copenhagen.
EW animals have been of more interest to
zoologists than the little cuttle-fish Spirula.
Related to the extinct Belemnites, and characterised
by having an interior, chambered shell, it occupies
an isolated position among recent species. Dead
shells (see Fig. 2) are found on the sea-shores
particularly of warmer seas, where they may drift
ashore in great numbers, but the
animal itself has hitherto ranked
among the greatest zoological
rarities, of which only very few
museums possess a specimen.
On the third Dana expedition
we captured considerable num-
bers of Spirula in the North
Atlantic, and were also fortunate
enough to observe many speci-
mens alive. I propose then, in
the following, to describe some
of our observations, throwing
light upon the habits and occur-
rence of the species.
=| A ppeavance.—The following re-
marks apply to living specimens,
a point which should be em-
_Fic. 1.—Live specimen
of Spirula, moving down
toward the bottom of the
aquarium. While so Phasised, as both colour and
moving, the head is Shape are often appreciably
weeagieaas (down- altered by preservation: The
rear are thrust out ver-
tically, and the funnel
is turned upward (this
last is not visible here,
the figure showing the
specimen in dorsal view).
About half natural (Eh
Photo by K. Stephensen.
body, or mantle, is shaped like
a cylinder cut away abruptly at
the back, the head and arms pro-
truding from the front part.
As seen in Fig. 1, the arms are
most often kept close together, as
for example when the animal is in
motion, giving the anterior part of the body a conical
shape. At the hinder end are two fins, roughly semi-
circular. Their basal parts are not parallel, but
converge toward the ventral side of the animal.
The fins can be pointed straight out behind (Fig. 1),
or laid flat in against the hinder part (Fig. 2). In
the centre of the latter, between the two fins, there is
a circular disc (the terminal disc) having in the
middle a small bead-like organ. At the outer edge
of the disc is a ring of pigment ; otherwise it is
colourless. The small central bead is a light organ.
The colour differs from that of other cuttle-fish.
The mantle has a peculiar whitish sheen, most re-
sembling that of asbestos. A further similarity to
the mineral lies in the fact that the surface of the
mantle is often somewhat frayed or fluffy. The
greater part of the mantle is without pigment ; some
colour there is, however, of a rusty red, in a narrow
band along the anterior margin of the mantle,
especially on the dorsal side. There is also pigment
on the hinder end of the body and at the base of the
fins. On touching a live specimen, the rusty colour
at the hinder end will often almost disappear, the
chromatophores contracting to little dark specks.
NO. 2771, VOL. I10]
Arms and head exhibit the silvery sheen and also
pigment, the latter dense and of a rusty brown.
The extremities of the arms, however, especially of
the two longer ones, are somewhat lighter and lacking
pigment. The funnel also is pigmented, but not at
its mouth.
Movements, etc—The movement of the Spirula is
characterised throughout by the presence of the
interior, chambered shell, which is situate at the
posterior end of the body, and tends to lift this
portion in the water. A specimen recently dead, or
a live one not inclined to active movement, will
therefore, if placed in an aquarium with sea water,
rise to the surface, and remain suspended there head
downwards, with the lighter, posterior part uppermost.
If moved from this position, it will immediately
swing back to it again, like a weighted tumbling
figure. ;
On board the Dana we frequently observed live
specimens of Spirula. When taken from the net and
placed in an aquarium, they would at first invariably
remain suspended at the surface of the water, motion-
less, and to all appearance lifeless. Asarule, however,
death was only simulated. Left to themselves, they
would generally come to life, and soon begin breathing
and other movements. The respiratory movements
are effected by rhythmical contractions of the mantle,
whereby water is forced out through the funnel.
As the mouth of this is turned towards the rear—.e.
upwards—the water flows up along the ventral side
of the mantle. This vertically ascending current of
water is easily noticeable, from its disturbing the
frayed surface of the mantle.
Like other cuttle-fish, Spirula often makes swift,
Fic. 2.—Preserved specimen of Spirula, about 39 mm. long (the head
slightly damaged). The shell seen at the side, which has 35 chambers,
shows the relative size of the shell in a specimen as illustrated. The animal
is seen from the ventral side: the inner shell can be discerned showing
through. About natural size. Photo by K. Stephensen.
jerky movements, dashing off suddenly in any direc-
tion : upwards, downwards, or from side to side.
These rushes were generally made by “ backing,”
i.e. the animal moved with its hinder end forward,
having first ‘“‘ reversed’’ the funnel, so as to turn
its opening forward towards the head, at the same
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
time flattening the fins close in to the posterior end,
approximately as shown in the preserved specimen,
Fig. 2. Less frequently Spirula was observed in the
aquarium making a forward rush with its head to
the front—z.e. without reversing the funnel. It is
possible, however, that this latter mode of progress
is the usual one—for example, when in pursuit of
rey.
3 In addition to these jerky movements, the animal
also makes others at a slower rate. It may often be
seen in the aquarium moving vertically downwards
from the surface, head first. During the descent
the fins are held vertical (see Fig. 1) and move with
a rapid waving or fluttering motion which, in con-
junction with the current of water from the funnel,
now facing upwards (to the rear), carries the animal
down towards the bottom. Sometimes it will come
to a standstill in mid-water, at others it will not
stop until it has reached the bottom, but so long as
it remains below the surface the fins are kept in
motion as described, and the funnel is pointed
upwards. It may rise again slowly to the surface
without altering its vertical position; the fins are
then sometimes seen in motion, sometimes pressed in
close to the hinder end.
In order to ascertain whether this movement of
the fins was necessary to maintain the animal in
the vertical position, which it adopted for the most
part in our aquaria, we cut off one of the fins from
a specimen, selecting a large and powerful individual
for the purpose. It was at once evident that the
lack of a fin in no way affected the maintenance of
the vertical position; what did result was that the
animal was now unable to keep under water. When
placed at the bottom of the aquarium, it invariably
Tose again to the surface. On one occasion, when
guiding it to the bottom, we happened to bring the
creature into contact with the glass wall, when
something new was seen. On touching the wall, it
spread out its arms and clung to the glass, and was
now able to keep under water. We tried to move
it away from the glass by prodding it with the handle
of a lancet. It relinquished its hold, but only to
attach itself to the lancet handle in the same way.
Evidently the eight short arms are highly sensitive
to touch—the two longer less so, if at all. On this
occasion also we had a sight of the animal’s black,
horny beak, and learned that it is capable of inflicting
a powerful bite, as the handle of the lancet showed.
When left to itself the Spirula will remain suspended
for hours at the surface, or lower down in the water,
always in a vertical position, and with arms more
or less closed in. When violently disturbed, the
animal may occasionally discharge a small cloud of
greyish ink. We managed to keep some specimens
alive for more than two days in our small aquaria,
with no aeration of the water. Generally, however,
they lived only a little more than a day.
On several occasions we were able to perceive that
the small bead - like organ at the posterior end is a
light organ. It emits a pale, yellowish-green light,
which, from the normal position of the animal in the
water, is directed upward. In contrast to the light
displayed by so many other marine organisms
(crustacea, etc.), which flares up and fades away
again, the Spirula’s little lamp burns continuously.
We have seen the light showing uninterruptedly for
hours together.
Mode of Life —The third Dana expedition has made
captures of Spirula in 65 hauls from 44 stations, and
in every case with implements used pelagically,
without touching the bottom. The depths at which
our specimens were taken varied from about 2-300
metres to about 2000, The greatest quantities were
found at depths from 300 to 500 metres ; none were
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
NATURE
789
taken in the upper 200 metres of the sea, though the
nets were constantly drawn within this range.
_ Our investigations thus indicate that the species
is bathypelagic, z.e. pelagic in deeper water layers,
and so confirm the supposition advanced by J. Hjort
(Murray and Hjort, ‘“ Depths of the Ocean,” p. 595,
London, rgro). A. Agassiz (‘‘ Three Cruises of the
Blake,” ii. p. 61, Boston and New York, 1888), who
has examined a specimen of Spirula ‘‘ dredged . . .
from a depth of 950 fathoms,” is of opinion that
‘from the condition of the chromatophores of the
body, it evidently lives with its posterior extremity
buried to a certain extent in the mud.” This con-
clusion is doubtless erroneous. It would be un-
reasonable to suppose that the creature should thus
bury its hinder part—which is lighter, owing to the
shell, and also carries the light organ—in the bottom.
It seems far more likely that the specimen brought
up in the Blake's dredge was not taken from the
bottom at all, but captured higher up in the water
when hauling in.
Size, etc—The 95 specimens of the third Dana
expedition vary in length from 5 to 47 millimetres
(maximal length of the mantle). On arranging the
measurements graphically, they fall more or less
evenly distributed along the millimetre scale, with
nothing to suggest the presence of different ‘‘ year-
classes ’’ in the material. Judging from this, it might
seem as if the propagation of the species was not
restricted to a short period of the year.
At one station (St. 1157, N. of Cape Verde Islands)
we found the following :—
Length of specimens
Depth (in metres). (in millimetres).
250 9, 17, 20, 22
300 Fi; X79; 20, 21, 22,27,-28
500 15, 41
1000 75, Oy 22
At other stations, specimens more than 4o mm.
long were found both in the deepest hauls and in
those nearest the surface of all the hauls containing
Spirula.
The species seems to attain maturity at a length
of about 30 mm. (length of mantle). At this length
the males begin to be hectocotylised, and the
specimens more than 30 mm. which we opened were
found to have mature sex organs (the females with
large, oblong, honey-coloured ova, besides smaller
eggs).
As previously mentioned, the Spirula has a
chambered inner shell. As the animal grows the
number of chambers increases, and a turn of the shell
takes place. The figures below show how the number
of chambers increases with growth of the animal.
Length of mantle Number of chambers
(mam.) in shell.
Te acs : + a6
20m. ‘ ee
38ma- 6 - 34 (mature male)
4A 3 - 38 (mature female)
Approximately, then—but only approximately—
an increase of one millimetre in length answers to
the formation of one fresh chamber.
While the Dana was at the Virgin Islands in the
West Indies (St. Thomas and St. Croix), as also at
Bermuda, we often found considerable numbers of
Spirula shells on the shore. Most of the shells were
damaged, but so far as could be determined the
intact specimens generally had between 30 and 4o
chambers, 7.e. representing, from the above, fully-
grown mature specimens. From this I must conclude
that at any rate the bulk of the shells found washed
up on the coasts are those of fully-grown Spirula
790
which have died of old age. When the animal is
dead, and the soft parts rotting away, the shells,
being lighter than water, will thus normally rise to
the surface, and drift about with the surface currents,
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 9, 1922
shell here illustrated has 35 chambers, and the
length (of mantle) is 39mm. Most of the undamaged
shells we found on the shore were of this size.
Distribution—The first complete specimen of
Spirula known to science was taken
by the Challenger near the Banda
Islands, west of New Guinea, anda
few others were captured by sub-
sequent expeditions (one by the
Blake at Grenada, W.I., another
by the Valdivia in the Indian
Ocean, and seven by the Michael
Sars in I9to in the neighbourhood
of the Canary Islands). The chart,
Fig. 3, shows the localities where
Spirula was taken by the present
expedition. There were, as a matter
of fact, more stations than are
shown, but some lie so close together
that it was impossible to indicate
them on so small a chart. The
stations where hauls were made
which might have taken Spirula if
present, but gave negative result,
are marked by across. Our captures
amounted to 95 specimens in all.
It will be seen that Spirula
occurred between 10° and 35° N.
Lat.: in the eastern part of the
Atlantic from the Canary Islands
Fic. 3.—Chart showing occurrence of Spirula at stations of the Dana expedition.
spots denote finds of live specimens, the crosses indicating stations where imp.
its capture were used, but no specimens taken,
to be eventually washed ashore. This bathypelagic
species, then, becomes after death a surface form, its
vemains constituting a norvmal ingredient in the drift
of the warmer seas.
Fig. 2 serves to show the relative size of the shell
as compared with that of the animal itself. The
to north of the Cape Verde Islands ;
in the Western Atlantic from Guiana
and northward to the Virgin Islands
and Puerto Rico, throughout the
Caribbean; and also in the Gulf of
Mexico and the Florida Straits, in the Sargasso Sea,
and between Bermuda and the United States of
America. From our previous investigations carried
| out with the Thor, we may conclude that the species
The black
lements suited to
is not found in the Mediterranean, or off the west
coast of Europe from Spain to Iceland.
Solar Radiation at Helwan Observatory.
‘T° HE observations of solar radiation made at the
Helwan Observatory in the years 1915 to
1921, which have recently been published,’ lead to
results of far-reaching importance.
With regard to the standardisation of instruments
the position is satisfactory., The equipment of the
Observatory includes two Angstrom pyrheliometers
made in Upsala as well as one made by the Cambridge
Scientific Instrument Company, which was_ stand-
ardised by Prof. H. L. Callendar. There is also an
Abbot silver-disc pyrhelometer. The observations
indicate that if a correction of plus one per cent. is
applied to determinations by the Upsala standard
it comes into agreement with the Callendar and
Abbot standards. A progressive deterioration in the
Angstrém instrument in daily use has been found,
which is attributed to the deposit of dust on the
blackened strips and a consequent reduction in
absorbing power.
The usual practice at Helwan has been to take
several observations in the course of a morning, with
the sun at different heights, with the object of deter-
mining the “solar constant,” the strength of the
solar heat stream outside the earth’s atmosphere.
The usual assumption in reducing such observations
is that the scattering and absorbing power of the
atmosphere remains the same during the series of
1 Ministry of Public Works, Egypt: Helwan Observatory, Bull. No. 23.
Observations of Solar Radiation, 1915-1921, by H. Knox-Shaw. Price 2 P.T.
NO. 2771, VOL, 110]
readings. The ‘‘ solar constant ”’ is arrived at by a
process of extrapolation. In an earlier bulletin Mr.
Knox-Shaw has directed attention to doubts as to the
validity of this assumption, and has shown that if the
air becomes less clear as the day progresses then a
negative correlation between the computed “ solar
constant ’’ and the computed transmission coefficient
is to be expected.
It is now found that there is such correlation not
only at Helwan, but also at other places for which
observations have been published. The correlation
coefficient averages about 0-6, and the value of the
determinations of the solar constant by the extra-
polation method is therefore much _ discredited.
Further evidence of its unsuitability is furnished by
the lack of correlation between the values of the solar
constant found at different stations on the same day.
It will be for the Smithsonian Institution to show that
destructive criticism on the same lines will not affect
the spectrobolometer observations on which the
evidence for the day-to-day variations of the “ solar
constant ’’ depends.
In the year 1919 Prof. Abbot developed a new
method of observation based on the well-known fact
that the more the sunlight is obstructed by dust, etc.,
the greater will be the glare surrounding the sun.
The question has been investigated by the use of a
“pyranometer ”’ (fire-above-measure), as the instru-
ment for determining the strength of radiation from
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
the sky is termed. The type developed by Abbot
and Aldrich is described in Smithsonian Misc. Collec-
tions, vol. 66, No. 7, 1916, but the name would be
suitable for Mr. Dines’s instrument (Meteorological
Magazine, vol. 55, p. 189, 1920); by analogy the
Callendar radiograph, which gives a record of the
heat carried by the luminous rays from sun and sky
and received on a horizontal surface, should be a
pyranograph.
Prof. Abbot measures the heat from the sun,
and also the heat from the sun plus the heat from
the sky within 15° of the sun with one of these
instruments, and by applying appropriate factors
obtains the “solar constant.’’ Mr. Knox-Shaw has
NATURE
791
examined a series of observations made at Calama in
Chile and reduced by Prof. Abbot’s staff by this
method. He finds that they show no correlation
between the computed values of the solar constant
and the transmission coefficient. It is to be hoped
that the validity of this new method will be confirmed,
as it will make the regular determination of the
strength of solar radiation practicable at many
stations where the more elaborate routine could not
be adopted. At Helwan the sun is to be observed
with the Angstrém apparatus once a day at a specified
altitude. For the application of Abbot’s method
the Angstrém readings will have to be supplemented
by those of a pyranometer.
Natural Gas Gasoline.
THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHT OILS FROM NATURAL GAS.
By H. B. MILneEr.
IN ASU RSL gas may be of two distinct types—dry
gas or wet gas. The former consists essen-
tially of methane, with practically no other members
of the paraffin series, the latter being composed of
methane with varying amounts of ethane, pentane,
hexane, and heptane, and certain dilutants such as
nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sul-
phuretted hydrogen, and sometimes helium. Dry gas
is normally associated with coal or decomposing
vegetable matter and is rarely met with in the presence
of petroleum ; wet gas, on the other hand, is essen-
tially the gas present in oil pools, either in the free
state or dissolved in the oil under pressure.
The production of natural gas gasoline—as it is
called—constitutes a comparatively recent develop-
ment of the petroleum industry, particularly in the
United States. The gas employed for this purpose is
that which so frequently accumulates in the top of
oil-well casings, or which, under pressure varying
from a few to several hundred pounds, is forced along
the flow lines leading from the casing head. Com-
posed of lower members of the paraffin series than
ordinary petrol obtained by refining crude oil, natural
gas gasoline is far more volatile and inflammable, and
therefore its use pey se is normally inadmissible.
But mixed with some of the heavier fractions derived
from crude oil, it forms a fuel ranging from 0-660 to
0-750 in gravity, in all respects suitable for internal
combustion engines of the automobile type.
There are three recognised processes for extracting
oil from natural gas—the compression process, the
absorption process, and the combined compression
and absorption system. The compression process
consists in the liquefaction by pressure and refrigera-
tion of the heavier paraffins present in the gas, and
is usually employed where the initial density of the
gas exceeds 0-8, 7.e. where the gas is rich in the heavier
hydrocarbons. The plant employed entails a com-
pressor, condensing or cooling coils and collecting
tanks. The average yield of oil by this process is
2-5 gallons per m. cubic feet; 73 per cent. of the out-
put of natural gas gasoline for 1920 in the United
States was produced by the compression process.?
The absorption process has the advantage that it is
applicable to ‘“‘lean”’ gas, z.e. gas yielding anything
from o-r to 0-5 gallons per m. cubic feet, and by
this process much so-called dry gas has been utilised
which would otherwise have been wasted, being of too
low a grade to be treated profitably by the compression
process. The absorption system necessitates passing
ua? “Natural Gas Gasoline in 1920,”’ by E. G. Sievers.
Min. Res. Unit.
States, 1920, Part II., pp. 289-300.
(Unit. States Geol. Survey.)
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
the gas through an oil of higher gravity than ordinary
petrol, from which it is recoverable by fractional dis-
tillation. The combination process is a more recent
development, whereby the gas is compressed under
low pressure to a smaller volume, then absorbed by
seal oil and subsequently recovered by distillation.
This process has been employed recently by pipe-line
companies in the United States to recover gasoline
from low grade wet gas accumulated in gas distribut-
ing lines. The average yield of oil by the absorption
process is 0-2 gallons per m. cubic feet.
The principal States in America producing natural
gas gasoline are Oklahoma, West Virginia, California,
and Texas, besides eight other States giving a sub-
ordinate output. The bulk of the products is sent
to the northern States and California, where in the
latter case the oil is mixed with petrol obtained from
low grade crude oils. Much of the Canadian natural
gas gasoline is being blended with petrol obtained
from Mexican crude oil, and in this way, also, many
oil wells which would otherwise be derelict are, by
their yield of low grade wet gas, giving good results,
quite apart from the better known and more valuable
gas wells.
Some idea of the remarkable growth of the industry
in America can be gauged from the fact that whereas
only 7} million gallons of gas gasoline were produced
in r91I, nearly 400 million gallons were produced in
1920. This constitutes more than 7 per cent. of the
total production of gasoline in the United States for
that year.
Quite apart from any statistical evidence, it is
clear that this new industry now firmly established in
America will, by its steady progress, have a far-
reaching consequence on the available supplies of
fuel-oil for world consumption in the future. Many
fields which have hitherto been poor producers may
quite conceivably be rendered sound from a com-
mercial standpoint by the utilisation of the natural
gas now allowed to run to waste. In such countries
as Russia, Persia, Burma, Egypt, and Trinidad, the
processes are, by reason of the large quantities of
natural gas available, especially applicable, though
little, if anything, has so far been done in this direc-
tion. Wherever natural gas can be controlled at the
casing head, the possibility of its treatment for the
recovery of light oil should be taken into account.
In the fields cited above, especially in Trinidad,
the value of such recovery lies not so much in the
actual production of petrol, but in the enhanced
value attained by low grade crude oil fractions as a
result of careful mixing.
792
VERT ORL
[DECEMBER 9, 1922
The Teaching of Physics to Engineering
Students.
HE American Physical Society recently set up
a committee to consider and report on special
problems and difficulties in the teaching of physics,
and the first report issued by the committee, prepared
by Prof. A. W. Duff of the Worcester Polytechnic,
Mass., deals with the teaching of physics to students
of engineering. It summarises the opinions expressed
by a large number of teachers and engineers in replies
to a long list of questions addressed to them by
the committee. All agree that the object of a
physics course is to provide the student with a sound
knowledge of the fundamental principles on which
engineering depends, and that he should be shown
how these principles find their application in common
experiences of everyday life, so that at a later stage
his knowledge of principles should be in a form
immediately available for the solution of new practical
problems. He must acquire the habit of searching
for the principles underlying a mass of phenomena
and of drawing safe conclusions from those principles.
Lectures should be well thought out and the matter
presented in clear form.
Some teachers think the class should be required to
prepare sections of the text-book for repetition or
for discussion in class, although this is felt by many
to be a school method not desirable in engineering
colleges. The problems set for exercise should be of
a practical nature and not deteriorate into numerical
substitution in a formula. Laboratory work is
essential, but too great a degree of precision of-results
should not be demanded, the object of the work being
to elucidate principles rather than attain a high order
of accuracy. The relative importance of the objects
to be attained in teaching physics to engineers is
considered to be—first, the scientific habit of thought ;
second, knowledge of the laws of physics; third,
initiative and ingenuity; fourth, knowledge of facts
and methods; and, fifth, accurate observation.
The evidence as to present teaching in America
shows that physics gets the proper proportion of
time only in the best engineering colleges, and that
in all cases it suffers from the inability to reason
logically which most boys display on leaving school.
The diversity of symbols used for the same quantity
by different writers, and the difference between the
engineering and scientific units, are two further
difficulties under which the subject labours. A great
majority of the teachers and engineers consulted were
in favour of establishing a journal dealing with new
instruments, methods and experiments, recent re-
search, applications of physics, and the theory of
teaching.
University and Educational Intelligence.
Betrast.—Dr. R. C. Gray, a graduate of the
University of Glasgow, has been appointed lecturer
in physics in the Queen’s University.
CAMBRIDGE.—It 1s proposed to create a University
lectureship in crystallography for Mr. A. Hutchinson,
Pembroke College.
A revised report on draft ordinances for the admis-
sion of women to the titles of degrees has been
presented by the Syndicate appointed to prepare
them. The chief modifications proposed are (1) that
research students shall be supernumerary to the limit
of 500 imposed on the number of women students
receiving instruction in the University; (2) that a
woman candidate for honours, who fails to qualify
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
for an honours degree and is “‘ allowed the Ordinary ”’
shall be qualified for the title of a degree; (3) that
women students be allowed to enter for pass examina-
tions in agriculture or in architecture so long as there
are no Tripos examinations in these subjects. The
scale of fees has been revised in view of criticisms
raised at the discussion on the first report. The
Syndicate makes it clear that it is not proposed to
introduce a Regulation formally admitting women to
instruction in the University. Itis preferred to assume
that the present practice of admitting women will be
continued.
Lrerps.—Applications are invited for the professor-
ship of chemistry shortly to be vacant by the resigna-
tion of Prof. Smithells. The salary is to be r200l.
per annum, and the appointment will take effect on
October 1, 1923. Applications for the post are to be
sent to the Registrar, who will supply further in-
formation if desired.
Lonpon. — An assistant lecturer in Physical
Chemistry is required at University College, at a
yearly salary of 300/. Physicists possessing a know-
ledge of chemistry, as well as chemists, are eligible
for the post. Applications, accompanied by testi-
monials, record of degrees, published work, and
teaching experience (if any), must reach the Secretary
of the College by, at latest, Wednesday, December 20.
ACCORDING to a report prepared during the month
of August for the League of Nations on “‘ The condi-
tion of intellectual life in Austria,’’ the professional
classes and all who depend for their livelihood on
intellectual work have, since the revolution of 1918,
sunk into a position in which they form, in an econ-
omic sense, the lowest stratum of the community,
their work being invariably worse paid than manual
labour. Their physical and mental powers are con-
sequently being sapped by insufficiency of food, and
their numbers are being reduced by actual starva-
tion. Among the organisations whereby they are
striving to protect their common interests is a Central
Council of Austrian Intellectual Workers, having its
seat at the University of Vienna, and associated with
this is an “ office for providing books and instru-
ments.’’ This body is endeavouring to establish
agreements with associations in other countries where-
by second-hand or surplus books and periodicals may
be obtained under conditions ensuring their fullest.
possible utilisation and providing for the determina-
tion of the value of Austrian books offered in ex-
change. One such agreement has been concluded
with the Universities Library and Student Relief for
Europe affiliated to the Universities Committee, Im-
perial War Relief Fund, General Buildings, Aldwych,
W.C.2. Through this committee the universities of
the United Kingdom have, during the past two years,
contributed substantially towards relieving the neces-
sities of professors and students of Austrian as well
as other European universities. It is now urgently
soliciting further help in money or in kind.
THE setting-up in 1918 of the standing committee
of Vice-Chancellors and Principals was one of the
most noteworthy events in the long history of the
universities of the United Kingdom. Up to that
date each university had been a law unto itself,
formulating its own policy and drafting its own
ordinances with little regard for the needs or the
doings of the others, save in a few matters which
could only be handled by the universities collectively,
such, for example, as an appeal to the Chancellor
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE
193
of the Exchequer or the institution of the Ph.D.
degree. Outstanding interests such as these were
dealt with by conferences, ad hoc, summoned by the
Universities Bureau. At their quarterly meetings
the executive heads have considered a vast number
of matters of common interest, ranging from entrance
tests to regulations for higher degrees, from student
fees to salaries of members of staffs. After mutual
consultation they report the proceedings of the
committee to their respective councils and senates,
which alone have power to give expression to its
views, if they endorse them. When the salaries of
teachers, meagre before the war, were felt by even
the most enduring to be totally inadequate to meet
the increased cost of living, the Association of Uni-
versity Teachers was formed for the purpose, in
the main, of protecting the material interests of its
members. We gather from the address recently
delivered by its new president, Prof. J. W. McBain,
of the University of Bristol, that the Association
now contemplates a wider field of usefulness. It is
proposed to appoint sub-committees to prepare
reports on a variety of topics, to send these reports to
the local associations for discussion, and finally,
after the central council have hammered them into
shape, to place them on record as the opinion of
the Association for the benefit of the public both
within and without the universities.
Dr. SAMUEL P. CAPEN, the able director for several
years past of the work of the American National
Council on Education, was installed last month as
Chancellor of the University of Buffalo. Dr. Capen,
who attended the Universities’ Congress at Oxford in
July 1921, is well known as an authority on higher
education in America. In the course of his inaugural
address at Buffalo he dealt with some of the problems
of urgent national importance with which educa-
tional administrators in America are confronted.
Institutions of higher education of nearly every type
except agricultural colleges are, he says, overcrowded,
the pressure being most pronounced in the colleges
of arts and sciences, where the onrush of students has
threatened the efficiency of instruction. The increase
in secondary school enrolments throughout the
country indicates that the situation is bound to
become more acute. More disconcerting than the
increase in numbers in the colleges of arts and
sciences are a falling off in the standard of intellectual
vigour of their students, and a centrifugal tendency
driving the more energetic of them to courses with
such distinctly vocational aims as commerce, journal-
ism, home economics, and industrial chemistry. A
university, Dr. Capen says, is a place maintained at
great expense to foster the philosophic point of view
and stimulate constructive thinking, and its resources
should not be consumed by those who are incapable
of such things. It may be impracticable at present
to devise tests which would prevent their admission,
but it is relatively easy to identify them when they
have been for a little while in college and “‘if the
faculty can stand the strain” to eliminate them. As
early as possible in the college course there should be
provision of opportunities for independent study as
in the case of honours students in British universities
(whose work, by the way, is, Dr. Capen says, superior
in quality to that which any American college student
is required to perform), and none should be allowed
to graduate who have not “ demonstrated capacity
for independent study and registered definite mastery
of some field of study.’’ Thus he would have American
colleges adopt and apply generally to all candidates
ie eS the British universities’ system of honours
schools.
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
December 10, 1631. Sir Hugh Myddelton died.—
A successful London goldsmith and banker, Myddelton
projected and carried through the scheme for bringing
water to London from springs at Chadwell and
Amwell in Hertfordshire. The New River Works
were begun in 1609 and completed in 1613, the
canal being 10 feet wide and more than 38 miles
long. There are memorials to Myddelton at Islington,
Holborn, and the Royal Exchange.
December 10, 1896. Alfred Bernhard Nobel died.
—The founder of the five Nobel prizes, for which he
bequeathed a sum of 1,400,000/., Nobel was born
in Stockholm, October 21, 1833, worked for a time
in his father’s torpedo works at St. Petersburg, and
after returning to Sweden took up the study of
explosives. Dynamite was patented by him in
1867, in 1876 he patented blasting gelatine, and in
1888 he produced ballistite. With his brothers he
established factories in various countries and took
a share in the exploitation of the Baku oilfields.
December 11, 1906. Jacques Augustin Normand
died—A descendant of a family of shipwrights who
constructed ships at Honfleur in the 17th century,
Normand became head of the weil-known firm at
Havre in 1871, and as such had a great share in the
development of fast torpedo craft. In 1880 he built
eight torpedo boats for the French Government,
and in 1895 constructed the Forban, which for a time
was the fastest vessel in the world. She was 144
feet long, and on trial on September 26, 1895, while
developing 3975 horse power, reached a speed of
31-029 knots.
December 11, 1909. Ludwig Mond died.—Born
in Cassel, March 7, 1839, Mond studied chemistry
under Kolbe, Kirchhoff, and Bunsen, and first came
to England in 1862. He introduced into England
the ammonia-soda process of Solvay in 1873 with
Brunner, founded important works at Winnington
near Northwich, and about 1879 invented the Mond
producer gas plant and discovered a method of
manufacturing pure nickel. He was one of the
greatest industrial chemists of his time and a generous
benefactor of science. He founded the Davy-
Faraday Laboratory at the Royal Institution.
December 12, 1849. Sir Marc Isambard Brunel
died.— Originally an officer in the French Navy,
Brunel fled from France during the Revolution,
and after a short time spent in America came to
England in 1799. Among his greatest achievements
were the invention of the famous block-making
machinery for Portsmouth Dockyard and the con-
struction during the years 1825-1843 of the Thames
Tunnel, considered at the time to be one of the sights
of the world.
December 13, 1882. William Thomson Henley
died.—From a porter in the London Docks, Henley
rose to be one of the largest makers of telegraph
cable. Starting in business as an instrument maker
in 1838, he made apparatus for Wheatstone, exhibited
an electro-magnetic machine at the Exhibition of
1851, and altogether made some 14,000 miles of
submarine cable.
December 16, 1816. Charles, third Earl Stanhope
died—An ardent politician, and the brother-in-law
of Pitt, Stanhope was also known for his love of
the physical sciences and his inventive ingenuity.
He constructed calculating machines, patented a
process of stereotyping, introduced the Stanhope
ress, and attempted to drive a ship by steam.
cs : E.C.S.
794
NATURE
[| DecEMBER 9, 1922
Societies and Academies.
LONDON.
Royal Society, November 23.—Sir Charles Sherring-
ton, president, in the chair—T. E. Stanton: On the
characteristics of cylindrical journal lubrication at
high values of the eccentricity. The arc of contact
of the film was limited in extent in the experiments
and the intensity of pressure was considerably higher
than in normal practice; the ares of contact varied
from 14 to 35 degrees and the maximum intensities
of pressure from 1-4 to 3:5 tons per sq. inch. In all
the cases observed, the pressure distribution in the
film has been in accordance with the hydrodynamical
theory of Osborne Reynolds. By means of a careful
determination of the pressure distribution in the film,
and a measurement of the radius difference of bearing
and journal, sufficient data have been obtained to
calculate the viscosity of the lubricant and the atti-
tude and eccentricity of the bearing. The values of
the viscosity of the lubricant so calculated were in
good agreement with those determined in a visco-
meter, and it was concluded that the calculated
values of the eccentricity were trustworthy. In the
case of a journal 2-5 cm. diameter, the least distance
apart of the surfaces was found to vary from 0-oo12
to 0:0024 mm.—J. H. Jeans: The propagation of
earthquake waves. Earthquake waves are regarded
as being compounded of a number of free vibrations
of a non-homogeneous gravitating earth. In 1885,
Lord Rayleigh discussed a certain type of surface
waves which would travel over the earth’s surface
with a velocity of about 0-92 ~x/(u/p). It is now
shown that there are additional, and far more numer-
ous, surface waves which travel with velocities ,/(u/p)
and 4/((\+2)/p). If such waves are generated by
an earthquake at any point close to the earth’s
surface, they will refocus themselves upon this point
after intervals which are integral multiples of
2max/(p/u) and 2ma,/(p/(A+2«)), the numerical values
of these quantities being about 223 and 126 minutes
respectively. In 10917, two series of earthquakes,
each originating from the same centre, had their
times given approximately by formule of the type—
t=t) +”, X 125°8 +n, X 222:0 minutes.
It is possible that the return of waves sent out by
one shock may produce a second shock by a kind of
“ trigger’? action.—F. A. Lindemann and G. M. B.
Dobson: A theory of meteors and the density and
temperature of the outer atmosphere to which it
leads. All major meteoric phenomena can _ be
accounted for consistently if the luminosity of the
meteor be attributed to the collision of volatilised
meteoric vapour with the air molecules. From
observed meteoric data the density of temperature of
the air at great heights is derived in four independent
ways which give consistent results. The density
above 60 km. appears to be very much greater than
corresponds to an isothermal atmosphere at 220°
Abs., and the temperature appears to be in the
neighbourhood of 300° Abs. The radiative properties
of ozone may account for this high temperature.—
F. C. Thompson and E. Whitehead: On the changes
in iron and steel at temperatures below 280° C.
Iron shows abnormalities of rate of increase of
electrical resistance and electric potential against
platinum at well-marked temperatures. Below 280°
C. these temperatures are: 55°, 100°, 120°, 140°, 220°,
and 245° C. Of these, those at 120° and 220° C. are
the most important. Under the same conditions,
carbide of iron possesses two well-marked points at
160° and 200° C. These may be distinct points, or
the ends of a single transformation range. The
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
etching of cementite has been studied. Broadly the
reagents which darken cementite are strongly alka-
line; no acid and only one neutral solution will do
this. A solution has been discovered which will
enable the two forms of cementite to be differentiated
micrographically, but since 8-cementite will change
to the a form in a few days at room temperature, this
etching is not always satisfactory. When samples of
iron and high carbon steel are quenched from 280° C.,
the electrical resistivities differ from those obtained
by slow cooling. As the material tempers these
values gradually alter, till after some days they
practically coincide with those obtained by slow
cooling.—C. F. Jenkin: The fatigue failure of metals.
A theory of the mechanism of fatigue failure in metals
is offered. The theory is demonstrated by a simple
model which possesses the assumed properties of the
crystals forming the metal. The model, when tested
like a metal test-piece, gives stress/strain curves,
hysteresis loops, and the complete series of fatigue
ranges of exactly the same character as those given
by the metal test-piece. A method of mechanically
treating a mild steel test-piece is described, which,
according to the theory, should raise its fatigue range
about 20 per cent.; another treatment is described
which should lower the fatigue range of medium steel
by about 25 per cent.—S. Brodetsky: The line of
action of the resultant pressure in discontinuous fluid
motion. The general solution of the problem of dis-
continuous fluid motion past any barrier can be
expressed in terms of the variable introduced by
Levi-Civita, by means of which the part of the barrier
in contact with the moving fluid is transformed into
a semi-circle. The form of the barrier is defined by
the coefficients in a Taylor expansion. Although the
components of the resultant pressure on the barrier
have been calculated in terms of these coefficients, the
line of action has not been found previously. The
moment of the resultant pressure about a certain
point is a simple function of the first four coefficients
of the above expansion.—R. A. Houstoun: An in-
vestigation of the colour vision of 527 students by
the Rayleigh test. Lord Rayleigh discovered in 1881
that if homogeneous yellow is matched with a mixture
of homogeneous red and homogeneous green, some
persons require much more red, others much more
green in the mixture than the normal. Such persons
have been called “‘ anomalous trichromats.”’ Appar-
atus similar to Rayleigh’s was employed in the
present survey. In the case of the 104 women, the
frequency curve is almost a perfect case of normal
variation ; in the case of the men, the normal curve
is present, and outside it lie the colour blind and the
anomalous trichromats; the anomalous trichromats
are much fewer in number than would be expected
from Rayleigh’s original paper.
British Mycological Society, November 18.—Mr.
fF. T. Brooks, president, in the chair.—M. C. Rayner:
Calluna ‘“‘ cuttings.’’ Adventitious roots produced
from the leafy region of the stem showed infection
by the mycorrhizal fungus from the shoot tissues.
The results are completely at variance with those
of Christoph.—Miss G. Gilchrist: Bark canker
disease of apple caused by Myxosporium corticolum.
The disease is characterised by the formation of
large longitudinal scars on the sides of branches
which increase rapidly towards the end of summer,
and the production of wound gum. The fungus
seems to be a weak parasite, except under certain
conditions when the trees may be killed outright.
Infection may occur from a dead spur, grafting
wounds or from the region of the ground.—R. J.
Tabor: A new fungal disease of cacao and coffee.
The fungus, which is-a Phycomycete, shows the
DECEMBER 9, 1922]
NATURE
795
amphigynous type of fertilisation similar to certain
species of Phytophthora and has a conidial stage
similar to that of Muratella.—Miss E. S. Moore:
The physiology of the dry-rot disease of potatoes in
storage caused by Fusarium cevuleum. The exist-
ence of seasonal and varietal differences in suscepti-
bility was confirmed. The amount and type of
fungus growth is related to the carbohydrate and
nitrogen supply, to the reaction of the medium
and the temperature of incubation.—A. Castellani:
Mycology in tropical medicine. The history of our
knowledge of fungal diseases and the chief human
parasites and their effects were considered.
Zoological Society, November 21.—Sir S. F.
Harmer, vice-president, in the chair—A. Smith
Woodward: A skull and tusks of a mammoth from
Siberia—D. Seth-Smith: The shed lining of the
gizzard of a hornbill—lIvor G. S. Montagu: On a
further collection of mammals from the Inner
Hebrides—F. R. Wells: The morphology and
development of the chondrocranium of the larval
Clupia, harengus—R. I. Pocock: The external
characters of the beaver (Castoride) and some
squirrels (Sciurida).—G. M. Vevers: On the cestode
parasites from mammalian hosts which died in the
Gardens of the Zoological Society of London during
the years 1919-1921; with a description of a new
species of Cyclorchida.—A. Loveridge: Notes on
East African birds (chiefly nesting-habits and stomach-
contents) collected 1915—-1919.E. A. Stensié : Notes
on certain Crossopterygians.—Ekendranath Ghosh :
On the animal of Scaphula (Benson), with a description
of a new species of Scaphula.—J. H. Lloyd and Edith
M. Sheppard: A contribution to the anatomy of a
hammerhead-shark (Zygena malleus)—R. H. Mehra:
Two new Indian species of the little-known genus
Aulodrilus (Bretscher), aquatic Oligocheta belonging
to the family Tubificide.—J. Stephenson: The
Oligocheta of the Oxford University Spitsbergen
expedition.—R. J. Ortlepp: The nematode genus
Physaloptera, Rud.
Royal Meteorological Society, November 22.—Dr.
C. Chree, president, in the chair—A. H. R. Goldie:
Circumstances determining the distribution of tem-
perature in the upper air under conditions of high
and low barometric pressure. An analysis was
given of 165 observations of upper air temperature
made from aeroplanes, data being classified according
to whether the air was “‘ equatorial’’ or “ polar.”
The main conclusions are—(a) that in high-pressure
systems there would usually be found, either a
surface layer of polar air and above it equatorial
air with the high stratosphere associated with low
latitudes, or equatorial air all the way up; (b) that
in low-pressure systems there would usually be found
either (i.) all polar air and the low stratosphere of
high latitudes, or perhaps (ii.) equatorial air which
had been “let down’’ by retreating polar air, or
(iii..—mnear the centre of cyclones—a mixture of
polar and equatorial air. These features alone
would go far towards explaining (1) the absence of
correlation between temperature and pressure near
the surface, (2) the high positive correlation from
3 to 8 kilometres, (3) the greater height of the strato-
sphere over high than over low pressure, (4) the
negative correlation between temperature and pressure
in the stratosphere.—Rev. José Algué: The Manila
typhoon of May 23, 1922. This typhoon traversed
the central part of the Philippines in a north-westerly
direction on May 20 to 23, the centre having passed
practically over Manila on the morning of May 23.
Manila missed the worst of the storm, and, although
the barometric minimum in the present case, 742-3
mm. (29-22 inches), was lower than in the typhoons
of August 31, 1920, and July 4, 1921, the damage
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
done was much smaller; the maximum velocity of
the wind, even in a few isolated gusts, was not more
than 60 miles per hour. The rate of progress of the
typhoon between Surigao and Maasin was 8 or 9
miles per hour; from Romblon to Boac it moved
at the rate of only 5-6 miles per hour ; when nearing
Manila, it increased again to about 8 miles per hour ;
and from Manila to Iba the rate of progress was
greater than 10 miles per hour. It appears that
the typhoon filled up on May 26 in the China Sea
east of Hainan.
Paris.
Academy of Sciences, November 13.—M. Emile
Bertin in the chair.—Paul Vuillemin: The morpho-
logical value of antitropic emergences. The mechan-
ism of their production by desmonastic displacement.
—Paul Lévy: The determination of the laws of
probability by their characteristic functions.—M.
van der Corput: Some new approximations.—W.
Sierpinski: The existence of all classes of measurable
(B) ensembles—Pierre Fatou : Meromorphic functions
of two variables.—Luc Picart: Statistics of faint
stars in a limited region of the Milky Way.—Charles
L. R. E. Menges: Fresnel’s coefficient.—A. Perot :
A rapid method of determining the elements of
terrestrial magnetism. The principle utilised in the
apparatus described is the production of induced
currents in a coil rotating in the earth’s field and
the compensation of these currents by the production
of a suitable magnetic field round the rotating coil.
The accuracy claimed is about o-1 per cent., and the
actual measurement requires only ten minutes.—
L. Décombe: The calculation of the magnetic
moment of a star, starting with its axial moment of
inertia, its time of rotation, and the universal constant
of gravitation.—J. Cabannes: The polarisation and
intensity of the light diffused by transparent liquids.
Einstein’s theory of the diffusion of light by liquids,
based on the assumption that fluids are continuous
media the properties of which vary slowly from one
point to another, has not been confirmed by experi-
ment. The modified theory developed by the author,
assuming the existence of molecules, is shown to be
in better agreement with fact. The depolarisation
of diffused light by liquids furnishes a fresh proof of
the discontinuity of matter.—Elis Hjalmar: Re-
searches on the series of the X-rays.—P. Fleury:
An electrical furnace with molybdenum resistance
in vacuo. Molybdenum as a resistance material has
certain advantages over tungsten ; it is less fragile,
more easily wound, does not contract strongly on
first heating like tungsten, and is cheaper. Details
are given of the construction of such a furnace,
4 cm. in diameter and 14 cm. high, giving a temperature
of 1650° C. with a consumption of 2100 watts. At
1750° C. (2600 watts) the alundum tube fused.—
H. Fischer and P. Steiner: The ultra-violet absorption
spectra of pyridine and isoquinoline.—Georges Chau-
dron and Louis Blanc: The estimation of oxygen in
steel. A comparison of results obtained by reduction
of the steel with hydrogen either alone, or with the
addition of various copper, tin, and antimony alloys.
Both methods gave the same results.—L. J. Simon:
The neutralisation of tartaric acid in presence of
metallic chlorides. The neutral zone and _ buffer
solutions.—P. Loisel: The radioactivity of the springs
of the region of Bagnoles-de-l)Orne and its relation
to the geological structure. There is a distinct
relation between the radioactivity of the springs
and the geological structure of the district. This
conclusion is based on the measurement of the radio-
activity of the water from twenty-eight springs.—
J. B. Charcot : The geological study of the sea floor of
the English Channel.—René Souéges: The embryo-
796
WAT URE
[| DECEMBER 9, 1922
geny of the Caryophyllacee. The last stages of the
development of the embryo in Sagina procumbens.—
P. Bugnon: The vascular differentiation tor the leaf
traces in Mercurialis annua.—Joseph Bouget: The
variations of coloration of flowers realised experi-
mentally at high altitudes.—G. L. Funke: Supple-
mentary summer shoots (trees and shrubs).—St.
Jonesco: The anthocyanic pigments and phloba-
tanins in plants.—L. Berger: The existence of
sympathicotropic glands in the human ovary and
testicle: their relations with the interstitial gland
of the testicle—A. Pézard and F. Caridroit: Sex-
linked heredity in the Gallinacee. Interpretation
based on the existence of the neutral form and the
properties of the ovarian hormone.—Alphonse Labbe:
The distribution of the animals of the salt marshes
with respect to the concentration of hydrogen ions.
—Edouard Chatton and André Lwoff: The evolution
of the infusoria of the Lamellibranchs. The genus
Pelecyophrya, intermediate between Hypocoma and
Sphenophrya.__Mme. M. Phisalix: The hedgehog
and virus of rabies. The hedgehog has remarkable
powers of defence against rabies: it attenuates or,
in some cases, destroys the virus.
Official Publications Received.
Report on the Administration of the Meteorological Department of
the Government of India in 1921-22. Pp. 14. (Simla: Government
Central Press.) 4 annas. a
Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. Sugar-
Cane Experiments in the Leeward Islands: Report on Experiments
with Varieties of Sugar-Cane conducted in Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis,
and Montserrat in the Season 1920-21. Pp. ii+43. (Barbados.) 1s.
Livingstone College. Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
for the Year 1921-22. Pp. 24. (Leyton, E.10.)
The National Institute of Agricultural Botany.
Third Report and
Accounts, 1921-1922. Pp. 20. (Cambridge.)
Diary of Societies.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9.
GILBERT WHITE FELLOWSHIP (in Romano-British Gallery, British
Museum), at 2.30.—W. Dale : A Demonstration.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 11.
ROYAL Society OF ARTS, at 8.—Prof. W. A. Bone: Brown Coal and
Lignites (Cantor Lecture).
SURVEYORS’ INSTITUTION, at 8—Major E. Meacher: Food Production
during the War.—H. German: The Agricultural Position and the
Possibility of stimulating Economic Production in the Future.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY (at AZolian Hall), at 8.30.—Prof. J. W.
Gregory: The Alps of Chinese Tibet and their Geographical Rela-
tionships.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12.
erEnmON OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS (at Royal Society of
rts), at 5.
INSTITUTE OF’ MARINE ENGINEERS, INC., at 6.30.—Eng.-Capt. J. A.
Richards : Manufacture of Solid Drawn Steel Tubes.
RoyaL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN (Technical Meeting),
at 7.—A. 8. Newman: Description of the ‘* N.S.’ Kinematograph
Camera, with Special Reference to an Electric Drive —Dr. G. I. Higson
and Ff. C. Toy : The Factors which determine Gamma Infinity.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS (at Royal United Service Institu-
tion), at 7.30.—Capt. H. Riall Sankey: The Utility of 'Theory to
the Practical Man (Presidential Address).
QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB, at 7.30.—Dr. C. Singer: The Early
Microscopists.
ILLUMINATING ENGINEERING Society (Joint Meeting with Institution
of Gas Engineers, Institution of Electrical Engineers, and Institution
of Municipal and County Engineers) (at Royal Society of Arts),
at 8.—H. T. Harrison and others: Discussion on Recent Develop-
_ ments and Modern Requirements in Street-Lighting.
SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY (at Leplay House, 65 Belgrave Road), at 8.15.
—H. W. Nevinson: Life in Bankrupt Vienna.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13.
INSTITUTION OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERS (at Institution of Mechanical
Engineers), at 7.45.—It.-Col. P. H. Johnson: Improvements in the
Efficiency of Roadless Vehicles,
ROYAL Society or ARTS, at 8.—Sir Sidney F. Harmer: The Fading
ot Museum Specimens.
NO. 2771, VOL. 110]
1
THURSDAY, DECHMBER 14.
LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON, at 5.—W. O. Howarth: The Occurrence
and Distribution of Festuca rubra in Britain——H. W. Pugsley: A
New british Calamintha.—Dr. Lily Batten: The Genus Poly-
siphonia, a eritical revision of the species, based upon anatomy.
LONDON MATHEMATICAL Society (at Royal Astronomical Society),
at 5.—Prot. A. C. Dixon: Some Limiting Cases in the Theory of
Integral Equations ——Prof. G. H. Hardy and J. E. Littlewood:
Some Problems of Partitio Numerorum. V.: A Further Contribu-
tion to the Study of Goldbach’s Problem.—A. E. Jolliffe: (i.)
Collinear Apolar Triads on Cubic Curves; (ii.) The Inflexions and
Inflexional Tangent of the Two-cusped Quartic—T. Stuart: (i.)
The Rational Parametric Solutions of—
%,°+2%o* +H +94 =2A2w*,
(ii.) The Factors of 21°°—1, 2°°—1,—H. C. Titchmarsh: An Ex-
pansion in a Series of Bessel Functions.—Prof. G. N, Watson:
The Theorems of Clausen and Cayley on Products of Hypergeometric
Functions.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—J, Caldwell: Electric
Are Welding Apparatus and Equipment.
OpTicaL Soctpty (at Imperial College of Science and Technology),
at 7.30.—T. Smith: A Large Aperture Lens not corrected for Colour.
—T. Smith: The Optical Cosine Law.—Dr. J. S$. Anderson : Demon-
stration of the Measurement of the Internal Diameters of Trans-
parent Tubes, and a Simple Differential Refractometer for Liquids.—
E. R. Watts and Son, Ltd.: Exhibition and Description of a
Constant Bubble (unaffected in length by changes of temperature).
SocimTy FOR CONSTRUCTIVE BIRTH CONTROL AND RACIAL PROGRESS
(at Essex Hall, Essex Street), at 8.—Dr. Jane Hawthorne: Birth
Control as it affects the Working Mother, to be followed by a
discussion.
CHEMICAL Society (at Institution of Mechanical Engineers), at 8.—
Prof. C. H. Desch: The Metallurgical Applications of Physical
Chemistry.
INSTITUTE OF METALS (London Section) AND INSTITUTION OF BRITISH
FOUNDRYMEN (at Institute of Marine Engineers), at 8.—Dr. P.
Longmuir: Brass Foundry Practice.
CAMERA CLUB, at 8.15.—W. Sanderson: Florence and some Cities of
the Etruscan League.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15.
ROYAL SoctetTy OF ARTS (Indian Section), at 4.30.—Commissioner
F. de L. Booth Tucker : The Settlements of Criminal Tribes in India.
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—G. Lumley : Reclama-
tion Plant and its Operation.
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30.—W. T. Marchmont:
Notes on Printing Machinery.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16.
BRITISH ECOLOGICAL Socipry (Annual Meeting) (at University College),
at 10.30 A.M.—Dr. R. Lloyd Praeger: Dispersal and Distribution
(Presidential Address).—Dr. Cockayne’s Work on the Tussock Grass-
land of New Zealand (Lantern and Specimens).—J. Ramsbottom
The Mycology of the Soil—W. H. Pearsall: Plant Distribution
and Basic Ratios. .
BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SocreTy (Annual General Meeting) (at Uni-
versity College), at 3.—S. J. F. Philpott: The Analysis of the Work
Curve.—H. Gordon: Hand and Ear Tests.
PUBLIC LECTURES.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9.
HORNIMAN Musbum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—Miss M. A. Murray:
Ancient Egypt and the Bible.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 11.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, at 4.—I’. W. Twort:
The Nature of Ultra-microscopic Viruses. (Succeeding Lectures
on December 12, 15, 18, and 19.)
Ciry OF LoNDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir Robert
Armstrong-Jones: Fatigue and how to Combat it, for the City
Worker.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12.
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, at 5.30.—Prof. T. J.
Jehu: Fossils and What They Teach (Swiney Lectures). (Succeeding
Lectures on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays—12 in all.)
INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL ADMINISTRATION (at London School of
Economies), at 8.—R. Twelvetrees : Standardisation of Repairs in
Relation to Industrial Economy (to be followed by a Discussion).
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, at 4.—Dr. C. W. Saleeby:
Sunlight and Childhood.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, at 5.—W. G. Spencer:
Vesalius and his Delineation of the Framework of the Human Body
(Thomas Vicary Lecture).
ROYAL Society OF MEDICINE, at 5.15.—Sir Arthur Newsholme :
Relative Values in Public Health; (2) Degrees of Preventability of
Disease, etc. -
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, at 5.30.—Prof. T. Okey: Carducci.
CENTRAL LIBRARY, FULHAM, at 8.—F. T. Roche: The Influence of
Finance on Industry:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16,
HORNIMAN MuspuM (Forest Hill), at 3.30—H. N. Milligan : Animals
without Teeth.
A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. ahh”
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PATHOLOGY.
The Senate of the University of London invite applications for the
GRAHAM SCHOLARSHIP in PATHOLOGY, value £300 per annum
for two years, founded under the will of the late Dr. Charles Graham to
enable young man to continue his pathological researches and at the
same time to secure his services to the School of Advanced Medical Studies
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direction of the Professor of Pathology.”
The successful candidate will be expected to take up the Scholarship as
from April 1, 1923. Intending applicants who desire fuller information of
the conditions on which the Scholarship will be held, may call personally
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restricted to students either of University College Hospital Medical School
or any other Medical School of the University of London,
Applications addressed to the Principal Officer, University of London,
South Kensington, S.W.7, must (a2) be accompanied by the names of not
more than three references, one at least of which should be the name of some
Professor, Lecturer, or Teacher of the University or College in which the
Candidate has conducted his studies in Pathology, (4) state the research
upon which the applicant proposes to work, and (c) be received nor later
than the first post on Monday January 1, 1923. Envelopes should be
marked ‘‘GRAHAM SCHOLARSHIP.”
E. C. PERRY, Principal Officer
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THE CECIL MEDAL and PRIZE of £10 will be awarded in May
1923 for the best Paper on ‘‘ Recent Advances in Chemistry as applied to
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aged 17-35, born in Dorset or resident One Year between May 1, ro21
and 1923.
Particulars from Mr. H. Pouncy, Dorchester.
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Applications are invited for the position of additional INSTRUCTOR
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to December 20, 1922, and should be addressed to the REGISTRAR, The
University, Leeds, from whom further particulars may be obtained.
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Manchester.
NATORE
[DECEMBER 16, 1922
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN.
SENIOR LECTURESHIP IN PHYSIOLOGY.
The University invites applications for the POST of SENIOR
LECTURER in the DEPARTMENT of PHYSIOLOGY at a salary
of £450 per annum rising by annual increments of 425 to a maximum
of £650 per annum. (The successful applicant, if a qualified medical
practitioner, will be allowed a salary of £500 for the first three years of his
appointment.)
An allowance of £40 will be made for passage money.
The lecturer must become a member of the University Teachers’ Super-
annuation Fund.
The successful applicant will be expected to assume duty on March 12,
1923, or as soon thereafter as possible. Salary commences from date of
assumption of duty.
Applications and copies of testimonials, all in duplicate, must reach the
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Trafalgar Square, W.C. (from whom Forms of Application and further
particulars may be obtained), not later than January 31, 1923.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.
Applications, accompanied by testimonials, record of degree or degrees
obtained, published work, and teaching experience (if any), are invited for
the above post. Salary £300 per annum. Physicists who possess a know-
ledge of Chemistry, as well as Chemists, are eligible for the post. Appli-
cations to be sent as soon as possible, and not later than December 20, to the
undersigned, from whom further particulars can be obtained.
WALTER W. SETON,
Secretary.
University College, London,
Gower Street, W.C.1.
HARPER ADAMS AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE.
NEWPORT, SALOP.
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“SI
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1922.
CONTENTS. PAGE
Science andthe Empire. : : : 1 797
Wegener’s Drifting Contheae, sy Prof. Grenville
A.J. Gole, F.RS. . c : 2 - 798
A New Treatise on Gnemisecy : ‘ é c . 801
Physiology of Respiration. By Joseph Barcroft,
BRS. ‘ : : c . 5 : . 803
Our Bookshelf. : A c ; 6 : - 804
Letters to the Editor :—
Echinodern Larve and their Bearing on Classifica-
tion.—Dr. Th. Mortensen 5 806
Rotary Polarisation of Light. (Wi ‘th Freee
—Prof. F. Cheshire; Dr. A. E. H. Tutton,
F.R.S. : : : : . 807
Space - Time Grodesics: 1 Alfred A. Robb,
F.R.S. : A 5 . 809
A New Type of Blectrical Coudenes estraied:)
—Dr. T. F. Wall 810
Sex of Irish Yew Trees.—Dr. C. J. Bond: (S; M. G. 810
The Physiography of the Coal-Swamps. By Prof.
Percy Fry Kendall, M.Sc., F.G.S. 5 5 . 811
The Royal wine of Science for Ireland. (//us-
trated) 5 : 5 . 814
Obituary :—
Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, K.B.E., F.R.S. . 816
Sir Norman Moore, Bt., M.D. . ‘ . a tty
Current Topics and Events 5 : 0 . 818
Our Astronomical Column . 3 : : O20
Research Items. 822
Physiological Aspects of Physical? = Measurement.
By Sir John Herbert Parsons, C.B.E., F.R.S. . 824
The Design of Railway Bridges 0 825
The Alps of Chinese Tibet and their Generinhical
Relations. By Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., and
J. C. Gregory . 826
The Present Position of the Whaling Industry reo 2y7
Biometric Studies : c 5 . 827
University and Educational Natellizesee c . - 828
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . : 6 . . 829
Societies and Academies. : ; : é . 829
Official Publications Received . : : ; 4 Be
Diary of Societies : : s : 5 : 5 832
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
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NO. 2772, VOL. I10]
Science and the Empire.
pies the past few weeks the minds of many
electors in Great Britain must have been dis-
turbed by the storms of rhetoric, appeals to occupa-
tional interests, and promises of a Golden Age in the
near future, which are common characteristics of a
general election. We have seen dozens of election
addresses, and almost all of them profess the desire
to promote industrial development, and thus reduce
the burden of unemployment. The solution of this
problem is not, so simple as it seems on
paper, and is not, moreover, solely a matter of adjust-
ing the conflicting claims of capital and labour. The
third pillar of the tripod upon which the structure of
modern civilisation has been erected is creative science,
however,
yet scarcely a candidate referred to it as an essential
factor of national stability as well as of progress.
This is perhaps not surprising, as the number of
voters engaged in scientific research or familiar with
its productive value is negligible in comparison with
the electorate in general upon whose suffrages in bulk
depends the position of a candidate at the poll. It is
also a consequence of the fact that scientific investi-
gators as a body do not in the public Press or on the
public platform assert their claims, or pronounce
their principles, so vociferously as do advocates of
many social changes and reforms of relatively trivial
importance. It is true that there is a National Union
of Scientific Workers, but it is a Trade Union affliated,
we believe, to the Labour Party, and it exists to secure
suitable conditions of work and payment for its mem-
bers rather than for the extension of natural know-
ledge. It is therefore concerned with occupational
interests alone, and has almost nothing in common
with our scientific societies which month by month
add more to the store of human knowledge than was
gained in a century in some earlier epochs of modern
be thought of the strength
it cannot be
Whatever may
of our position in any other respect,
questioned that as regards output of originality and
inventiveness British men of science are in the front
rank of the scientific army and often bear the banner
in the van of progress.
We have every reason to be proud of our pioneers
who to-day, as in the past, are cutting a way through
lands of promise from which
yet their names are mostly
history.
virgin forests into new
others will gather the fruits ;
unknown even to our political leaders, and their works
arouse no interest in the market place. Scientific men
are usually indifferent whether the public gives atten-
tion to their work or no; theirs is the joy of the
chase, and others may dispute over the spoils. This
unworldly attitude may excite respectful admiration,
798
NATURE
[DECEMBER 16, 1922
and we should be sorry to suggest that scientific in-
vestigators themselves should seek to get into the
limelight or take part in the turmoil of politics. They
are much better employed in the laboratory than in
What are wanted, however, are advo-
cates scientific method—men and
women who know the disinterested spirit in which
Parliament.
of science and
purely scientific inquiries are carried on and desire
to introduce into social and political discussions the
same impartial attitude towards evidence and fearless
judgment upon it. At the present time it is in a large
measure the mission of science to rebuild a shattered
civilisation, not alone by providing the foundations for
material progress, but also by introducing scientific
methods and the scientific spirit into all fields where
questions of national significance are debated.
To attain these ends there must be a much wider
understanding of the service of science than exists at
present. Science will not advertise itself, but there is
every reason why believers in it should undertake a
publicity campaign on its behalf. Dozens of inter-
esting leaflets or short pamphlets might be written
showing what science means to progressive industry
and modern civilisation, and they should be distri-
buted in thousands both to enlighten and to stimulate.
Wireless telephony, for example, is a direct product of
purely scientific studies. The tungsten used for the
filaments the thermionic valve and in metallic
filament lamps generally, was discovered more than a
century ago. It enters into the constitution of all
high-speed tool steels and every magneto. Man-
ganese, nickel, titanium, aluminium, and other essen-
tial constituents of the alloy steels now used for many
in
engineering purposes were all first discovered in
scientific laboratories. So also were the thorium and
cerium used in the manufacture of incandescent gas
mantles, calcium carbide for the production of acetylene
gas, the methods of extracting nitrogen from the air
to produce nitrates for explosives and agricultural
fertilisers, and hundreds of other substances and pro-
cesses which are now accepted as part of our daily life
without a thought of their origin.
The most remarkable of such developments is that of
helium gas discovered by Sir Norman Lockyer in the
sun in 1868, found in terrestrial minerals by Sir William
Ramsay twenty-six years later, and now being pro-
duced in millions of cubic feet from certain oil wells
in the United States, where all airships are compelled
to use this gas instead of hydrogen. It is quite possible
that the practical monopoly of helium which America
possesses in its rich sources of supply, may be of great
significance both in the arts of peace as well as those of
war. At any rate, the United States Government 1s
quietly accumulating vast quantities of the gas com-
NO. 2772, VOL. I10]
pressed in cylinders for whatever needs the future may
bring.
It is obvious that valuable national and Imperial
service can be performed by a body which has sufficient
funds to undertake active propaganda work for the
extension of an understanding of the influence of
scientific research and its results. The only organisa-
tion which is attempting to do this is the British Science
Guild, founded in 1905 to convince the people, by
means of publications and meetings, of the necessity
of applying the methods of science to all branches of
human endeavour and thus to further the progress and
increase the welfare of the Empire. The Guild is thus
not a scientific or technical society but a body of
citizens united for the purpose of making the Empire
strong and secure through science and the application
of scientific method. Its relation to the work done
in our laboratories is that of the Navy League to the
Royal Nayy—to watch and promote progress. Lord
Askwith has just accepted the presidency of the Guild
in succession to the Marquess of Crewe, who has
reluctantly had to withdraw from this office on account
of his appointment as British Ambassador at Paris.
Active steps are shortly to be taken by the Guild to
secure adequate funds for displaying the fertility of
British science not only throughout the Empire but
also to the whole world. We possess a great treasure,
and in these days cannot afford to let it lie hidden.
It is devoutly to be hoped, therefore, that when the
British Science Guild makes its appeal for funds and
members there will be a rich and ready response to it,
so that branches may be established throughout the
Empire for the strengthening of the foundations of the
knowledge upon which our position among the nations
of the world depends. The British Empire Exhibition
to be held in 1924 will provide an opportunity for
showing what science has accomplished, and we look
to a body like the British Science Guild to see that the
promoters provide in the Exhibition a Temple of
Science which shall be worthy of the great achieve-
ments of British genius.
Wegener's Drifting Continents.
Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane.
Alfred Wegener. Dritte gianzlich umgearbeitete
Auflage. Pp. viii+144. (Braunschweig: Friedr.
Vieweg und Sohn, Akt.-Ges., 1922.) 9s.
By Dr.
OWEVER much conservative instincts may
rebel, geologists cannot refuse a hearing to
Dr. Alfred Wegener, professor of meteorology in
the University of Hamburg. As an oceanographer, he
looks out over the boundaries of sea and land; as a
meteorologist, he is interested in changes of climate in
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
799
the past. Like many scientific workers, he feels that
a recognition of the Permo-Carboniferous ice-age
compels him to put forward an explanation. Like
them, he overlooks the fact that a century of specula-
tion as to the causes of the glacial epoch of far more
recent times has left us with a score of hypotheses
amid which we wander unconvinced. The evidence
of the occurrence of ice-ages becomes more and more
cogent as observation spreads, and it is highly probable
that they have a common cause. Prof. Wegener,
in laying stress on the differences between equatorial
and polar temperatures at the present day, takes up
the position of greatest difficulty, and regards a re-
gional refrigeration as necessarily connected with the
poles. He does not look beyond our planet and the
atmospheric conditions that now prevail. It is evident
that Prof. Spitaler’s laborious inquiries as to zonal
fluctuations will not content him, though this author
believes that he has drawn the Permo-Carboniferous
glaciation into his uniformitarian net. Wegener’s
suggestions are far more heroic; he will shatter the
outermost layer of the crust to bits, and remould it,
by successive arrangements of the pieces, nearer to
his heart’s desire. His theme is fascinating, and his
style is admirably lucid. His fondness for ‘“ hiiben
und driben,” a phrase, we believe, derived from
Goethe, makes us wonder if he treats the globe as
lightly as it was treated in the “ Hexenkiiche.’’ For
him indeed “sie klingt wie Glas; sie ist von Ton, es
giebt Scherben.”
As is well known, Wegener has been much impressed
by the easterly salient of S. America and the easterly
indent of the African coast. If we could assure
ourselves that these were at one time, and at the
right time, actually in contact, most of the problems
of oceanic islands, of paleoclimatology, and of the
distribution of land-organisms, would be _ solved.
Would not the instability of S. America in regard
to Africa imply a similar instability between N.
America and Europe, of which there is (p. 81) some
geodetical evidence, accepted by Wegener, but much
open to discussion? If the Atlantic is a crustal rift,
the other oceans are likely to have had a similar
origin. The primary crust, the silica-alumina layer,
which Wegener calls szal in preference to Suess’s less
distinctive word sal, broke open and gave rise to con-
tinental blocks and accessory islands, which float, and
even waltz, upon the szma, the silica-magnesia layer
that underlies them.
There is a concluding figure in many Bantu dances—
it survives even in folk-dances at Skansen—where two
partners turn back to back, bump, and part again.
The possibility of this figure on a continental scale is
thrilling and attractive. If Africa once parted from
NO. 2772, VOL. IIoO|
America, she may woo her mate again as years pass
by. The hand of the philosopher may be laid on
the great land-blocks, and the occurrence of Glos-
sopteris in India or of Geomalacus maculosus in
Kerry may be explained by a simple process of
“WVerschiebung.” If the fitting is not sufficiently
accurate, some plasticity is granted to the sial blocks,
and “ Umwalzung”’ is also possible (pp. 35 and 41).
Wegener’s conception, however, must not be taken
in the spirit of a jest. Experiments on the force of
gravity, made over very wide areas, have established
the existence of a mass-defect under mountain-ranges
and a mass-excess under lower grounds and oceans,
and the sea-floor may be justly regarded as consisting
of sima in large degree. It has long been recognised
that a crumpled crustal mass bulges both upward and
downward ; it displaces what we now call sima in the
depths. On the theory of isostasy, it maintains its
elevation above the general surface by the fact that
it displaces matter the specific gravity of which is
greater than its own. Like ice in water, it floats, with
a certain portion unsubmerged.
The analogy with ice is seized on by Prof. Wegener.
If icebergs shift their places and “ calve ” by cracking
on their flanks, why should not continents do the same ?
Let us grant that the level of the sima is reached at a
less depth than that of the ocean-floors ; the latter
must then be composed of sima, and over them the
buoyant continents may meet, and waltz, and part
again. Of course they may do so; but when we are
asked (p. tor) to look for the sima level about roo
fathoms down, or in some rare and dubious cases at
250 fathoms, we find that the rocks familiar to us on
the land-surface are held to extend very little beyond
the ordinary continental shelves. The chalk and flints
dredged from 600 fathoms off western Ireland will
require a new explanation. In depth, the continental
blocks may go down to 100 km. Their relations to
the earth as a whole, on this supposition, are shown on
the same longitudinal and vertical scale in an expressive
section following a great circle between S. America
and Africa. The two continents are seen to be well
immersed in sima. Sima (p. 113) behaves under
pressure like sealing-wax, and sial like wax. Hence
crumpling occurs in the sial blocks when they are
pressed against the sima, though the latter in time
yields and flows. Higher temperature in the depths
assists this flow, and (p. 105) inclusions of sima in the
base of sial blocks assist, by their greater fluidity, the
yielding of the sial under folding thrusts.
We have now before us Wegener’s view of the possi-
bility of great horizontal displacements of the con-
tinents. The author points out (p. 6) that H. Wett-
stein in 1880 regarded the continents as subject to a
800
westward drift; but he viewed the oceanic areas as
representing sunken land. This widely accepted
notion is rejected by Wegener at the outset.
We may ask why the skin of a contracting globe
became too small for the interior, and split along rifts
which ultimately widened into oceans. The answer is
that our globe is not contracting. It may even be
expanding through rise of temperature, and Joly’s con-
clusions are quoted as to the influence of radium in the
crust. Wegener thinks that Pickering, when, in 1907, he
fitted Africa and S. America together in a retrospect, was
wrong in assigning an Archean age to the great rent.
The present separation (p. 7) must have occurred since
Cretaceous times, if we are to account for the similarity
of structural features in the two continents. That is
to say, if we reject the notion that the ocean-floors
represent subsided land, and if we find similar succes-
sions of strata, and ranges with similar orientations,
in two separated continental blocks, these blocks must
have drifted apart. We should observe the importance
of that first “if”; if we agree with Wegener’s hypo-
thesis of the inadequacy of vertical movements of the
crust, we are in a fair way towards salvation. ‘“‘ Die
Theorie der Kontinentalverschiebungen vermeidet alle
diese Schwierigkeiten.’’ Even if contraction is going
on below, horizontal contraction of the continental
surfaces, by ‘“‘ Zusammenschiebung”’ and consequent
crumpling, goes on faster (p. 11), and this causes a
rending of the sial. To Wegener this does not seem to
open up a new series of “ Schwierigkeiten.” It explains
so much that it seems to require little explanation.
Yet is not this a return to the conception of a Great
First Cause ? Accept that, and all thereafter will run
smoothly.
Here again we may be charged with speaking lightly.
Wegener is dealing with possible natural events. Build
up an earth on certain lines, endow its parts with eertain
properties, some of which are suggested by well sub-
stantiated experimental work, and certain results are
rendered probable.
The great length of geological time can always be
appealed to as a factor. We may now ask what
causes continental lands to drift and waltz. We learn
(p. 132) that there is a tendency for the blocks to move
towards the equator, like other bodies capable of sliding
over the main curved surface of an oblate and rotating
earth, and that a westward drift may also be expected.
The island-loops, the garlands, are detached portions
left behind ; oceanic islands, however much they may
be disguised by igneous upwellings, however much they
may resemble volcanic cones built up from the depths,
are similar fragments stranded on the sima, children
that could not keep pace with their parents in the
movements of the continental dance.
NO. 2772, VOL. I10|
NALURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
This is perhaps the boldest stroke of all; but the
suggestion is continued on a larger and more serious
scale. New Zealand is bereft of a relative that has
hurried forward as Australia, Ceylon is cast off from
the foot of India, Madagascar from the African flank.
Prof. Wegener reads widely, and he uses biological and
geological details that suggest analogies and former
continuities. He quotes even (p. 40) Lange Koch’s
recent tracing of the Caledonian folding into Greenland
(see NATURE, vol. 110, p. 91), though he fails to recog-
nise the significance of Sigillaria in S. Africa or of
Glossopteris in northern Russia (p. 68). Having
rejected the probability of land-bridges and sunken
regions, the floor of the Indian Ocean becomes for him
a sheet of sima, left bare by separation of the con-
tinents, and we need no longer look wistfully for the
lost forests of Gondwana Land, as the flying fish come
on board to tell us of the secrets of the seas.
The trough-valleys that have been traced from Suez
to the Shire River, though their origin is still under
discussion, are regarded as signs of a rift that threatens
Africa. In Fig. 36, p. 117, we have the author’s view
of what may occur under such a trough; since the
walls are separating, room is aliowed for a sinking down
of fragments from them, while sima is rising under
them from below. It is obvious that a melting off of
the base of subsiding portions in the sima, such as the
author elsewhere contemplates, would allow of a very
different representation, and that Wegener’s drawing is
inspired by his rejection of vertical movements in the
sial. Even fjords, despite their barriers of continuous
rock, are for him cracks widening by lateral movement
as an ice-load presses on the coast.
Wegener’s strong case against general movements
of subsidence and evatelion lies of course in his
discovery (pp. 19-21) that the great majority of ocean-
depths lies near 4700 m. below, and of land-heights near
roo m. above, the level of the sea. Attention was
directed to this by the reviewer in NATuRE (vol. 109,
p. 202) of the second edition of Wegener’s work. The
conception of flotation is thus strongly supported ;
but it is already part of the doctrine of isostasy. Geo-
logical difficulties in Wegener’s hypothesis are discussed
by Philip Lake in his review of the second edition in
the Geological Magazine for August 1922. Literature
accumulates on the subject, and we have to consider
such general papers as those of Harold Jeffreys “ On
certain geological effects of the cooling of the earth”
(Proc. R. Soc., vol. roo, Sect. A, p. 122, 1921), where
account is taken of the fracturing of a primitive crust,
and such local studies as those of H. A. Brouwer on
the garland-isles of the Dutch East Indies (Journ.
Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 12, p. 172, 1922). Brouwer
regards the garlands as the crests of growing anticlines,
DECEMBER i6, 1922|
NATURE
8o1
based on crumpling masses that have a considerable
lateral as well as vertical movement. Meanwhile,
Wegener, flinging down his gage, certainly calls on us
to justify such faiths as we at present hold. His
principal geographic rearrangements are shown in a
series of small maps, in one of which the northern
lands are rearranged so as to explain the latest glacial
epoch. The Permo-Carboniferous glaciation presents
difficulties, as was pointed out in a notice of the
excellent papers by Du Toit (Nature, vol. 109, p.
757); but Wegener, when he has clustered his land-
masses around the pole, shifts the pole from point to
point among them, to suit their special idiosyncrasies.
Nothing daunts so bold a champion. The hand of
the master presses on the sial blocks or on the polar
axis, and all goes well with the hypothesis.
Has the author considered, however, that no re-
groupings of the furniture of the earth will account for
the simultaneous reduction of ice-masses in all glaciated
regions at the present day? Can, moreover, the
evidence for general rises of temperature in the past
be so lightly set aside ? Can—but these questions are
endless ; those who still hope for simple explanations
may well turn their eyes for light and inspiration,
with Akhenaten, to the sun.
GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.
A New Treatise on Chemistry.
A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical
Chemisiry. By Dr. J. W. Mellor. Vol. z. Pp.
xvi1 + 1065. Vol. 2. Pp. vili+ 894. (London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) 3/. 3s. net each
vol.
HE writing of a “ Comprehensive Treatise on
Inorganic Chemistry” presents a problem
which becomes more and more difficult with each
successive year. The small text-books of a century
ago soon required to be expanded into a series of
volumes such as were issued by Watts in 1868, and in
the English translation of Gmelin, of which rg volumes
were issued between 1848 and 1872. In recent years
the growth of the subject has been so rapid that nearly
all the more recent successes have been scored by
teams of workers, such as those who have collaborated
in the production of Thorpe’s “ Dictionary of Applied
Chemistry ” in England, and of Moissan’s “ Traité de
chimie minérale”’ in France, as well as in the more
recent German productions. Even so, as Dr. Mellor
reminds us in his preface, the seventh edition of Gmelin,
begun in 1905, Is not yet completed, while three other
unfinished compilations date back to 1905, 1900, and
1874 respectively. For every reason it is greatly to
be hoped that Dr. Mellor will be able to carry through
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
to completion the series of volumes of which the first
two have now been issued.
In reviewing these two volumes (and perhaps paying
more attention to the first than to the second), it is
necessary in the first place to offer respectful homage
to the author for the vast range of accurate information
which he has gathered together. Almost every item
of fact appears to have been abstracted from the
original sources, and by a system which has left very
little room for casual errors. It is, moreover, remark-
able to find that an author, whose interests have
generally been thought to centre themselves in the
mathematical and physical aspects of chemistry,
should be in a position also to deal in such an able
manner with other topics, such as the early history of
the science, which occupies a substantial portion of
the first volume. In these chapters his references are
often more numerous and earlier than those which are
given in the more formal histories ; thus, included in
volume x are a number of unexpected references to the
history of combustion before Jean Rey, of oxygen
before Priestley, and of crystallography before Hatiy,
while volume 2 contains, on page 419, an amazing quota-
tion from Roger Bacon, from which it might perhaps
be supposed that metallic sodium had already been
prepared in the thirteenth century! If the historical
portion of the volume is dull reading, the major portion
of the blame must be ascribed to the infertile character
of the science during two of the three periods into
which its history is divided by the author, namely, the
first or mythological period, and the second or philo-
sophical period, before it finally reached in the seven-
teenth century the third or scientific era. Certainly
the 50 pages which are devoted to these preliminary
stages fully justify the policy which has been adopted
generally by teachers, even of historical chemistry, of
curtailing within the narrowest limits the study of
everything prior to about 1600 4.p. A lingering doubt
as to whether this early period is quite so dull as it
appears has, however, been raised in the mind of the
reviewer by the sudden arousal of his interest when,
on page 107, a series of quotations are given from a
translation of Lucretius instead of a mere second-
hand summary of his views on atoms.
The materials for the Treatise have already been
used in part in the author’s “Modern Inorganic
Chemistry”; conversely, the treatise bears evidence
that it has been based, in part at least, upon an
expansion of the text-book. This hypothesis at any
rate serves to account for some features in the arrange-
ment of the treatise which are awkward and perhaps
undesirable. Thus, in a text-book, which the student
is expected to read consecutively from cover to cover,
and in which the assumption is made that the reader
2H 1
802
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
may begin with no previous knowledge of the subject,
it is a well-known device to alternate the theoretical
and the experimental sections; but this method is
surely out of place in a treatise which is so extensive
that it can be used only as a work of reference. In
such a treatise it is merely an annoyance, and a source
of unnecessary trouble to the reader, to break up the
text in this way. Thus the systematic account of
ozone and hydrogen peroxide is sandwiched between
unrelated chapters on the kinetic theory and on
electrolysis, to the obvious disadvantage both of the
theoretical and the descriptive portions of the book.
In the same way, and presumably for the same reason,
a valuable section on chemical affinity has been buried
in a chapter on hydrogen, together with a section on
mass action, while sections on catalysis, on con-
secutive reactions, and even on neutralisation, are
hidden away in a chapter on oxygen. In each of these
cases the index alone gives the clue as to where the
author has concealed his hidden treasures. It is
perhaps even more bewildering to discover a long
discussion of the indices of refraction of liquids and
vapours in a chapter on crystals and crystallisation.
In all these cases reference to the theoretical sections
is rendered unnecessarily difficult by the way in which
certain portions have been detached and redeposited
in the systematic chapters of the book.
A similar confusion between the methods which are
suitable for an elementary text-book and those which
are required in a work of reference is also to be. found
in some of the figures. For example, it would have
been much more satisfactory if facsimile reproductions
had been given of the apparatus used by Lavoisier for
the decomposition of steam by iron, and by Dumas
for determining the composition of water, instead of
the simplified and modernised versions of the diagrams
which are given on pages 130 and 134 of volume 1;
these can be of no possible value except to a student
in the first stages of his chemical education, when
simplicity rather than detailed accuracy is perhaps
necessary. The figures are, however, not a strong
feature of the treatise ; thus, in volume r a figure has
been omitted on page 89, while on page 214 a block
has been printed upside down. On page 607 a block
of Iceland spar with strictly rectangular faces is made
to show the double refraction of a black spot on a
strip of white paper without producing any refraction
at all of the paper which carries the spot ; the trigonal
axes on page 618 also give the impression of being
rectangular, and the rhombohedron of Iceland spar on
page 619 does not appear to have been drawn according
to any recognisable crystallographic scheme. The
diagrams of spectra would also have been of greater
value if they had been plotted on a scale of wave-
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
lengths instead of on what appears to be the arbitrary
scale of an instrument.
At the head of each section a quotation is given, and
many of them are particularly apt and interesting ;
it is a pity that only the name of the author is given
and that the system of references does not enable these
quotations to be traced to their source. This difficulty
arises also in other cases, e.g. on page 83, where half-a-
dozen striking examples of the influence of impurities
on the properties of metals are given with the name
of the author but no reference to the place where the
quotations may be found. The author has adopted
an ingenious system of numbering separately the
references to each section of perhaps half-a-dozen
pages, so that no extensive re-numbering is required
when additional references are inserted, and each
section with its references is complete in itself ; but
even this excellent system has occasionally failed and
most of the minor errors which have been detected in
the earlier chapters have arisen in connexion with the
misplaced numbering of the references. It is, how-
ever, necessary to enter a protest against the way in
which, especially in the systematic portion of the book,
a score or more of references are included under a
single number. In the case of a student who wishes
to consult the whole bibliography of a subject, no harm
may be done by this system; but in the case of a
chemist who wishes to look up quickly the original
sources from which data have been quoted, this method
of handling the references gives rise to much trouble-
some delay. To take only one example, on page 84,
volume 2, a figure 4s given of an apparatus by F. P.
Worley, and the text corresponding to this figure is
close at hand at the foot of the page, but a careful
inspection fails to reveal any number or sign with the
help of which the reference to this work might be
found among the two pages of closely printed references
at the end of the section. The numbers which form a
guide to the references are in any case not easy to find
in a text-book which bristles with the subscript numbers
of chemical formule and the superscript numbers of
mathematical formule and equations; and it is
necessary to go back to the top of page 83 and forward
to page 85 in order to discover the numbers 30 and 31,
with the help of which the reference to Worley’s work
is finally traced among the eleven references quoted
under the number 30. If this system of quoting
references is to be satisfactory, the reader should at
least have the assurance that he will not have to go
beyond the limits of a paragraph in order to find the
number which will lead him to the reference.
A fault which appears for the first time in volume 2
is the introduction of abbreviations into the main
portion of the text. These abbreviations may be in
DECEMBER 16, 1922|
NATURE
803
place when dealing with tabular matter or in con-
densed abstracts; but it is very irritating to the
reader to be pulled up in a purely narrative section by
phrases such as “ the liquid is conc. in salt-pans,” or
“the press. between the surfaces is normal.” After
such an experience the reader feels an unwonted thrill
of gratitude to the Publication Committee of the
Chemical Society, which does not even allow these
abbreviations in the narrative portions of its abstracts.
The saving of space which is achieved in this way is
more than lost as the result of inserting the initials of
every author even when the same author is mentioned
half-a-dozen times in one paragraph. The main idea
of quoting the initials of an author is probably correct,
even if it appears somewhat superfluous in the case of
giants such as Lavoisier and Priestley ; but to repeat
the initials over and over again, when the text makes |
it perfectly clear that the same author is being quoted,
is a purism which might well be sacrificed, if only in
order to find space to print in full the half-finished
words which disfigure the second (but not the first)
volume of the Treatise.
It will be seen that the criticisms given above refer
mainly to the way in which the contents of the Treatise
are presented, and not to the contents themselves.
The reviewer, who spent some weeks of his vacation
in mastering the contents of the two volumes before
attempting to criticise them, would therefore lke to
conclude his comments by again expressing his amaze-
ment that a single chemist should have brought
together so immense a store of information and have
compiled a Treatise which every English chemist will
desire to have on his shelves as a masterly guide to the
literature of his science. A list of errors is being
forwarded te the author.
Physiology of Respiration.
Respiration. By Dr. J. S. Haldane. (Silliman Mem-
orial Lectures.) Pp. xvii+427. (Newhaven:
Yale University Press ; London: Oxford University
Press, 1922.) 28s. net.
R. J. S. HALDANE’S book is nominally a report
D of his Silliman lectures delivered at Newhaven ;
in reality it is an account of his life’s work in physio-
logy. No one who turns over the pages can be but
impressed with the enormous advance which has been
made in the physiology of respiration within the last
thirty years, and the degree to which that advance has
been due to Dr. Haldane’s work and to the stimulating
influence which he has wielded over the minds of others.
To those who teach physiology, the contents of the
book are for the most part familiar ground. To such,
the book at its lowest will form a convenient epitome |
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
of Dr. Haldane’s works within the limits of a single
cover, but many will delight in reading it because in it
they will find a more perfect picture of the genius of
the author than is obtainable from the perusal of his
works in a less consecutive form.
One of the interesting points which will probably
strike the reader is the extent to which Dr. Haldane’s
discoveries in the realm of pure science have been the
result of problems which have confronted him in the
province of industrial or applied physiology.
Of industrial physiology—now so recognised a branch
of the subject in America—Dr. Haldane may almost be
said to have been the founder in this country. More
than thirty years ago the author was much concerned
to arrive at some explanation of the fact that man
could tolerate a concentration of carbon monoxide in
mines which, according to what might be expected on
theoretical grounds, should prove fatal. The difficulty
so raised led to.a complete investigation of the quantita-
tive relations of the blood to oxygen and carbon mon-
oxide respectively, and ultimately to his acceptance of
the theory of pulmonary respiration put forward by
Bohr, namely, that the pulmonary epithelium was
capable of secreting oxygen (see chap. v.). It is not
our opject to discuss here the correctness or otherwise
of these and other extremely controversial points in
the book. Our concern is to point out that Dr. Hal-
dane’s refusal to leave an important point in the physio-
logy of mines unexplained has led to a great volume
of work both by himself and by others which, taken
together, has given a quite unusual impulse to physio-
logical research.
From chapters x1., xii., and xii. it may be gleaned
that in the ’nineties of last century and the early part
of the present one, Haldane was much occupied with
the analysis of mine air, of the air in tunnels, in ships,
and in caissons. To the effects of sudden compression
and decompression may probably be traced his interest
in the effects of altered barometric pressure upon the
human frame. The present volume facilitates the taste
of the student who would acquaint himself with these
problems, for hitherto much of its author’s work on
them has been hid away in blue books, mining reports,
technical journals, and the like, so that it was difficult
for the ordinary reader of physiological literature even
to become appraised of its existence. In this connexion
it is much to be regretted that the book lacks an index.
If, as may confidently be expected, the present edition
is followed at no great date by another, we hope that
this omission will be made good. The book must surely
be to a great extent a work of reference, and a book
of reference without an index loses much of its use-
fulness.
The reader cannot scan the pages without observing
804
the large number of persons who have been privileged
to collaborate with Dr. Haldane. To that company
the book will mean something more than a mere re-
capitulation of his work or a history of the development
and philosophic position, or a commentary on the action
and reaction of abstract science on industrial research ;
it will mean something a little sacred, but something
which one of them, at all events, finds some difficulty
in putting into words. JosepH BARCROFT.
Our Bookshelf.
An Introduction to Sedimentary Petrography: With
special reference to loose Detrital Deposits and their
Correlation by Petrographic Methods. By Henry B.
Milner. Pp. 125. (London: T. Murby and Co.,
1922.) 8s. 6d. net.
Tuts attractive little book deals mainly with loose
detrital deposits and their correlation by petrographic
methods. The first chapter gives an account of
sampling, treatment, and methods of examination in
about a dozen pages. The next chapter (56 pages)
deals with detrital minerals and is illustrated by
numerous plates showing the shapes and appearances
of loose grains and crystals. Following this are two
chapters in which a courageous effort is made to show
the value of the evidence provided by detrital minerals
as a means of stratigraphical correlation, and as an
aid in paleogeographical studies. A useful biblio-
graphy, a table showing the distribution of detrital
minerals in British strata, and an index are included.
It is not easy to share Mr. Milner’s confidence in
the inferences he draws from the evidence provided
by the mineral composition of sediments. Such
evidence is rather unsafe as a basis of stratigraphical
correlation, owing to the rarity and local significance
of instances in which detrital minerals are derived from
what he calls “ homogeneous distributive provinces.”
The difficulty of generalising safely on the genesis of
detritus is illustrated very forcefully by Mr. Milner’s
statement that a garnet-staurolite-kyanite suite suggests
derivation from a definite thermo-metamorphic province,
while a sphene-apatite-zircon assemblage is indicative
of acid or intermediate rock-types as sources of supply,
whereas an ilmenite-anatase-rutile-brookite association
points to derivation from basic or ultrabasic rock-types.
These are, to say the least, highly controversial state-
ments, but they tend to make the subject interesting
and to stimulate further work ; for, as Mr. Milner very
properly remarks, the aim of science should be not
merely to collect facts, but to explain them, and to
put them to service in the solution of larger problems.
The difficulty in this particular case is that the facts
available are as yet scanty and very local in their
significance. Much patient fact-collecting remains to
be done before it can be ascertained whether any given
system or series has definite characteristics as regards
the nature and mineral composition of its detritus,
and what those characteristics are. Not until this work
has been done will it be safe to assert that the evidence
provided by detrital minerals is useful in any sub-
stantial way as a basis of stratigraphical correlation.
eC.
WATORE
[DeceMBER 16, 1922
Universal Problems. By H. Jamyn Brooks. Pp. 123.
(Braintree, Essex : The Author, The Limes, Shalford,
1922.)
REviEW by quotation is not usually desirable, but with
books of the class to which Mr. Brooks’s belongs it is
the only possible method. It will suffice to quote at
random three of the eight “ hypotheses on which the
theories discussed in the work are founded.”
“1, Every element, whether it be chemical, physical
or mental, is distributed in unbroken unity throughout
universal space.”
“5. The mode of progression of the physical forces
through matter and space is by communicated com-
bustion, as is illustrated by the ignition of a train of
gunpowder.”
“7, Energy is the force which becomes manifest
through expansion and contraction.”
At first we are inclined to be amused, but really
such books are tragic, not comic. For Mr. Brooks
lacks neither intelligence nor enthusiasm. He has
read enormously, and he has actually printed with his
own hands the little book in which his views are
presented. If only that intelligence and enthusiasm
had been combined with the desire and the capacity
to study science seriously! If only he had given to a
few elementary text-books and a short course of
laboratory work the time and application he has given
to encyclopedia articles and “popular” treatises !
Faced with such results as this, we are forced to ask
ourselves whether the “ popularisation ” of science is
all or mainly gain. Has Prof. Eddington, for example,
—his book is quoted more frequently than any other—
done good to science by arousing the interest of un-
trained readers, or harm by encouraging the delusion
that they can really understand ? NERA:
Mechanical Testing: A Treatise in Two Volumes. By
R. G. Batson and J. H. Hyde. (Directly-Useful
Technical Series.) Vol. 1: Testing of Materials of
Construction. Pp. xiii+413. (London: Chapman
and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 21s. net.
THE contents of this volume deal with the testing of
materials of construction; the testing of apparatus,
machines, and structures will be included in the second
volume. The authors have had extensive experience
in the National Physical Laboratory, and this is re-
flected in their book. A large number of engineers in
this country are now alive to the importance of con-
tinually testing the materials they employ, and to such
the volume will be welcome on account of the informa-
tion it contains regarding modern methods of testing.
The student will also find the book useful, since no
college laboratory contains all the apparatus described,
and text-books on materials usually have only brief
sections on the apparatus employed in testing. The
greater part of the volume is devoted to the testing .
of metals; besides the ordinary simple commercial
tests, we find chapters on the repetition of stress,
combined stresses, hardness testing, impact testing,
and the effects of temperature. The book closes with
chapters on the tests of timber, stone, brick, concrete,
road materials, limes, and cements. Sufficient informa-
tion is given regarding the results of methods of test-
ing to enable the experimenter to compare his own
results with average values for trustworthy materials.
' leg, and the re-education of the patient.
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
805
The book represents a large amount of work, not } The Beloved Ego: Foundations of the New Study of
merely on account of its actual contents but also on
account of the number of original papers which had to
be consulted. This is evidenced by the copious refer-
ences at the end of each chapter. The authors are to
be congratulated on the success with which they have
accomplished their task.
Artificial Limbs and Amputation Stumps: A Practical
Handbook. By E. Muirhead Little. Pp. viit+319.
(London : H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 18s. net.
No surgeon who may be called upon to amputate
a limb can afford to disregard the problem of fitting
a prosthetic appliance to the resulting stump. Mr.
Muirhead Little has recorded his conclusions, based
on a wide experience in fitting artificial limbs, and his
book will undoubtedly take its place as a standard
work of reference on the subject in English surgical
literature.
The chapter on amputation stumps is of great
importance ; in it the author describes the character-
istics of a good stump, the conditions which prevent
or delay the fitting of prostheses, and the best methods
of dealing with such conditions. The actual descrip-
tions of artificial limbs are mainly those of the British
Official Prostheses, 7.e. appliances supplied by the
Ministry of Pensions. Arms are classified according
to the work required to be done, and again according
to the amputation region. Lower limbs are grouped
corresponding to the site and type of amputation.
The book is very well illustrated and is complete in
its attention to details outside the actual fitting of the
limb, e.g. the preservation and repair of the artificial
The appendix
contains specifications of artificial limbs, and directions
for making certalmid sockets and for fitting the light
metal leg.
Industrial Nitrogen: The Principles and Methods of
Nitrogen Fixation and the Industrial Applications of
Nitrogen Products in the Manufacture of Explosives,
Fertilizers, Dyes, etc. By P. H.S. Kempton. (Pitman’s
Technical Primer Series.) Pp. xlit1o4. (London:
Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
Mr. Kempton has provided a very brief but readable
account of an important industry which has grown up
within the last ten years. The descriptions of the
processes are necessarily very sketchy, but enough
information is given to enable one to form a reasonably
accurate picture of the present state of affairs—one
which, it may be mentioned, is by no means to the
credit of this country. Several minor inaccuracies were
noted. The yields of the various are furnaces given on
p- 15 are not the real figures. The Claude process is not
the only one largely used for the manufacture of
nitrogen (p. 32). Copper formate, not chloride, is used
for the purification of hydrogen in the Haber process
(p. 45). “ Rev. A. Milner, 1871 ” should be “ Rev. I.
Milner, 1788 ” (p. 64). The ‘‘ Ostwald-Barton system ”
of ammonia oxidation (p. 67) is quite adequately
described by the first of the two names, and the state-
ment that in it “a catalyst of secret composition is
used instead of platinum,” although it appears to have
been spread abroad for the information of the credulous,
is wholly without foundation.
NO: 2772, VOL, 110]
the Psyche. By Dr. W. Stekel. Authorised Trans-
lation by Rosalie Gabler. Pp. xiv+237. (London:
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1921.)
6s. 6d. net.
DIFFERENT aspects of life, such as the fight of the
sexes, psychic opium, the fear of joy, the unlucky dog,
to select but a few, are some of the topics of the series
of essays which constitute this book. Each chapter
discusses special symptoms which, in particular cases,
reveal that the personality has been thrown out of
perspective, and the proffered solution is that love of
the self is the fundamental cause of the disturbance.
Love at first sight is love of the self as reflected in
another, and even the person who is always dis-
proportionately unlucky is so, because his self-love
demands that he must be unique in some one direction.
The author admits his indebtedness to the work of
Freud, and regards it as a step towards a new psycho-
therapy, but believes that sexuality has been over-
emphasised by Freud’s followers. He aims at showing
the part played by the self. The essays are in popular
form and are certainly interesting and embody much
sound advice.
A Textbook of Organic Chemistry. By Prof. J. S.
Chamberlain. Pp. xliti+959. (London: G. Rout-
ledge and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 16s. net.
Pror. CHAMBERLAIN’S textbook follows the usual lines.
Only important compounds are described, and attention
is directed to the general relationships between groups
of compounds. The style is clear and the matter well
arranged, so that students beginning the serious study
of organic chemistry should find the book of value,
especially if supplemented by lectures, as the author
intended. The printing and paper are good. From
the large number of elementary textbooks on organic
chemistry which have appeared recently one might be led
to infer that some new methods of teaching the subject
had been evolved. This does not seem to be the case.
(1) Industrial Motor Control: Direct Current. By A.T.
Dover. (Pitman’s Technical Primer Series.) Pp. x1
+116. (London: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd.,
1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
(2) Switching and Switchgear. By H. E. Poole. (Pit-
man’s Technical Primer Series.) Pp.ix+118. (Lon-
don: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d.
net.
(3) The Testing of Transformers and Alternating Current
Machines. By Dr. C. F. Smith. (Pitman’s Tech-
nical Primer Series.) Pp. xit+g91. (London: Sir I.
Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
(1) Mr. Dover’s object in his book is to discuss the
principles involved in the starting and speed control
of direct current motors. The principles are applied
subsequently to typical control apparatus. The dia-
grams are well drawn and the descriptions are clear.
(2) The elementary considerations which have to be
taken into account when designing apparatus for the
switch-control of electric circuits are well described in
Mr. Poole’s book. It will form a useful introduction
to more technical treatises.
(3) Dr. Smith’s book will prove useful to students, and
t9 enzineers who want to revise their knowledge.
806
NATURE
[DECEMBER 16, 1922
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents.
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of,
this or any other part of NATURE.
taken of anonymous communications.)
No notice is
Echinoderm Larvz and their Bearing on
Classification.
In Nature of December 22, 1921, Prof..E. W.
MacBride, in consequence of Dr. F. A. Bather’s
review (in NatuRE of December 8, 1921) of my work,
‘Studies of the Development and Larval Forms of
Echinoderms,’”’ has taken the opportunity of making
some remarks which, at least partly, have somewhat
the character of a personal attack on me. Being at
that time on a scientific expedition to the Malay
Archipelago, it was not until the middle of May last
that I received the issue of Nature containing that
communication. In spite of Dr. Bather’s chivalrous
defence on my behalf, I think it desirable to send to
Nature an answer to Prof. MacBride’s letter. This
could not possibly be done then, however, as out there
(at the Kei Islands) I had no access whatever to
literature—not even to my own work. I had to
wait until my return from the expedition, and there-
fore it is only now that I am in a position to send a
reply to the statements made by Prof. MacBride a
year ago.
Prof. MacBride first emphatically objects to the
idea that the metamorphosis of Echinoderms might
be an alternation of generations. It is not quite
clear to me whether this is addressed to the reviewer
or to the author, or perhaps to both of us. Dr.
Bather has replied for himself to this objection. I
may be allowed here to reply to it for my part, and
shall do so simply by quoting what I did write.
On p. 124 of my work I state that in Ophiopluteus
opulentus the postero-lateral arms remain in connexion
after the young Ophiuran has been dropped, in the
same way as it occurs in the larva of Ophiothrixv
fragilis. In Ophiopluteus opulentus, however, it
appears that the larva does not perish after a little
while, as doubtless happens to the Ophiothrix-larva.
Some specimens show that a new lavval body begins
to vegenevate from the postero-lateral arms. That we
have here to do not simply with abnormal larve is
evident from the fact that the long postero-lateral
arms are perfectly normally developed, which could
not be the case in an abnormal larva with the mouth
and intestinal organs imperfectly developed, and
accordingly unable to feed. Further, on p. 148 is
said: ‘‘ How far the process of regeneration goes
cannot be ascertained; but in any case Pl. XX.
Fig. 5 shows that it may go on so far as till the
formation of a new mouth and cesophagus. It is
also evident from the numerous nuclei seen in the
anterior part of the new body that a vigorous growth
is going on here, so that it would seem most probable
that the process may continue the short while, until
the new digestive organs are able to assume normal
function—and then there seems to be no reason to
doubt that a new complete and ultimately meta-
morphosing larva may be the result. Thus we would
here have a true case of metagenesis, otherwise totally
unknown in Echinoderms.” Finally, on p. 149 |
have said: ‘‘ Of course, I do not mean to maintain
that definite proof of this astonishing regeneration
has been given. But the available material certainly
indicates that it does take place. The problem most
urgently invites closer investigation.”
I think it clear from these quotations that I do not
NO: 2772, VOL, TIO}
Neither
rejected manuscripts intended for
characterise the metamorphosis of Echinoderms as an
1 alternation of generations. On the other hand, if
the regenerating larva goes on to metamorphose a
second time, even Prof. MacBride certainly will have
to regard this as a (of course quite exceptional) case
of metagenesis in Echinoderms. The correctness of
my observations is not to be doubted—the regenerat-
ing larve are at the disposal of any one who may wish
to control my figures; and my conclusions, which
are perfectly logical, I cannot agree to be audacious.
To my statement that since the larve of the more
primitive Asteroids (the Phanerozonia) are devoid of
a Brachiolaria stage, the sucking disk found in the
larvee of Spinulosa and Forcipulata must be a later
acquired specialised structure, and accordingly the
homology generally supposed to exist between the
sucking disk of the Brachiolaria and the Pelmatozoan
stalk only apparent, and the great part it has played
in phylogenetic speculations unjustified, Prof.
MacBride most emphatically objects: ‘‘ No more
rash statement could be made nor one more devoid
of foundation. Modern Asteroids are divided into
five groups, viz. Forcipulata, Valvata, Velata, Paxil-
losa, and Spinulosa. Nothing whatever is known of
the development of any valvate or velate form, but
the fixed stage is found not only in the development
of the Forcipulata (which Dr. Mortensen arbitrarily
regards as the most specialised forms) but also in the
development of the Spinulosa (which all admit to be
the most primitive group). In the Paxillosa, which
include the British genera Astropecten and Luidia,
and which, muivabile dictu, Dr. Mortensen appears
to regard as primitive forms, the fixed stage is
GyaaulignAl, 5 ao”
I shall leave the strong expressions to Prof.
MacBride and only comment upon his statement that
“all admit ”’ the Spinulosa to be the most primitive
group of Asteroids.
Prof. MacBride will probably agree that among
naturalists now living the following are the first
authorities on Asteroids: W. K. Fisher, H. L. Clark,
R. Koehler, and L. Déderlein. I have written to all
of them, asking them to tell me (1) whether they have
ever stated as their opinion that the Spinulosa are
the most primitive Asteroids (I did not remember
ever having met with such statements in their
publications, but I might, of course, have been mis-
taken) ; (2) to inform me which group of starfishes
they regard as the most primitive. All answered that
they had never stated the Spinulosa to be the most
primitive Asteroids. Prof. W. K. Fisher writes: “ I
think that the typical Phanerozonia such as the
Astropectinide, Odontasteride, etc., are decidedly
more primitive than the Spinulosa, meaning by that
the Asterinide, Echinasteride, and Solasteride, to
mention three of the families.’ Dr. H. L. Clark
Writes that he agrees perfectly with me “‘ in consider-
ing the Asteropectinide as essentially primitive, and
the Spinulosa specialised.’ Prof. Koehler writes :
“« Je crois, comme vous, que les types les plus primitifs
doivent étre cherchés dans les formes voisines des
Astropectinidées, telles que le genre Hudsonaster et
d’autres genres trés anciens.’’ Prof. Déderlein writes
that he regards the family Asterinide as “ die
urspriinglichste aller Seestern-Familien.”” Among
recent authorities on Asteroids, Déderlein thus is the
only one who holds a similar view as to the classifica-
tion of Asteroids as Prof. MacBride; but as he has
never stated this opinion in any of his publications,
neither Prof. MacBride nor I could possibly know
anything thereof.
I may further mention that both Sladen and
Ludwig, who, Prof. MacBride will probably agree,
must also count as authorities on asteroid classifica-
tion, likewise regard the Phanerozonia, not the
eee
Oe
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NAG RE
807
Spinulosa, as the more primitive.
adopted by Hamann in “ Bronn”’ and by Gregory
in Ray Lankester’s “ Treatise on Zoology.” Prof.
MacBride alone, and, among late specialists in Aster-
oids, Perrier, have expressed the view that the
Spinulosa are the more primitive of Asteroids. Is
Prof. MacBride then not perhaps attaching somewhat
too much value to his own opinion when he states
that “all admit’’ the Spinulosa to be the most
primitive group of Asteroids—with myself alone as
an absurd exception ?
The question which group of Asteroids is the most
primitive may not yet be definitely solved. If,
however,—as nearly all admit—the Astropectinid
forms are the most primitive, the conclusion is in-
evitably that the Brachiolaria, occurring—so far as
evidence goes—only in the more specialised groups,
the Spinulosa and Forcipulata, is a specialised larval
form and its sucking disk a specialised, later acquired
structure. Then this sucking disk is not homologous
with the crinoid stalk, and its use in phylogenetic
speculations is unjustified.
To Prof. MacBride’s suggestion that my views
would have some more value if I “ had worked out
with thoroughness the complete life-history of any
Echinoderm,’’ and to his protest against “‘ the idea
that those interested in Echinoderms agree with the
over-estimate of the importance of trifling peculiar-
ities in the structure of pedicellarie in which Dr.
Mortensen indulges’? Dr. Bather has already kindly
replied. Inorder not to make this belated reply too
This opinion is also
lengthy I shall then not take up these challenges at |
present. Tu. MORTENSEN.
Zoological Museum, Copenhagen.
November 22.
Rotary Polarisation of Light.
In the second edition of Dr. Tutton’s monumental
work on “ Crystallography and Practical Crystal
Measurement,” a question of some interest to
crystallographers and physicists is raised in an acute
form by a footnote at the bottom of page 1082,
which reads :—
“Considerable confusion has been introduced into
the subject of optical rotation by the fact that
chemists, in their use of the polarimeter for the
determination of the rotation of the plane of polarisa-
tion by optically active substances (chiefly liquids
or solids in solution, but occasionally the solids
themselves), have adopted a different convention,
as regards the sign of the rotation, to that employed
by physicists and crystallographers, who refer to the
actual occurrence in the crystal itself. For instance,
the right-handed quartz of the crystallographer
actually rotates the plane of polarisation of light
in the opposite direction to the so-called dextro-
camphor of the chemist. The latter regards a
rotation as right-handed or dextro when it appears
clockwise to the observer looking through the eye-
piece of the polarimeter. But the crystallographer
regards himself as travelling with the beam of light,
that is, as looking along the direction of propagation
of the light: if the movement of the light in the
crystal is like that of a right-handed screw, clockwise,
the crystal is right-handed or dextro-gyratory, and
if the light moves in left-handed screw fashion, anti-
clockwise, the crystal is lewvo-rotatory or left-handed.
It is very important that this should be quite clear.”
This question as to the precise meaning to be attached
to the words “right-handed rotation’’ has been
responsible for a certain amount of misunderstanding
and confusion in text-books on mineralogy and
physics for nearly a hundred years, and from Dr.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
Tutton’s footnote it would appear that it is still
unsettled.
Now the facts are simple. In 1813, the famous
physicist Biot read a paper before the Institute of
France? in which he described a number of experi-
ments that he had made upon plates of rock-crystal
cut perpendicularly to the axis of crystallisation.
In carrying out this work Biot made the important
discovery that there are two kinds of quartz—one
in which the plane of polarisation is rotated to the
right, while in the other the rotation is to the left.
In carrying out these experiments Biot used a table
polariscope, and adopting as a standard succession
of colours that in which they ascend in Newton’s
scale, namely, red through yellow and green to blue,
he found that a rotation of the analyser from left
to right, that is in a clockwise direction, gave the
standard succession for one kind of quartz, while
an opposite rotation gave it for the other. The
first rotation he spoke of as right-handed and the
second, consequently, as left-handed. The experi-
ments were subsequently carried out upon a consider-
able number of liquids and the convention of direction
of rotation referred to was applied consistently.
In 1820, that is, seven years after Biot’s discovery
of right- and left-handed rotation of the plane of
polarisation, Herschel read a paper before the Cam-
bridge Philosophical Society ? in which he announced
his discovery that the direction of rotation of the
plane of polarisation in quartz is indicated by the
disposition of certain crystal faces.
Unfortunately, however, Herschel was not satisfied
with Biot’s convention, and he proposed to substitute
for it one in which the observer was supposed:to be
looking along the beam of light in the direction in
which the light was passing. While Biot, as it
were, looked at an internally illuminated clock-face
from the outside, Herschel preferred to look at it
irom the inside. Biot’s right-
handed thus became Herschel’s A
left-handed rotation. Herschel,
however, was consistent. He
called the crystal which gave a
right-handed rotation according
to his convention, a right-hand /|
crystal, and in giving the results [7
of Biot’s experiments on liquids, /
he changed the signs in order to
bring them into accordance with
his own convention. Thus ac-
cording to Herschel cane sugar
in solution rotates the plane of
polarisation to the left.
(1830). In this article it is
stated that the figure “ repre-
sents a right-hand crystal.” a
It. is important to note here
that in practically all modern
books this figure illustrates a ;
left-hand [twin] crystal. The confusion resulting
from Herschel’s attempt to substitute his convention
for that of Biot was soon apparent. :
In 1843 a book entitled “ Lectures on Polarised
Light delivered before the Pharmaceutical Society
of Great Britain’? appeared. This admirable little
book of some hundred pages was written by Dr.
Pereira. Now Dr. Pereira was evidently alive to
Fig. 1 is a reproduction of
the figure given in Herschel’s
1 “ Mémoires de la classe des Sciences mathématiques et physiques de
Institut Impérial de France (Année 1812),” Pt. I. pp. 263-4.
original paper and reproduced
in the article “‘ Light ’’ in the
Encyclopedia Metropolitana
2 Trans. Cam. Phil. Soc., vol. i. p. 43 (1821).
Fic. 1.—A right-hand crystal
(Herschel).
808
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
the danger of confusion arising from the existence
of contradictory conventions such as those of Biot
and Herschel, because, on page 86, he writes :—
“There are two varieties or kinds of circularly
polarised light which have been respectively dis-
tinguished by the names of dextrogyrate or right-
handed, and levogyrate or left-handed.
“In one of these the vibrations are formed in an
opposite direction to those in the other. Unfortu-
nately, however, writers are not agreed on the applica-
tion of these terms ; and thus the polarisation, called,
by Biot, right-handed, is termed, by Herschel, left-
handed, and vice versa. There is, however, no differ-
ence as to the facts, but merely as to their designation.
If, on turning the analysing prism or tourmaline |
from left to right, the colours descend in Newton's
scale, that is, succeed each other in this order—ved,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, Biot
designates the polarisation as right-handed, or +,
or /; whereas if they descend in the scale by turning
the analyser from right to left, he terms it left-handed,
or —, or \. Sir John Herschel, on the other hand,
supposes the observer to look in the direction of the
rays motion. Let the reader, he observes, ‘ take a
common corkscrew, and holding it with the head
towards him, let him use it in the usual manner, as
if to penetrate a cork. The head will then turn
the same way with the plane of polarisation as a ray
in its progress from the spectator through a vight-
handed crystal may be conceived todo. If the thread
of the corkscrew were reversed, or what is termed a
left-handed thread, then the motion of the head, as
the instrument advanced, would represent that of
the plane of polarisation in a left-handed specimen
of rock-crystal.’
“T shall adopt Biot’s nomenclature, and designate
the polarisation right-handed or left-handed according
as we have to turn the analysing prism to the right
or to the left to obtain the colours in the descending
order.”
We have in these paragraphs a very clear and
unambiguous statement of the two conventions.
Biot’s is finally adopted and used consistently
throughout the book. It will be noted, however,
that Pereira speaks of colours which succeed each
other in the order, red, orange, yellow, etc., as descend-
ing in Newton’s scale.
A second and greatly enlarged edition of Pereira’s
book, edited by the Reverend Baden Powell, appeared
in 1854, after the author’s death. Im this edition
the above paragraphs remain substantially the same,
except that the words “the colours descend in
Newton’s scale, that is, succeed each other in this
order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
violet,’’ in the first edition, are replaced by these
words in the second edition (see p. 253)—‘‘ The
colours descend in the order of Newton’s scale—that
is, succeed each other in the order of the colours of
their plates, reckoning from the central black as
the highest point.”
It will be noticed that the enumeration of the
colours, red, orange, yellow, etc., has been replaced
by the words “‘ succeed each other in the order of
the colours of their plates, reckoning from the central
black as the highest point,’’ so that we must seek
further for information as to the meaning of the words
“ descend in the order of Newton’s scale ’’ as used in
the second edition. And turning to page 256, we
read :— :
“ Thus, suppose we turn the analyser right-handed,
that is, as we screw up, the colours succeed each
other, with a certain thickness of the crystal, in
this order—ved, orange, yellow, green, purple, ved
again, and so on, in the ascending order of Newton’s
scale, on the colours of thin plates, before given.”
“NO: 2772, VOL; 1 To]
So that in the second and first editions, the word
“ descend ”’ has contradictory and opposite meanings.
In the first edition it refers to colours succeeding
one another in the order, red, yellow, green, and
blue, whereas in the second edition the word “‘ ascend-
ing’ is used to denote the same order of colours.
The result is that while Biot’s convention was given
clearly and correctly in the first edition, and used
consistently, that given as Biot’s convention in the
second edition is, unfortunately, not Biot’s but
Herschel’s convention, but both are used, with the
result that the student gets hopelessly puzzled.
In Dr. Tutton’s book, in spite of the warning in
the footnote quoted, the first and also the second
editions have apparently been written consistently
with the Biot convention. In the first edition, for
example, at pp. 802-803 and in the second edition at
pp. 1082-1083, it is stated that ‘‘a slight rotation of
the analyser from the position for the violet transition
tint, to the right (clockwise) or left (anti-clockwise)
according as the crystal is right-handed or left-
handed, causes the colour to change to red (first
order). On the other hand, a rotation of the analyser
contrary to the rotary character of the plates causes
the violet transition tint to change to blue or green
(second order).’’ This statement, it will be seen
upon consideration, can only be true of the right-
and left-handed crystals shown by Figs. 344 and 345
Fic 344.—Left-Handed Crystal
of Quarta.
Fro. $45.—Right-Handed
Cryatal of Quartz.
Fic. 2.
of the first edition (here reproduced in Fig. 2) and
Figs. 311-312 of the second edition, upon Biot’s con-
vention. Upon Herschel’s convention the words
“right (clockwise) ’’ and “left (anti-clockwise) ’’ should
be transposed in the above quotation.
Any attempt to revive Herschel’s convention
should, I think, be resisted. Simple experimental
facts should be capable of description in clear and
unambiguous language, and this, as has been shown,
is not likely to be achieved so long as two conventions,
in such a simple matter, are tolerated. The fact that
Herschel himself brought his convention into line with
crystallographic nomenclature by calling what is now
universally accepted as a right-hand crystal, a left-
hand crystal, has been overlooked. The crystallo-
graphic conceptions of right- and left-handed crystals
are not likely to be changed now, so that the adoption
of the Herschel convention by any writer will, or
should, necessitate the definite statement that accord-
' ing to this convention a right-hand crystal is made
up of left-hand quartz. Dana, it is true, in his
“System of Mineralogy ”’ gives Herschel’s convention,
but he accepts at the same time the usual definition
of right- and left-hand crystals, so that a right-hand
crystal, according to him, is left-hand optically. It
should be remembered, however, that the last edition
of Dana appeared thirty yearsago. Later writerssuch
as Miers, Johannsen, Duparc, and Pearce, and many
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
others, have not, however, followed Dana—a crystal
right-hand crystallographically, is also right-hand
optically with them. EF. CHESHIRE.
Imperial College of Science,
South Kensington,
October 27.
I am much indebted to Prof. Cheshire for stating
so clearly the historic incidence of the confusion
which has arisen in regard to the designation of the
two types of optical rotation, as to which shall be
called right-handed and which left-handed, due
_largely to the reversal of Biot’s convention by Sir
John Herschel, and to the similar reversion in the
second edition of Dr. Pereira’s book. Other in-
vestigators and experimenters have also adopted
the reversal, for instance, Sir William Spottiswoode
at the time he was president of the Royal Society,
for on pp. 47-48 of his book, “ Polarisation of
Light,” we read: ‘‘A right-handed ray is one in
which, to a person looking in the direction in which
the light is moving, the plane of vibration appears
turned in the same sense as the hands of a watch.”’
Moreover, if instead of using the polariscope as a
table instrument one projects the phenomena on the
screen, the picture there displayed is reversed exactly
like a lantern slide, which has to be inverted in the
lantern (the two spots in front at the top being
brought to the bottom at the back), in order to get
an upright picture on the screen. Thus, for example,
in the mica-sector experiment of the late Prof. S. P.
Thompson (pp. 1103-1104 of the second edition of
my “ Crystallography and Practical Crystal Measure-
ment ’’), the black cross moves on the screen one
sector to the left for a right-handed quartz crystal
and to the right for a left-handed one; whereas on
looking through the same instrument used as a table
polariscope the movement is to the right for a right-
handed crystal, in accordance with the Biot con-
vention.
It is thus important to know the exact condi-
tions of the experiment whenever the question of
the correct discrimination of right- or left-handed-
ness in the optical rotation of crystals is being dealt
with. Further, the safest course, in the case of
quartz, is to cut the section-plate to be used to
afford the definite decision from a crystal which is
clearly a single individual, and not a-twin, showing
the little s and x faces unmistakably, and this
course was pursued by me in the preparation of my
“ Crystallography.’”’ As most in accordance with
current practice (that of von Groth and Pockels,
for example), and in rightful deference to Biot, the
discoverer of the two optically active kinds of quartz,
Biot’s convention was used, in both editions of the
book, a course which it is satisfactory to learn meets
with the approval of Prof. Cheshire. The apparent
opposite, on p. 1101, lines 7-8, is due to this being a
projection experiment, the observer looking towards
the screen along with the light rays; the direction
here, however, really does not matter, as only the
colour of the centre of the field is being referred to ;
even here, perhaps, it would be better in any future
edition (they were not present in the first edition)
to omit the words “ from the point of view of the
observer looking in the same direction as the light
is being propagated,’ the text then conforming
clearly with the Biot convention. On p. 1083,
where a table experiment is being referred to, and
the conditions are otherwise similar to those in the
centre of the field in the case just referred to, there
is no ambiguity, the Biot convention being clearly
followed.
NO. 2772, VOL. ITO]
NATURE
809
It was felt desirable to direct attention to the
confusion which has so obviously arisen, and this
was done in the footnote to p. 1082. Emphasis was
attempted to be laid on the fact that, after all, the
phenomena are due to the passage of the ray through
the helical structure of the crystal, now so happily
confirmed by Sir William Bragg’s X-ray analysis of
quartz, and that the observer does well to imagine
himself travelling with the rays through the screw,
in order to appreciate the cause of the rotation of
the plane of polarisation or vibration of the light
rays. The particular screw type, right- or left-
handed, is the same, however, whether we regard
the screw from one end of it or the other, whether
we look along with or against the light stream ;
otherwise it would matter which side up the quartz
plate were arranged, that is, which side were placed
the nearer to any particular one of the nicols. But
the optical effect, the rotation of the plane of polarisa-
tion or of vibration of the light rays, is, of course,
what matters and what is so clearly different for
the two different types of quartz helices, and it was
my intention to retain and use the Biot convention
for its directional (right- or left-handed) designation.
The footnote in question is not sufficiently explicit,
and must be amended in any future edition. Prof.
Cheshire and the writer are, however, quite agreed
on the facts, and that this Biot convention shall be
the one employed, and I am grateful to Prof. Cheshire
and to the editor of Nature for affording me the
opportunity of stating this. A. E. H. Turron.
Space-Time Geodesics.
In his letter in Nature of November 25, replying
to mine which appeared in Nature of October 28,
Prof. Piaggio points out that the equations of Space-
Time geodesics may be deduced by other methods
than those of the calculus of variations, and suggests
that, in some such way, it is possible to get over
the difficulties to which I directed attention.
My criticism, however, was directed, not merely
against the definition of Space-Time geodesics as
minimum lines, but against all seeming definitions
of them which start from ideas of measurement as a
fundamental basis.
I must, however, in passing, warn my readers
against what at first sight looks like a suggestion,
though I have no doubt that it was not so intended
by Prof. Piaggio, that Space-Time geodesics might
be defined in terms of “ the osculating plane.”
If there were any strict analogy with the case of
geodesics on surfaces in ordinary three-dimensional
geometry, such an “ osculating plane’ would (apart
from a line of intersection) have to lie in some
mysterious region outside our Space-Time continuum
altogether. Prof. Piaggio, however, I have no
doubt, wishes to lay stress upon the equations he
obtains.
I was of course aware that the equations of Space-
Time geodesics could be arrived at by various
analytical devices; but how much better off does this
leave us? Consider, for example, the simple Space-
Time analysis as given by Minkowski and see what
it implies.
In the first place, it implies a set of co-ordinate
axes x, y, z, and ¢, which are themselves geodesics.
How are these particular geodesics to be defined ?
They cannot be defined as minimum lines, for
they are not minimum lines; and we cannot use
our co-ordinate system to define them, since we
are now contemplating how the co-ordinate system
can be set up.
2B 2
810
WATUOURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
In the second place, the co-ordinate axes are
supposed to be noymal to one another. How is this
normality to be defined? It is to be remembered
that mormality in Space-Time theory is a wider
conception than normality in ordinary geometry ;
since in the former we have lines which are “ se/f-
noymal’’ (or what I have called “‘ optical lines ’’),
in addition to other rather curious features.
In the third place, the co-ordinate axes are supposed
(if I may so express it), to be capable of graduation in
equal parts. How is this graduation to be theoretic-
ally arrived at, and how are we to compare iengths,
say along the axis of x, with lengths in some other
direction ?
It thus appears that we are reasoning in a circle
if we attempt to give an analytical definition of
Space-Time geodesics on such a basis.
The employment of generalised co-ordinates does
not free us from difficulties, for, if it gets us out
of one difficulty, it brings in another in its place.
Thus, for example, if the “ graduations’’ were
made according to arbitrary scales, the expression
for the length of a Space-Time interval would contain
functions the form of which would depend upon the
arbitrary character of the scales employed."
Again, if measurement of intervals be regarded
as a fundamental conception, what is one to make of a
case where
(#1 — 4%)? + (V1 — Vo)” + (21 — 20)” — (4, — ty)? =0,
in which (#,, yy, 21, ¢,) and (42, Vo, 22, t) are the co-
ordinates of two Space-Time points ?
It must not be supposed that in raising these
objections to the ordinary methods of treating this
subject I am concerned only with destructive
criticism.
My own answers to these difficulties are to be
found in my published work.
In conclusion, I must thank Mr. Rogers for his
very interesting letter published in Nature of
November 25; which, however, does not call for any
special reply.
ALFRED A. ROBB.
Cambridge, November 27.
A New Type of Electrical Condenser.
Stnce an electrical condenser is a device for storing
electricity, it follows that a secondary battery is a
condenser—obviously of very large capacity as
compared with the electrostatic type of condenser.
Arguing from this point of view it appeared to the
writer that, by a suitable arrangement of pasted lead
grids immersed in dilute sulphuric acid and connected
in circuit with an alternating current, it should be
possible to obtain the characteristic effect of an
electrical condenser, namely, a phase advance of the
current relatively to the terminal potential difference.
Fic. x.
A large number of tests have borne out this con-
clusion and it may be of interest to readers of NATURE to
show an oscillogram of the effect (Fig. 1). The oscillo-
gram was taken during a test on a cell consisting of grids
1 This is the same sort of point which would arise, for instance, in
thermodynamical theory by using some arbitrary scale of temperature
nstead of the thermodynamic scale.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
pasted with red lead and immersed in dilute sulphuric
acid. The temperature of the electrolyte was about
86° C., the frequency of supply was 3:5 cycles per
second, the current density about 0-75 amperes per
square inch of grid and the r.m.s. value of the terminal
pressure was a little more than 2 volts. There was
practically no gassing of the cell during the test.
If the fundamental of the potential wave is deter-
mined it will be seen that there is a large angle of
phase advance of the current on the pressure. There
is One other interesting point noticeable in the oscillo-
gram, namely, the potential difference of the grids
remains relatively very small during a large portion of
the current wave. When the current wave has passed
its maximum value the pressure quickly rises to a
maximum and then falls to zero at about the same
moment as the current reaches its zero value. The
process is then repeated during the next half of the
current wave. T.. F. WALE,
Edgar Allen Research Laboratory,
The University, Sheffield, November 25.
[AN engineering contributor to whom we have
shown Dr. Walls’ interesting letter writes: “It
has been well known to electricians for the last
thirty years that an electrolyte with metal plates
in it will act as a condenser. These devices are
called electrolytic condensers and are used in every-
day work. They generally consist of aluminium
plates immersed in an electrolyte, but iron plates in
a solution of soda are sometimes used. They are
useful for getting currents which lead in phase the
supply voltage. Dr. Gunther Schulze carried out
an extensive series of tests on electrolytic condensers
at the Reichsanstalt in r0909. See Elektrotechnik
und Maschinenbau, ‘ Kondensatoren Grober Kapa-
zitat’ (vol. xxvii. p. 247, 1909).”—Epiror, NATURE. }
Sex of Irish Yew Trees.
AFTER extensive inquiry up and down the country,
I have so far failed to come across any example of
the Irish Yew bearing male flowers. All the trees
examined in private gardens and in cemeteries and
churchyards have been of the berry-bearing or female
sex.
I have now a number of young plants raised from
the berries of the Irish Yew (Taxus fastigiata)
fertilised by pollen from the English variety (Taxus
baccata). These show a graded series from the
spreading English type to the erect Irish form.
Growth is so slow, however, that it will be some
years before it will be possible to ascertain the sex
of these plants ; meanwhile, I should be glad to know
through the readers of NATURE any case of a male
Irish Yew.
If, as is believed, the Irish Yew trees now growing
in England have all been propagated by cuttings from
the mutational Irish form, which first appeared in
Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, more than a hundred years
ago, this would explain the fact that they are all of the
female sex. On the other hand, it is desirable to
ascertain whether any linkage originally existed
between erect habit of growth and female-ness in the
mutational Irish variety.
Further, if any male example of the Irish Yew can
be discovered it would be desirable to test the effect
of fertilising the female Irish Yew by Irish pollen.
C. J. Bonn.
Fernshaw, Springfield Road, Leicester,
November 28.
‘
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
Sit
The Physiography of the Coal-Swamps.!
By Prof. Percy Fry Kenpatt, M.Sc., F.G.S.
Ae subject of Coal Measures geology has been
discussed piecemeal in innumerable papers and
memoirs, so that an inquirer may well be appalled at
the mass of facts and of often conflicting deductions
with which he is confronted. Indeed, it is surprising
to discover how fundamental are some differences of
opinion which exist.
Among the questions in the answer to which doctors
have differed there is, I imagine, none more funda-
mental than this :
Were coal seams simple aggregations of plant remains
swept together by the action of water—a process of
accumulation which the learned call allochthony ;
more simply by drift; or were they formed, lke
peat, by the growth of vegetable material in its place
—the process of autochthony ?
I do not intend to labour the answer to this question.
Categorical arguments in favour of the growth in place
origin of the coal-forming vegetation are on record,
and they have never:been as categorically answered.
Many arguments in favour of the drift theory seem
to me clearly to have arisen from confusion between
cannel and true coal. This distinction is again funda-
mental. True coal-seams are characterised by :—
(1) Wide extent.
(2) Uniformity of thickness and character over
extensive areas.
(3) Freedom from intermingled detrital mineral
matter.
(4) Constant presence of a seat-earth or rootlet bed.
(5) Entire absence of remains of aquatic animals
within the seam.
Substitute affirmatives for negatives, and negatives
for affirmatives, and the characteristics of cannel are
as truly set forth.
THE ABERRATIONS OF COAL-SEAMS.
Having got our coal-swamp clothed with vegetation,
and the coal-forming materials accumulating, let us
next consider the various interruptions of continuity
and the aberrations to which it is liable. These
interferences may be either contemporaneous with
the accumulation of the materials, or, as one may say,
posthumous.
Prominent in the category of contemporary interfer-
ences must be put the phenomena of split-seams.
A split-seam is the intercalation into the midst of the
coal of a wedge of sandstone, shale, or the like, in such
wise that the seam becomes subdivided by intervening
strata into two or more seams. The most notable
split-seam in Britain is the famous Staffordshire Thick
Coal. Jukes showed that this magnificent seam,
4o feet thick at its maximum, Is split up into a number
of minor seams by wedges of sedimentary strata which
aggregate, in a distance of 44 miles, a thickness of
500 feet. The explanation offered by that sagacious
student of coal, Bowman of Manchester, might find
here a typical application. Bowman supposed that
a local sag occurred in the floor of the coal-swamp,
resulting in the drowning of the vegetation and inter-
1 From the presidential address delivered to Section C (Geology) of the
British Association at Hull on Sept. 8.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
rupting the formation of peat until the hollow was
silted up and a new swamp flora re-established.
I now turn to a form of split-seam of extraordinary
interest, which has received comparatively little
attention from geologists though mining engineers
must surely have a special comminatory formula to
express their sentiments thereon. The first example
that came under my notice was encountered in the
eastern workings of the Middleton Main Seam, at
Whitwood Colliery, near Wakefield. Thin intercala-
tions of shale and other sedimentary materials, appear-
ing at different horizons in the seam, were found to
thicken gradually to the east concurrently with the
gradual dwindling of the lower part of the seam. An
exploration was then carried out. The bottom coal
was followed, but it was found that though the under-
clay continued the coal disappeared, and was wholly
lost for a short distance before it reappeared. The
top coal rose over a steadily thickening shale parting,
and disappeared into the roof of the workings, but
boreholes proved that it was present above a parting
which was, at the maximum, 29 feet thick. At the
farther end of the heading the top coal came down
and the integrity of the seam was restored. Two
other transverse explorations have proved the same
general arrangement on the same scale of magnitude
and one or both margins have been traced for a long
distance, enabling the interruption to be mapped
continuously for about 8 or 9 miles and intermittently
much further.
My first impression was that this was just a simple
case of Bowman’s “sag,” until I observed that in
every traverse the upper element of the seam was arched
while the floor was flat.
Several analogous cases came under my notice before
an explanation of this anomalous arching was reached.
The explanation was found to he essentially in the
differential shrinkage undergone by peat-stuff in the
process of forming coal, and, on the other hand, by
any sand or mud which may have been deposited so
as to replace a part of the peat.
Let us imagine a stream being diverted at flood
time across a bed of peat and scooping out for itself
a hollow channel which subsequently becomes filled
with sediments, and afterwards the formation of peat
continues, the peat plants creep out, and presently
envelop the whole mass of sediments. When the beds
consolidate there will obviously be very different con-
traction between the sands, muds, and the coal-stuff.
The sands will scarcely contract at all, the muds will
contract a good deal, the coal-stuff will contract very
greatly. :
Let us now return to the consideration of the plano-
convex lens of “ dirt” occupying a position between
the upper and lower elements of the split-seam at
Whitwood. On the sag explanation it should be
convex downward, yet in this as in all other cases I
have investigated, it is convex upward. The explana-
tion is simple. Let us make our mental picture of
the infilled channel in the peat a little more specific
in detail. Let us suppose that the peat was 4o feet
in thickness*when the river commenced to cut its
812
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
course across it; the channel we will say was, like
most channels, deeper in the middle than at the sides,
and in the middle actually cut through to the seat-
earth. Then the channel silted up completely, so that
a cast of its meandering course in sands or mud reach-
ing 40 feet in thickness at the maximum, but much
thinner at the margins, was formed; then the upper
bed of peat formed to a further depth of 40 feet. The
conyersion of the peat into coal would reduce it to
two beds, each, let us say, 2 feet in thickness at the
maximum, enclosing the sediment with a proportionately
smaller thickness in the eroded peat on either margin
of the channel. The sedimentary mass would have
the transverse section of a plano-convex lens, the
convexity being downward, but when the peat under
the edges of the sediment is condensed to one-twentieth
of its original bulk the base becomes almost flat, and
the unconsolidated mass of sediments adjusts itself
thereto. Thus the curve, originally at the base of the
mass, reproduces itself in the top of the mass, which
was originally quite flat and now is curved. The lens
of infilling has reversed its curvature.
When a seam is deeply eroded the only too familiar
phenomenon of a “ wash-out ” is formed.
The most common abnormality is the occurrence
of belts or patches of ‘‘ proud coal ” in which the seam
swells up to twice or thrice its normal thickness—
sometimes, though not always, by repetition of the
whole seam or of the upper part, either by shearing °
or by overfolding.
It has been suggested that all the violent displacement
and over-ridings are brought about by tectonic agency,
and that they are thrust-planes. The localisation to
a single stratigraphical plane should suffice to discredit
this explanation. An amplification of the same
explanation ascribes the displacements to a thrust
with a movement from S.E. to N.W. and a common
cause to the cleat or cleavage of the coal which is
normally directed to the N.W. It suffices to refute
this to remark that the wash-outs I have explored
in the Yorkshire coalfield are aligned in four principal
directions, so that if superposed they would give what
may be called the Union Jack pattern, z.e. N.E—S.W.,
N.W.—S.E., N.—S., and E.—W.
Moreover, if these so-called “ wash-outs ” are not
due to the erosive effects of contemporaneous or sub-
contemporaneous streams, but to flat-hading faults,
any coal displaced should be presently found again
without any loss whatever: That swellings and
duplications of the seam occur we have already noticed,
and such phenomena have been pointed to as evidence
that there is “no loss” of coal in connexion with
the so-called wash-outs. But losses and the gains by
duplication do not, in fact, balance. A simple and
convincing case is a wash-out in a thin seam, in which,
‘by taking measurements of the thickness of coal
present and the breadth of the barren area, I have
been able to show that a gap with no coal for 210 feet
is compensated for by only 35 feet of excess on the
margin.
SEISMIC PHENOMENA IN THE SEAMS.
While the displacements and duplications are totally
unlike those produced by faults, there are cases in
which the seam appears to have been subjected to
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
a stretching tension and to have broken under the
strain. Along the zone of such a stretch great confusion
is commonly found. Masses of sedimentary materials,
of the coal seam, and slabs and seams of cannel
commonly occur, besides a curious argillaceous sub-
stance unlike any natural rock with which I am
acquainted. In its unstratified structurelessness it
suggests a kind of consolidated sludge such as might
be produced by violently stirring or shaking a quantity
of not too liquid mud. Where the seam abuts against
this stuff it presents usually a nearly vertical ragged
edge, its bright and dull layers preserving their
characteristics quite up to the contact.
The explanation I have offered is that all these
disturbances which complicate the already complex
features of wash-outs are the effect of the lurching
of the soft alluvial materials by earthquake agency.
Every predicable subterranean consequence of earth-
quake action upon unconsolidated alluvial deposits,
such as the Coal Measures were, can be seen in the
Yorkshire Coalfield. The lurchings, the rolling and
heaving of sand-beds, the shaking to pulp of the
muddy deposits, the rending and heaving of the peat,
cracks in the peat, and cracks infilled with extraneous
material passing through the strata; and _ lastly,
though actually the first clue to the explanation,
masses of sandstone in the form of inverted cones
(“ dog’s-teeth,” ‘‘ paps,” or ‘“‘ drops”), descending on
to coal-seams, which I interpret as the deep-seated
expression of the sand-blows that are the invariable
accompaniments of earthquakes in alluvial tracts.
An earthquake sweeping across an alluvial plain
beneath which lay a thick bed of water-charged peat
overlain by laminated clay, and that in turn by sand
and an upper layer of mud or clay, would throw the
peat and its watery contents into a state of severe
compression which would result in the bursting of
the immediate cover of clay and the injection of water
into the sand, and, probably, a large quantity of gas,
converting it thus into quicksand. This in turn would
eject water in the form of fountains through the upper
muddy or silty stratum, producing sand-blows and
craters on the surface. When the disturbance subsided
sand would run back down the orifice into the funnel
above the peat. These are the “drops.” They are
commonly flanged down the sides, showing that they
were formed upon a line of crack. An earthquake
not infrequently gives rise to permanent deformations
of soft deposits either by the lurching of the surface
and the production of permanent wrinkles, or by
subterranean migration of quicksand so as to produce,
here a sag or hollow, there a ridge or bombement.
Mr. Myron Fuller’s admirable account of the effects
of the New Madrid earthquake of 1816 as observed
one hundred years after the event, is full of the most
interesting and suggestive observations, not the least
so those upon the sand-blows and sand-filled fissures
containing lignite—the sand having come up from
a bed lying at a depth of not less than 80 feet—the
elevated tracts, and the new lakes produced by sub-
sidence.
Tue “CLEAT” OR “SLYNES” OF COAL.
One feature of coal-seams I must discuss before
I conclude, though it will not at first appear clear
DEcEMBER 16, 1922]
NATORE
813
that it can be brought within the title of this address
—TI allude to the cleavage or cleat or slynes of coal.
If we look at a piece of coal this cleavage is very
conspicuous, for, lying at right angles with the bedding,
it gives the straight sides to the fragment. It 1s
obviously not liké the cleavage of slate, a texture, but
it is a series of well-developed joints.
It is a vital element in the cleat problem that it
is as well developed and as definite in direction in
a flake of bright coal the ;4,th of an inch in thickness
as in a tree-trunk. While I was preparing this address
I procured a slab of shale from the bed underlying
the uppermost bed of the Millstone Grit. It bore
numerous imprints of goniatites and a leaf of Cordaites,
which, in its present condition of bright coal, varies
in thickness from about jth down to ;4,th of an inch
in thickness. It is traversed by an even and regular
cleat at intervals of about ;},th of an inch, disposed
at an angle of about 35° to the length of the leaf.
With great care it was possible to replace the slab
in its original position and to determine the orienta-
tion of the cleat to be N.W.-S.E. This is not nearly
the extreme of tenuity reached by well-cleated plant
remains. I have specimens that are mere shiny films,
and cannot, I should judge, exceed =4,th of an inch,
yet they show well-defined and regular cleat. Further,
it should be noted that the production of cleat was
subsequent to the erosion of stream channels as well
as to the production of phenomena on the margins
of the wash-outs. Every pebble and flake of coal
found in the displaced masses in these stream-casts
has the cleat well developed, and in strict parallelism
with the cleat of the adjacent undisturbed seam.
I have directed attention to the fact that cleat is
quite independent of the joints traversing the shales
and sandstones of the associated measures ; whence
I draw the inference that the cleat must have been
produced prior to the jointing.
The reason for this early development of a joint
system is easily found—the original peat, in passing
into lignite, acquired a brittle consistency and a
consequent disposition to joint. Indeed, the change
of consistency is the effect of chemical change and
loss, whereby the peat substance contracts. Hence
when our Coal Measures were first laid down they
would consist of a series of incoherent sands and muds,
and this uncompacted condition may have persisted
for a very long period, even surviving considerable
tectonic disturbances. The peats, however, would be
subject to changes entirely innate: the gradual loss
of volatile constituents, or at least the resolution of
the carbon compounds into new groupings and the
conversion of the mother substance of the coal into
lignite. In this condition the coal-substance would
be brittle and liable to joint in response to the tensile
strains set up by the contractility of the mass.
There are questions of very deep import concerned
with the geographical direction of the cleat. The
first reference to this interesting topic is, I believe,
in a work, close upon a century old, by Edward
Mammatt, entitled “ Geological Facts to elucidate the
Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coalfield,’ published in 1834. His
fourth chapter, headed ‘‘ On the polarity of the strata
and the general law of their arrangement,” contains
these remarkable passages: “ Polarity of the strata
NO12772, VOL. 110]
is a subject which hitherto has not been much con-
sidered. The extraordinary uniformity in the direction
of the slynes and of the partings of the rocky strata
seems to have been determined by the operation of
some law not yet understood. Wherever these
slynes appear, their direction is 23° West of North
by the compass, whatever way the stratum may
incline. The coal between them has an arrangement
of lines all parallel to the slynes, by which it may be
divided. This is called the end of the coal.”
In a paper in the Geological Magazine | commented
on the fact that little had been written on the subject
of cleat since Jukes’s “‘ Manual of Geology ” (1862),
in which he quotes a Nottinghamshire miner’s remark
that the slyne faced “ two o’clock sun, like as it does
all over the world, as ever I heered on,” a generalisation
to be remembered.
John Phillips corroborates the statement so far as
concerns the coalfields of Northumberland and Durham,
where he says it “runs most generally to the north-
west (true).’’ The same direction, he says, prevails
in Yorkshire and Derbyshire and also in Lancashire.
I have suggested a reason why coal should acquire
a joint system anterior to, and independent of, that
of the associated measures, but, while providing a
jointing-force, that theory furnishes no explanation of
the directional tendency of the cleat. This tendency
must have been supplied by some directive strain
—not necessarily of great intensity, but continuous
in its operation.
In 1914 and since I have collected a great body of
data regarding the direction of the cleat in coals and
lignites in many parts of the world.
Cleat observations in the Northern Hemisphere show
an overwhelming preponderance of a N.W.-S.E.
direction in coals and lignites of all ages from Carbon-
iferous to Pleistocene and from regions so remote as
Alaska, Spitsbergen, the Oxus, Nigeria, and China.
This direction persists through every variety of tectonic
relations, but seems most regular in the largest and
least disturbed fields.
Jukes’s miner’s astonishing statement that “ the slyne
faces two o’clock sun . . . all over the world ” involves
more than is at first glance apparent, for, as a friend
has pointed out, that two o’clock sun must shine from
a quite different compass-bearing in the Northern and
Southern Hemispheres. Yet the data I have collected
confirms generally the miner’s declaration in the
Southern Hemisphere as well as the North, though
exceptions occur that may possess a deep significance.
Many of the southern coals have no definite cleat,
but in such as do display a regular system there is a
distinct predominance of the N.E.-S.W. direction,
which has a curious inverse relationship with the
N.W.-S.E. direction of the Northern Hemisphere.
I feel persuaded that the cause will be found in some
relation to influences, tidal or other, dependent upon
the earth’s planetary role. ‘
There is a negative aspect of the ‘cleat question
which brings it more clearly within the ambit of an
inquiry into the physiography of the coal-swamps.
I allude to the absence of cleat that characterises
anthracite the world over. Upon this absence of
cleat are attendant features that have been regarded
as indicative of conditions prevailing during the
814
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
formation of the coal, and hence clearly within my
terms of reference.
In the Memoir of the Geological Survey on the
Coals of South Wales, it is pointed out that the
anthracite condition, instead of being accompanied
by a high ash-content—which is what might be
expected if the ash ratio were determined simply by
the reduction in the non-ash—is shown statistically
to bear the reverse relationship. That is, the more
anthracitic the coal, the lower the ash. From this
it is argued that the anthracites of South Wales were
formed of plant-constituents different from those con-
tributing to the steam and house coals. This proposi-
tion gains no support from the study of the plants
found in the associated measures, nor does it explain
why the coals of other fields, composed in their various
parts of very diverse constituents, do not exhibit the
anthracite phase. But the ash question needs to be
approached from another point of view. The ash
of coal may, as I have shown elsewhere, be composed
of three entirely distinct and chemically different
materials. There may be (1) the mineral substances
belonging to the plant-tissues ; then (2) any detrital
mineral substances washed or blown into the area
of growing peat; and, finally, the sparry minerals
located in the lumen of the cleat.
As to the first, I have long considered that the coal
was in large measure deprived by leaching of much
of its mineral substances ; it is otherwise difficult to
account for the almost total absence of potash. The
second—detrital matter—is probably present in some
though not in all coals; the high percentage of alu-
minium silicate is probably of this origin. But the
third constituent—the sparry matter—may, both on
a priori grounds and upon direct evidence, be assigned
a very important réle in the production of the ashes
in most coals. When a coal with a strongly developed
cleat is examined in large masses it is at once seen
that the cleat spaces are of quite sensible width, and
that they are occupied most Commonly by a white
crystalline deposit which may consist of either carbonate
of iron or carbonate of lime, and there are also in many
seams crystals of iron sulphide—either pyrites or
marcasite. These sparry veins may be as much as
jisth of an inch, or even more, in thickness, and they
clearly constitute the principal contributors to the
ash. It has been suggested that they are true com-
ponents of the original peat, a proposition to which
no botanist would assent, and it appears certain that
the veins consist of material introduced by percolation
from the overlying measures, subsequent to the
production of the cleat. If that be so, it then will
follow that the amount of the material present in
coal must be in some direct proportion to the available
cleat space, and if there is no cleat neither will there
be any vein-stuff to contribute to the ash. It should
be pointed out that ordinary bituminous coal broken
into minute dice and washed so as to remove any
heavy mineral particles is found to contain a percentage
of ash quite comparable with that of an average
anthracite. It is to be concluded, therefore, that the
variations of the ash contents of a coal are no indication
of the plant-constituent of the coal.
I have sought to show how the concept of the Coal
Measures with their sandstones, shales, and coal-seams
accords entirely with what we know of modern swamps
and deltas, and that just as each Coal Measure fact
finds its illustration in modern conditions, so we may,
inverting the method of inquiry, say that no note-
worthy features of the modern swamps fail to find
their exemplification in the ancient.
Even what may seem the most daring of my proposi-
tions—the seismic origin of abnormal ‘ wash-outs ”
—finds, I cannot doubt, a full justification in what
has been seen in the Sylhet region by Mr. Oldham, and
in the Mississippi valley by Mr. Fuller, or in what can
be ¢nferred as a necessary subterranean accompaniment
of these surface signs of great earthquake convulsions.
The Royal College of Science for Ireland.
THE scientific public cannot but feel grave con-
cern that the Royal College of Science for
Ireland is at present closed, and its students are
scattered in temporary accommodation. All interested
in applied science will realise that this is a serious
state of affairs, both as regards Ireland’s industrial
prosperity and scientific progress.
The College was founded nearly sixty years ago. It
came into existence in 1865 as the result of a Treasury
Minute of that year, which converted an existing
institution—the Museum of Inish Industry and Govern-
ment School of Science applied to Mining and the
Arts—into the Royal College of Science. Sir Robert
Kane—well known as the author of ‘“‘ The Industrial
Resources of Ireland ’—was appointed its first Dean.
The College was at first housed in premises in St.
Stephen’s Green, and as early as 1869 it had earned
considerable reputation for itself as a school of science. |
Thus, the Commission on Science and Art in Ireland,
of which Huxley and Haughton were members,
reported in that year, that—‘‘In the Royal College
of Science, Ireland possesses an institution which in the
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
number of its professorships and general course of study
is more complete as a pure school of science than any-
thing of the kind existing in England or Scotland.”
In its earlier years the College was under the
administration of the Department of Science and
Art; but in 1900 it was placed under the control
of the newly created Department of Agriculture
and Technical Instruction, a department which was
largely the outcome of what was known as the Recess
Committee, of which Sir Horace Plunkett was chairman
and Mr. T. P. Gill secretary.
Under the enlightened administration of this Depart-
ment, the College was greatly developed and extended,
| particularly in rendering it of more direct service to
the industries and needs of the country. In the early
days of the College, chief attention was devoted to
such subjects as chemistry, physics, mathematics,
geology, mining, engineering, and manufactures.
Under the Department, however, not only were these
activities extended, but also considerable develop-
ments were made in connexion with agriculture, which
is the staple industry of the country.
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
815
With the expansion of the teaching of applied
science on so wide a scale, the accommodation in the
existing buildings rapidly became wholly inadequate.
Accordingly, the provision of new quarters became
imperative, and under Act of Parliament in 1903
a government grant was made for this purpose. The
magnificent new buildings on the present site in Upper
Merrion Street were thus made possible, and the
foundation stone was laid by King Edward VII.
in 1904. The buildings were opened by King George V.
in July rgrx, and in October of that year ‘the College
began work in its new laboratories.
The buildings (Fig. r), which were designed by Sir
Aston Webb, occupy three sides of a quadrangle, and
the numerous laboratories and lecture-rooms are laid
out in a manner leaving nothing to be desired. Neither
care nor expense has been spared i in making the build-
of the College to its new home, all the principal courses
were extended to four years, an alteration which has
been amply justified in the light of the results which
have been attained. Broadly speaking, the curri-
culum is now arranged so that the first two years
are devoted to work mainly of a mathematical and
purely scientific character, while towards the end of
the second year, and during the third and fourth
years, attention is devoted largely to the applications
of science, and to the professional aspects of the
several subjects of study.
The courses in all cases involve very considerable
use of laboratories and workshops, and close co-
ordination between tuition in theory and laboratory
work has been worked out carefully.
The work of the College is organised in three facul-
ties—those of agriculture, applied chemistry, and
Fic. 1.—Royal College of Science for Ireland.
ings and equipment perfectly suited for the work
of the College. Many years have been spent in their
completion, and they are among the best in the British
Isles at the present time. The laboratories are
replete with the most modern appliances and acces-
sories, and the machines and apparatus installed
have been chosen for their excellence from the world’s
markets.
In short, the College possesses the great advantage
that its buildings and equipment in every detail are
up-to-date, and both have been thoroughly laid out
with the definite object of providing the means neces-
sary for dealing efficiently with the courses of educa-
tion undertaken. The College buildings also provide
laboratory accommodation for the important work
of the Plant Diseases and Seed Testing Division, and
the Agricultural Analytical Station of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
For some time it had become apparent that the
three-year course, which until rg11 had been required
of the students taking the associateship, was in-
adequate to deal satisfactorily with a gradually extend-
ing curriculum. Accordingly, shortly after the removal
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
engineering. In addition, there are four-year courses
of study, in experimental science and in natural science,
leading to industrial careers. The College also pro-
vides courses in science subjects for students who
intend to become teachers in the technical and second-
ary schools of the country, and it is thus the keystone
of the Department’ s scheme of technical and scientific
education throughout Ireland.
Students who have suc cessfully passed through one
of the full courses of study are awarded the associate-
ship of the College. Associates of at least three
years’ standing may proceed to the fellowship of the
College, which is awarded for meritorious original
scientific research or for contributing otherwise in
a marked degree to the advancement of science.
There are professorships in agriculture, botany,
chemistry, engineering, forestry, geology, mathematics,
physics, and zoology ; and lecturerships i in agricultural
botany, agricultural chemistry, bacteriology, organic
chemistry, physical and metallurgical chemistry, en-
gineering, horticulture, mathematics, and physics.
Among the past professors are many well-known names,
such as—Sir Robert Ball, Sir William Barrett, Sir
816
NATURE
[DECEMBER 16, 1922
William Thiselton Dyer, Dr. A. C. Haddon, Sir Walter
Hartley, E. Hull, Dr. G. T. Morgan, T. F. Pigott, and
Sir Wyville J. Thomson.
Following upon the establishment of the College
in its new buildings, there has been a steady and pro-
gressive increase in the number of its students, and
its several courses of study are becoming appreciated
more and more fully throughout the whole of Ireland.
Moreover, the past students have been winning success
in the several fields of industry and education for
which their courses have fitted them.
In the Faculty of Agriculture the scientific courses
given at the College have been the basis of consider-
able improvement in agricultural practice in the
country, for in the majority of cases the young Irish-
men who have attended these courses at the College
have found their way into the service of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture as Agricultural Instructors,
located in various rural districts, where they act as
scientific advisers to the farmers. Others put their
knowledge to account in the management of large
farms and estates.
In the Faculty of Applied Chemistry many highly
trained young men have been turned out and have
found scope for their training as assistants and research
workers in many chemical industries, such as the
manufacture of dyes, explosives, and synthetic drugs.
In the Faculty of Engineering the increase in the
number of students following upon the development
of the new laboratories has been specially marked,
and already the demands for admission are taxing
the accommodation to its utmost. The majority of
these students find employment with the large
engineering concerns in the British Isles ; and prior
to the present condition of depression, there was a
regular demand each year for capable students from
some of the leading establishments. The output of the
engineering and chemistry departments of the College
should be of great and essential service to Ireland,
| if a policy of industrial reconstruction is undertaken.
The equipment of the College is excellently suited
for active research in many directions. Indeed,
already after a few years’ occupation of the new
premises, upwards of one hundred researches were
in hand or had been carried out, many of them
being on subjects of direct benefit to the industries
of Ireland. While research thus holds a high place
in its activities, the College is, nevertheless, specially
noted for the thorough attention that is devoted to
the effective teaching of its students. Its success is
due to the devotion and energetic service of its able
staff, as much as to the modern conditions under
which their labours are carried out.
It would not only be a national calamity but also
a matter of the greatest concern to progress in applied
science if this great institution, that has taken many
years of devoted service of its staff to bring to its
present high standard of excellence, should be rendered
unavailable for the young men and women of Ireland.
It is, therefore, greatly to be hoped that the present
difficulty will be but a passing cloud, and that the
College will soon be permitted to reopen its doors,
and will find its true place in the industrial develop-
ment of Ireland.
Sir Isaac BAYLEY Batrour, K.B.E., F.R.S.
SAAC BAYLEY BALFOUR, son of the late Dr.
John Hutton Balfour, professor of botany in the
University of Edinburgh from 1845 to 1879, was born
in Edinburgh on March 31, 1853. Educated at the
Edinburgh Academy, then as now one of the foremost
of British public schools, young Balfour proceeded to
the University, in which he graduated as D.Sc. in the
department (not yet a faculty) of physical and natural
science. He also matriculated in the faculty of medicine,
and while still an undergraduate in that faculty was so
fortunate as to be attached to the party which in 1874
visited the island of Rodriguez to observe the transit
of Venus.
Resuming his medical studies, Balfour graduated as
M.B. with honours in 1877, and thereafter continued his
botanical studies in the Universities of Strasbourg and
Wiirzburg. In 1879 he was appointed professor of
botany in the University of Glasgow, and in 1880 under-
took botanical survey operations in the island of Socotra.
In 1883 he obtained the degree of M.D., being awarded
a University gold medal for his thesis, and in 1884 he
was elected Sherardian professor of botany at Oxford
and given charge of the Oxford Botanic Garden, be-
coming at the same time a fellow of Magdalen. In
1888 he was elected professor of botany in the. Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, in succession to the late Dr.
Alexander Dickson, and was appointed King’s Botanist |
for Scotland and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
| Garden ”
Obituary.
Garden. From these posts Balfour retired in March
last after having held them, as his father did, for a
period of thirty-four years.
If Balfour, as regards youthful environment, was
fortunately situated, he showed at an early age that he
had made good use of his opportunities. In 1874 Dr.
J. D. Hooker, then director of Kew, considered one of
Balfour’s letters from Rodriguez sufficiently interesting
for communication to the Linnean Society. Among
the results of this journey we owe to Balfour a finished
study of the genus Halophila and an important con-
tribution to the natural history of the difficult genus
Pandanus. The elaboration of the material secured
during his visit to Socotra involved sustained study for
nearly eight years; the result was a work that has
already become a floristic classic. But Balfour's
systematic interest was equalled by that taken in
economic questions, and his Socotran studies enabled
him to determine the sources of more than one famous
drug of which the geographical provenance was assured
though the botanical origin was uncertain. From the
outset of his career he realised the importance of his-
torical study in the field of applied botany.
Short though Balfour’s tenure of the Sherardian
chair was, the success with which he discharged its
duties led to results of permanent advantage to Oxford
and to botany. Under his care the historic “ Physick
regained its old consequence. The part he
played in the provision of an English version of De
Bary’s Fungi, Mycetozoa, and Bacteria earned for him
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
817
the thanks of English and American students, who owe
him besides a debt for his share in the foundation of the
Annals of Botany ; from the outset he served as one of
the editors of this successful and important journal.
It was, however, the work accomplished by him
as a teacher for a generation at Edinburgh that led
Balfour to be regarded, with justice, as one of the fore-
most of British botanists. His personal charm enabled
him to arrest the attention of his students ; the lucidity
of his discourse ensured the maintenance of that atten-
tion, But the reality of his success depended neither
upon these natural accidents nor upon the variety and
the precision of the knowledge which informed his
teaching. It is to be accounted for rather by the wide
sympathy which enabled him, as one who was at once
an erudite natural historian and an accomplished experi-
mental biologist, to combine all that was valuable in
the older training to which he had been subjected in
this country and in the newer methods which he had
mastered abroad. To a still greater degree, perhaps,
he owed his success to that sane outlook which enabled
him to induce those he taught to regard botanical
investigation and research, in the field, the cabinet, and
the laboratory alike, as means to an end rather than as
ends in themselves.
Balfour’s work as Regius Keeper and as King’s
Botanist was actuated by the same philosophy. His
study of the natural history of the plants under his
care, while complying with the highest standard set in
ecological and in systematic work, was undertaken with
the object of mastering their cultural requirements.
The success of his results in the technical field was
largely due to the thoroughness of his scientific study.
The long-sustained and critical investigation of the
members of the two great genera, Primula and Rhodo-
dendron, to which of late years Balfour devoted much
of his scanty leisure, has given his name a permanent
place in the annals of systematic study. The com-
plexity of the problems he has had to face might
almost justify a suspicion that in Balfour’s case the
difficulty. of a subject was an added incentive to its
study. However this may be, the fact remains that
these arduous labours, though incidentally of extreme
taxonomic value, have had as their primary purpose
the rendering of assistance to horticulture in dealing
with the accessions of new plant-forms during the past
two decades from south-western China and the north-
eastern Himalaya. It is because the object of his
studies was the provision of technical help to the
gardener, and not in spite of that fact, that the results
attained are of such benefit to students of plant-
distribution and plant-association.
Among the extra- official duties undertaken by
Balfour were included willing services rendered to
the Edinburgh Botanical Society, the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, and the Royal Horticultural Society.
Elected to the Linnean Society in 1875, he served on the
Council during 1884-85 ; elected to the Royal Society
in 1884, he served on the Council during 1892-94. In
1894 he was president of the biology section of the British
Association at the Oxford meeting, and in 1901 was
president of the botany section at the Glasgow meeting.
An invitation to serve as president of the Linnean
Society, in succession to Prof. Poulton, in 1916 was
declined, and the intimation that his health was such
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
as to preclude acceptance was one of the earliest to
cause his friends disquietude.
In 1920 Balfour was created a K.B.E. in recognition
of the great public services rendered by him during the
war, his devotion to which had undermined his con-
stitution. Among other honours bestowed on Balfour
were the Victoria Medal of Honour of the Royal Horti-
cultural Society, received in 1897, and the Linnean
Medal—the highest honour the Linnean Society could
offer—received in r9r9. The wish then expressed by
the latter society that Balfour “ might long be spared
to continue the work that has served its members as an
example and an encouragement” has unfortunately
not been fulfilled. By his death, which took place
at Court Hill, Haslemere, on ‘November 30 last,
botanical science has lost a brilliant votary ; his
friends have lost one whose soundness of judgment
was only equalled by his ready kindness and unfailing
courtesy.
Str Norman Moore, Br., M.D.
Tue medical profession is poorer by the death of Sir
Norman Moore on November 30. Born in Manchester
seventy-five years ago, he rose without influence and
solely by his own exertions to be president of the Royal
College of Physicians. He also earned a well-deserved
reputation as an historian of British medicine. After
a preliminary education at Owens College, he matri-
culated in the University of Cambridge from St.
Catherine’s College, whence in due course he graduated
im arts and medicine, being afterwards elected an
honorary fellow. He entered St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital in 1879 and remained in close association with
it during the whole of the rest of his life. He served
first as lecturer on comparative anatomy, later as
demonstrator of morbid anatomy, and in due season as
lecturer on medicine in the medical school, while in
the hospital he filled in succession all the offices from
house physician to consulting physician. He also acted
for many years as dean of the school and warden of the
college, living within the precincts of the hospital, and
serving so zealously that for many years the annual
entry of students exceeded that of any of the other
hospitals in London.
During his years of residence in St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital, Moore laid the foundations of his renown as an
historian of medicine. He wrote as many as 454 articles,
dealing chiefly with the lives of medical men, for the
‘Dictionary of National Biography.”” He was instru-
mental in obtaining for the Royal College of Physicians
the endowment of the FitzPatrick lectures, and himself
gave two courses of the lectures, one on “ John Mirfield
and Medical Study in London during the Middle Ages,”
the other on ‘“‘ The History of the Study of Clinical
Medicine in the British Isles.” His knowledge of the
subject and his work in connexion with it made him
a worthy successor to Sir William Osler as president of
the history section at the Royal Society of Medicine.
More than thirty years of such time as he could spare
from his other duties were devoted to the preparation
of a history of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. The work
was delayed by the war, but it appeared in two well-
illustrated quarto volumes in 1918, and immediately
became a classic.
The age and traditions of the Royal College of
318
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
Physicians appealed to Moore in the same way as did
those of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He filled all the
usual posts with unfailing punctuality, was Harveian
Librarian, and served in the office of president from 1918
to 1921. He was also the representative of the College
at the General Medical Council. He had an intimate
knowledge of the needs of medical education, and he
took a leading part in that recasting of the medical
curriculum which began in 1886 and is still in progress.
Moore’s love of books and his knowledge of their
contents were utilised by the Royal Medical and
Chirurgical Society, where he filled the post of honorary
librarian for many years. When the society was
merged in the present Royal Society of Medicine, Moore,
in conjunction with Mr. Stephen Paget, wrote the
chronicles of the society from 1805 to 1905, with some
account of the presidents.
In 1919 Moore was created a baronet. He was twice
married, and is succeeded by his surviving son, Alan
Hilary.
Current Topics and Events.
WHILE the rest of the world has been getting used
to filling up the forms required by Customs authorities,
and to awaiting with patience the delays involved in
the examination by Customs laboratories of imported
products that may prove to be dutiable, Great Britain
has forgotten the very existence of such things, and
their reintroduction, as a consequence of the Safe-
guarding of Industries Act, is regarded as little less
than a revolutionary innovation by importers and their
spokesmen in the House of Commons. It is clear
from the debate which took place on Sir John Simon’s
amendment to the motion for an address in reply to
the King’s Speech, regretting the absence of any
reference to the repeal of this Act, that opposition to
the Act arises largely from its administration. Almost
every speaker admitted the necessity of legislation to
prevent the recurrence of the famine in magnetos,
drugs, optical glass, dyes, and other essential com-
modities, which occurred in this country on the out-
break of war, but those who wished the Act repealed
failed to mention a scheme by which this end could
be achieved, probably because any attempt to do so
would split up the apparently solid phalanx of
opposition. To those who have the national welfare
in mind, the troubles of Sir John Simon’s trader,
who had a consignment of potassium permanganate
held up for two months by the Customs, will make
slight appeal, and they would cheerfully see a few
traders, who have no direct interest in industry and
merely buy and sell, sacrificed, if by that means they
could ensure the establishment in this country of
highly technical industries in which skilled craftsmen
and technical experts could be employed and the
safety of the country in war and in peace assured.
The difficulties which the operation of the Act places
in the way of the importation of chemicals and in-
struments required by research workers, naturally
evoke more sympathy than those of traders ; and it
is satisfactory that the Government was able to pro-
mise a joint inquiry by the Department of Scientific
and Industrial Research and the Board of Trade into
the progress actually made in the industries with
which the Act is concerned. In the course of that
inquiry these difficulties will no doubt be fully ex-
plored and means of dealing with them evolved.
Tue needs of men of science in Russia have been
referred to on several occasions in our columns, and
we have suggested that the different groups of
scientific and technical societies should concern
NO. 2772, VOL. I10]
themselves with groups of workers in their own
departments. This has, we believe, been done in
connexion with the Committee for the Relief of
Russian Intellectuals, the president of which is Sir
Paul Vinogradoff. There is an Engineers’ Section
Sub-Committee, with Sir Robert Hadfield as president,
and this sub-committee has just made an appeal on
behalf of Russian engineers and their families, who,
not alone in the famine areas but throughout Russia,
are undergoing terrible suffering and distress. If
British engineers will help, many lives can be saved
and the human energy and knowledge necessary for
the reconstruction of Russia can be retained. Assist-
ance is required for the provision of food and clothing,
Food parcels may be sent to particular individuals,
or names and addresses can be supplied to donors
who prefer to send parcels direct. Remittances
should be sent to the honorary treasurer, Mr. R. C,
Griffith, 8 Victoria Avenue, Bishopsgate, London,
E.C.2, who will be glad to give any particulars
desired.
A SCIENTIFIC novelties exhibition will be held at
King’s College, Strand, W.C. (by kind permission of the
College delegacy), from December 28 to January ro,
in support of the Hospitals of London Combined
Appeal. Members of the scientific staffs of the
various colleges and schools of the University of
London, as well as of university institutions having
recognised teachers, are assisting with exhibits or
demonstrations, and short lectures with experi-
mental or lantern illustrations will be given by Profs.
Bairstow, Sir William Bragg, Cheshire, Winifred
Cullis, Flinders Petrie, Garwood, Gordon, Macgregor-
Morris, Watts, Wilson, and many others. The
exhibition will not be merely a display of objects of
interest, but of the character of a conversazione, in
which experiments and demonstrations will be going
on continuously. It will thus be attractive to both
old and young, and we hope it will bring a substantial
sum into the fund for which it is being organised.
THE issue of La Nature for November 18 contains
a summary of the recent International Congress on
Combustible Liquids held in Paris under the auspices
of the French Society of Chemical Industry. Prior
to the opening of the congress, an exhibition was
organised in which practically every phase of the
petroleum and allied industries received attention.
The several stages in the production and refining of
crude oil were amply illustrated by an excellent
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATE RE
819
series of exhibits, including not only the various
products manufactured, but also the plant and
machinery employed both in the field and in the
refinery. A special feature was the exhibition of
different types of internal combustion engines in
actual operation, burning those grades of fuel most
suited to particular designs. The congress was
opened by Prof. Sabatier, and the business transacted
was of a most comprehensive nature, the industry
being considered in both its theoretical and practical
aspects. Undoubtedly the most important question
raised at this congress was that of the necessity of
adopting a uniform terminology to cover the enormous
variety of combustible liquids now being marketed.
At the present time the utmost confusion reigns in
many cases where a name for a given product in one
country implies a totally different product in another.
Further, the varied methods adopted of testing these
products for definite commercial purposes are often
productive of results which, while suitable for one
country, are quite ineffective for another. In order,
therefore, to standardise both methods of comparison
and the nomenclature universally applicable to definite
products for specific purposes, an international com-
mission has been set up, composed of delegates of the
several countries represented at the congress. The
importance of this work cannot be overestimated,
particularly from the point of view of European
markets, though it is to be hoped that representatives
of the American petroleum industry will take a pro-
minent part in the framing of the ultimate standards
adopted.
Dr. J. WALTER FEwKEs, chief of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, has
recently returned to Washington from the season’s
archeological field-work on the Mesa Verde National
Park, Colorado, and reports the unexpected find of an
interesting prehistoric ruin to which he has given the
name, ‘‘Pipe Shrine House.’’ A mound of some
magnitude in the neighbourhood of a reservoir called
Mummy Lake was investigated, and a rectangular
building about 7o feet square and one story high,
which is accurately oriented to the cardinal points,
and has a circular tower formerly 15 to 20 feet high,
like a church steeple, midway in the western wall,
was discovered. The tower was probably used for
observing the sun as it rises in the east or sets in the
west, in order to determine the time for planting and
other events. In the middle of the building was
found a circular room twenty feet deep and about the
same in diameter in which were more than a dozen
clay tobacco pipes, numerous stone knives, pottery,
idols, and other objects. Pipes of this kind have
never before been found on the Mesa Verde National
Park ; apparently after the rite of smoking they were
thrown into the shrine. South of the building, which
was evidently specialised for ceremonials, is a square
room or shrine dedicated to the mountain lion, a
stone image of which was found surrounded by water-
worn and other strangely formed stones. A similar
shrine in the north-east corner of Pipe Shrine House
contains a small iron meteorite and a slab of stone on
which is depicted the symbol of the sun.
NO. 2772, VOL. TIO]
THE juvenile lectures at the Royal Institution
this Christmas will be delivered by Prof. H. H.
Turner, whose subject is “‘ Six Steps up the Ladder
to the Stars.”” The first lecture will be given on
Thursday, December 28, on “‘ The Distance of the
Stars,’ followed by ‘‘ The Discovery of the Planet
Neptune,” ““ Photographing the Stars,” “‘ The Spectro-
scope and its Revelations,” “Two Great Streams
of Stars,’ and “‘ The Size of a Star.’’ The following
are the lecture arrangements before Easter: On
Tuesday afternoons, commencing January 16, there
will be two lectures by Prof. F. G. Donnan on
“ Semi-Permeable Membranes and Colloid Chemistry,”
two by Mr. R. D. Oldham on “ Earthquakes,’ two
by Prof. A. C. Pearson on “ Greek Civilisation and
To-day,” two by Sir Arthur Shipley on “ Life and
its Rhythms,’”’ and two by Prof. C. G. Seligman on
“ Rainmakers and Divine Kings of the Nile Valley.”
On Thursday afternoons, the Hon. J. W. Fortescue
will give two historical lectures beginning on January
18, Prof. I. M. Heilbron two on “ The Photosynthesis
of Plant Products,’ Prof. B. Melvill Jones two on
“Recent Experiments in Aerial Surveying,’’ and
Mr. Theodore Stevens two on “‘ Water Power of the
Empire.” On Saturday afternoons commencing
January 20, there will be two lectures by Sir Walford
Davies on “ Speech Rhythm in Vocal Music,’’ two
by Mr. J. C. Squire on “ Subject in Poetry,” and
six by Sir Ernest Rutherford on “ Atomic Projectiles
and their Properties.’ The first Friday evening
discourse will be delivered by Sir James Dewar on
January 19 on “ Soap Films as Detectors of Stream
Lines, Vortex Motion and Sound.’ Succeeding
discourses will probably be given by Sir Almroth
Wright, Mr. C. F. Cross, Sir John Russell, Dr. A. V.
Hill, Prof. A. S. Eddington, Dr. G. C. Simpson,
Dr. M. R. James, and Sir Ernest Rutherford.
THe Journal of the Textile Institute has now
nearly completed its first year under the new arrange-
ment by which its pages are separately arranged
and numbered under the three headings of Proceed-
ings, Transactions, and Abstracts. The new form
of the Journal should appeal to a wide scientific
public, and the attention of biologists interested in
the raw materials of plant or animal fibre may be
directed to the very wide field covered by the
abstractors and to the scientific character of the
papers appearing in the Transactions. The Journal
is now the medium through which a considerable
amount of the scientific work carried on by the
research associations of the woollen and worsted,
the cotton and the linen industries, first sees the
light. These newly formed research associations
have naturally been busy surveying their wide
fields for future effort, and the result has been that
a number of very useful general summaries of the
state of our knowledge of the chemistry, physics, and
botany of the cotton hair have been published in
the Journal by members of the staff of the British
Cotton Industry Research Association. Preliminary
results of new investigations upon the plant fibre
also begin to appear, as, for example, the two papers
by C. R. Nodder upon plant fibres, dealing mainly
with flax and hemp.
820
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
AccoRDING to the last monthly circular of the
British Cast Iron Research Association, the new
director of research, Dr. P. Longmuir, is now formulat-
ing a scheme for the active prosecution of research
work in several directions. Among the subjects now
in hand are: iron suitable for moulds for glass
bottles, these moulds being at present largely im-
ported from abroad; and the magnetic properties
of cast iron. The high silicon irons now found so
useful in chemical industry on account of their high
resistance to mineral acids are also to be investigated.
Together with the American Testing Society, the
question of the standardisation of cast-iron test bars
is being examined, and it is hoped that an inter-
national specification can be devised. The Associa-
tion is strengthening its library and reference facilities,
and should appeal to a wider circle of ironfounders
than its present rather limited membership, in view
of the importance of cast iron to the national in-
dustries.
In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edin- |
burgh (June 1922) the general secretary—the late
Dr. C. G. Knott—gives some interesting notes of a
correspondence between the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh and the French Academy of Sciences about
the priority of the discovery of the pilot cable (cable
guide) for guiding ships into harbour in foggy weather.
In 1921 the French Academy awarded a medal and
a prize to W. A. Loth for various devices in connexion
with navigation, and among these was the céble
guide. The principle of this device, the Edinburgh
Society states, is essentially that of the pilot cable
invented by C. A. Stevenson and described by him
in the Journal of the Society in 1893. Mr. Stevenson's
invention consists in laying a wire or wires along
the bed of the sea or of a river. Intermittent
currents are sent along these wires, and suitable
devices can be used on board ship to detect their
proximity, and thus receive a warning of dangerous
coasts, shoals, and so on. Stevenson’s patent proves
that the rough general principle was known so early
as 1891, but this does not detract from the credit
due to Loth for perfecting the system. The principle
of the method is identical with that used by electricians
in London prior to 1890 for locating the position
of an underground cable.
A CHADWICK public lecture on “ Relative Values in
Public Health’ was delivered by Sir Arthur News-
holme, on December 7. In the course of his lecture,
which is one of a course, Sir Arthur Newsholme, after
deprecating the undiscriminating call for retrench-
ment in public health expenditure, stated that it is
necessary to adopt every practicable measure for
educating the public, and the first step is to educate
people as to the causes of evils. Historically, panic
—fear of cholera and “‘ fever ’’—had facilitated sanita-
tion. In Sir Arthur’s opinion, the appointment of
paid inspectorates, thus introducing a new element
into the implements of government, is necessary.
Inspection has increased, extending from things and
conditions of work and housing of persons, until we
have now in view the ideal of hygiene advice and
warning available for every member of the com-
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
munity. The inspections have educational value even
more than in securing reform. Surveys are extended
and systematised inspections, and are of value in
arousing the community conscience and in securing
the driving power needed for reform.
Str WiLiiAM H. Brac, Quain professor of physics
in the University of London, has been elected a
corresponding member of the Paris Academy of
Sciences in the section of physics.
TuE library of the Chemical Society will be closed
for the Christmas Holidays at 1 P.M. on Friday,
December 22, and will reopen at 10 4.M. on Thursday,
December 28.
Tue Indian Botanical Society took over ownership
and control of the Journal of Indian Botany in
October (1922). Prof. P. F. Fyson, who started
the Journal in 1919 as a private enterprise, will
continue as editor.
Pror. H. N. Russert, of Princeton University,
was presented with the Draper gold medal of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States
of America at a dinner held in connexion with the
New York meeting of the academy on November 15.
Ar the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society
on December 11, at the Aolian Hall, the French
Ambassador, on behalf of the Société de Géographie
of Paris, presented a gold medal to Prof. J. W.
Gregory for his geographical work in East Africa.
Prof. Gregory afterwards read a paper, the substance
of which will be found on p. 826, on the results of
his recent journey in the mountains of Chinese Tibet.
THE Swiney lectures on geology, in connexion
with the British Museum (Natural History), are
being delivered at 5.30 P.M. on Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Fridays, at the Royal College of Science, South
Kensington, by Prof. T. J. Jehu, who has chosen as
his subject “‘ Fossils and what they Teach.’”’ Ad-
mission to the lectures, twelve in number, is free.
A statue of Prof. Adolf von Baeyer, presented by
the Interessengemeinschaft der Farbenfabriken, was
unveiled in the Botanic Garden of the University of
Munich on October 20. Prof. Willstatter spoke on
behalf of the University, and Dr. Duisberg on behalf
of the Interessengemeinschaft, Prof. Seeliger for the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Lepsius for
the German Chemical Society. i
A COMMITTEE “ to inquire and to report as to the
method of charging for gas on a thermal basis ”’ has
been appointed by the Board of Trade. The members
of the committee are as follows: Sir Clarendon
Golding Hyde (Chaiyman), Mr. Arthur Balfour, Sir
James Martin, Mr. A. A. Pugh, and Mr. W. J. U.
Woolcock. Mr. W. H. L. Patterson, of the Board of
Trade, will act as secretary to the committee.
In a communication to the Revue Scientifique of
October 28, Profs. Béhal, Haller, and Moureu urge
the necessity of establishing some kind of protective
measure to prevent German chemicals entering
France. They point out that such measures have
been established in the United States, England, Italy,
and Japan, and they believe that prompt action of
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NVA TORE
821
a similar kind is necessary if French chemical factories
are to remain in operation and French chemists in
employment.
TuE Bibliographic Institute for Auxiliary Scientific
Work (1a Longridge Road, London, S.W. 5), estab-
lished in 1917, affords assistance in the work of
scientific research by supplying bibliographies upon
subjects of any kind. The cost of such bibliographies
depends entirely upon the range of work comprised
in the special subject stated. Further information
can be obtained from the English representative of
the Institute at the above address.
A MEMORIAL window in Westminster Abbey in
remembrance of Sir J. W. Wolfe Barry, past president
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was dedicated
on December 7 by the Dean of Westminster. The
window, which is in the nave, contains the figures of
two angels holding tablets on which are inscribed the
words ““In Memory of John Wolfe Barry, K.C.B.,
F.R.S., Civil Engineer. Born 1836. Died 1918.”
Below the tablets are shields showing, among others,
the arms of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of the
University of London, and Sir John Wolfe Barry’s
personal arms.
THE annual meeting of the Mathematical Associa-
tion will be held on Monday, January 1, and Tuesday,
January 2, at the London Day Training College,
Southampton Row. At the Monday meeting, which
is to be at 5.30, Dr. S. Brodetsky will read a paper
on “Gliding.” On Tuesday there will be two
sessions, one at 10 and the other at 2.30. At the
first, a statement respecting the forthcoming 1eport
of the Sub-committee on the Teaching of Geometry
will be made by Prof. E. H. Neville, and the
following communications will be read: ‘‘ The Uses
of Non-Euclidean Geometry to Teachers,’’ W. GG
Fletcher; ‘‘ Simple Geometrical and Kinematical
Illustrations of the Plane Complex,’ Prof. R. W.
Genese; and ‘“‘A Certain Dissection Problem,”
J. Brill. At the afternoon meeting Sir Thomas L.
Heath will deliver his presidential address, taking
as his subject ‘‘Greek Geometry, with Special
Reference to Infinitesimals’’; and Prof. A. Lodge
will read a paper on “‘ Differentials as the Basis for
Teaching the Calculus.”’
A USEFUL Catalogue (New Series, No. 5) of second-
hand books on sale by Messrs. Wheldon and Wesley,
Ltd., 2 Arthur Street, W.C.z, has just been issued.
It contains upwards of 1200 titles of works dealing
with geology, mineralogy, mining, coal gas, water,
building materials, metal manufactures, etc.
Messrs. DuLau AND Co., Lrp., 34 Margaret Street,
W.1, have just circulated a short, but choice, catalogue
(No. 98) of Early Botanical Books. It is arranged
under the headings ‘‘ Herbals and Materia Medica,”
and “‘Early Agriculture and Gardening: Flora,
Fungi, Orchids, Serial Publications, etc.’ Among
the 356 works listed many are scarce.
Tue Institute of Metals, 36 Victoria Street, London,
S.W.1, has issued a name and subject index of the
Journal of Institute (vols. i-xxv.). The volume
contains more than 20,000 entries and covers metal-
lurgical work done during the period 1909-21.
Copies can be obtained through booksellers or direct
from the Institute of Metals.
Our Astronomica] Column.
THE REPORTED Nova in Lyra.—In this column last
week reference was made to the announcement of
the appearance of a new star near the constellation
of Lyra. The weather conditions tor observing the
object were not favourable, in this country at least,
until the night of December 6, when observations
were made at Greenwich, the Norman Lockyer
Observatory in Devon, and at Armagh. All the
observers reported that no bright star existed in the
region of the supposed nova; in fact, photographs
of the spectra of stars in that region down to the
sixth magnitude, taken at the Norman Lockyer
Observatory, did not reveal the presence of any star
giving the characteristic spectrum of a new star.
That a star of the first magnitude should dim so
quickly in such a short period of time would be
quite unique in the records of nove, so it must be
assumed that the observer was mistaken or the
announcement incorrect.
Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin writes: ‘‘ Widespread
cloud prevented the announcement of the discovery
of a Nova in Lyra from being tested at once, and it
was thought advisable to circulate it with a caution,
so that advantage might be taken of any clear
intervals to search for it. December 6 was fairly
clear at Greenwich, and it was quickly found that
there was no strange orb visible to the naked eye
in the neighbourhood of the given spot. Telescopic
comparison was made with the B.D. chart for an
area of 4 square degrees round the position without
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
success. This search was conclusive, at least down
to magnitude 7. Dr. Lockyer, Mr. Ellison (Armagh),
Prof. Strémgren, and Dr. W. H. Steavenson also
searched without success. The Daily Mail cabled
to Bucharest and learnt that the Astronomical
Society there knew nothing of the discovery. There
is therefore practically no doubt that the announce-
ment was the result of some mistake, the exact
nature of which it is useless to conjecture.”
LARGE FIREBALLS.—Mr. W. F. Denning writes :—
“A large fireball appeared on November 24 at 6.40
P.M. which was seen from London, Manchester, and
other places. It caused considerable flare in the
sky for several seconds, and threw off a train of
sparks at the later period of its flight. Comparing
the various observations the radiant point is indicated
at 87° +34° and the meteor fell from a height of 71
to 26 miles. Its length of path was about 124 miles,
and velocity 25 miles per second. It passed over the.
earth from the region about 12 miles west of Grimsby
to Shrewsbury. The radiant point near Theta Aurigae
is a fairly well-known centre of a minor shower
observed during the last half of November.” ony
Another great fireball appeared at about midnight
on December 6 and caused a surprising illumination
in the region of north Lincolnshire. A noise like
thunder was heard two minutes after the disappear-
ance of the meteor. The flight of the meteor was from
east to west, but details of an exact nature are lacking.
ioe)
Ny
N
NATURE
[ DeceMBER 16, 1922
Research Items.
WATER-SUPPLY IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA.—Recent
investigations in the heart of Australia have given
it a more promising aspect than it had of old. In
Discovery for December, Mr. O. H. T. Rishbeth, in
discussing the economic possibilities of Central
Australia, points out that a considerable area, about
150,000 sq. miles, has an average elevation of some
2000 ft. and rises to 5000 ft. in the Macdonnell and
Musgrove ranges. But even in this more elevated
part of the far interior the rainfall seems to be less
than Io in. a year and very uncertain in its occurrence.
The future of Central Australia depends on the
possibility of securing a satisfactory water-supply.
A great deal could be done by the conservation of
surface waters by means of dams, etc., but sub-
terranean water must be the chief source. Many
quite shallow wells seem to run freely with good
water, but these can scarcely be looked on as in-
exhaustible. Artesian wells are promising and the
water, though highly mineralised, is valuable for
pastoral purposes. When the water-supply is
assured and railway communications established,
Mr. Rishbeth thinks this region has a future as a
pastoral area. The carrying capacity and _ suita-
bility of different parts for various animals must be
tested ; rabbits and dingoes must be systematically
attacked, and stock routes with permanent wells
opened up. Gold, mica, and wolfram are also known
to occur, but difficulties of transport as well as lack
of water have delayed mining.
WatTER IN THE KENT COALFIELD.—The Kent coal-
field was revealed by a borehole near Dover in 1890 ;
since then no fewer than forty boreholes, comprising
upwards of 90,000 feet of boring, have extended our
knowledge of its area and depth. At present the
Coal Measures have been penetrated by shafts at only
four points ; at no place have they been proved at a
less depth than 800 feet below ordnance datum, yet
the only important natural difficulty in their exploita-
tion is the presence of large quantities of water in the
overlying rocks. In a paper recently submitted to
the Institution of Civil Engineers on “‘ Underground
Waters in the Kent Coalfield and their Incidence in
Mining Development,’ Mr. E. O. Forster Brown has
brought together many interesting facts concerning
the quantity, quality, and local pressure of the water
met with at different horizons, and has made sugges-
tions, based on the results of his observations, which
should prove of value in the development of mining
and underground water supply in Kent. In descend-
ing order the water-bearing strata overlying the Coal
Measures are, the Eocene, Chalk, Lower Greensand,
Hastings beds, and estuarine sands of the Great or
Inferior Oolite. During the last nine or ten years,
2 to 24 million gallons of water per day have been
pumped from Tilmanstone and Snowdown pits from
the water-bearing beds below the Chalk. This water
is allowed to run off at the surface. The author
points out that the main faulting and fissuring follow
the direction of the major tectonic folds, and that
the water in the Oolite sands is divided into inde-
-pendent blocks by post-Jurassic faulting ; he indi-
cates the importance of a knowledge of this faulting
in mining development. The water in the Oolite
sands and in the Carboniferous Limestone below the
Coal Measures probably comes from the French side
of the Channel where these rocks are exposed in the
Boulonnais.
‘ ANTS IN RELATION TO PLANTS.—Myrmecophytism
is dominated by the feeding habits of ants and their
offspring. Until these are fully understood, it is
scarcely possible to grasp the true ecological signifi-
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
cance, and the origin of the extreme cases of apparent
or true symbiosis, between certain ants and certain
species of plants. In a recent and very readable
publication (‘‘ Ants in their Diverse Relations to the
Plant World,’’ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. xlv., 1922,
PP- 333-583: extracted from “ Ants of the American
Congo Expedition,”’ pt. 4), J. Bequaert has brought
together the varied and disconnected links of exist-
ing knowledge, and a perusal of this work only
emphasises how necessary the close co-operation of
entomologists and botanists is for the proper inter-
pretation of many of the problems. The dispersal
of seeds by ants is evidently an important factor in
plant distribution. In Europe a great many grasses
and herbaceous plants rely almost exclusively, or at
least to a large extent, on certain species of ants for
the successful dissemination of their seed. The
cultivation of fungi by ants is one of the curiosities
of biology, but we know that when the female of
Atta sexdens starts a new colony, she carries in her
infrabuccal pouch a pellet containing fungal hyphe,
with which to start fungus cultivation. She manures
the mycelium until it attains a sufficiently luxurious
growth to feed to the larve. The fungal parasites
of ants, and the intracellular bacteria of these
insects, also come in for discussion. A large part of
the paper is devoted to a review of the myrmeco-
phytes of Africa, and there is also included a biblio-
graphy of more than 1100 references dealing with
ants in relation to plants.
RESEARCHES ON ORTHOPTERA AND DERMAPTERA.—
Part 3 of the ‘‘ Faune de France ’”’ has recently come
to hand and is devoted to a description of the Ortho-
ptera and Dermaptera of that country. M. Chopard,
the author of this fascicule, is a well-known authority
on these insects. In a compass of a little more than
200 pages he has provided a useful and profusely
illustrated systematic handbook on the rich fauna
inhabiting France. Mr. Morgan Hebard (Occasional
Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, vol. vii.,
Pp. 305-376, pls. xxvi.-xxvii.) revises the species of the
same orders of insects inhabiting Hawaii. It appears
that the Gryllide are the richest in species of any
family and number 30 kinds, of which 24 are probably
native and 6 ‘“‘ adventive.’’ There are no Phasmide,
no native species of Acridide, and of 16 species of
Blattide only 2 are native. Of the Dermaptera
there are 12 species, one half of which are native.
In the Annals of the Transvaal Museum (vol. 9,
1922, pp. 1-99, 4 plates), Mr. J. A. G. Rehn describes
the Dermaptera and Blattide of the Transvaal and
Natal. In the first-mentioned group only 9 species
are recorded and none are new: among the Blattide
there are 73 species of which 24 are new. In the
Bulletin of Entomological Research, vol. xiii., part 2,
1922, Mr. B. P. Uvarov contributes a study of the
grasshoppers of the genus Hieroglyphus and_ their
nearest allies. They are well known in India as
pests of rice and sugar-cane, but hitherto only one
species, H. banian, has been considered noxious. It
appears, however, that several species are probably
injurious, and this article is written with the view
of aiding in their discrimination and recognition.
Some INDIAN LEEcHES.—In his notes on some
leeches in the Indian Museum (Rec. Ind. Mus., xxi.
pp. 689-727, December 1921) T. Kaburaki deals with
twenty-seven species and makes three new genera.
In the single example of Foraminobdella, a new
genus of the Herpobdellide, found in a stream in the
Nilgiri District, Madras, the digestive tract opens to
the exterior not only at the mouth and anus but also
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
by a pore in the mid-dorsal line of the fourteenth
somite. The gut of Trematobdella, as described by
Blanchard, also opens by a pore in the mid-dorsal
line, and in Horst’s Nephelis dubia there are two
slender passages from the gut to the ventral surface
where they open to the exterior.
PHILIPPINE CATTLE RouND-worM.—B. Schwartz
records (Philippine Journ. Sci. xx. No. 6, 1922)
observations on the life-history of Ascaris vitolorum,
a parasite of cattle and of water-buffaloes in the
Philippine Islands. The eggs develop rapidly—but
if exposed to the heat of the tropical sun are quickly
destroyed—and contain larve after about twelve
days. Such eggs hatch in the intestine and the larve
migrate vza the liver and lungs back to the alimentary
canal, as in the common round-worm of man, Ascaris
lumbricoides, but appear to have a greater tendency
than in the latter species to linger in the liver.
DISTRIBUTION OF OLIGOCHTA IN THE ANTARCTIC.
—Two further parts of vol. vi. of the Australian
Antarctic Expedition are contributed by Prof. W. B.
Benham—Part 4 on the Oligocheta of Macquarie
Island and Part 5 on the Unarmed Gephyrea. In
the former four oligochetes are recorded —two
species of Marionina, one Lumbricillus, and one
Microscolex (Notiodrilus). In connexion with this
last, Prof. Benham discusses the views that have
been advanced to account for the present distribution
of Oligocheta on the sub-Antarctic islands and
concludes that this cannot be accounted for by
polyphyly, floating rafts, carriage by birds, or by
drifting seaweeds, and he is led back to the view,
first put forward by Beddard in 1891, that the various
islands and southern lands were once connected by !
land bridges. He believes that the former occurrence
of chains of islands would suffice to explain the
distribution of oligochetes, for the cocoons of these
worms might then have been distributed on the
feet of birds, and the pelagic larve of some of the
littoral animals might have been able to survive
for the short time necessary to pass across the inter-
vening seas. He puts the origin of the Oligocheta
“ somewhere in the early Mesozoic epoch.”
FuncGat Diseases oF Rice.—In the annual report
of the Department of Agriculture of the Uganda
Protectorate special attention is directed to local
fungal diseases of rice. Early failures in the rice
crop used to be attributed to unsuitable environ-
mental conditions, but it is noteworthy that the
symptoms of “ blast’’ disease resemble the effect
of drought and poor soil. This well-known disease,
caused by Pivicularia ovyz@, is reported for the first
time in Africa. The disease appears to be wide-
spread, not one of the plots examined being com-_
pletely free. Both leaves and stems are affected,
and when the latter are attacked at both nodes and
internodes the plants may break down and the whole
plot collapse entirely in bad cases. The ears are
sometimes normal, but if attacked the grains are
empty or only half filled. At no time has any
diseased condition of the roots been observed.
“ Blast ’’ appears to be the only major disease of
rice in Uganda, but in one instance Gibberella sau-
binetit, a fungus with a bad record, has occurred.
The supposed conidial stage of this fungus, a species
of Fusarium, has not been proved to be connected
with the Gibberella, and it is not pathogenic to
wheat, rice or maize, on all of which it was found in
the country.
PRAIRIE VEGETATION IN ILLINOIS.—A paper by
Homer C. Sampson under this title, published as
Article 16, in vol. 13 of the Natural History Survey
NON27, 72, VOL I10)|
NATURE 823
of the State of Illinois, illustrates how American
ecologists are attempting to record their main natural
vegetation features before these are too much modified
by man’s activities. Sampson recognises the great
importance of climate in determining the “ centre of
distribution ’’ of the great prairie formation, which
coincides roughly in its distribution with the area
where the ratio of rainfall to evaporation lies between
60 and 80 per cent. As the prairie is met with
farther from its natural centre of distribution, its
stability becomes increasingly less so that it dis-
appears before various edaphic and biotic influences.
Sampson describes the origin of the prairie from the
swamps and drier upland regions left at the close of
the last glacial period. On these two soil types two
different series of plant associations have followed,
hydrophyte and xerophyte respectively in character,
but both have ended in the prairie zone in the same
association, dominated by Andropogon furcatum,
the tall blue stem grass. Very striking must have
been the appearance of the wide-rolling plains,
clothed with this grass growing to a height of 1o-
12 feet, so that the earlier settlers could follow the
movements of their cattle only by climbing to elevated
ground and noting the agitation in the vast plains of
grass. The author is to be congratulated on one
unusual feature which terminates a memoir which is
throughout admirably clear and concise. This is the
bold attempt made to summarise the chief features
of prairie vegetation in non-technical language so
that the general public may lear. the results of the
study of one of the great natural assets of the state.
This public should be interested in the author’s
statements as to the relative want of success that
attends efforts to bring natural forest under cultiva-
tion as compared with the results of cultivation of
prairie land which is normally richer in humus and
less leached of its inorganic constituents.
WEATHER IN THE West InprIEs.—Monthly and
annual reports of the West Indies and Caribbean
Weather Service have reached us for 1921 and a
large part of 1922. The publication is carried out
by Mr. Oliver L. Fassig, meteorologist in charge, at
San Juan, Porto Rico, the service being in co-
operation with the governments of the islands of
the West Indies and of the adjacent coasts of Central
and South America, under the controlling influence
of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Daily rainfall returns
are given from about 350 stations throughout the
year 1921, and from more than 400 stations in the
early months of 1922. In the latter year monthly
mean and extreme temperatures are added. For
each month the mean rainfail for the entire section
is given based upon the reports from all stations
observing, and usually a comparison is made with
the normal. In 1921 the mean precipitation for
the entire area was lightest during the month of
April with a mean of 2-11 in. and a mean frequency
of 8 days; the month of heaviest rainfall was
October with 7:57 in. which fell on 16 days. The
mean annual fall for the entire area was 54°32 1n.,
and the mean number of days with rain was 144.
In Jamaica the annual extremes at different stations
ranged from 26 in. to 199 in., and in Trinidad from
60 in. to 156 in., the annual totals differing greatly,
due to the varying topography. Observations are
recorded of evaporation, water temperature, and
earthquakes. The occurrence and movements of
tropical storms are stated, warning of each storm
being given by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Consider-
able development of the reports is evident, and
the value of the data will in this way be further
: enhanced.
824
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
Physiological Aspects of Physical Measurement.
By Sir JoHN HERBERT Parsons, C.B.E., F.R.S.
P#HYSICISTS too often forget that the basis of
physical measurements 1s biological, for the so-
called ‘‘ outer world” only exists for us by virtue of
the sensations it arouses in our bodies. Physical
measurements are open to the errors of all human
observations, and these vary in degree according to
the type of observation. In all cases the observation
is the formation of a judgment, based on the sensa-
tions derived from the stimulation of a sensory
organ. Physiological experiments show that stimula-
tion of some sensory organs gives more sharply
defined responses than others. Thus, the responses
to smell and taste are crude and vague; those to
moderate cutaneous stimuli—touch and temperature
—much better defined ; those to auditory stimuli, still
better, and those to visual best of all. —
But even among the varieties of a given type of
sensation various degrees of definition are met. Thus
pain, though cutaneous, is crude like smell and taste;
in vision, form sense is much more accurately defined
than colour sense. Definition, indeed, varies as the
biological differentiation of the sense organ.
Now, the most highly differentiated sensory organ
is the eye, and the fovea is its most highly differenti-
ated part. Experiments show that the greatest dis-
crimination is met with in foveal stimuli. The highest
degree of sensory discrimination is the appreciation
of continuity or lack of exact continuity in two
straight lines set end to end, as in the vernier. This
may be called linear identity, and it is noteworthy
that it has been adopted empirically by physicists in
the vernier, balance, and other instruments. Physi-
cists have been very ingenious in applying this criterion
to otherwise apparently unsuitable measurements, as,
for example, the measurement of temperature. But
there are many physical measurements to which it
cannot be applied, or at any rate has not been applied.
Photometry is an example. Here we are measuring
the brightness of two lights. By various devices the
principle of identity or equality of sensations is made
use of—thus utilising the only accurate psychological
comparison—but the quality of the sensation to be
adjudicated upon does not admit of the accuracy of
linear identity. Even in homochromatic photometry
we are comparing the brightnesses of two illuminated
areas. As is well known, these areas react upon each
other physiologically—by the process of induction or
simultaneous contrast. Moreover, the judgment is
affected by the previous stimulation of-the retinal
areas concerned (successive contrast). It is further
vitiated by variations in adaptation.
Still more open to error are the comparisons of
brightness of different coloured lights, heterochro-
matic photometry. Here the difference in colour acts
as a very disturbing element. Yet by practice it is
possible to attain almost as accurate results as in
homochromatic photometry. But how can we judge
of the accuracy of these determinations ? In this
particular instance we can have recourse to the fact
that the critical frequency of flicker depends upon
brightness and follows a definite mathematical law.
The eye is extremely sensitive to flicker, so that the
disappearance of flicker affords a very sensitive
criterion. It has been found that the results obtained
by the flicker photometer confirm the results obtained
by the best so-called ‘‘ equality of brightness ’’
observations.
No matter how delicate the criterion there are still
errors of observation due to imperfections of a bio-
; soe SPATE address to the Illuminating Engineering Society,
aclivered on May 25.
NO. 277.2) VOL 1 1O)|
logical nature common to all human observers and
also to the so-called “‘ personal equation ’’ of the
given observer. How are these to be eliminated ?
Recourse is had to mathematical theory. The basis
of the theory of error, which is a branch of the theory
of probability, is that small errors will be more fre-
quent than large ones, very large ones will be prac-
tically absent, and the mean is the result of the
mutual destruction or compensation of many small
sources of error acting in opposite directions.
The kinetic theory of gases is built entirely upon
this statistical foundation, and its success in explaining
the physical properties of gases is strong evidence in
favour of the statistical theory. There are several
mathematical ‘‘ averages or means,’”’ and much de-
pends upon the choice of the suitable “‘ means,”’
which itself depends upon the frequency distribution
of the observations. Graphic methods of eliminating
errors are constantly used by physicists. One of the
commonest is the method of interpolation, and the
smoothing of the curves.
An interesting example of the opposite aspect of
averages is the modern view of atomic weights.
These are some of the most accurate physical measure-
ments ever made and have been corrected by the
best statistical methods. Many of them approximate
nearly to whole numbers and there are many theo-
retical reasons for believing that they are whole
numbers. Recent investigations, chiefly by Aston,
have shown that the atomic weights hitherto obtained
are themselves averages: that there are many so-
called ‘‘ isotopes,’”’ having almost if not quite identical
chemical properties, but differing from each other in
the number of their electrons and also in their true
atomic weights, which are invariably integers.
I hope that this philosophical parenthesis suffices
to show that even in the matter of physical measure-
ments the physiological aspects of the subject must
perforce be taken into account. But in dealing with
illumination we are dealing not only with foveal
vision, but also with peripheral vision and alterations
of sensitiveness of the eye under different conditions
of stimulation. It is well known that the foveal
region of all parts of the field of vision alters least
in sensitiveness under different intensities of illumina-
tion. It is, therefore, relatively stable, and observa-
tions founded on criteria derived from central vision
are proportionately trustworthy. It is quite other-
wise with the other parts of the field of vision. Here
the sensitiveness of the retina increases enormously
with diminution of the intensity of stimulation. This
function of retinal adaptation, which is of such
tremendous practical importance in the life of the
individual and indeed of the species, interferes very
seriously with the accuracy of scientific investigations.
Physicists have been led astray by ignoring it, as,
for example, in the so-called “‘ deviations from
Newton’s law of colour mixtures’’ described by
IxGnig.
Physicists, indeed, are so accustomed to deal with
measurements of the highest order of accuracy,
founded upon what I have called “ linear identity ”’
observations, that they succumb to two errors:
(1) that of regarding these observations as of the
supreme validity of mathematical abstractions ; (2)
that of regarding other observations, to which the
“linear identity ’’ criterion 1s inapplicable, as of far
greater accuracy than is in fact the case. When the
mistakes arising from these errors are too patent to
be ignored, physicists are apt to exhibit an un-
warranted impatience with the shifting sands of
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
biological science. The fact must, however, be faced
that in all cases the observing instrument is a living
organ and is, therefore, in a perpetual state of change.
The rate of change is relatively slight in the most
favourable cases, but rapid and complex in the less
favourable. Physicists have been notoriously suc-
cessful in so reducing the physical complications of
experiments to a minimum that the problem nearly
approximates to a mathematical abstraction, and,
therefore, the highest degree of accuracy. Further
advance is to be sought by greater attention to the
biological complexities in order that they, too, may
be subject to more complete control.
A mass of evidence has of recent years accumulated
NATURE
825
to show that in peripheral vision two mechanisms
are simultaneously at work. Of these, one is chiefly
concerned with vision under low intensities of light—
what I have called scotopic vision. The end organ
of this mechanism is the rods of the retinal neuro-
epithelium. Photopic vision, or what may be called
daylight vision, is chiefly carried out by the cones.
The duplicity theory is so well established that it has
even found its way into the writings of the physicists.
The explanation and our knowledge of retinal adapta-
tion depends upon these physiological facts. Since
retinal adaptation plays a preponderant part in
simultaneous and successive contrast its importance
in photometry will be readily realised.
The Design of Railway Bridges.
Jan SUBJECT of great importance to the general
public is the safety of the thousands of
bridges by means of which our railways cross roads,
rivers, and othér railways. Probably it occurs to
few railway travellers to consider the complexity
of the design of each bridge they cross and the
organisation required to inspect, test, and maintain
every bridge in a condition suited not only to the
traffic for which it was originally designed, but also
to the increased weights and speeds which have
since been introduced. It is but natural that differ-
ences of opinion should arise between the railway
companies which have to pay for their erection and
maintenance, and the Board of Trade which has
to satisfy itself that they are safe.
The Ministry of Transport has recently carried
out a series of tests on actual bridges, and has issued
a report containing suggestions which appear to
foreshadow regulations requiring railway bridges to
be heavier and therefore more expensive. This
report has naturally aroused great interest and caused
no small concern among the bridge engineers of the
leading railway companies. At the meeting of the
British Association at Hull, the Engineering Section
devoted a morning to a discussion of the problem.
Unfortunately no representative of the Ministry of
Transport took part in the discussion, but the railway
companies were well represented and the speakers
included the bridge engineers of the Great Western,
North Eastern, and Great Central companies. Taken
together the papers constitute a concise but fairly
complete review of the present situation.
Mr. J. S. Wilson, who opened the discussion with
a general review of the questions involved, showed
that the difference of opinion between the companies
and the Board of Trade is nearly as old as the rail-
ways themselves.
the Trent was tested by the representative of the
railway commissioners preparatory to the opening
of the Retford and Lincoln line. The deflection of
1} inches with four locomotives and tenders on the
centre of a span was considered excessive and per-
mission to open the line was refused. The bridge
had been designed by John Fowler who, with Sir
Benjamin Baker, was responsible later for the Forth
Bridge. He had followed the rules laid down by
Fairbairn, and he suggested to the commissioners
that some mistake had been made, but after further
tests the latter persisted in their view that the
stresses in the bridge were excessive. Finally, how-
ever, Fowler succeeded in convincing the commis-
sioners that the girders, being continuous over the
middle pier, were not stressed so highly as would
otherwise be the case, and on his offering to reduce
the weight of ballast on the bridge, the line was
finally opened after a delay of three or four months.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
In 1849 Torksey Bridge across |
The subsequent history of the bridge is of interest.
The bridge is still there ; for forty-six years it was un-
altered and carried all traffic satisfactorily ; in 1896
it was strengthened by the addition of a longitudinal
girder. These old iron bridges designed by Fairbairn
and Fowler, which have stood the test of seventy years’
wear and tear and are still in good condition, are
powerful arguments in favour of the view that
bridges built on the same assumptions will be per-
fectly safe.
There are many difficulties, however, in the cal-
culations and assumptions involved in the design,
in allowing for the effect of impact due to the fact
that the load is a live one, that is, not a stationary
load, and in allowing for the effect of sleepers, rails,
and_ ballast in strengthening the structure, distribut-
ing the load, and damping out the effects of impact.
It is here that some doubt arises as to whether the
intentions of the Ministry are correctly interpreted
by the railway companies; it is useless to specify
a factor of safety or a working stress unless one also
specifies how the stress or factor is to be calculated
or determined. The bridge designer may employ
what appears to be a low factor of safety because
he knows that the actual stresses are less than
those calculated by the simple conventional methods
usually adopted and that his actual factor of safety
is consequently much greater. If a high factor of
safety is specified, then it is open to the engineer to
modify not his design but his methods of calculation
so as to take account of the various strengthening
factors usually neglected, and thus obtain a lower
calculated stress and a higher factor of safety than
would be given by the usual semi-empirical method.
One speaker in the discussion advocated making
full-scale tests on old bridges which were being
replaced ; these could be re-erected and thoroughly
tested, if necessary to destruction. All the speakers
deprecated the premature promulgation of rules
which would lead to heavier and therefore more
expensive bridges, but urged that present practice
should be followed until systematic research has
been carried out and far more knowledge of the
subject obtained than that on which the Ministry of
Transport are proposing to act.
In their attitude towards riveted structures of
iron and steel, engineers may be divided into pessimists
and optimists, and Mr. Wilson’s experience showed
that the greatest optimists have been those most
closely associated with the maintenance or actual
construction, who would certainly be the first to
detect any indication that the bridges were showing
signs of weakness.
An engineering student is always taught that the
stress produced by a live load is double that pro-
duced by the same load when steadily applied. This
826
NATURE
[ DecEMBER 16, 1922
assumes, however, that the live load is suddenly
applied. If the time taken to apply the load is
comparable with the period of vibration of the bridge,
this is no longer true, and however fast a train is
travelling the time taken to apply the load is con-
siderable, and it is not surprising that actual measure-
ments of deflection show that the stresses due to a
moving train are in many cases but little greater
than those due to the same load when at rest.
One speaker in the discussion at Hull emphasised
the importance of minimising corrosion and looked
forward to the possible use of stainless steel for
bridges; in the meanwhile he had great hopes of
the cement gun, by means of which a thin coating
of cement is applied to the iron work.
A paper by Mr. J. S. Wilson and Prof. B. P. Haigh |
dealt very fully with the influence of rivet holes,
not only in bridges but in steel structures in general.
This is of importance in the present controversy
because of the uncertainty of the allowance to be
made for the rivet holes in calculating the stress due
to any given load. Calculation indicates that very
high stresses should occur in the neighbourhood of
rivet holes, but from a large number of experiments
the authors came to the conclusion that “ the metals
used in practice have a ductility and other qualities
which render them able to eliminate or accommodate
these high stresses.”’
The various papers read and the remarks made
by the speakers in the discussion all tended to show
that the actual stresses occurring in bridge work
are considerably lower than those usually calculated,
and that past and present practice allows an ample
factor of safety.
The Alps of Chinese Tibet and their Geographical Relations.
By Prof. J. W. Grecory, F.R.S., and J. C. GREGorY.
SOUS DS SINE! Asia is a region of interesting
geographical enigmas which deal with the
contrast between south-eastern and south-western
Asia, the eastern prolongation of the Himalaya, the
place of the mountains of south-western China in
the mountain system of Asia, and the remarkable
arrangement of the rivers of south-eastern Tibet,
which has been described as one of the most extra-
ordinary features of the earth’s land surface. These
problems are intimately connected with the formation
of the basin of the Indian Ocean.
“Seek knowledge,” said Mohammet, “ even if it
is found in China,”’ and in accordance with that in-
junction of the Prophet the authors landed at Bhamo
on the upper Irawadi, 50 miles from the Chinese
frontier. This port of departure was selected in
obedience to the principle of the Burmese proverb
that an old road is a fast road; for the road from
Bhamo to the Treaty Port of Tengyueh in south-
western China is one of the trade routes of Asia
which has been used since prehistoric times. At
Tengyueh the Indians who had accompanied the
expedition over the frontier mountains were sent
back, a Chinese staff being engaged ; permission was
obtained to proceed to Likiang, the administrative
headquarters near the borders of Chinese Tibet. As
part of this road was across unsurveyed country in
which brigandage was rife, the authorities insisted
on the money of the expedition being sent on either
by draft or along the main road.
The expedition arrived at Likiang before its money,
and a further check was threatened by the refusal
of the magistrate to allow the expedition to proceed
further north. This decision was found to be in
obedience to instructions from the provincial capital,
but the magistrate of Likiang ultimately agreed to
let the expedition proceed, provided he had no further
instructions from the capital, on the receipt of a
letter stating that the travellers were going on in
spite of his warning and entirely at their own risk.
Meanwhile a Chinese merchant in the city had agreed
to advance half the amount of the draft, and as soon
as this was paid the expedition hurried northward
into Chinese Tibet to get beyond recall.
The path taken descended from the plateau into
the valley of the Yangtze-kiang where, though 2400
miles from the sea, it is still a great river, and was
then in high flood owing to the melting of the Tibetan
snows. The structure of this valley and of its two
parallel neighbours, the Mekong and Salween, was
studied in a series of journeys along these rivers and
} Substance of a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society on
December 11.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
over the mountains between them. The inhabited
districts along the Salween were smitten with famine
owing to the failure of the previous harvest, and
work there was impossible. The range of Kagurpu
with its pyramidal snow-clad peaks and its great
glaciers was inaccessible, as its crest is the forbidden
frontier between Chinese and autonomous Tibet.
Hence for a study of the mountain structure of this
region the expedition turned eastward to the peaks
and glaciers between the Mekong and the Yangtze-
kiang, crossing passes from 16,000 to 18,000 ft. in
height. Bad weather frustrated the attempt to
explore the glaciers of Peima-shan and heavy floods
hampered the return march to Likiang. Wide
tracts of country around Tali-fu, the former Muslim
capital which had withstood a siege of eighteen years
during the Civil War of 1855-73, were flooded owing
to the abnormally heavy rains. The caravan had
to enter the city by climbing over the city wall, as
the north gate was closed to keep out the mischievous
spirits from the north which had brought the ex-
cessive rains that were threatening the country with
famine. From Tali the expedition returned by the
main road across Yunnan to the Irawadi in Burma.
The observations made during the journey show
that the geography of Chinese Tibet is the result of
mountain formation at two distinct periods. The
deep valleys with their intermediate ranges, which
are the most conspicuous topographic features, are
the result of mountain movements of the age of the
Coal Measures. These ancient movements gave the
country a geographical grain trending north and
south, and the Indo-Malayan mountains have been
formed by the excavation of valleys along the weaker
layers of the grain. Mountains belonging to a
relatively modern date have been formed contem-
porary with the upheaval of the Alps and Himalaya.
The high peaks of Chinese Tibet rising over 24,000
ft. in height are due to these later uplifts. The main
axis of the Himalaya passes through Chinese Tibet
and is probably continued through the Nan-shan
of southern China to the Pacific. The Burmese
and Malay mountain arcs, which are the same age
as the Himalaya, represent a loop to the south of
the main mountain axis like the Persian loop in
south-western Asia and the Apennine loop in
Europe. The great rises on the floor of the Pacific,
which reach the surface in the Hawaiian Islands
and the coral islands of Polynesia, are probably the
continuation of these two mountain lines, being like
them due to the pressure interacting between the
northern cap of the world and the tropical or sub-
tropical zone. :
DEcEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
827
The enigma of the three parallel rivers is explained
as due to their valleys having been worn out along
clefts through which the drainage from south-eastern
Tibet was enabled to escape through the mountain
rim of Chinese Tibet. This rim had been formed by
the Himalayan movements which were due to the
intense compression of the crust; on the relief from
that pressure the mountain ranges were broken by
transverse clefts, and large blocks sank between a
network of fractures. The basins formed by these
subsidences gave the rivers great powers of enlarging
their channels and thus of excavating the deep steep-
sided valleys which are now the most conspicuous
features in the topography of south-western China.
The Present Position of the Whaling Industry.
NV ERE has been practised as an industry for
some centuries. The pursuit of the Atlantic
right whale was carried on in the Bay of Biscay at
an early date, and was active at least so long ago
as the twelfth century. The Greenland right whale
was hunted in three areas, at successive periods, at
first off Spitsbergen from about 1610, when few
Atlantic right whales were left, then in Davis Straits
from about 1719, and finally in the North Pacific
and Bering Sea from about 1840. The sperm whale,
which occurred in the whole of the tropical belt,
though by no means restricted to this area, was
hunted from about 1712.
The successful introduction of the modern harpoon-
gun, with a harpoon carrying an explosive charge,
dates from 1865, and has revolutionised whaling,
by making it possible to capture the large and switt
rorquals or fin whales. Modern whaling is concerned
mainly with the humpback whale, the fin whale,
and the blue whale, all of which are widely dis-
tributed in nearly all seas, although it is not certain
whether each of these whalers’ names indicates the
same species in all parts of the world. After rorquals
had been hunted in such localities as the Varanger
1 Substance of a paper read before the Association of Economic Biologists
by Sir Sidney F. Harmer, F.R.S., on November ro.
Fjord, Newfoundland, Iceland, the British and
Norwegian coasts, and elsewhere, whaling on an
unprecedented scale commenced off the edge of the
Antarctic Continent in 1905, and is still being con-
ducted energetically. The total catch in this area
has exceeded 10,000 in a single year.
The principal whale-products of economic im-
portance are: train-oil, sperm-oil, spermaceti, baleen,
ambergris, whale meat, and the various forms of
whale-meal or “ guano.’’ In a well-conducted factory
all parts of the carcass are utilised.
With the exception of the Antarctic whaling,
which has had a career of less than twenty years,
whaling has been carried on consistently to an ex-
cessive amount, leading to the most serious re-
duction of the number of whales. The Atlantic and
Greenland right whales were decimated almost to
the point ot extermination, the sperm whale in-
dustry has practically disappeared, and little re-
mains now but the Antarctic whaling grounds.
The efforts of all lovers of Nature should be directed
to the restriction of whaling to an amount which
is not inconsistent with the permanent preserva-
tion of these magnificent marine mammals and of
the industry which they are so unfortunate as to
support.
Biometric
N the current issue of Biometrika (vol. xiv.
pts. i. and ii.) Dr. Kirstine Smith discusses the
standard deviation of a coefficient of correlation com-
puted from data derived from classes, members of
which are mutually correlated, with special reference
to the case of fraternal and parental correlations
calculated from entries of siblings. She finds, znter
alia, that the best determination of a fraternal cor-
relation from a given number of observations is
obtained by taking (1+1/v) offspring individuals
from each family, where 7 is the fraternal correlation.
Mr. Egon S. Pearson contributes an important
memoir on variations in personal equation. The
experimental basis of the research was a series of five
sets of measurements of different type; the form of
sessional change, 7.e. the resultant of factors operative
within each series, is separated from the secular, or
long period, change effective from one session to
another ; appropriate forms for the expression of each
are discussed. It is evident that in the determination
of the precise value of the correlation between succes-
sive judgments in a series, one has to reckon not only
with physiological or psychological common factors,
the organic basis of the correlation, but also with
accidental errors which blur the record—the observa-
tional errors of some writers—and reduce the numerical
value of the correlation. It is found that the correla-
tions between successive judgments decrease approxi-
mately in geometrical progression with the number of
intervals, a finding consistent with the assumption that
there is little or no partial correlation between the
observers’ true estimates at intervals greater than one.
The chief practical outcome of the work is to show
that although “experience and accuracy may be
gained by practice, it does not follow that the cor-
relation between successive judgments will disappear.”
NO. 2772, VOL. I10]
Studies.
The memoir is not only of practical interest to all
experimenters, but also contains several contributions
to statistical algebra. In connexion with the work on
PP. 37 et seq., a reference to the memoir of Anderson
(Biometrika, x. 269) would have been in place, but
no doubt Mr. Pearson will deal more fully with the
literature of the subject in a sequel. He is to be
congratulated on his first appearance in a field where
one bearing his name must be judged by the highest
possible standard.
Dr. Ernest Warren’s paper concludes the account
of work partly described in 1917 concerning inherit-
ance in the foxglove. Dr. Warren holds that “ the
evidence of the present investigation is therefore
definitely against any general application of the theory
of pure lines and of genotypes of any appreciable
magnitude, and further it indicates that selective
breeding within self-fertilised generations of a homo-
geneous race is capable of modifying that race to a
marked degree.”’
Prof. Karl Pearson and Mr. Egon Pearson show how
to find a general polychoric coefficient of correlation,
z.e. to fit the “ best ’’ normal surface to data subject
to the limitation that the marginal totals are exactly
reproduced. The arithmetical work is heavy, and the
suggestion is that a determination of the correlation
ratio from the array means—not a laborious task—
will usually suffice.
Mr. James Henderson discusses the expansion of a
function in tetrachoric functions, a matter of some
importance to those who use the frequency systems
favoured by Scandinavian mathematical statis-
ticians.
It will be obvious that the fourteenth volume of
Biometrika is as valuable to statisticians as its pre-
decessors.
828
NWATORE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
University and Educational Intelligence.
Betrast.—The trustees of the late Mr. Henry
Musgrave have just paid to the Queen’s University
the sum of 57,000/. Of this sum the income of 7o00o/.
is to be applied towards paying an additional Reader
in connexion with the chair of physics. The income
of 20,0001. is to be applied in founding and maintaining
studentships of not less than 150/. per annum for the
encouragement of research in pathology, physiology,
biology and chemistry. The disposal of the remain-
ing 30,000/. is left to the discretion of the Senate.
CAMBRIDGE.—The Very Reverend W. R. Inge,
Dean of St. Paul’s, and Sir Sidney F. Harmer,
Director of the Natural History Departments of the
British Museum, have been elected honorary fellows
of King’s College.
Kk. P. Chatterji, Fitzwilliam Hall, has been elected
to the Anthony Wilkin Studentship in ethnology and
archeology.
The Raymond Horton-Smith prize has _ been
awarded to Dr. A. B. Appleton, Downing College,
for an essay on ‘‘ Morphogenesis of Bone,’ and to
Dr. H. W. K. Vines, Christ’s College, for an essay on
“ Certain Physiological Functions of Calcium Salts.”’
The Gordon Wigan prize in chemistry has been
awarded to R. G. W. Norrish, Emmanuel College,
for an investigation on “The Photochemistry of
Potassium Permanganate.”’
It is proposed to appoint a University lecturer in
embryology.
Oxrorp.—An important collection of early scientific
instruments has been offered as a gift to the Uni-
versity by Mr. Lewis Evans, a condition attached
to the gift being that a suitable place should be pro-
vided for showing it, this to be approved by Mr.
Evans. The collection is at present exhibited in the
Picture Gallery of the Bodleian Library, where it will
be allowed to remain until the end of the summer of
1924. In the meantime it will be necessary to fix on
a permanent lodging for the collection, and a proposal
by Mr. R. T. Gunther, Fellow of Magdalen College,
to allot for this purpose the upper-rooms of the
historic Ashmolean Museum has the support of the
heads of all the scientific departments concerned, of
the Board of the Faculty of Natural Science, and of
many other resident members of the University. As
stated in Nature of December 9, p. 783, the collec-
tion is especially rich in instruments for the deter-
mination of time. There is a series of astrolabes,
sixty-three in number. There is also a large array
of dials, both stationary and portable; the former
includes Wolsey’s sundial, which was probably de-
signed by Nicolas Kratzer, the first Oxford professor
of astronomy ; while among the latter can be seen
a fine Elizabethan finger ring dial, and a Roman
portable dial of the second or third century A.D.,
stated to be the only perfect example known of this
particular type of timepiece.
Dr. Katie Barratt, lecturer in the department of
biology at the Imperial College of Science, South
Kensington, has been appointed principal of the
Horticultural College, Swanley, Kent.
Tue British Association Committee on Training in
Citizenship has produced three valuable reports, each
of which is available separately for a few pence, and
at reduced prices if purchased in dozens or hundreds.
The first report, presented at the Cardiff meeting in
1920, contains a syllabus of a course in civics and
notes on regional surveys; the second, presented at
Edinburgh in 1921, surveys the position of the sub-
ject and summarises views of leading teachers upon its
scope and purpose ; and the third, presented at the
Hull meeting in September last, contains a full biblio-
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
graphy of civics. Prices and other particulars may be
obtained from the honorary secretary of the committee,
Lady Shaw, to Moreton Gardens, London, S.W.5.
WE have received from the University of Hong-
Kong a pamphlet describing its aims and needs, with
special reference to an offer by the Rockefeller Founda-
tion of New York of an endowment of half a million
dollars for chairs of medicine and surgery, conditional
only upon the Faculty being brought into harmony
in other respects with modern standards of efficiency.
This will cost at least 400,000 dollars. The university
holds a position unique among British universities in
that its policies are to a large extent dominated by
its nearness to and relations with a foreign country.
Its charter of incorporation declares that its objects
include “... the development and formation of
the character of students of all races, nationalities, and
creeds, and the maintenance of good understanding
with the neighbouring country of China,” and its
general aim has been defined as “ the provision of
facilities and especially of the atmosphere of a resi-
dential British university with such modifications . . .
as the national and intellectual outlook of the Chinese
student may call for.” One of its chief merits in the
eyes of Chinese parents is that its students get the
benefit of a British university education without
becoming denationalised. It was opened only two
years before the outbreak of the Great War and until
1920-21 its progress was slow. During the past two
years, however, the number of students has rapidly
increased, and there are now about 250, nearly all of
whom reside in university or recognised (mission)
hostels. Of students who have graduated from the
several faculties (medicine, engineering, and arts) the
greatest number—77—took degrees in engineering.
Pror. L. Natanson sends us the following informa-
tion summarising the growth and progress of uni-
versity education in Poland. In the last completed
year (1921-22) Poland had five State-endowed
universities (Cracow, Warsaw, Lwéw, Poznan, Wilno),
two high technical schools (Warsaw, Lwéw), two
“free” or private universities (Lublin, Warsaw), and
seven other special colleges of university rank.
In these institutions, 1926 persons were engaged
in teaching during the session under review, namely :
833 full or “ordinary ’”’ professors, 176 assistant
or ‘extraordinary’ professors, and 917 lecturers
and provisionally appointed teachers. The total
number of students enrolled for the same period was
34,708, of whom 8015 were women. The University
of Warsaw had the largest number of students in
attendance, namely, 7518 ; the Technical High School
of Warsaw had 4112 students. Polish universities
contain faculties of theology, jurisprudence, medicine,
physical and natural science, philosophy, history and
philology; in addition to these, sub-faculties or
special departments exist in several universities,
devoted to agriculture, pharmacy, veterinary science,
and so on. As to the specialty of their study, the
students may be divided as follows: theology I per
cent., jurisprudence 29-1, medical science 13-2, phar-
macy o-9, veterinary science I-1, stomatology 1:5,
philosophy, philology, history and pedagogical science
26-4, agriculture 5-9, commercial science 2-1, chemistry
2-8, mining o-8, other technical studies 14-4 per cent.
The following information is also available relating
to the mother-tongue of students in the University
of Warsaw: Polish language 89-0 per cent., Russian
2-0, German 0:25, Hebrew 4:25, Jewish 3:25, other
languages 1-25 per cent. About 74 per cent. of the
number of students were trained in secondary schools
chiefly of classical and literary type; the rest, about
26 per cent., had received preparation in schools
in which experimental and practical science was
the basis of instruction.
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
829
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
December 18, 1888. Joseph James Coleman died.
—One of the pioneers of the cold storage industry,
Coleman was first a teacher of chemistry and then
chemical engineer to Young’s Paraffin Works,
Bathgate, Glasgow, where he devised means of
liquifying gases, and with Bell introduced the Bell-
Coleman dry-air refrigerating system which re-
volutionised the meat-carrying trade.
December 19, 1877. Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff
died.—Ruhmkorff was born in Hanover in 1803 and
in 1819 went to Paris as assistant in a laboratory.
There he started in business for himself and became
a successful electrical instrument maker. In 1844
he invented a thermo-electric battery, and in 1851
brought out the Ruhmkorff coil for which he after-
wards received a prize of 50,000 francs at the French
Exhibition of Electrical Apparatus.
December 20, 1904. Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell died.
—tThe son of an engineer of Newcastle, Bell studied
at Edinburgh and at the Sorbonne, and in 1854,
with his brothers, founded the Clarence Iron Works
on the Tees, the firm ultimately employing some 6000
men. Bell was distinguished as an investigator
and writer on metallurgy, and as a man of affairs
assisted to found the Iron and Steel Institute, of
which he served as president in 1873-75. He was
also the first recipient of the Bessemer Gold Medal.
December 21, 1909. Charles B. Dudley died.—
From 1875 to 1909 Dudley was chemist to the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in which situation
he carried out a number of important researches on
the properties of materials and other matters con-
nected with railways. He was president of the
American Chemical Society, and at the time of his
death, president of the International Association for
Testing Materials.
December 22, 1867. Jean Victor Poncelet died.—
A distinguished French engineer and mathematician,
Poncelet passed through the Ecole Polytechnique,
served in the army, was taken prisoner on the retreat
from Moscow, and during his confinement began
writing his “ Traité des propriétés projectives des
figures.” He rose to high military rank, held a
chair of mechanical physics in Paris, published a
treatise on practical mechanics, improved the water
wheel, and invented a turbine.
December 23, 1895. Sir Edward James Harland
died.—The founder of the great shipbuilding firm
of Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, Harland was born
in 1831 at Scarborough, served an apprenticeship
under Robert Stephenson at Newcastle, and became
draughtsman to J. and J. Thomson, Glasgow. In
1854 he removed to Ireland, becoming the owner
of a small shipbuilding concern, in which he was
joined by Wolff in 1860. Among the most notable
vessels he constructed was the Atlantic liner Teutonic,
which, built in 1889, was the first mercantile vessel
to be fully armed and equipped as an auxiliary
cruiser. She was 560 feet long, displaced 16,740
tons, and with 17,500 horsepower attained a speed
of twenty knots.
December 23, 1865. Alan Stevenson died.—The
eldest son of Robert Stevenson (1772-1850), whom he
succeeded as engineer to the Scottish Lighthouse
Commissioners, Stevenson erected ten lighthouses,
among them being that at Skerryvore, “ the finest
example for mass combined with elegance of outline
of any extant rock tower.’’ This lighthouse, which
was built between 1838 and 1843, is 138 feet high
and weighs 4300 tons. Es Gao:
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
Societies and Academies.
LONDON.
Royal Microscopical Society, November 15.—Prof.
F. J. Cheshire, president, in the chair.—C. Singer :
The earliest drawings made by means of the micro-
scope. These drawings, probably the earliest made,
were prepared in 1625, 3 years before the birth of
Malpighi and 8 years before the birth of Leeuwenhoek.
They represent the anatomy of a bee, of which the
mouth parts are particularly accurately rendered.
The drawings are to be found on the fly-leaf of an
excessively rare book, the “ Melissographia’”’ of
Federigo Cesi, Duke of Aquasparta. The only
specimen of this book known to exist is in the
Lanuvian library at Rome. The drawings were
made under the supervision of Cesi himself and of
his colleague in the first ‘‘ Academy of the Lynx,”
Francesco Stelluti. A mechanical microtome. was
constructed by the instrument maker Cummings
in 1770 and described by the notorious Sir John
Hill.
Physical Society, November 24.—Dr. Alexander
Russell, president, in the chair.—E. G. Richardson:
The theory of the singing flame. Lord Rayleigh’s
theory of the action of the singing flame fits the
results most closely, in that (1) heat is given by the
flame to the air in the tube at each condensation,
and (2) stationary waves are formed in the gas as
well as in the air-tube. But the lengths of gas-tube
unfavourable to the “‘ singing ”’ cover a more restricted
range than Lord Rayleigh surmised.—Miss Alice
Everett: Unit surfaces of Cooke and Tessar photo-
graphic lenses. A number of rays in an axial plane
(and a few general rays) are traced through the lens
systems by exact methods, and on each ray the
positions of the conjugate points for unit magnifica-
tion are found by Mr. T. Smith’s formule. For
general rays the loci of these ‘“‘ unit points” are
three-dimensional. They are surfaces only when
the chief rays are bound by some condition such as
passing through a fixed point of the object. Within
the region for which the lenses are designed, the
curvature of both object and image unit-point loci
is positive (convex to the light source) and the image
locus is more curved than the object locus.—R. Ll.
Jones: Vibration galvanometers with asymmetric
moving systems. The theory of vibrations of a
system with two degrees of freedom is given, ex-
pressions for the amplitudes of the forced vibrations
are deduced, and the conditions for resonance
ascertained. The results are applied to a galvano-
meter in which the moving system is asymmetrically
hung on a laterally yielding axis, and it is found
that the formula for the amplitude is capable of
reproducing with fair accuracy the sensitivity curve
of the galvanometer, which shows multiple resonance.
Asymmetry always lowers the sensitivity of the
resonance.—Paul Schilowsky: Some applications of
the gyroscope. To stabilise a system in unstable
equilibrium a reaction must be set up between the
system and the gyrostat of such a character as to
help the precession of the gyrostat during the return
of the system to normal. To check the oscillations
of a stable system, the reaction must be such as
to oppose such precession. The gyrostat must be
power-driven to neutralise friction. A collection of
apparatus for teaching purposes, comprising, unter
alia, models illustrating the precession of the earth,
a method of optically projecting an image of a
spinning top, and small mono-rail models, was ex-
hibited. To prevent rocking in a model ship a
830
WAT ORE
[ DECEMBER 16, 1922
gyrostatic fly-wheel is mounted with its axle vertical
in a frame, which can both rock about and slide
along an axis transverse to the ship. In an aeroplane
the problem of combining automatic stability with
mobility while avoiding dangerous stresses was
discussed. Angular velocity of the aeroplane about
a vertical axis causes a tendency to precess in a
gyroscope rotating about an horizontal axis. This
is balanced by a gravity control, and the angle
moved through in attaining a balance affords a
measure of the required angular velocity. In models
of mono-rail gyrostatic apparatus the fly-wheel is
mounted with its axle vertical in a frame which can
tilt in a fore-and-aft plane and also slide sideways
under gravity. The frame is mounted by a pinion
co-axial with and geared down from the fly-wheel ;
the pinion lies between, but normally clear of,
two parallel fixed racks mounted on the carriage,
and having their lengths in a fore-and-aft direction.
In practice the gyrostatic apparatus would form
from 3 per cent. to 5 per cent. of the load of a ship,
and from 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. of the load of a
mono-rail carriage.—P. Ditisheim: A new balance
for compensating the temperature error of watches
and chronometers. Elinvar, an alloy invented by
Dr. Ch. Ed. Guillaume, the elasticity of which is not
affected by changes of temperature, is used for the
hair-spring. Satisfactory timing can thus be obtained
up to certain limits with a plain solid uncut balance.
To apply the elinvar spring to higher-grade watches
a new compensation balance has been designed.
It is made from a plain monometallic uncut ring
into which two very small symmetrical bimetallic
blades are inserted. The latter will enable small
corrections to be made in order to obtain very fine
rates.
Aristotelian Society, November 27.—Prof. A. N.
Whitehead, president, in the chair.—R. F. A.
Hoernlé: Notes on the treatment of ‘‘ Existence ”’ in
recent philosophical literature. The ontological argu-
ment is treated in current philosophical literature (a)
in a vestvicted form, in which it applies only to the
unique case of God, and (b) in a generalised form, in
which it is one with the problem of the validity (or
“reference to reality ’’) of thought in general. Prof.
A. E. Taylor’s criticisms of the restricted argument,
in his article on ‘‘Theism”’ in the ‘“‘ Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics,” are mutually contradictory, but
they contain the valuable suggestion that the validity
of the argument depends on the meaning of the term
“God,” or of the terms defining “ God.’’ What
these terms mean can be decided only by asking what
they express, and this requires that we should not
divorce the language of the argument from the
religious experience (=Anselm’s fides) which under-
lies it. Thus, the restricted argument appears as
but a special case of the generalised argument which
depends on the principle that experience, as the union
of ‘‘ that ’’ and ‘‘ what,” “‘ existence ’’ and ‘‘ essence,”
supplies the missing existential premise for all mean-
ings which are well-founded. The generalised argu-
ment depends on maintaining consistently the
“epistemic ’’ against the ‘‘ formal-logic’’ point of
view. In formal logic, no definition, as such, can
imply the existence of the thing defined ; no class-
concept can imply that the class has members. But,
if instead of beginning with definitions, concepts,
suppositions (Annahmen\, we take the epistemic
point of view and ask what the terms of the definition,
etc., mean, 2.e. what they express, or what we are
asked to think with, we are driven back to concrete
experience in which meanings are vealised, and in
which, therefore, essence is not divorced from, but is
one with, existence.
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
Linnean Society, November 30.—Dr. A. Smith
Woodward, president, in the chair—R. J. Tillyard :
The wing-venation of the order Plectoptera or May-
flies —D. S. M. Watson and E. L. Gill: The structure’
of certain paleozoic Dipnoi (fishes).— J. Duncan
Peirce: The Giant Trees of Victoria. The tallest
trees grow in gullies between ridges, the greater
moisture and abundance of leaf-mould conducing to
their height ; the highest tree measured was 326 ft.
I in.
CAMBRIDGE.
Philosophical Society, November 13.—Mr. C. T.
Heycock, president, in the chair.—A. Smith Wood-
ward: The skulls of paleolithic men.—W. M. H.
Greaves: On a system of differential equations
which appear in the theory of Saturn’s rings.—
C. G. Darwin and R. H. Fowler: Fluctuations in an
assembly in statistical equilibrium.
SHEFFIELD.
Society of Glass Technology, November 22.—W. E.
S. Turner: The glass industry and methods of manu-
facture in Czecho-Slovakia. The technical side of the
glass industry has not in recent years made anything
like the progress that it has in this country. The
Bohemian glass industry is living largely on its old
tradition and the existing store of knowledge. Machin-
ery scarcely exists for the manufacture of glassware.
A great deal of money was made in the industry in the
boom years of 1919 and 1920, but very little was put
into the industry to improve it. In many methods,
from a technical point of view, Great Britain leads the
Continent at the present time.—A. Cousen: Selenium
in the production of colourless glass. A large number
of experimental melts were made to determine the
effect of various batch materials on the decolourising
power of selenium and the effect of the duration of
melting on the colour developed.
DUBLIN.
Royal Dublin Society, November 28.—Mr. G.
Fletcher in the chair.—J. Wilson: On the variation
of milk-yield with the cow’s age and the length of
the lactation period. Ten years ago, working on data,
from the cows exhibited at the London Dairy Shows, it
was found that, if cows’ yields at eight years old be
set down as 100, the yields at earlier ages work out
at about 67 for 3-year-olds; 81 for 4-year-olds ; 90
for 5-year-olds ; 95 for 6-year-olds; and 98 for 7-
year-olds. Recently Dr. Raymond Pearl of Washing-
ton and Dr. Tocher of Aberdeen, working with data
collected by the Ayrshire Cattle Milk Records Com-
mittee, have found yields for the younger ages to be
considerably higher, but the Ayrshire records cannot
be used to find how yield increases with age, because
the breed has been out of equilibrium since about
twenty years ago; the records are loaded in favour of
those of the younger ages. If twelve months from
calf to calf be taken as the normal lactation period,
the annual yield is reduced by-about 20 gallons in an
eleven months lactation, and increased by about 35,
65, and go gallons in thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen
months lactation periods.—H. H. Poole: On the de-
tonating action of a-particles. Experiments show
that the probability of detonation of a specimen of
iodide of nitrogen by a-particles is proportional to
the concentration of the particles, and not to the
square, or a higher power, of the concentration.
Hence, detonation is caused by a single a-particle,
and not by the joint effect of two or more particles,
and it is reasonable to assume that detonation is
caused by the collision of the particle with a nitrogen
or a hydrogen nucleus. Fulminate of mercury, silver
DECEMBER 16, 1922]
NATURE
831
azide, and several other explosives were not detonated
by exposures to a-particles which would have caused
several thousand detonations of iodide of nitrogen.
Probably only a very sensitive body, such as the
iodide, can be detonated in this way, and the risk of
such an effect with detonators or explosives in common
use is negligible-—T. G. Mason: Note on the growth
and the transport of organic substances in bitter
cassava (Manihot utilissima). Weekly measurements
of 20 plants were made over a period of 27 weeks;
alternate plants were ringed close to the ground.
The rate of growth of the stems of the ringed plants
was not affected by the operation for about 3 weeks ;
it then commenced to lag behind that of the unringed
plants. The weight of the tuberous roots formed by
the ringed plants was about one quarter of that
formed by the unringed ; the weight of the stem was
more than 1-2 times as much. Probably the activity
of the cells of the apical meristem is not controlled
by the available supply of organic substances, but is
determined by autogenous changes within the growing
point. No evidence was obtained of the presence of
a factor correlating the activity of the apical meristem
and the growth of the tuberous roots. The results
are in accord with the view that the rate of growth
of the stem is conditioned by the catalytic activity
of the cells of the apical meristem.
ParIs.
Academy of Sciences, November 20.—M. Emile
Bertin in the chair.—The president announced the
death of M. G. Lemoine.—Marcel Brillouin: Einstein
and Newtonian gravitation. Remarks on a recent
note by M. Le Roux. The criticisms of M. Le Roux
are regarded as unfounded.—Pierre Termier: The
structure of the eastern Alps.—L. Joubin: The geo-
graphical distribution of some deep-sea corals in
western European seas. In consequence of the in-
crease in the size and power of steam trawlers, trawling
is now carried out at much greater depths than
formerly. Asa result, the quantities of coral brought
up in the nets causes great inconvenience. As a
guide to fishermen, a chart is given showing the dis-
tribution of the most objectionable corals (Lophohelia,
Amphihelia, Dendrophyllia), so that the trawlers can
avoid these localities—E. Mathias, C. A. Crommelin,
and H. Kamerlingh Onnes: The rectilinear diameter
of neon. The purification of the neon used in these
experiments is described in detail, and its purity was
confirmed of observations of the critical phenomena.
Neon obeys the law of the rectilinear diameter. Like
other gases, the diameter shows a deviation in the
neighbourhood of the critical point. In the case of
hydrogen the deviations are distributed irregularly,
but with neon they are systematic: at low tempera-
tures the diameter is slightly convex to the tempera-
ture axis, and at higher temperatures slightly concave.
Argon, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide behave similarly.
—M. Charles Camichel was elected Correspondant for
the section of mechanics.—S. Bays: Steiner’s cyclic
systems of triplets——A. Myller: Remarkable ruled
surfaces passing through a given curve.—Paul Mentré :
Complexes which present projective singularities of
the second infinitesimal order.—H. Roussilhe: Re-
sults obtained in 1921 and 1922 by the application of
aerial photography to precision plans on the large scale.
The mean errors of plans derived from aerial photo-
graphs are less than those of a topographical plan
taken with every precaution ; the area covered by a
given staff is also greater when the photographic
method is employed.—C. Raveau: Fresnel’s law of
the entanglement of the zther.—Emmanuel Dubois :
The minimum potential of electric discharge in gases
NO. 2772, VOL. TIO]
at low pressures. Some anomalies described in an
earlier communication have been now shown to be
due to the presence of saline substances on the
electrodes.—L. Bouchet : An absolute plane-cylinder
electrometer. A cylinder is mounted on a balance
beam and the attraction between the cylinder and a
plane surface measured. The theory of the instru-
ment is developed. The limits between which the
formula holds have been determined by experiment.
—Georges Déjardin: The production of the spectrum
of mercury. The influence of helium. A study of
the spectrum emitted by mercury vapour traversed
by electrons of variable velocity. The lines are those
of the are spectrum. For potentials below 20-4 volts
a mixture of helium and mercury vapour gives the
same arc spectrum as that observed in the absence
of helium. Above 20-4 volts the mercury spectrum
undergoes modification, andat thesame time the helium
spectrum appears.—Pierre Lafon: Anomalies in the
expansion of glass.—A. Portevin: The reduction and
disappearance of internal strains in steels by reheating
followed by slow cooling.—André Kling and D.
Florentin: The spontaneous formation of sulphate on
limestone in urban centres. Chemical analyses of
various limestone structures, showing the serious
attack by the sulphuric acid in town atmospheres.—
MM. Tiffeneau and Orékhoff: The semipinacolic
transposition of the alkylhydrobenzoins : the influence
of the alkylradicles——Raymond Delaby: The alkyl-
glycerols. The preparation of vinylalkylcarbinols.—
E. Grandmougin: The acyl-aminoanthraquinones as
vat dyes.—Paul Gaubert: The action of heat on
spherolites.—H. Joly : Preliminary note on the general
direction and age of the folds of the Celtiberic Chain
(Spain).—M. Teilhard: A fauna of mammals found
in northern China.—V. Van Straelen: The decapod
crustaceans of the Callovian of Voulte-sur-Rhone
(Ardéche).—Lucien Daniel: Hyperbioses of the sun-
flower and artichoke.—Maurice Lenoir: The nucle-
oles during the prophase of kinesis II. of the embryonic
sac of Fritillavia imperialis—M. Mascré: The stamen
of the Boraginacee.—Mlle. Marie Braecke: The pres-
ence of aucubine and of melampyrite (dulcite) in
several species of Melampyrum. Aucubine was iso-
lated from Melampyrum pratense, M. nemorosum, and
M. cristatum: dulcite (Hinefield’s melampyrite) was
also extracted in the pure state from the two latter
species.—Pierre Lesage: The comparative action of
sylvinite and its components on the first development
of plants. Sylvinite proved more favourable to the
development of seedlings than its constituents
(chlorides of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and cal-
cium sulphate) taken separately, or even when mixed
in the proportions present in the mineral employed.
—J. Stoklasa: The respiration of the roots. Experi-
ments are described confirming the conclusion pub-
lished by the author in an earlier communication ,that
no acid, organic or inorganic, other than carbonic acid
is secreted by growing roots. The respiration of the
roots is more intense in the presence of air containing
radium emanation.—A. Goris and P. Costy: Urease
and urea in fungi.—L. Léger and A. Ch. Hollande:
Coccidia of the intestine of the eel—L. M. Betances :
Some refinements on the morphogenesis of the
hematic cell.
CAPE Town.
Royal Society of South Africa, September 27.—Dr.
Weis AR Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—H. B.
Fantham: Some Protozoa found in soils in South
Africa. Protozoa belonging to the Sarcodina, Masti-
gophora, and Ciliata have been found. As regards
actual numbers of organisms, flagellates are the
$32
NATURE
| DECEMBER 16, 1922
most numerous. There is daily variation in the
numbers of a Protozoon in a given quantity of
culture. Dark, heavy soils containing much humus
yielded more kinds of Protozoa than sandy ones.
Samples of soil taken relatively near the surface, say
six or eight inches down, usually yielded more
Protozoa than deeper samples. Cultivated soils
yielded more species of Protozoa, especially of
Ciliata, than uncultivated ones. Owing to partial
sterilisation of South African soils by solar heat and
drought, the number of Protozoa in a given area of
soil seems to be less than in soils from England
or the northern United States. The ingestion of
bacteria by soil Protozoa has, so far, not been often
observed naturally in South African soils.—J. A.
Gilmore: Note on elasticity of Dwyka Tillite.
Investigation of Dwyka Tillite from Matjesfontein,
Cape Province, shows that for an absorption of water
of less than 1/400 gm. per gm., Young’s Modulus
decreases by about 12 per cent., whereas for an
absorption of order 1/800 gm. per gm. the crushing
strength increases by about 50 per cent. or more.—
H. O. Ménnig : On some new South African parasitic
nematodes.—-Sir Thomas Muir: Note on the co-
evanescence of the primary minors of an axisymmetric
determinant.—T. J. Mackie: The serum constituents
responsible for the Sachs-Georgi and the Wassermann
reactions. Sera were fractioned by Liefman’s carbon-
dioxide method ; the carbonic-acid-insoluble globulin
was inactive and inhibitory in the flocculation test.
The carbonic-acid-soluble fraction was further frac-
tioned into pseudo-globulin and albumin components
and flocculation was found to be due almost entirely
to the former. In the Wassermann reaction, the
most active fraction is the carbonic-acid-insoluble
globulin.—J. R. Sutton: Note on the propagation
of heat in water. Harmonic analysis of hourly ob-
servations of the temperature of water in a brick
cistern, 7 feet square and 30 in. deep, shows that
the whole body of water is heated nearly simul-
taneously (chiefly by the sun’s rays) and that the
surface temperature is propagated downward as a
wave of about 7 in. per hour.
Royal Society of South Africa, October 18.—Dr.
J. D. F. Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—Miss A. V.
Duthie: The cones, spores, and gametophytes of
Selaginella pumila—F. G. Cawston: South African
larval trematodes and the intermediary hosts. The
commoner species of fresh-water mollusc found in
certain rivers of South Africa, as well as some lagoon
inhabitants which are occasionally found in quite
fresh water, together with the commoner larval
trematodes of these localities, are described.—J.
Moir : Colour and chemical constitution, Pt. XVIII. :
Colourless substances in concentrated sulphuric acid
solution (halochromy). Observations on coloured
solutions in sulphuric acid of 25 simple substances,
mostly colourless per se, are recorded, and a scheme
for calculating colour from chemical constitution is put
forward.—J. Stuart Thomson: African Alcyonaria
with a statement of some of the problems of their
dispersal.
Official Publications Received.
Straits Settlements. Annual Report on the Raffles Museum and
Library for the Year 1921. By Major J. C. Moulton. Pp. 16.
(Singapore.)
The Royal Technical College, Glasgow. Annual Report on the One
Hundred and Twenty-sixth Session adopted at the Annual Meeting of
Governors, held on the 17th October 1922. Pp.71. (Glasgow.)
County Borough of Warrington: Museum Committee. Report of
the Keeper of the Museum for the Two Years ending 30th June 1922,
with a List of the Principal Additions to the Museum Collections. Pp.
18. (Warrington.)
NO. 2772, VOL. 110]
Department of the Interior: Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1922,
No. 20: State Laws relating to Education enacted in 1920 and 1921.
Compiled by Wm. R. Hood. Pp. iv+269. (Washington: Govern-
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__ Department of Fisheries, Bengal. Bulletin No. 19: Statistics of
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Diary of Societies.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16.
BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SocreTy (Annual Meeting) (at University College),
at 10.30 A.M.—Dr. R. Lloyd Praeger: Dispersal and Distribution
(Presidential Address)—Dr. Cockayne’s Work on the Tussock Grass-
land of New Zealand (Lantern and Specimens).—J. Ramsbottom :
The Mycology of the Soil—W. H. Pearsall: Plant Distribution
and Basic Ratios.
BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Annual General Meeting) (at Uni-
versity College), at 3—S. J. F. Philpott: The Analysis of the Work
Curve.—H. Gordon: Hand and Ear Tests.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 18.
RoyAL GEOGRAPHICAL Society (at Lowther Lodge, Kensington
Gore), at 5.—Col. Sir Gerald Lenox-Conyngham: The Proposed
Determination of Primary Longitudes by International Co-operation.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (Informal Meeting), at 7.—
K. E, Sharp and others : ;Discussion of Time Switches.
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS (Graduates’ Section), at 7.—
A. J. Gould : Warships.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, at 8.—A. N. C. Shelley:
The Law of Building outside London.
ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (at University of London Club, 21 Gower
Street), at 8.—Prof. R. W. Sellars: Body and Mind.
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CLUB (at 2 Whitehall Court), at 8—Dr. W. R.
Ormandy : Paper.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE, at 5.—General Meeting.
ROYAL STATISTICAL Society, at 5.15.—T. T. S. de Jastrzebski:
Changes in the Birth Rate and in Legitimate Fertility in London
Boroughs, 1911-1921.
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, at 6—F. M. G. Du-Plat-Taylor:
Extensions at Tilbury Docks, 1912-1917.
INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERS, INO., at 6.30.—Film illustrating
Industrial Works—Messrs. Hadfields.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN (‘Technical Meeting),
at 7.—H. T. G. Meredith: Gravure.
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 8.15.—Dr. ©. Fox: The
Distribution of Population in the Cambridge Region in Early Times,
with special reference to the Bronze Age.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20,
ROYAL Socrety OF MEDICINE (History of Medicine Section), at 5.—
Dr. Nixon: The Debt of Medicine to the Fine Arts.
ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL Soctety, at 5.—C. J. P. Cave and R. A.
Watson Watt: The Study of Radiotelegraphic Atmospherics in
Relation to Meteorology.—C. J. P. Cave: Winter Thunderstorms in
the British Islands.—D. E. Row: Forecasting Sky Types.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, at 5.30.—W. A. Richardson: A
Micrometric Study of the St. Austell Granite?(Cornwall).—W. G.
Shannon: The Petrography and Correlation of the:Igneous Rocks
of the Torquay Promontory.—Prof. O. T. Jones": Demonstration of
the Crystallisation of a Doubly-Refracting Liquid.
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY, at 8.—J. E. Barnard : Sub-Bacteria,
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE (Dermatology Section), at 5.
INSTITUTION OF MINING AND METALLURGY (at Geological Society),
at 5.30.—F. White: Notes on the Correction required to Aneroid
Readings for Altitude to counteract the Effect produced by the
Diurnal Barometric Wave.—P. C. Whitehead : Some Notes on the
Secondary Sulphide Enrichment exhibited by certain Auriferous
Veins.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY, at 8.
PUBLIC LECTURES.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16.
HORNIMAN Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30.—H. N. Milligan: Animals
without Teeth.
THURSDAY, DECEMEER 21.
Crry or LONDON Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6.—Sir John N.
Jordan : Some Chinese Problems.
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NATORE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1922.
CONTENTS. Wee
The British Scientific Glass Industry S33
Our Nearest Living Relatives. By Sir Arthur Keith,
F.R.S. 5 : 834
A Reflective Observer 2 . 836
Metallography in the Workshop. By He CoHG. - 837
Mosquito Control. By Lt.-Col. H. J. Walton, 1.M.S. 838
Our Bookshelf. : $ : c c a 5 ete)
Letters to the Editor :—
A Quantum Theory of Optical Dispersion.—Prof.
Ce Darwin, F.R.S. ; 841
Interspecific Sterility. —Prof. ik 1h Lotsy : 843
Occult Phenomena and After-images.—Dr. E. N. da
C. Andrade C 843
A Relativity Paradox. ( With a Yagram ee C.; A
Prof. A. S. Eddington, F.R.S. 844
The Track of a Flat Solid falling through Water,
(Jilustrated.)—E. W. Wetherell F . 845
Water Snails and Liver Flukes.—R. H. Wallace . 845
The Cause of Anticyclones.—W. H. Dines, F.R.S. 845
German Book Prices.—Prof. K. C. Browning . 845
Medical Education.—Prof. W. J. Dakin; J. S.
Dunkerly; J. T. Cunningham .. 845
Scientific and Industrial Pioneers. — Eng. - Capt.
Edgar C. Smith : 846
W. H. Hudson Memorial.—R. B. Cunninghame
Graham. 846
Human Blood Relationships and Sterility. =
Christopher Blayre; The Writer of the Article 846
Emission of Cathode and X- -rays by Celestial Bodies.
By Dr. Henri Deslandres . 847
The Desensitising of Silver Bromide- Gelatin Plates.
By Dr. T. Slater Price . : ; 5 . 849
Obituary : . j : : . 850
Current Topics and Events” : c ; a . 852
Our Astronomical Column . c ° : : > 854
Research Items . : c 5 ¢ : a S55
Photosynthesis . . . : 5 : : . 856
Progress in Engineering . 857
Peegioglelepuony and Broadcasting. ee aN P. M.
Fleming, C.B.E 858
Excavations at Borg en Nadur, Malta. : - 859
University and Educational Intelligence . : . 859
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers . : F 0 . 861
Societies and Academies. . 0 5 0 . 861
Official Publications Received . 6 c 5 . 864
Diary of Societies : - : 5 a . 864
Supplement :—
Pasteur. (///strated.)—By Stephen Paget . Go bb
The Influence of Pasteur on the Development of
Bacteriology and the Doctrines of Infection and-
Immunity.—By Prof. William Bulloch, F.R.S. vi
Pasteur and Preventive Medicine.—By Prof. J.C. G.
Ledingham, F.R.S. . viii
Pasteur in Crystallography. (With diagrams, ie By
Dr. A] E. He Dutton, F.R:s. : c viii
Pasteur’s Early Research in Pure Chemistry and
Fermentation.—By Prof. Arthur Harden, F.R.S. xi
Pasteur and the Fermentation Industries. —By Prof.
A. R. Ling c 5 ; : ; 5 San
Centenary Celebrations . - : 7 5 a8 SN
Editorial and Publishing Offices :
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.,
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2.
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
833
The British Scientific Glass Industry.
HE review of the development of the British
glass industry, given by Prof. W. E. S. Turner
recently in his presidential address to the Society of
Glass Technology, throws new light on an industry
which some have been inclined to think had to be
largely created in this country after the outbreak of
war. It appears that, even during the early days of
its development in the seventeenth century, the
industry made three notable contributions to manu-
facturing technique, namely, the use of coal instead
of wood as a fuel, the introduction of covered melting-
pots, and the preparation of lead crystal glass, which,
in the course of time, ousted the famous Venetian glass
from favour. Moreover, right through the nineteenth
century, until about 1875, Great Britain held an im-
portant place amongst the glass-making countries of
Europe, after which date its exports declined, due in
a considerable measure to foreign tariff duties.
Prof. Turner shows something of the great revival of
enterprise during the war period and afterwards, and
of the extensiveness with which glass
have been installing new plant and machinery. In
these phases of activity,
show a comparable record, and we may be permitted
to indulge the hope that a brighter period lies before
the industry than it experienced between 1875 and
IQI5.
In these columns we are interested mainly in the
subject of scientific glass, and we have been forced to
ask at times if the real position in regard to this branch
has been understood or appreciated. Most divergent
opinions on the merits of British scientific glass have
been expressed. On one hand, very severe criticisms
have been made of the quality of British scientific
On the other, we may say that we have seen
written spontaneously, testifying in glowing
manufacturers
no country in Europe can
glass.
letters,
terms to its merits as compared with Continental
glass ; and inquiries in large laboratories have shown
similar divergence of opinion, the balance of evidence
being favourable. Possibly, users of scientific glass-
ware have grown more critical of late years ; they have
been forced to this position partly by the prominence
of the subject and partly by the financial stringency
existing in institutions. Moreover, the
relations between the manufacturers and the dealers in
appear not to have been of the most
and this fact cannot be ignored in
scientific
this country
cordial character,
estimating the chances of British ware in its claim to
recognition.
It is interesting to contrast the beginnings of the
chemical and scientific glass industry in the United
Kingdom with the early operations at Jena. In our
834
NATURE
[DECEMBER 23, 1922
own country both glass compositions and processes
had to be extemporised in a great hurry, and it is
indeed creditable to workers like Sir Herbert Jackson
outside the factory, and Dr. M. W. Travers, Dr. C. J.
Peddle, and Mr. John Kaye inside the factories, that
glass vessels at least as durable chemically as any pro-
duced in Germany were forthcoming in so short a time.
The earlier samples, just like those from Jena, when
chemical ware was first made there in 1893, were far
being mechanically perfect. Processes and
methods for the graduation of instruments had like-
wise to be worked out, and it has to be borne in mind
that such work was in some instances taken up by
persons who were more enthusiastic than competent.
Many British people find it difficult to forget these
early defects and have been ever ready to sigh for the
return of German goods.
The work at Jena, which began about r88r, had ample
time to be carried out systematically. The success of
the work was due not altogether to the application of
new elements to glassmaking but rather to the facilities
for a great number of experimental meltings, some of
them on a considerable scale, in which the influence of
oxides, such as boric, zinc, barium, magnesium, and
phosphoric, could be more fully investigated than had
been the case by earlier workers. In this way there
was gradually built up a series of definite relationships
between chemical composition and physical properties,
on the basis of which not only were new optical glasses
devised but a new type of glass for laboratory use
finally developed. Abbe himself was so impressed
with the need of financial assistance in these under-
takings and with the time consumed in carrying them
out as to write: “ The difficulties connected with such
undertakings are so great, the initial outlay required is
so heavy, and success if attained les so far in the
future, that there is little mducement to enterprise. A
revolution of the industry can scarcely be brought
from
about in any other way than by the means for its ad-
vancement being provided in liberal measure, either
by corporations or public authorities.”
Both scientific workers and manufacturers in the
United Kingdom have well realised the truth of Abbe’s
remarks, and the user of scientific glass should also
understand it. Since the war, despite the severe dis-
appointment of the manufacturer in this country at
the support given him, research has
tinuously. A new type of chemical glassware has
appeared on the British market, marking a departure
in some ways from previous types and compositions,
and as the results of extensive researches now in opera-
tion in this country become more and more complete,
it is highly probable that still further types will be
developed.
NO. 2773, VOLa TO}
gone on con-
It is very likely that the Jena workers in later
years acquired much systematic information that was
never published. We have done very much here
recently to revise the data which they have published
and to show in some ways that it was defective and
incomplete ; while many other lines of research in
this country, with the fundamental researches carried
out in America, have given us resources of information
which the German workers did not possess.
The very fact that, since the war, four new institu-
tions, namely, the Department of Glass Technology at
Sheffield, the Society of Glass Technology, the British
Scientific Instrument Manufacturers’ Research Associa-
tion, and the Glass Research Association, have not
only come into existence, but have also continued in
full operation, affords convincing evidence that our
manufacturers of scientific glassware are not content
with their present attempts but are reaching out for
something better. In this endeavour they are worthy
of all the help and support, as well as patience, which
the body of scientific workers can give them.
Our Nearest Living Relatives.
The Origin and Evolution of the Human Dentition,
By Prof. William K. Gregory. Pp. xvili+548+
15 plates. (Baltimore, Md.: Williams and Wilkins
Co., 1922.) n.p.
T has so happened that Dr. W. K. Gregory, of the
American Museum of Natural History, New York,
and the writer of this review have each set out, at an
early point in their lives, to seek for a definite answer
to the same question: what is Man’s lineage? Is he
but a branch of the stem which gave the world its
great living anthropoid apes—the gorilla, chimpanzee
and orang—or must we carry our lineage into a remote
geological past to find the point of its separate emerg-
ence from the primate phylum? The reviewer
approached the problem by making an elaborate
analysis of the structural “make-up ” of man and of
anthropoid apes, noting the kind and extent of their
common heritage and the kind and extent of the
structural features peculiar to each, which therefore
may be regarded as latter-day acquisitions.
Dr. Gregory has sought an answer by following a
totally different route. He has approached it by follow-
ing the geological record; he has an unrivalled know-
ledge of the fossil remains of early forms of primates
found so abundantly in the Eocene deposits of North
America; and as teeth and jaws, or fragments of
them, are the most persistent parts of the mammalian
skeleton, it has come about that the geological history
of the various orders of mammals has to be based on an
interpretation of dental hieroglyphics. In deciphering
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
835
the ancient alphabet of the teeth, particularly as regards
the teeth of primate forms, Dr. Gregory is our most
highly trained expert. The survey he has now issued
embraces not only the American tarsioid and lemuroid
fossil-forms, lying in or near the basal phylum which
has given us our modern apes and lemurs, but also in-
cludes an examination of the corresponding fossil forms
found in Europe. He deals minutely with the fossil
remains of apes found in the Oligocene deposits of
Egypt, the anthropoid remains found in the Miocene
and Pliocene deposits of Europe and of India—
particularly those described in 1915 by Dr. G. E.
Pilgrim, of the Indian Geological Survey,—and_ the
various discoveries which have been made of fossil
human remains.
Although the routes chosen by Dr. Gregory and by
the reviewer have been different they have led to
exactly the same goal—namely, that the gorilla,
chimpanzee, and man are twigs growing from the
same branch of the great primate stem. “Taken as
a whole,” writes Dr. Gregory, ‘‘the testimony of
comparative anatomy affords cumulative evidence for
Darwin’s inference that some ancient member of the
anthropomorphous sub-group gave birth to man. The
detailed studies of the dentition in Part IV. of this
work leads me to the conclusion that the ancient
member of the anthropomorphous sub-group was closely
allied to, or even identical with Sivapithecus or
Dryopithecus of the Miocene Simiinae.”
The reviewer agrees with Dr. Gregory that, on
comparing the structural “ make-up” of man with
that of the great anthropoid apes, “ the resemblances
are far more numerous, detailed, and fundamental
than the differences ”’ ; the reviewer would go further
and say that in any theory of human lineage the
common origin of man, the gorilla, chimpanzee, and
orang, must be regarded as a “ fixed point ”’ in framing
all our speculations. At this early stage in our search
for man’s pedigree, with only fragmentary documents
at our disposal, and with yawning gaps in our book
of evidence, complete unanimity between any two
investigators cannot be expected.
In Dr. Gregory’s opinion mankind is, in a geological
sense, a recent product. So late as mid-Miocene
times—about a million of years ago if we accept
Dr. Gregory’s rough estimate—he believes that our
ancestry was represented by such fossil forms as
Sivapithecus or Dryopithecus—which, so far as we
yet know them, must be regarded as true anthropoid
apes, not very different from the chimpanzee and
gorilla. There is no ground for supposing that in
foot or in brain they possessed any trace of the adapta-
tions which have become so pronounced features of
the human body. The life-periods and the rate of
NO. 2773, VOL. [10]
reproduction of this ancestral stock must have been
of the anthropoid order, namely, about seven genera~
tions to the century.
In the period postulated by Dr. Gregory for man’s
differentiation there would have been some 70,000
generations. The representatives of mankind we
encounter by mid-Pleistocene times have already a
brain which has three times the volume of the chim-
panzee brain. Is it pos:ible to con eive a brain like
that of the chimpanzee, although constituted upon
the same’ structural and functional plan as is the
human organ, attaining a human standard in the
course of 70,000 generations? It is true that the
discoveries of Dr. Ariens Kappers- have shown that
the countless myriads of nerve units which make up
the human brain are, during the period of development,
controlled and grouped by a mechanism the nature
of which we can only gu ss at as yet. Making all
allowances on this score, the reviewer cannot conceive
the possibility of the extreme structural and functional
complexity of the human brain having been evolved
from an anthropoid stage in the course of 70,000
generations. While Dr. Gregory is inclined to accept
our present knowledge of the geological record at its
face value and trace man’s origin from an anthropoid
of the mid-Miocene period, the reviewer would make
allowances for the great blanks in our geological
record, which further discoveries will make good, and
assume a pre-Miocene date for the divergence of the
phyla of man and great anthropoids. It is very
difficult to believe that the human brain arose as
mushroom-like growth.
Those who have made systematic attempts to
determine the evolutionary relationship of one animal
form to another know well that it cannot be settled
on the evidence of one set of organs ; all the structural
systems of the body have to be taken into account.
Often the evidence of one system—such as that of
the teeth, which go with the alimentary system—will
seem to clash with or contradict the evidence of other
systems. Dr. Gregory is too experienced an evolutionist
to make a mistake in this respect ; whenever possible
he supports or modifies the conclusions reached on
dental evidence by appealing to testimony afforded
by other systems of the body. Even when this is
done it becomes abundantly clear that evolution has
not worked on the body of man, ape, or of any animal
form whatsoever in a simple and _ straightforward
manner. For example, in that primitive but aberrant
primate Tarsius, the embryo establishes itself in the
maternal womb in exactly the same manner as do
the developing ova of man and anthropoids, and yet
the monkeys of the New and of the Old World, which
have a simpler type of placentation, are yet infinitely
$36
INA DOLE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
more. akin to man and anthropoids in a structural
and evolutionary sense than is Tarsius—in spite of
this and other unexpected human likenesses possessed
by the latter. To account for the irregular distribution
of certain characters possessed by man and Tarsius,
Prof. Wood Jones has put forward the claims of owl-
eyed Tarsius to pose as one of man’s near relatives.
The relationships of Tarsius to man, says Dr. Gregory,
“are plainly very indirect and must be traced back-
wards along gradually converging lines to the primitive
tarsioid stocks, which gaye rise at different times
and at different places to the higher groups of primates.”
As it has a bearing on such problems as the irregular
distribution of the human mode of placentation
among the primates, Dr. Gregory quotes with approval
a principle enunciated by Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn
in 1908 and “‘ familiar to all close students of mammalian
phylogeny, namely, that identical characters are often
developed by divergent descendants of a common stock.”
To the master morphologists of our studenthood days
such a statement would have sounded
or metaphysical, but to those who are familiar with
the complex mechanism of hormones, which regulate
the growth of diverse structural elements so that they
are moulded to serve a common functional purpose,
heretical
this statement, made by one who has given a lifetime
to the observation of fossil forms, has become of easy
acceptance to those who are studying the development
and growth of living forms. Our difficulties of account-
ing for the composite make-up of the human body
and of that of his congeners, the anthropoid apes,
will disappear once we have mastered the - growth
mechanisms which lead to the creation of structural
modifications and the suppression and perhaps resuscita-
tion of old features.
The reviewer has merely noted here the chief con-
clusions which years of careful toil have permitted
Dr.
The main value of the work he has now published
Gregory to formulate concerning man’s origin.
is to provide students of the higher mammalian forms
with an indispensable dictionary for the interpretation
of dental hieroglyphics. Out of a restricted alphabet,
Nature has fashioned teeth into a most elaborate and
significant language. How these elements are manipu-
lated so as to provide a profusion and variety of
dental forms we do not know but it is clear to the
least initiated that upper and lower teeth have to be
so fashioned, while still embedded in the gums, that
when they come into place in the jaws they will fit
each other just as a key does its lock. There must
be a correlating mechanism at work to harmonise the
bite of opposing cusps. Of this Dr. Gregory is fully
cognisant, but we regret that he has not abandoned
the confusing system of naming the cusps of molar
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
teeth introduced by Dr. Osborn. In this system the
names given to the cusps of upper molar teeth are
reversed when applied to the cusps of lower teeth—
a method with all the perplexing attributes of a reflected
image. Besides, as Dr. Gregory has frankly admitted,
the system, which has served a good purpose in its
time, is really founded on an erroneous interpretation.
Another small and personal grudge the reviewer may
also give vent to—the introduction of the new-fangled
nomenclature for the old and well-established generic
names we have hitherto been accustomed to give to
apes and monkeys. But the reviewer’s last words
must be those of admiration and of thanks for a
standard work. A. KEITH.
A Reflective Observer.
A Philosopher with Nature. By Benjamin Kidd. Pp.
viit+211. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1921.)
6s. net.
R. BENJAMIN KIDD was a keen observer of
Nature, particularly interested in the prob-
lems of animal behaviour and all that throws light on
evolution. This volume is a collection of his essays ;
with the exception of the first two, which deal very
attractively with the birds of the Severn estuary, they
have been previously published in serials. But in
collected form they are very welcome. In all cases
there is a characteristic reflective note: What is the
deeper significance of this or that occurrence? The
primitive language, among birds for example, is un-
doubtedly a language of the emotions, but it is inter-
esting to notice that it is often a kind of lingua franca
understood even by widely different species. The
young of the mallard, which has probably been the
most universally hunted creature on earth, nestle on
the observer’s bare feet without the slightest instinct-
ive fear. ‘‘ You take one of them in your hand, and
this heir of the ages of the blood-feud shows no fear of
you, even tilting its little beak to look inquiringly in
your face ; evidently thinking no evil, to all appear-
ance hoping all things and believing all things, but
certainly quite willing to take you on your merits for
good or eyil entirely without prejudice.” The mother
bird is on a tussock near by, “ chattering with emotion,
every feather quivering with excitement. The hold
of the Great Terror of Man is upon her. Ina few days,
nay, in a few hours, she will have taught it to them,
and they will have passed irrevocably into another
world.” Character is a product of ‘‘ Nature” and
“ Nurture.”
An interesting experiment was made with a colony
of humble-bees which Mr. Kidd kept on his window-
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NEA ORE
837
sill. He carefully removed part of the waxen covering
of one of the little groups of larve, inserted a grub
taken fresh from a hive, and covered the whole again
roughly, “expecting that the bees would complete
the repairs, and so seal up the intruder with the others.
But they were not to be cheated in this way, and they
would not repair the broken wax until they had smelt
out the stranger, whom they dragged out and carried
outside the nest, after which they replaced the breach
in the usual way.’ He made the experiment several
times, but with no better success. He then placed
some hive-bee eggs among a little group just deposited
by the humble-bee queen. The bees seemed to be
rather puzzled. “ One or two of them took them up
somewhat aimlessly, and again replaced them as if
they hardly liked to openly accuse their sovereign of
misconduct, which they seemed to suspect.’ After
some hesitation they proceeded, apparently with con-
siderable relish, to eat the eggs. “‘ So appreciative did
they become of the flavour of these new-laid eggs that
they would soon accept them readily when I offered
them at the end of a needle.”
Observations on a captive queen humble-bee
supplied with an empty nest were also interesting.
She spent several days beating against the window-
pane and then gave it up entirely ; she showed great
interest in brightly coloured objects like brass handles,
gilt labels on books, and waistcoat buttons. But she
was particularly intrigued by the keyhole of the door,
into which she would try to squeeze herself. Appar-
ently it “suggested”? the opening into an under-
ground nest.
In the essay on hares there is an interesting para-
graph. ‘It is a moot question whether the hare is
a rabbit which has taken to the open or the rabbit
a degenerate hare which has obtained comparative
safety by taking to a stupid life in the earth. It is an
interesting fact in this connexion, and one not often
remarked on by observers, that a hare, if it finds an
obstacle it wishes to get rid of, will naturally scratch
with its front legs with considerable strength and
with exactly the same movement as a rabbit. Thus,
although the hare lives in the open grass country,
never takes to earth, and much dislikes ground in-
fested by rabbits, it has to all appearance latent in its
muscles the beginning of an instinct which might be
developed into the rabbit’s capacity for burrowing.”
Of its kind the picture of a midsummer night is
difficult to beat; it is as well drawn as Richard
Jefferies could have done it. Take the sounds: the
churr of the night-jar, calling to his mate; the under-
tone of the hundred rills and the swollen river; the
warning stamp of rabbits that have been disturbed in
their feeding; the strident love-note of the corn-
NO. 2773, VOL. I10]
crake ; the shrill cry of the partridge; the night-
ingale singing to his mate on her nest ; and then the
larks, the thrushes, the twittering swallows as the
fringes of the night overlap the coming day. It is
not merely a well-drawn picture; it is a reflective
appreciation.
What Mr. Kidd has to say about animal behaviour
Obeying the law of parsimony
he will press the simplest re-description as far as it
will go, and yet he cautions us that “the more the
subject is closely studied the less the observer finds
himself inclined to accept ready explanations.” A
young sheldrake, fed on dry ground, went through a
kind of dancing or prancing movement, stamping
rapidly on the floor with its feet. Darwin connected
this with the sheldrake’s habit of patting the sand or
mud near the worm-burrows on the seashore flats.
The stamping is supposed to “ make the worm come
to the surface,” and so the sheldrake keeps on stamp-
ing. But Mr. Kidd points out that it is the way of
young wild duck in general to stand in the shallow
water and stamp gently and rapidly on the muddy
bottom. This makes an eddy bringing up food-
particles which are then seized and devoured. Three-
days-old ducklings, hatched under a domestic hen,
exhibit the movements to perfection. Perhaps the
sheldrake’s stamping is merely a slight modification
of a piece of instinctive behaviour general among
ducks. But in the opposite direction, Mr. Kidd makes
out a good case for refraining from any simplicist inter-
pretation of the behaviour of a collie dog. We fail
utterly unless we take into account its ancestry, for
it was one of a pack, a social unit. “The dog has
probably still some sort of conception of his place as
member of a co-operative group, and of his master as
the wise and resourceful leader of it.” The other
essays discuss sea-trout, eels, frogs, birds, squirrels,
and the like. All are illuminating and all are
delightful.
is always interesting.
‘
Metallography in the Workshop.
By J. W. Urquhart. Pp.
Crosby Lockwood and Son,
Steel Thermal Treatment.
xv +336. (London :
1922.) 355. net.
EARLY all the books which have hitherto been
i written on the heat treatment of steels are the
work of metallurgists. The interesting thing about
the present work is that it has been written by a man
engaged in the production of machinery and various
steel components and tools in his workshops in Leicester.
As he states, he has been forced to put into practical
use all the recently introduced processes employed in
2'.C.T
838
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
the heat treatment of steel. Many other tool makers
have been in the same position. It has, however, been
left to Mr. Urquhart, not merely to make a study of
the processes involved, but to write a book on them
from a practical engineering view-point. In doing
this he has rendered a service to his brother engineers
which they will probably not be long in recognising,
for he has written his book in language which is as free
from technicalities as possible.
The time has gone by when steels as received from
the makers were forthwith worked into machines,
without any preliminary treatment, and when it was
not realised that a thermal process could add enor-
mously to their physical strength and effectiveness.
In consequence there has been a revolution in the
engine and machine building trades within the last
few years, which is only realised by the men engaged
in those trades. As the author points out, not only
have great improvements been introduced in the
treatment of well-established carbon steels, but they
have been followed by a remarkable development in
the use and heat treatment of alloy steels. These
advances have necessitated the application of better
systems of applying heat and measuring the tem-
peratures produced, and these in their turn have led
to the introduction and development of electrical
methods of heating, which are capable of a higher
degree of control and accuracy.
The early chapters of the book deal with the recent
developments in metallography as applied to steels.
The author has mastered the theory of the iron-carbon
equilibrium, as applied to both carbon and alloy steels,
and this is one of the best parts of the whole book. As
he points out, one of the most remarkable effects of
alloying nickel with mild steel is the lowering of the
temperature of the Acr range, an effect which means
diminished cost of working the steel, a greater margin
of safety against over-heating, increased ductility,
toughness, and resilience in the finished product. The
physical characteristics of steels and testing methods
are next described, and these are followed by an out-
line of thermal processes. Chapters on furnaces and
their methods of working come next, and a very good
account is given of pyrometers and their application
to the thermal treatment of steels. Methods of case-
hardening, both by solid and gaseous reagents, are next
described, and these are followed by details of the
various methods of quenching. Later chapters deal
with various types of tools and typical heat treatments,
and in the last two chapters accounts are given of
the thermal treatment of high-speed tool steels and
stainless steels.
To some extent the book is an attempt to co-ordinate
the work of the laboratory with that of the engineer’s
NO/2773, VOL. GIO}
hardening department ; and with this end in view, the
author has included a series of photomicrographs
illustrating the structures of steels at various stages
of heat treatment under workshop conditions. He has
availed himself of the experience of well-known metal-
lurgists, such as M. Guillet and the late Prof. Howe on
the academic side, and of Sir Robert Hadfield, Mr. S.
Brayshaw, and Prof. Giolitti on the practical side.
There is no doubt that the volume will be widely
welcomed by practical men, and it should do much to
raise the standard of the scientific heat treatment of
tools and machine parts. la (G5 Jel, (C;
Mosquito Control.
Mosquito Eradication. By W. E. Hardenburg.
ix+248. (New York and London:
Book Co., Inc., 1922.) 15s.
Pp.
McGraw-Hill
N this small book the author gives a clear and
concise account of the measures which have been
found successful in controlling mosquitoes in America.
The brilliant results of the anti-mosquito work in
Havana and the Isthmus of Panama have been fully
appreciated in the United States. Dr. G. A. Le Prince,
formerly Chief Sanitary Inspector, Isthmian Canal
Commission, wrote, in the Annual Report, U.S. Public
Health Service for 1920, “‘ The public view-point has
changed ; villages, towns, county and state officials,
as well as business corporations and railroads, now
realise the extent of the large preventable financial loss
they incur each year. . . . The people have been watch-
ing the campaigns undertaken, and throughout the
country they are becoming more and more interested
in having their own community and state undertake
this work. . .. This calendar year, ror places are
doing work under the supervision of the Public Health
Service, and have already appropriated $280,000
therefor.”
The modern methods of mosquito control are merely
elaborations of those originated by Sir Ronald Ross in
the East and by General Gorgas in the Canal zone and
Cuba ; they have already been described very graphic-
ally by Le Prince and Orenstein. But Mr. Hardenburg,
who is a sanitary engineer, has treated the subject from
a somewhat different point of view from that adopted
in ‘‘ Mosquito Control in Panama.’ Descriptions are
given of the more important American culicine and
anopheline mosquitoes. These, though brief, are
sufficient to enable a sanitary officer to recognise most
of these insects that he is likely to meet with; the
information given in the body of the book is sup-
plemented, in an appendix, by a more technical key for
the identification of both larve and adults.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
839
A good account is given of the preliminary survey
work that has to be done before actual operations
against the mosquitoes can be commenced. Mr.
Hardenburg insists upon the importance of a vigorous
propaganda to arouse public interest, and explains,
with some humour, how to induce newspaper editors
and the “‘ motion picture houses ”’ to “ boost ” the work.
Drainage of swamps, pools, and salt marshes is dealt
with very thoroughly ; and detailed directions are
given for the construction of drains by handwork or by
machinery, for the laying out of a system of tile drain-
age, and for the construction of tide gates and sluices.
The use of oil and other larvicides, with its advantages
and disadvantages, is fully considered ; and a whole
chapter is devoted to the use of fish to control the
mosquitoes. The author writes with enthusiasm on
this latter subject, but adopts a more judicial attitude
towards the proposal to establish “ bat-roosts.” The
problem of how to deal with the mosquitoes which
breed in rice-fields seems to be still unsolved, at least in
countries where the people insist upon having rice
cultivation near the villages. The habits of the different
species of Anopheles, and especially their choice of
breeding-places, are so varied that experience gained
in one country is not sufficient for dealing with the
conditions met with elsewhere. Now, however, thanks
to this book, to that of Le Prince and Orenstein, and to -
Dr. Malcolm Watson’s ‘‘ Prevention of Malaria in the
Federated Malay States,’ public health officers in the
tropics are well provided for.
Mr. Hardenburg’s book represents the views of a
practicalman. It can be recommended with confidence
to all those who have to deal with sanitation in malarious
countries.
The value of the book is much enhanced by the many
excellent illustrations with which it is adorned.
H. J. Watton.
Our Bookshelf.
Das feinbauliche Wesen der Materie nach dem Vorbilde
der Kyristalle. Von Prof. Dr. Friedrich Rinne. 2 und
3 erweiterte Auflage. Pp. vili+168. (Berlin:
Gebriider Borntraeger, 1922.) tos. 4d.
THE new edition of Prof. Rinne’s book is con-
siderably larger than the first edition, and presents
an altogether wider outlook on the fine structure of
matter as exhibited in crystals. The whole work is
enriched by an originality of treatment which renders
it eminently readable and suggestive. Moreover, the
excellent portraits of von Groth, Haiiy, Schoenflies,
Fedorov, Tschermak, von Laue, Debye, Scherrer, Sir
William Bragg, and W. L. Bragg give it an altogether
special interest. A reproduction of Albrecht Diirer’s
picture ‘“‘ Melancholie” is also given, in which the
representation of a huge crystal occupies_a prominent
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
place, the inference being that Diirer was oppressed
by the idea of the hopelessness of man’s ever rising to
the comprehension and explanation of a natural
phenomenon so wonderful and remarkable as that of
crystallisation. If Direr lived to-day, however, how
different would be his picture! Its title might well
be “ Hope,” or even ‘“‘ Achievement,” rather than
“ Melancholie.”
It is this extraordinary success of recent crystallo-
graphic and physical research, and particularly that
brought about by the use of X-rays in elucidating the
arrangement of the chemical atoms in crystals, that
forms the main theme of Prof. Rinne’s book, and he
regards the whole achievement in its more fundamental
aspect, as having revealed the true nature of the fine-
structure of solid matter. The book is full of illustra-
tions and diagrams of an original character, including
many of the X-radiograms of crystals due to Prof.
Rinne’s own industry. It is a book of very special
merit, and one of the most suggestive and far-seeing
that have appeared since the inauguration of these
fruitful new methods of research. aXe ldlelee Ali
Elementary Hydraulics for Technical Students. By Prof.
F.C. Lea. Pp. viit+224. (London: E. Arnold and
(Cos 19225))) 7s. ods net.
Dr. Lea’s larger work on hydraulics has long been
regarded as an authoritative treatise, and the present
volume will be welcomed by many who have felt the
need for a less comprehensive work. Beginning with
clear accounts of fundamental principles, the questions
of the flow through orifices and over notches and weirs
are discussed. Next follow the flow through pipes
and channels and the methods of gauging the flow of
water. Vanes, water-wheels, turbines, and pumps are
then considered, and the volume closes with a chapter
on hydraulic machines. The treatment throughout is
simple, which will render the book suitable for use in
technical schools ; the drawings are well executed, and
the text is very readable. A commendable feature is
the description of many experiments which may be
carried out on a comparatively small scale with in-
expensive apparatus. Any student who works sys-
tematically through the experiments described will
gain a very fair working knowledge of the methods
employed and of the manner in which the results are
reduced. The book also contains a number of well-
selected exercises, with answers; to some of these
exercises hints are appended for their solution, while
others are left to the student. Hydraulics is not an
easy subject to author or student, and Dr. Lea is to
be congratulated upon the present volume, which
cannot fail to be of service to both teachers and students.
The Czechoslovak Republic. By Jaroslav Cisaf and
F. Pokorny. Pp. vi+218. (London: T. Fisher
Unwin, Ltd. ; Prague: Orbis Publishing Co., 1922.)
gs. net.
THE authors of this volume aimed at compiling a com-
plete handbook to the new state of the Czechoslovak
republic and have published an English edition in the
hope of spreading a knowledge of their country. There
are chapters on the history, topography, population,
political organisation, natural resources, industries,
trade, transport, etc., with appendices of statistics
840
and a well-printed, if rather small-scale coloured map.
The notes on topography are very brief, covering
scarcely two pages, while climate is dismissed in a few
lines. More consideration of these fundamental aspects
of the economic life of the country would enhance the
value of the book:
Of all the new or newly constituted states of Europe
probably none has greater possibilities than Czecho-
slovakia. Its central situation, varied resources, and
rich mineral endowment combine to promise a bright
future. Racially also it has fewer thorny problems to
solve than most of the new states. Czechs and Slovaks
together comprise 68 per cent. of the population, and
the only considerable non-Slavonic element is 22 per
cent. of Germans, mainly in Bohemia. At the same time
the great difference in cultural status between the
Czechs and Slovaks, which is emphasised by the com-
parative lack of communication between their respective
countries, is a hindrance to the consolidation of the
State. The government is fully aware of this difficulty,
and is facing it by the improvement of communications.
The section of the Elbe from Aussig to Neratovice
has been canalised and operations are in progress as
far as Pardubice. From there a canal, rro miles long,
will be built to Prerau on the Beczwa in Moravia. A
Danube-Oder canal is also under consideration.
RENE ERS Be
Technical Electricity. By H. T. Davidge and R. W.
Hutchinson. Fourth edition. Pp. xn+51q. (Lon-
don : University Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1922.) tos. 6d.
THE object of the authors of this volume is to give a
clear exposition of physical principles and to show
how they are applied in engineering practice. This
is done satisfactorily, and we think that the volume
will prove useful to engineering students in the first
and second year of their course at a technical college.
Engineering practice and phraseology change rapidly,
so it is difficult to keep an engineering treatise absol-
utely up-to-date. For example, the phrase ‘“ mean
spherical candle-power ” is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Engineers now use the much more sensible phrase
“the average candle- power”; similarly a “ half-
watt’ lamp is now termed a “ gas-filled” lamp. It
is not strictly correct to say that the international
candle-power “is now defined as an illuminating
power equal to one-tenth of that of the Harcourt-
Pentane lamp.” When engineers refer to the inter-
national candle they mean the unit of luminous power
maintained by the National Physical Laboratories of
France, Great Britain, and the United States of
America. The Hefner-kerze is used by Germany and
Austria, and its numerical value is nine-tenths of that
of the international candle. Hence the candle-powers
given by lamp manufacturers in Germany are expressed
by larger numbers than if they were expressed in
international units. This is to their commercial
advantage. We were surprised that the international
standards for the resistance and temperature-co-
efficients of pure annealed copper are not given, as
they are of fundamental importance in electrical
engineering. We hope that the wire gauges, the table
for the resistance of copper wires (temperature not
stated), and the tables of fusing currents will be
omitted from the next edition.
NO. 2773, VOL. 110}
NALORE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
Notes on Qualitative Analysis : Concise and Explanatory.
By Dr. H. J. H. Fenton. Supplement. Pp. v+155-
202. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1922.)
3s. 6d. net.
Tuis pamphlet forms a supplement to Dr. Fenton’s
well-known “ Notes on Qualitative Analysis.” The
more important and characteristic reactions are given
of the rarer elements of more general interest which
can be identified by chemical tests. References to
“spectra,” without any details, are made. No de-
scription is given of possible methods of separation. In
arranging the elements according to alphabetical order,
their chemical relationships are quite obscured, and
the information conveys the impression of isolated
snippets. The selection of the inorganic and organic
compounds is, as the author emphasises, quite arbitrary :
one notices more particularly the substances studied
by Dr. Fenton himself. Although the book may prove
useful to teachers who have not access to the larger
treatises, its lack of system and reasonable completeness
will somewhat diminish its value as compared with
existing manuals of qualitative analysis such as that
of Treadwell.
The Fishing Industry. By Dr. W. E. Gibbs. (Pit-
man’s Common Commodities and Industries.) Pp.
vill+135. (London: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd.,
1922.) 3s. net.
A VERY concise and comprehensive account of the sea-
fishing industry in general is contained in Dr. Gibbs’s
little volume. There are chapters on the natural
history of the edible fishes, molluscs, and crustacea, and
on the methods of fishing, but the distinctive parts of
the book are those that deal with the mode of fish-
curing and conservation, and with the utilisation of
by-products. Written with an evident personal know-
ledge of the processes described, these chapters make
a really important contribution to the literature of the
sea fisheries. eel
Manuel d’océanographie physique. Par Prof. J. Rouch.
Pp. 229. (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1922.) 15 francs.
Capt. Roucu’s book is a well-balanced account of
oceanography, treated almost entirely from the
physical point of view. The first part deals with
methods, soundings, the physics and chemistry of sea-
water, the study of currents, tides, and tides and the
observation of ice-formation. ‘The second part deals
in the usual way with the general results of oceano-
graphical investigation. The book is a small one,
but it is very concise in its treatment, and it is well
illustrated.
Practical Tanning. By Dr. Allen Rogers.
based on the Third Edition of ‘‘ Practical Tanning,
by Louis A. Flemming. Pp. xxv+699. (London :
Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1922.) 45s. net.
Dr. Rocers is well known for his writings on chemical]
technology, and as an account of recent American
practice his book will prove interesting to English
technologists. It deals briefly with all branches of
the subject, and is illustrated. The section on analytical
methods is brief, but most of the important determina-
tions are covered. A short account of synthetic
tanning materials is given.
Partly
”?
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
841
Letters to the Editor.
[Y%e Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is
taken of anonymous communications. |
A Quantum Theory of Optical Dispersion.
WHEN a theory is framed trying to explain a
discrepant system of facts, it is a necessary process
of thought to take some branch of the theory as more
completely true than the rest, and to adjust the
remaining parts in such a way that they will fit in
with this base, though they may still conflict with
one another. This has certainly been true of the
quantum theory; the speculations connected with
it have as their base the law of the conservation of
energy. Now a critical examination of fundamentals
does not by any means justify this faith. It is, of
course, a fact of observation that, in the gross, energy
is conserved, but this only means an averaged energy ;
and as pure dynamics has failed to explain many
atomic phenomena, there seems no reason to maintain
the exact conservation of energy, which is only one
of the consequences of the dynamical equations.
Indeed it is scarcely too much to say that had the
photoelectric effect been discovered a century ago it is
probable that no one would ever have suggested that
the status of the first law of thermodynamics was
in any way different from that of the second. On the
other hand, Bohr’s theory, and especially Sommerfeld’s
extension of it, have given great encouragement to
the belief that in dynamics lay the way to the com-
plete truth, so that in consequence of the triumphs
of that theory there has been little thought in other
directions. Another impediment is that our whole
ideas are saturated with the principle of energy,
so that denying it leaves scarcely any foundation from
which to start.
Now there is another field of phenomena which
forms a consistent whole, but at present only fits
into the quantum theory with a good deal of difficulty
—that is, the wave theory of light. Interference
and diffraction are completely explained by a wave
theory, and it would seem almost impossible to devise
any really different alternative which would account
for them. Here is a base which seems to be free
from the objections which attach to energy, and I
have therefore been examining the consequences of
fitting it in with those parts of the Bohr theory
which seem to be most completely established. The
result is what I believe to be a satisfactory theory
of dispersion—one of the weakest points in the
quantum theory +—and a great promise of future
extensions in other directions.
We shall assume then that the wave theory gives
a correct account of events outside mattey, and it is
convenient to take over the terminology of the
electromagnetic theory, provided we remember that
“electric force’’ is only to mean “light vector,”
and that we are not prescribing how the electric
force will affect the behaviour of atoms or electrons.
The assumption brings with it of course the exact
conservation of energy in the ether; it is in inter-
changes with matter that it need not be conserved.
When a wave passes over matter there is a mutual
influence, and without any inquiry into what happens
to the matter, we can say that it is inconceivable
that the effect on the «ther should be anything
1 The difficulty is that the standard theory indicates a dispersion formula
involving the frequency of the electron’s motion in the atom which is quite
different from its absorption frequency.
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
! but in the form of an expanding spherical wave.
Every such wave can be described in terms of
spherical harmonics, and the simplest is the one
corresponding to the harmonic of zero order. In
this the electric force vanishes at two poles and is
elsewhere along the lines of longitude and proportional
to the cosine of the latitude, while the magnetic
force lies in the circles of latitude. This is the type
of wave given in the classical theory by a Hertzian
doublet vibrating in a line, and it proves unnecessary
for our theory to postulate that any more complicated
type is emitted by the atom. If *% is the direction
of the pole of the wave, then at %, y, z, at a great
distance v from the atom, the wave is given by :
2 2 \
E,= = ea jAC= r/c) |
Next, borrowing from the Bohr theory, we shall
assume that when an atom is struck by a wave,
there is a certain chance that the atom should emit
a secondary wave of the above type. With these
assumptions it is possible to argue inductively from
the observed fact that if incident waves are superposed
the result can be found by an addition of their
effects and from the known form of the dispersion
formula. There is no need to give the argument,
but only its final result. The complete statement
of this for unpolarised waves is rather more com-
plicated, but the essential points of the theory are
fully represented in what follows.
When a wave, polarised so that the electric force
is along ¥, strikes an atom at the origin there is a
chance A,(cE,/ct)dt that in the time d¢ it will excite
the atom to emit a spherical wave of the type (1)
with f of the form a,e—t cos Ryt. Here An, 4p, \n and Rn
depend only on the nature of the atom and not at all
on the incident force; \, is supposed to be small.
Of course dE,/et may be negative ; in this case we
shall suppose that there is a chance A,( —0¢E,/ct)dt
for the emission of a wave -f. We shall be able
to treat both cases together and need not make the
distinction. The subscript , indicates that we
suppose there are several different ways in which
the atom may be excited, each with a separate
chance for it.
Consider a simple case, a monochromatic wave
polarised along x and advancing along z, which
strikes a group of N atoms at the origin.. Let the
wave be E, =H, =F cos p(t —z/c). Thenumber excited
in the interval dt will be NA,(-Fp sin pt)dt. Con-
sider the secondary wave crossing the point
x, y, 2, at the time ¢+y7/c. This is due to all the
atoms which were excited before the time ¢. The
number excited in the interval ds at a time ¢—-s is
—NA,F? sin p(t —s)ds and each of these will at the
time ¢ be giving a wave typified by f =a,e—4"S cos kas.
So the total effect will be a wave which at the time
t+yr/c at x, y, z has an ¥-component
Ey= “f(t-rle)
E,= 3 flt-rle)
pa BN foo
E,== NA,Fp( = — aE sin p(t — s)ds.a,e—8 cos ks
(2)
aoe
—,—F
5 cos pt,
Y
Il
NA,2n Ry? =e
provided that \, is taken as small. The averaging
has entirely blotted out the frequency of the atoms
and left only that of the incident wave. Now on
the classical theory, if there is a group of N,, electrons
842
NATORE
[| DECEMBER 23, 1922
which have a natural frequency of vibration k,/27,
the wave they scatter is given by
eee
Bpaap
So if we identify N,,e?/mc? with NA,a, the expressions
are the same. But the only difference between the
phenomena of scattering and of the refractive index
lies in the matter of allowing for the mutual influence
of the atoms, an influence exerted by the waves
they send out and therefore the same on both theories.
So we may at once say that from our_result will
follow the dispersion formula of Lorentz
a ol flee 4
N
"mc? 7
E,= cos pt.
3(u* —1)
= = 4TNCA gan,
He+2
Sat k,* -p*
From the linear way in which the chance of
excitation depends on the incident force, it follows
that the average effects of superposed waves is
additive ; in other words, the atoms act as Fourier
analysers, sort out the harmonic components of an
arbitrary incident wave and refract each component
in the proper degree. In all cases the characteristic
frequency with which the waves are really emitted
will entirely disappear by averaging.
It will be necessary to consider the balance of
energy which is nearly but not quite exact, but the
present simple equations are not suited for this ;
they fail to give the balance even in the classical
case, and there it must occur. This question is
better treated in connexion with absorption. The
problem is complicated by the fact that the excited
wave may possibly have a phase differing slightly
(it may only be slightly) from that of a cosine.
I have assumed the form of the damping factor as
e—t only for convenience; all that is necessary is
that the infinite end should be unimportant. An
alternative is to suppose that the wave is undamped
but that there is a chance \,dt in every element of
time dt that it should stop. We have only discussed
waves polarised along the v-axis and have supposed
that the excited waves have this axis as pole; for
the general case the formulation must be somewhat
changed, but it would take too long to state and prove
the modification here. The essential points of the
theory are not altered, and it also appears that
there should be no particular difficulty in fitting
double refraction and rotatory dispersion into our
scheme.
A theory of dispersion is not of course complete
without including selective absorption. If A, is
retained in the integration of (2) the result is an
expression practically the same as that given in the
classical theory when a damping factor is included.
Observe that on the present theory, when the forced
period approaches the natural, there is no increase
either in the number of atoms excited or in the
strength of the waves they send out. The whole
change is due to the greater efficiency with which
they reinforce the primary beam. Our theory gives
no explanation of the mechanism of conversion of
radiant energy into atomic heat, any more than does
the classical theory with its damping factor. The
conversion is probably better studied by the con-
sideration of other cases of absorption, such as
metallic reflection, and our method of argument,
applied to this last, should certainly give interesting
results. We shall have to find what emission of
spherical waves will diminish the ethereal energy
when superposed on the incident wave. Thus a
wave like that for dispersion would do for metallic
reflection, if the phase is suitably altered, or possibly
we may suppose that the wave is again in the form
NO._27 7.3; VOL. 110)|
of a cosine, but that the chance of excitation is now
proportional to E, instead of to oE,/ct. It seems
likely that a study of the optical constants of metals
would throw light on this question. Afterwards it
would be necessary to examine the balance of energy
between ether and matter, and this might help in
understanding the mechanism of the process.
We may now review how these speculations will
modify the accepted theory. As we have made no
assumptions as to what goes on inside the atom, we
can take over the whole of the dynamics of stationary
states. We suppose that an atom is usually in its
lowest quantum state. The motions of the electrons
will sometimes lead to a favourable configuration,
and when this occurs in the presence of a changing
electric force, there is a chance that the atom may be
jerked into a condition in some way associated with
one of its higher quantised states. It at once starts
radiating with a frequency corresponding to the
return from that state to the lowest. Dispersion
throws no light on the amplitude of the wave, for
in the formula it always occurs multiplied by the
probability factor A,. It is rather tempting to sup-
pose that it actually goes into the higher quantised
state, and then gives a wave of such amplitude and
length that, but for the interference with the incident
light, it would emit energy hk,/27. If this is so we
may perhaps extend our theory to cover pure emission;
for, though we have not postulated any precise
relationship between electric force and electrons, it
seems inevitable that there should be a rapidly
changing electric force near a moving electron, and
this force would have a chance of jerking the atom
into its higher state. On the other hand, difficulties
are raised in other directions. For the radiation
must be immediate and therefore the state would
not really be stationary at all, and the accepted theory
of specific heats requires that a molecule should be
able to remain in its higher states. In any case
there is a clear contradiction to the principle of
energy, but the phases of the outgoing waves are
so adjusted that for cases of pure scattering or
refraction, on the average, as much energy goes out
as comes in.
There are many other points that will require
attention. In the first place the refractive index
is closely related to the dielectric constant. Now
though it is quite proper to treat the dielectric
constant as a limiting case of refraction, yet it can
be regarded electrostatically and it will be necessary
to see the physical meaning of this aspect. Again
it is possible to count the electrons in the atom by
X-ray reflection, and it follows that there must be
a relation between the e?/mc* of the classical theory
and our A,a,. In this connexion I owe to Prof.
P. S. Epstein the suggestion that the theory will
explain the defect observed in the scattering of
hard y-rays below that predicted. Here the wave-
length of the incident light is much shorter than
the distances between the electrons and the incoherent
waves cannot recombine in the way they do under
the classical theory. Lastly, it will be necessary
to re-examine the deduction of the formula for black
radiation, for all present proofs are founded on
theorems following out of the conservation of
energy.
In view of the great number of problems that are
suggested and the probability that it will take a
considerable time to deal with them, it appeared to
me that it might be of interest to publish this pre-
liminary account of a very incomplete theory.
C. G. DaRwIn.
Institute of California,
Pasadena, Cal.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATORE
343
Interspecific Sterility.
Dr. Bareson’s letter on interspecific sterility in
Nature of July 15, p. 76, has given rise to an interest-
ing discussion in later issues, which may be sum-
marised thus :—
Sterility between wild species is not nearly so
common as was formerly supposed, yet it undoubtedly
occurs frequently, both between species with the same
number and with different numbers of chromosomes.
The cause of this sterility has not yet been made out
with any degree of certainty. On the other hand,
crosses between domestic races are, almost exclusively
at least, perfectly fertile, although Dr. Gates rightly
points out that sterility may often be expressed in
lethal factors and that lethal factors are of common
occurrence in Morgan’s “‘ domestic ’”’ races of Droso-
phila for instance.
Dr. Bateson’s starting-point is his belief, that
domestic races as well as species in Nature have
arisen by some process of transmittable variability,
let us say by mutation. At least, on no other
assumption can I explain his sentence (/.c. p. 76) :
“In contemporary variation we witness the origin
of many classes of differences, but not this (e.g. inter-
specific sterility) ; yet by hypothesis it must again
and again have arisen in the course of evolution from
species of a common origin.”’
Geneticists are aware that this view is not mine.
According to my view two genotypically different
gametes are required to give rise to new forms:
domestic races as well as natural species arise by
crossing. If this is the case—and nobody will deny
that, at least in the production of “ races,”’ crossing
plays a most important rdle—there is no cause to
assume that sterility has ever “ arisen ’’ from fertility
in the course of evolution. We have, for the present,
to be satisfied with the establishment of the fact that
some gametes, differing in constitution, after crossing
give rise to wholly or partly sterile progeny, while
others give fertile progeny only.
As there is no reason to assume that our domestic
products are the result of crosses only of such wild
species as from the start gave exclusively fertile
progeny—although, as we shall see, such crosses may
indeed have been favoured—it follows that the general
inter-racial fertility of domestic products must have
been “ acquired.’’ Consequently the problem under
discussion is not how sterility arose from fertility, but
how a form-group in which both inter-racial fertility
and sterility occurred, became changed into one, the
members of which were all interfertile.
It seems to me that the most simple explanation is
offered by the assumption that man from the begin-
ning, for example, from the initial cross or crosses
among his animals or plants taken from Nature, in
an attempt to domesticate them, has selected the most
fertile forms and has continued to do s6; in other
words, that he has persistently exterminated those
forms which were intersterile and kept only those
which were interfertile.
While at the present moment intersterility of
domestic races might offer considerable advantages,
allowing, for example, the cultivation side by side of
different varieties of flowers without fear of crossing,
there was no such advantage at the very beginning
of domestication, when the only object was not to
obtain a particular kind but any kind of domestic
animal or plant. By this continued selection of
interfertile forms, man himself has by now .cut off
the possibility of obtaining intersterile races.
The following case may illustrate my meaning :
According to my view, our domestic races of fowl,
which “ without impropriety may, on account of
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
their enormous ditierences, be compared to natural
species,’ have arisen from a cross in which more than
one wild species has taken part. Prof. Ghigi, the
well-known ornithologist of Bologna, is of the same
opinion, and Dr. Bateson also evidently looks favour-
ably on this view, as he states that he finds it difficult
to believe that all races of poultry should have
descended from Gallus bankiva only. While all races
of domestic poultry are, so far as is known, fertile
intey se, crosses of Gallus bankiva and G. Sonnerati, or
of the former and G. varians, give rise, as is well known,
to a partly fertile and partly sterile progeny, so that,
if our domestic fowl have really arisen from crosses of
these wild species, their inter-racial fertility was not
primitive, but “acquired” by elimination of the
sterile stock.
Thus, according to the views here stated, the
starting-point in the formation of domestic races as
well as of natural species was the same, to wit, a cross.
In those cases in which the product of such a cross
was a sterile hybrid, the attempt to originate new
races or species was smothered in its birth. Such
crosses as gave perfectly interfertile progeny were
most acceptable to man, and the cause of the fact
that only a very small percentage of the wild species
in existence has taken part in the formation of our
domestic products may very well be man’s partiality
for such ab initio fertile crosses.
In those cases in which intersterile and inter-
fertile forms arose from a first cross, man selected the
interfertile forms, and so obtained the same kind of
starting-point for his further efforts as when the first
cross had been perfectly fertile from the beginning.
The obtaining of well-defined races from such an
interfertile crowd could be attained in one way only,
namely, by isolation, and we know that isolation is
the alpha and omega of successful breeding.
“Species ’’-formation in Nature also started from a
cross, and Nature’s only means of obtaining well-
defined form-groups, for example species, also con-
sisted in isolation. Ready-made isolation was pre-
sented to Nature by the intersterile forms arisen from
across ; hence these were favoured, and this accounts
for the great percentage of intersterile species in
Nature.
To summarise: The starting-point in the forma-
tion of races by man and in the formation of species
by Nature is the same, namely, a mixed stock of
interfertile and intersterile forms arising from a cross.
Man selected the interfertile, Nature the inter-
sterile forms, hence the difference in mutual fertility
between domestic races and natural species.
Sterility between species, according to this view,
therefore, did not arise from fertility but is the direct
result of crossing. jie eomsive
Velp, November 28.
Occult Phenomena and After-images.
Ir the hand be held against a dark background in
a very subdued light, coming from behind the observer
and falling on the hand, a diffuse glow will be observed
round thumb and fingers, frequently uniting the
finger tips. A little patience and a moderately clean
hand are all that is required to observe the pheno-
menony
Further, however, if a hand be cut out of white
cardboard (which is easily done by placing the hand,
with thumb and fingers moderately spread, on the
cardboard, tracing the outline in pencil, and cutting
round with scissors) and feebly illuminated in the way
described, a similar but somewhat stronger glow will
be observed. In the case of both the flesh and the
cardboard the shape of the glow can be modified by
slow movement of the hand.
844
Such radiations are frequently described by writers
on the occult sciences as being emitted by the human
body. For example, in the chapter on magnetism in
M. de Dubor’s recently published “‘ Mysteries of
Hypnosis,’’ I read of a doctor who was making
magnetic passes over a lady. ‘‘ The subject was
wearing a black dress, and the doctor had his back
to the light. Suddenly, in the semi-darkness which
surrounded him, he observed a greyish vapour, like
the fumes of a cigarette, issuing from the tips of his
fingers, and, with especial clearness, from the index
and the middle fingers. Moreover, the index fingers
of the two hands seemed to be united by a luminous
are or semicircle. . . . Other persons, on the doctor's
invitation, drew near and observed the same pheno-
menon. . . . Thentheroom wasdarkened. . . . Inthe
darkness, twelve of the witnesses perceived nothing
at all, and the remaining six perceived only very
little.”
M. de Dubor and the whole occult school explain
the glow, or aura, seen round the hand as being due
to magnetic emanations from the body (using the
word magnetic in a superphysical sense). They ap-
pear to think that the phenomenon is more rare than
it actually is, and do not treat the case of cardboard
hands. For the phenomenon as observed with these,
there would seem to be two possible alternative ex-
planations. One is, that the cardboard is occult card-
board, and the scissors hypermagnetic scissors, and
that I have unwittingly impregnated everything with
induced ectoplasmic activity. The other is that the
phenomenon is a retinal (and rational) one, which can
be observed whenever a white, or whitish, surface is
seen in a feeble light, the visual purple from the actual
retinal image diffusing into the neighbouring parts of
the retina. Accepting, for argument’s sake, the latter
explanation (which accounts at once for the fact that
nothing is seen in the dark), the effect will be in-
tensified by the restless movement of the eye, which
undoubtedly takes place when objects are viewed in
unfavourable circumstances.t The eye shifts the
image into an unfatigued part of the retina, and the
after image persists as a feeble glow. Such pheno-
mena have been frequently described by Dr. Edridge-
Green in a variety of forms, and I do not claim any
particular originality for this prosaic explanation.
But a further very interesting phenomenon can be
observed with the cardboard hand, which has not, I
believe, been described. If it be looked at fixedly,
the ends of the fingers will be seen to vanish inter-
mittently, now one, now the other, while the extended
thumb and little finger appear to move up and down,
producing somewhat the appearance of a hand opening
and shutting. The effect is very striking, and is
pleasantly diversified by the complete disappearance
of the hand at intervals. This is due either to retinal
fatigue, combined with eye movement, or else to the
ferro-forcificatory magnetism of the scissors, per-
meated as they must be with psychic influences and
what not. I must leave it to the readers of NATURE
to repeat the experiments, and judge for themselves.
Seeing that the festive season (I understand that
this is the correct way to refer to Christmas) is upon
us, I venture to describe a third occult phenomenon,
somewhat analogous to that quoted by Dr. Edridge-
Green in Nature of December 9, p. 772. Two heads,
facing one another, are cut out of white cardboard in
profile, and observed in a very subdued light against
a black background as before. (My heads are about
two and a half inches in diameter, and the noses
about half an inch apart.) By a delicate manipula-
tion of the scissors one of the heads may be given
a feminine character, largely by providing it with
1 See, e.g., Edridge-Green’s ‘‘ Physiology of Vision.”’
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
(G. Bell and Sons.)
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
back hair. On careful observation the heads will be
seen to approach and kiss repeatedly, separating with
rapturous amaze after each contact. Like the other
phenomena, including M. de Dubor’s magnetic fluid,
this cannot be observed in the dark, nor, I may add,
even heard, in the case of the cardboard heads.
All the phenomena seem to be observed even more
easily by myopic people than by myself. A morn-
ing’s experiment has convinced me that with suitable
illumination and white cardboard a very creditable
séance can be arranged, including aure, movements
and levitations, magnetic emanations, and ectoplasm.
This method involves no expense and no hymn sing-
ing. Even an atmosphere of reverence is not neces-
sary for the production of the phenomena, although,
I admit, the morning of my essay in the occult art
was a Sunday morning, which may have had some
favourable effect. E. N. pa C. ANDRADE, |
Artillery College, Woolwich,
December 11.
A Relativity Paradox.
Ir is with great diffidence that I enter the relativity
controversy, since I know little or nothing of the
subject. Ignorance, however, is seldom a_ bar ‘to
the expression of opinions. I understand that the
fundamental idea underlying the theory of rela-
tivity is that no signal can be transmitted through
space at a greater speed than
the velocity of light. There
appears to me, however, to
be a method by which, in
theory, it might be done, and
since we have trains running
past embankments with half
the speed of light, and shells
with observers inside travel-
ling at even higher velocities,
perhaps my observer at A
(Fig. 1) may be allowed to
have two immensely long tri-
angles made of any suitable
material; A signals to B by BS A re
sliding the two triangles to-
gether, one over the other, in
the direction of the arrows; the point X, where the
two sides intersect, moves towards the observer B,
who receives the signal when he observes the point of
intersection pass over him. If the angle at X is 10”
and the triangles are moved together at a speed of
ten miles a second (an absurdly small speed for a
relativist), the signal will be transmitted to B with
more than twice the speed of light. C. C.
'
!
t
1
'
I
1
1
'
1
1
|
|
|
Fic. 1.
Is not “C. C.” assuming that when A shifts his
triangles by tugging at their bases the apices in-
stantaneously start to move? But the impulse
would travel from base to apex at a speed far less than
that of light, namely, the speed of elastic waves in the
material. After the lapse of sufficient time the two
triangles would move uniformly and as a_ whole ;
and the mechanism provides a good illustration of a
recognisable point moving much faster than light.
The relativist does not object to this, since the
motion of X does not then correspond to anything
coming within the definition of a signal. The time
of signalling from A to B must be reckoned from the
moment that A gives the impulse to the mechanism.
A. S. EDDINGTON.
Observatory, Cambridge. ;
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
845
The Track of a Flat Solid falling through Water.
By using a small crystal of silver nitrate as the
“flat solid” and acidulating the water with HCl the
track becomes visible, as seen in the repro-
duction (Fig. 1).
It was by no means easy to ‘“‘catch”’
the effect, and I have to thank two
members of the Chemical Society of this
College, G. R. Ellis and C. P. Sayles,
for all the patience and care taken in
obtaining so successful a result.
E. W. WETHERELL.
Liverpool College, Liverpool.
Water Snails and Liver Flukes.
Dr. Monica TAyior states in NATURE
of November 25, p.7o1, that further inquiry
is desirable in respect to the intermediate
hosts of the fluke, as in some districts
where water snails are rare or altogether
absent, yet in these districts sheep are
subject to liver-rot disease. May I add
another point ? In the Swansea valley,
county of Glamorgan, farmers state very
definitely, as the result of years of experi-
ence, that liming the land increases the
liver fluke, for sheep can be run on the
rough pastures in the area with slight
loss from liver-rot disease, before it is
limed ; but after it has been so treated
the loss from liver-rot disease becomes
heavy, sometimes serious. Theories re-
garding this are many and varied, but the
fact remains that the loss from liver-rot
in any given area of land is definitely
increased after liming. Does liming a wet
sour pasture make it more congenial to
the water snail? R. HEDGER WALLACE.
November 28, 1922.
The Cause of Anticyclones.
THE steady and persistently high barometric pres-
sure that has prevailed over southern England during
most of the autumn naturally causes the desire to
know how an anticyclone is produced and maintained
in such a situation, but the explanations current in
meteorological literature are not for the most part
efficacious. It is commonly stated that the high
pressure is due to a mass of cold and therefore
heavy air above it, but for Europe at least this is in
direct opposition to observational results, which show
that some three-quarters of the whole mass of air
over an anticyclonic area is unduly warm. It is the
mass of air over the area that is important; its tem-
perature is quite immaterial, and the real difficulty is
to explain why the excess of air does not roll off.
A lecturer demonstrating the gaseous laws must
provide himself with a closed vessel in which to
confine his gas, and if by any means he spills a
pound of mercury on his table he will not expect to
find it there in a convenient heap the next day or
the next week. The meteorologist, on the other hand,
having provided his “‘ polar ’’ air does not proceed to
éxplain why it remains im sitw and does not rather
follow the ordinary law of a fluid finding its own level.
The difficulty should be faced and not ignored.
Doubtless the equivalent of the lecturer’s closed vessel
is the geostrophic wind surrounding the anticyclone,
but one would like to know how the wind is produced
and why and how it is maintained.
W. H. DINEs.
Benson, Wallingford, December 1.
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
German Book Prices.
THERE has been much comment recently in England
and America on the above subject: see particularly
an article by Prof. Noyes (J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1922,
2) and editorial comments in the same journal, 1922,
"Ene following prices are examples :
Beilstein, bound. Stelzner, unbound.
Vol. r. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 1. Vol. 2. Vol. 3.
England, shillings. 40 38 102 IIo 24 38 100
Germany, marks . 110 110 280 330 7oO 104 325
The prices charged to members of the German
Chemical Society seem so peculiar that I recently
wrote to the society pointing out that much dis-
satisfaction had been expressed at this state of affairs,
and received an answer, from which, as it is too long
to insert in full, the following curious passages have
been extracted: ‘‘. . . Reckoned on the number of
pages the prices are much smaller than those of the
publications of almost all foreign chemical societies.
The justice of our fixed prices was confirmed a few days
ago from Switzerland. [The italics are mine.] There
can be no thought of making foreign and German
prices equal so long as we Germans are compelled to
spend unnumbered thousands of our depreciated
marks to obtain English books . . .”
It is amusing to note the proud reference to the
bulk of the journal, which enhances its value so much
in German eyes. The diffuseness of their publica-
tions is considered in most countries to be a dis-
advantage ; recent complaints were about the quality,
not quantity. As to the remark about Germans
having to spend many marks to purchase foreign
books, the obvious comment is that they need not
have printed such a lot of paper money.
Was there not an article in the Treaty of Versailles
by which Germany undertook not to impose on
British subjects any other or any higher direct or
indirect fees, dues, or tax, than are imposed on
German citizens ?
In the circumstances, I am sure most chemists
will agree that until treaties with Germany are some-
thing more than scraps of paper, money expended in
subscriptions to the German Chemical Society is not
much better spent than in buying paper marks.
It is to be hoped that the English and American
Chemical Societies will soon be in a position to publish
a Dictionary of Organic Chemistry at a fixed reason-
able price and in a reasonably terse language.
K. C. BROWNING.
16 Bridge Avenue Mansions,
Hammersmith, W.6, December 1.
Medical Education.
In Nature for December 9, p. 769, Sir Archdall Reid
asks the following question: ‘‘ But can any one tell
us of what utility, practical or intellectual, is the
biology which medical students learn—facts about
the classification of plants, the vascular system of the
sea urchin, the digestive system of the leech, the
bones in the cod’s head, and so on ? ”’
I am not quite clear whether this question has been
propounded to invite answers, or to introduce
another of Sir Archdall Reid’s favourite discussions
on mutations and fluctuations, etc. There is, how-
ever, scarcely any need to answer the question. So
far as I am aware, the biology offered to medical
students to-day is very different from that suggested
by Sir Archdall Reid in the lines from his letter
quoted above. W. J. DAKIN.
Zoology Department, University of Liverpool,
December II.
23E)2
846
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
Sir ARCHDALL ReEID in his letter to°"NAaTuRE of
December 9, p. 769, tells us that medical students in
their biology course learn “facts about ... the
vascular system of the sea-urchin, the digestive
system of the leech, the bones in the cod’s head, and
so on.”
Now at this university we have nearly finished the
three months’ course of zoology for medical students
held under Prof. Graham Kerr, and not one of our
medical students could answer a question on the
subjects named by Sir Archdall Reid. It is a pity,
as they are interesting subjects, but there is no room
for them in a zoology course for medical students.
There is none too much time for the students to learn
what they really are taught, namely those parts of
zoology which will be, or should be, directly useful to
them either as anatomists or medical men.
The point which seems clear is that in the first part
of his letter Sir Archdall Reid is asking us for informa-
tion about “ facts’’ which are not facts, as King
Charles II. is said to have done with the Royal
Society. What then is the value of his comments
based upon these “ facts ’’ ? J. S. DUNKERLY.
The University, Glasgow.
I HAVE no desire to enter into a discussion with
Sir Archdall Reid of the value of the “ biology of
their own’’ which medical men “‘are in a position to
construct, and for all practical purposes have al-
ready constructed,’ but it is necessary to point out
that his description of the “ biology which medical
students learn’’ is not correct. He describes the
latter biology as consisting of facts about the classi-
fication of plants, the vascular system of the sea-
urchin, the digestive system of the leech, the bones in
the cod’s head, and so on.
Whatever may have been the case when Sir
Archdall Reid was a medical student at Edinburgh,
not one of the animal types he mentions is now
included in the syllabus of elementary practical
zoology of the medical curriculum in that university,
nor are they included, so far as I know, in the corre-
sponding syllabus in any English university. It is
surprising that a member of the medical profession,
which is not yet emancipated entirely from the
empiricism of earlier times, should write so con-
temptuously of the leech, once so closely associated
with that profession. J. T. CUNNINGHAM.
East London College, Mile End Road, E.,
December 13.
Scientific and Industrial Pioneers.
THROUGHOUT the past year it has been my privilege
to contribute week by week to these columns a
Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. This now comes to
anend. This Calendar and the Calendar of Scientific
Pioneers, which appeared last year, contain some
930 names, and the lists are believed to be thoroughly
representative of that great and ever-increasing army
of workers by whom the secrets of Nature are un-
ravelled and natural riches are made available for the
benefit of mankind. In selecting the names to be
included this year I was assisted by Dr. W. C. Unwin,
Professors Eccles, H. C. H. Carpenter and Abell,
Mr. F. S. Marvin, and others, and to them I am
indebted for suggestions of which I have been glad to
make use. EpGar C. SMITH.
5 Cotehele Terrace, Devonport.
W. H, Hudson Memorial.
At a meeting of friends and admirers of W. H.
Hudson, held at Messrs. Dent’s on November 28, it
was agreed that a fitting memorial in stone should be
placed in or near one of the sanctuaries in the London
NO./2773; VOU. 110)
parks which should be dedicated to his memory,
subject to the consent of H.M. Office of Works.
It was also decided that Prof. Rothenstein’s portrait
in oils of Hudson should be presented to the Nationa
Portrait Gallery subject to the permission of the
trustees, and that all monies over and above those
spent upon these works should be devoted to the
preservation of wild bird life. An executive committee
was appointed to carry these proposals into effect.
Hudson’s works are imperishable, but we need a
national memorial to the great Englishman whose
Nature writings are inspired by that change of heart
towards wild life which is replacing the old indifference
and spirit of destruction. There were two sides to
his genius, that of the man of letters and that of the
naturalist. Both these elements are, we feel, properly
represented in the suggestions outlined, and we
earnestly appeal to the public to make it possible for
them to be finely executed. Donations should. be
sent to the hon. treasurer, Mr. Hugh R. Dent, Aldine
House, Bedford Street, W.C.2.
R. B. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM. ~_
Human Blood Relationships and Sterility. -
Ir is not, I think, generally known that the late
Alphonse Milne-Edwards made curious and interest=
ing investigations and suggestions with regard to
these matters, but did not-live to publish them. A |
record will be found in Sir Ray Lankester’s ‘‘ Secrets
of Earth and Sea”’ (p. 141). Briefly, his view was
that the serums of separated species are toxic to
one another—as in the tables given by von Dun:
gern and Hirschfeld and in this country by Back
and Edwards, and thus prevent the fertilisation
of the ovum of one species by the spermatozoon of
another. ‘‘ He proposed to inject one species by
“serums’ extracted from the other, in such a way
as seemed most likely to bring the chemical state
of their reproductive elements into harmony, that
is to say, into a condition in which they should not
be actively antagonistic, but admit of fusion and
union”’ (FE. R. L.). I would suggest that the per-
plexing sterility of many normal, healthy young
married couples is closely linked up with this question,
and it may be that a great future is in store for the
surgeon who would boldly adopt the suggestion of
Milne-Edwards with the view of harmonising the
serums of married persons whose relative sterility
would appear to be capable of tabuiation after the
manner of the hemolytic charts given by Back and
Edwards and by the writer of the article in NATURE
of December 2. CHRISTOPHER BLAYRE.
So far as I know, the blood groups dealt with in
the article on ‘“‘ Human Blood Relationships’ in
Nature of December 2 concern only the agglutina-
tion (and sometimes lysis) of red corpuscles and not
any other of the obscure differences which deter-
mine incompatibility between species and subspecies.
These no doubt include the qualities of tissues other
than blood, and the project to alter them by trans-
ferring blood or serum from one species or individual
to another seems very unlikely to succeed: the
blood is only one tissue among many and its qualities
certainly do not dominate those of the body as a
whole. In the course of working out the inheritance
of the agglutination groups a great deal of germane
information has been obtained, but there is no
indication that one combination of groups in parents
is more likely to be sterile than another. The
failure of many normal healthy young married couples
to produce children is probably capable of a much
simpler explanation.
THE WRITER OF THE ARTICLE,
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
Emission of Cathode and X-rays by Celestial Bodies.4
By Dr. Henri DESLANDRES.
qT emission by the stars of X- and cathode rays
and similar radiations has already been con-
sidered and investigated by various writers.2_ The two
kinds of radiation, however—X- and cathodic—are
not separable, for each, when it meets an obstacle,
gives rise to the other, this interdependence having been
clearly pointed out by de Broglie. But their properties
are different : X-rays move in straight lines, and are
much the more penetrating, while cathode rays are
easily deflected into helical paths by a magnetic field—
or, again, by an electric field. The paths of the elec-
trified particles forming cathode rays, under the in-
fluence of a magnetic field like that of the earth, have
been revealed by the detailed calculations of Stormer : :
they are very interesting, and much more varied than
the trajectories due to gravitation.
I. In several notes, from 1896 to 1922,3 I have
suggested the emission of cathode and X-rays by the
sun, and also by the nuclei of nebule. The rays of
the solar corona can thus be explained, and also the
aurora borealis and the magnetic disturbances of the
earth, their connexion with sunspots, and even the lag
of these disturbances behind the passage of a spot
across the central meridian of the sun’s disc—a lag
due to the deviation imposed by the outer solar mag-
netic field. The same idea was put forward also in
1896 by Birkeland, who carried the investigation
further: he was able to reproduce, in the laboratory,
some of the phenomena of the aurora borealis by means
of a small sphere placed in a vacuum, magnetised like
the earth, and bombarded by cathode rays. Later,
the researches, both theoretical and experimental, of
Stérmer made a great advance in the investigation,
and placed almost completely beyond doubt the
emission by the sun of ordinary cathode rays. In
terms of these rays, Stérmer explains the smallest de-
tails of the aurora borealis, so rich in singular pheno-
mena. He has even been able to locate the origin of
the rays in the sun, and to determine the value of the
external solar magnetic field. This value, which is very
small and equal to 10~7 gauss, is exactly that which
I found in rg11 by another method depending on the
radial velocities of the solar prominences recorded at
Meudon.
The earth also emits these special radiations. The
radio-active bodies in its solid crust and in its atmo-
sphere emit a-, 8-, and y-rays, which ionise the atmo-
spheric gases and explain partly the permanence of the
terrestrial electric field. To explain the whole field, it
must be assumed that there enter, from the outside,
rays which are very penetrating—even more penetrat-
ing than any known X-rays. Further, if one ascends
in the atmosphere—as did Kohlhérster, who reached a
height of g000 metres—the number of ions formed per
1 Translation of a paper read before the Paris Academy of Sciences on
October 2, 1922
* X-rays are constituted like the y-rays of radium, except that the latter
have a greater frequency. The ultra X-rays, discussed in this note, have a
still greater frequency. In the same way, f-rays resemble cathode rays.
As for a- (positive or anode) rays, which play an important part in ionisa-
tion in general, they are absorbed very quickly, and move only a short
distance from their origin.
3 Comptes rendus, 126, p. 1323, 1898; 134, pp. 1134 and 1486, 1902;
150, P- 05, 1910; 152, P- 1453, TOT; 155, P. 1573, 192; 157, DP. 517,
1913; 171, P. 451, 1920; 172, pp. 405 and 709, 1921; 175, Pp. 121, 1922
See also “ Observations de I’ Eclipse totale de 1893 ” (Gauthier-V: illars, 1899).
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
giant stars which are equally yellow.
second in a closed chamber is found to increase rapidly ;
at gooo metres it is eight times as great as at the surface
of the earth. The amount of this penetrating radia-
tion therefore increases rapidly with altitude. It pro-
ceeds probably from the sun, directly or indirectly, or
even from cosmic space,’ but its exact origin has yet to
be determined.
Such are the first results; they are extremely in-
teresting, but still very incomplete. The investigation
thus begun should be pursued with ev ery means at our
disposal.
IT. Researches connected with the atmospheres of
yellow stars, carried on at Meudon during 1922 with
Burson, have led me to conclude that in these stars
there is an extremely penetrating X-radiation, emitted
by the interior strata or the nuclei of the stars. These
results, which have been stated very briefly in former
communications,® are now given in detail.
The sun, which is a yellow dwarf star, shows, as is
known, in its integrated spectrum,® three groups of
calcium lines—H,, K,; Hy, K,; H,, K,—weak, but
very distinct—which represent, respectiv dly, the low Ge
middle, and upper strata of its gaseous atmosphere or
chromosphere. Burson and I have discovered these
lines—in particular, the lines H, K,, Hj, K, in several
They have the
peculiarity that the lines, when compared with the
neighbouring continuous spectrum, are stronger and
wider than in the spectrum of the sun. The middle
and upper strata of the chromosphere are more lumin-_
ous and important than the corresponding solar strata.”
Stars of the two types, giant and dwarf, have at the
surface, however, the same chemical composition, the
same temperature, and the same surface brightness.
How is the difference in the luminosities of their atmo-
spheres to be explained ?
The atmospheric strata are represented by the radia-
tions H and K, which, as is now known with certainty,
are emitted by the ionised atom of calcium. If, there-
fore, we consider, in each type of star, a tube normal
to the surface, having unit cross-section and extending
from the surface to the outer limits of the atmosphere,
the brightness of each stratum in the tube will be
proportional, or at least closely related, to the number
of ions formed in it per second. The number of ions
formed must therefore be greater in the giant stars.
Now one of the principal causes of ionisation already
pointed out is the intense emission of electrons by the
4 The earth also probably emits a very penetrating X-radiation—more
penetrating than the y-rays of radium: this has been suggested by some
writers. But, if it exists, it is relatively weak, and it has not yet been
clearly separated from the very penetrating X-radiation coming from
external sources.
5 Sur la reconnaissance dans les étoiles des couches successives de leur
atmosphére et des variations périodiques de ces couches (Comptes rendus,
171, Pp. 451, 1920, by Deslandres). Recherches sur l’atmosphére des étoiles,
Reconnaissance d’étoiles qui ont les mémes brillantes de l’atmosphére que
le soleil (Comptes rendus, 172, p. 405, 1921); Recherches sur l’atmosphére
des étoiles, Reconnaissance de la couche supérieure dans quelques étoiles
et comparaison avec le soieil (Comptes rendus, 172, p. 479, 1921); Recherches
sur l’atmosphére des étoiles, Propriétés des étoiles qui ont les mémes radia-
tions et les mémes couches de la chromosphére que le soleil (Comtes rendus,
175, Pp. 121, 1922, by Deslandres and Burson).
Burson and I intend to publish shortly some new results. In particular,
we have discovered that, in certain giant stars, the lines H,, K, of the
upper stratum are displaced towards the red, and the lines H,, K, of the
middle stratum are displaced towards the violet, as in the case of the sun.
® The integrated spectrum is that which the sun would give if it were
as far from us as the stars.
848 NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
surface, produced, in the yellow stars, at a tempera-
ture of about 6000° C.; but the ionisation from this
cause is the same in the two types of star. In order
to explain the greater brightness of the giant stars, it
is necessary to suppose that they contain another source
of ionisation which is peculiar to them, or more im-
portant than it is in the dwarf stars. The principal
supplementary cause appears to me to be a penetrating
radiation emitted by the interior Jayers of the star ; this
radiation would be stronger in giant stars, which have
greater masses, and therefore higher internal tempera-
tures. In an example cited by Eddington? the tempera-
ture at the centre reaches 4,650,000° C., the mass being
only one and a half times that of the sun. The wave-
length of maximum energy for a black body at this
temperature is 6 A.U.—corresponding to an X-ray near
the ultra-violet, and not very penetrating ; but, accord-
ing to the theory, the radiation extends much further
towards the very short wave-lengths, the penetration
of which is much greater ; and the intensity of these
extreme radiations increases with the temperature of
the star. The emission of exceptionally penetrating
radiations by giant stars is therefore admissible. Fur-
ther, in the case of giant stars which are in the phase
of increasing temperature, the atoms are dissociated,
and their breaking-up is accompanied by an intense
emission of a-, B-,and y-rays. It should be remarked
that recently certain rays of radium have been ob-
served, much more penetrating than any previously
known, the source of which must be in the very nucleus
of the atom.
In the yellow stars, all these radiations, of very high
frequency and of great penetrating power, form, in
reality, only a very small part of the total radiation ;
but their remarkable electrical properties assign to them
an important role in the electrical phenomena of stellar
atmospheres. It is not, however, intended to assert
that the existence of the radiations is proved, but it is
very probable. As a matter of fact, we have a very
imperfect knowledge of the properties of the material
in the interior of a star near the surface and in the
atmosphere ; and, as often happens in astronomy, the
deductions rest on wide extrapolations. In forming
conclusions, great care must be exercised.
There has been a great deal of discussion on the
nature of the solar surface. In my opinion, setting
aside every theory and every explanation, the solar
surface is a simple fact of experience ; it is a surface
of discontinuity, with a clear-cut boundary, such that
the light emitted by the interior is much more intense
than that given by the exterior. I give the name
‘atmosphere ”’ to all that is outside this surface. The
word “surface,” however, should not be understood
strictly in its geometrical sense: it implies, actually,
a relatively thin luminous stratum which, at our
distance from it, appears to have no thickness. The
solar surface has often been described as a cloud,
made up of incandescent liquid or-solid particles. If
this were so, in all the yellow stars having the same
temperature, whether giant or dwarf, the pressure of
the gases at the surface should be the same; but it
has been objected that we have no knowledge of any
matter which remains liquid at a temperature of
6000" C. The attractive optical theory of Schmidt also
7 Astrophysical Journal, 48, pp. 205-214, 1918.
NON2774,. VOL. 110)
has been advocated : when thoroughly examined, how-
ever, it is found not to be applicable to the sun. Let
us say simply that, from a cause still imperfectly
understood, solar matter, probably gaseous, acquires
suddenly, in a stratum called the surface, the emissive
power of a solid body, and there are good reasons for
believing that the pressure of the gas in this stratum
varies little from one yellow star to another, so long
as the temperature of the strata is the same.8 These
considerations support the idea of the very penetrating
emission postulated in the giant stars.
III. These special rays, remarkable for their pene-
tration and their electrical action, have been known
or suspected only for a few years ; but their importance
is already declaring itself, and I think that they will
furnish the key to several of the still numerous enigmas
presented by the celestial bodies.
The matter of the sun, then, probably emits X-,
ultra-X-, and corpuscular rays, with an intensity which
increases from the surface to the centre. In the spots,
which are in general cavities, the emission is strongest
in the centre, and, because of its greater penetration,
is able to persist in spite of local absorption and the
diminution of the ordinary light. Similarly, if the
earth gives rise to a radiation of this kind, its in-
tensity should be greater at the poles than at the
equator.
These radiations should be borne in mind especially
in considering the nebula—in particular, the gaseous
and planetary nebule. A nebula with a stellar nucleus
may be considered as a star the atmosphere of which
is extraordinarily developed and contains special gases,
such as nebulium. The conditions are then, on a very
large scale, those of the yellow giant stars examined
above, the atmospheres of which are particularly bright ;
and the same causes may be held to account for the
luminosity in the nebulous atmosphere. Moreover,
the nucleus, being of the Wolf-Rayet type, is one of
the hottest stars : it is conceivable that the maximum
emission takes place, for the nucleus in the X-region,
and for the nebula, properly so called, in the visible
region. The luminosity is produced by radiations of
very short wave-length, but with a habitual tendency
towards longer wave- “lengths. Lastly, the nucleus may
contain a large proportion of radio-active bodies. These
ideas were put forward in 1902, and Russell has recently
developed similar hypotheses.®
If a nebula has no nucleus, we may suppose that
there are radio-active bodies disseminated in the space
which it occupies. Similarly, in the lower part of our
atmosphere, a considerable fraction of the ions formed
per second is due to the gaseous emanations of radium
and rhodium spread abroad in the air. If there were
a greater proportion of radio-active bodies, the gas
might become luminous.
To sum up, the penetrating radiations are interesting
in the highest degree, and it is important that we
s If the pressure at the surface is less in the giant stars, the average
density of which is smaller, we can explain partly the stronger ionisation in
these stars by the very interesting theory of M. N. Saha. This theory deals
with effects due to temperature alone, and the point of view is different.
In a giant star the pressure gradient is evidently less steep, but the average
essure in the middle stratum, and especially in the upper stratum, may
e very nearly the same as in a dwarf star. It should be noted that the
greater proportion of the positive ions of calcium in the upper atmosphere
may: eee explained simply by the repulsion due to the positive charge
® Deslandres, Comptes rendus, 134, pp. 1134 and 1486, 1902; Russell,
Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 5, No. 10, p. 410.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
should study, immediately and as thoroughly as pos-
sible, those which are within our reach and are dis-
closed by Kohlhérster’s experiment. The ionisation of
gases~in a sealed vessel has been measured in our
atmosphere up to an altitude of gooo metres ; but it is
necessary to repeat the experiment at several places on
the earth, and to extend it up to the greatest altitudes
reached in exploring balloons. The undertaking, it is
true, will be costly; it devolves especially on the
NATURE
849
countries which have the greatest resources. I pro-
posed, at the International Astronomical Congress,
which met at Rome in May last, that there should be
international co-operation for the complete study of
the electrical phenomena of our atmosphere at great
altitudes. The determination of the exact origin of
these penetrating radiations is one of the most im-
portant problems confronting physical astronomy at
the present time.
The Desensitising of Silver Bromide-Gelatin Plates.
By Dr. T. Stater Price.
T is well known that the more sensitive a photo-
graphic plate is, the greater the care that has to
be taken with respect to the actinic value of the light
used in the dark room during the operation of develop-
ment. The less the amount of light used, the more
difficult it becomes to control the result; and it is
therefore not to be wondered at that attempts have
been made to modify the course of procedure in such
a way that the exposed plate could be developed in a
fairly good light. During the last few years various
so-called “ desensitisers ’’ have been put on the market ;
when the exposed plate is either treated with a solution
of these before development, or when some of the de-
sensitiser is added to the developer, the plate can
safely be developed in a light which would otherwise
give rise to very bad fogging.
At the recent Deuxiéme Congres de la Chimie In-
dustrielle, M. A. Seyewetz gave an interesting account
of the subject, and his paper has been published in
Chimie et Industrie, 1922, 8, 308-311.
A. and L. Lumiére and Seyewetz, in 1907, were the
first to notice that a silver bromide-gelatin plate
becomes less sensitive when bathed in a solution of
a developer such as diaminophenol, quinol, or pyro-
gallol. The loss in sensitivity varied slightly in different
regions of the spectrum, but was most marked in the
yellow and green. At a much later date, in 1920,
Liippo-Cramer noticed that the desensitising action
was much increased when sulphite was omitted from
the developing solution, that is, when the developer
was used in such a condition that it readily oxidised in
the air. After immersion for a minute in a 0-05 per
cent. solution of the developer the plate could be
developed in yellow light without fogging. Such a
method of desensitisation was insufficient, however,
_ for orthochromatic and panchromatic plates, and
moreover, the solutions underwent rapid alteration in
the absence of sulphite.
Desensitisation only became a practical proposition
when Liippo-Cramer, in 1921, discovered the pro-
nounced desensitising action of the azine dye, Pheno-
safranine, and also of other dyes belonging to the
same class, on ordinary and panchromatic plates.
Contrary to what one would at first suppose to be the
case, these dyes do not owe their action to functioning
as colour screens ; solutions of Phenosafranine transmit
red and violet light, and yet they desensitise plates for
these regions of the spectrum. Also, the violet safranines
desensitise just as do the red safranines, although their
absorption spectra are very different. These facts
are very similar to those observed with sensitisers, and
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
Liippo-Cramer has shown that certain optical sensi-
tisers for one haloid salt of silver may act as desensi-
tisers for other salts. For example, Erythrosin, Rhod-
amine B, Pinachrome, and Pinacyanol, which are the
best sensitisers for chloride and bromide of silver,
when used in very dilute solutions (1 : 20000) diminish
the sensitivity of silver iodide- -gelatin plates from
6 to 16 times; Phenosafranine gives a reduction in
sensitivity of about 4o times.
Lumiére and Seyewetz have made investigations to
see if there is any relation between the desensitising
power of a substance and its chemical constitution.
They have found, with the safranines, that the
presence of the characteristic phenazine grouping,
Ya Ss
MK CoH
is insufficient in itself, and that amino-groups sub-
stituted in the benzene nuclei must also be present.
Thus Neutral Red, which is a Eurhoidine having the
formula
N(HCl)
NMep. CHa Colle -NH,,
has desensitising properties approximating to those of
Phenosafranine, which is
NCH)
NEeCs HAC >: H,. NH,.
Safranines in which one of the amino-groups has been
eliminated, as in aposafranine, or in which this group is
replaced by oxygen, as in the safranones, are notably
less active as desensitisers. If both of the amino-
groups are replaced by O or OH, as in safranol, there is
no longer any desensitising action. The acetylation of
the amino-group, or its diazotisation and copulation
with a phenol, destroys the desensitising properties
of the safranine, while the replacement by ethyl of
the phenyl group attached to the nitrogen has no
effect. The Indulines, which are near cousins to the
safranines, as also the thiazines and the oxazines, do
not act as desensitisers. On the other hand, other
colouring matters which have very different constitu-
tions from that of safranine as, for example, picric acid,
Indian Yellow, Chrysoidine, etc., are weak desensi«
tisers ; Aurantia (1 : 1000) desensitises as actively as
safranine for the blue rays, but is noticeably less active
towards other parts of the spectrum.
It follows from the above that there does not seem
850
NATURE
_[DrcemBer gu TO2 2
to be a definite relation between the constitution of
the dye and its desensitising properties. The con-
ditions are thus very similar to those which hold in
the case of sensitisers.
The great drawback to the use of Phenosafranine is
its pronounced staining properties; it can only be
removed from the gelatin film by prolonged washing.
Konig has recently put on the market a desensitiser,
Pinakryptol, which is claimed to be as active as Pheno-
safranine, but which neither stains gelatin, celluloid,
nor the skin, although it gives a deep green solution.
A satisfactory explanation of the desensitising action
of these substances is still wanting. Liippo-Cramer
claims that the phenomenon is connected with the
formation of an oxidation product of the dye. Lumieére
and Seyewetz have shown, however, that if an unex-
posed plate is bathed in a solution of Phenosafranine it
recovers its original sensitivity after being washed
sufficiently long to remove the colouring matter. It
is probable, according to Lumiére and Seyewetz, that
any oxidation product of the dye would be adsorbed
by the silver bromide and not be removed by washing,
so that the recovery in sensitivity would not be ex-
plicable on Liippo-Cramer’s theory.
Obituary.
Pror. GEORGES LEMOINE.
M. GEORGES LEMOINE, professor of chemistry
at the Polytechnic School, Paris, whose death
at the age of eighty-one has just been announced, was
born at Tonnere in 1841. He entered the Polytechnic
School in 1858, and two years later became Eléve
ingénieur at the Ecole des Ponts-et-Chaussées. He
early devoted himself to the study of chemistry, and
investigated the compounds of sulphur and phosphorus,
one of which, the sesquisulphide of phosphorus, is now
largely employed in the igniting composition of the
lucifer match in place of ordinary phosphorus.
substitution of this compound for phosphorus—now
compulsory in most countries where matches are made
—has been attended with the most beneficial results in
the industry, the “ phossy jaw” of the match-worker,
or necrosis of the facial bones, being practically a
thing of the past.
Lemoine also studied the reciprocal transformation
of the two best-known allotropes of phosphorus. By
heating known weights of phosphorus in closed flasks at
440°, the temperature of boiling sulphur, for varying
lengths of time, and separating the pages by carbon
disulphide, he was able to determine the influence of time
and pressure on the direction and extent of the change.
He showed that the extent of the transformation is
determined by the tension of the vapour, as in the case
of other phenomena of volatilisation and dissociation.
In vacuo, the conversion of ordinary into red phos-
phorus becomes more and more rapid as the tempera-
ture is raised. The rapidity of the transformation
varies with the amount of phosphorus used. At any
given moment the rapidity depends not only upon the
quantity of ordinary phosphorus remaining, but also
upon the quantity of red phosphorus already formed.
The phenomenon is pre-eminently one of vapour tension
and depends upon the capacity of the vessel in which
the transformation—which is never complete—is
effected. These facts are now well known and are
uniformly acted upon in the phosphorus industry.
Questions of chemical dynamics had always a certain
measure of attraction for Lemoine, and although he was
not a particularly prolific contributor to chemical
literature, much of his published work is concerned
with their investigation. One of the most important
of these inquiries relates to the conditions of chemical
equilibrium of hydriodic acid. This substance was
chosen as suitable for the study of the general pheno-
mena of chemical equilibrium for the reason that the
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
em
constituent elements are monatomic ; they combine, or
dissociate, without change of volume (at the tempera-
ture of the experiment), and the thermal effects of com-
bination are very slight. The aim of the investigation
was to show that under given conditions of temperature
and pressure, a mixture of the two constituent gases in
given proportions will attain sooner or later a definite
state of chemical equilibrium in which only a certain
proportion of the hydriodic acid possible is actually
formed, varying with the temperature, pressure, and
proportions of the gases present, but always the same
for the same conditions. The conditions studied were
heat, pressure, mass, the action of porous bodies, of
oxygen and of light. The main results have long since
been incorporated into the general theory of chemical
change, and call for no detailed account. At the time
of their publication they constituted a notable and
novel contribution to chemical dynamics.
It has long been known that mixed solutions of ferric
chloride and oxalic acid are decomposed by light with
the evolution of carbonic acid (Marchand, Jodin), and
that the rate of decomposition ee on the intensity
of the ight. Lemoine studied this change with a view
of determining how far it may be made the basis of an
actinometric method. He found that for a given
intensity, the evolution of gas is at first uniform, but
that when about half the total quantity of carbon
dioxide has been evolved, the rate of decomposition
gradually diminishes. The greater the volume of the
liquid, the longer is the time before decomposition
slackens. When the two solutions are separately
exposed to light for several hours and then mixed,
decomposition takes place more rapidly than if the
solutions had not been previously insolated. Dilution
with water increases the change, due probably to hydro-
lysis of the ferric chloride. At ordinary temperatures
the mixed solutions are practically unaffected in the
dark. On heating, gas begins to be evolved at 50°
and increases rapidly in amount as the temperature
rises. The general course of the change is, however,
very similar to the influence exercised by light and is
affected apparently by the same conditions.
Lemoine occasionally worked at subjects of organic
chemistry, such as the nature of the paraffin hydro-
carbons and the dissociation of haloid compounds of
olefines under the influence of heat and pressure, but
organic chemistry had evidently few attractions for him,
and his work in this special field was very limited and
calls for no special comment.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
NATURE
851
Lemoine, having served the Polytechnic School, in
various capacities, from 1871, was elected professor in
1897.- He succeeded Friedel as a member of the
chemistry section of the Academy of Sciences in 1899.
T. E. THORPE.
Howarp Fox.
Mr. Howarp Fox, of Falmouth, died on November
15, In his eighty-sixth year. In the intervals of a
busy commercial and consular career—the firm to
which he belonged were appointed American Consuls
by George Washington—he contributed. very. largely
to our knowledge of the natural history of his native
county, Cornwall, especially in the domain of geology.
The record of his work is to be found in many papers
published by the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,
of which he was president during the years 1893 and
1894, the Geological Society of London, the Geological
Magazine, and other scientific institutions and journals.
We can only refer to a few of his more important
discoveries.
Mr. Fox traced the distribution of the Radiolarian
(Codden Hill) Beds of the Lower Culm Series throughout
the west of England ; and, in collaboration with the late
Dr. G. J. Hinde, studied the characters of these rocks
and of their radiolaria. He also discovered the radio-
larian cherts of Mullion Island, which belong to a
much lower geological horizon. Among other fossils
found by him is the notable Pteroconus mirus, prob-
ably allied to the pteropods, occurring in the supposed
Lower Devonian rocks of Bedruthan Steps, north of
Newquay, the younger stages of which are some-
times preserved in such a way as closely to resemble
graptolites. He also published accounts of other
Cornish fossils, relying on the help of specialists for
their determination and description.
But Mr. Fox’s interest was by no means confined
to the fossiliferous rocks. He studied the igneous
and metamorphic rocks of the Lizard peninsula and
made himself familiar with every nook and corner
of that rock-bound coast. By mapping a_ small
portion of the sloping face of a cliff, on a scale much
larger than that of any published map, he proved con-
clusively that the serpentine and hornblende-schist
had been intimately interfolded; and, by observa-
tions on another portion of the coast, established the
fact that certain rocks, apparently belonging to the
“Granulitic Series,” were intrusive in the surrounding
schists. He also made the important discovery that
the Man of War rocks, off Lizard Head, are mainly
formed of a corrugated igneous gneiss, quite different
from any rock occurring on the mainland.
In petrology and mineralogy, as in paleontology,
Mr. Fox availed himself of the help of specialists, and
all those who were thus brought into personal contact
with him were captivated by his geniality and stimu-
lated by his enthusiasm.
Lorp SuDELEY, F.R.S.
CHARLES Doucras RicHarRD HANBURY - TRACY.
fourth Baron Sudeley, whose death on December 9,
in his eighty-third year, will be regretted in many
circles, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
|
1888, in recognition of his services to science as chair-
man of the British Commission to the Electrical
Exhibition at Vienna in 1883. Of late years, Lord
Sudeley persistently advocated in the House of Lords
and in the Press the increased use of our museums and
picture-galleries for the education and recreation (in
the highest sense) of the public. In rgro, struck by
the value of a demonstrator engaged by the Science
Committee at the Japano-British Exhibition, he urged
that similar guide-lecturers should be attached to our
national museums. The Natural History Museum was
the first to adopt the suggestion, and now, thanks to
Lord Sudeley’s untiring efforts, all the larger public
museums have one or more of these popular adjuncts.
Next he actively promoted the production and sale of
picture postcards by Government museums. Lastly,
as shown by his article in the Nineteenth Century for
October, he was preparing to move for the appointment
of a Royal Commission to consider the better working
of the museums of this country.
Mr. HersBert WoopviLLE MILLER, who died on
December 4, was one of the pioneers of electric lighting
in this country. In 1886 he was appointed to assist
Crompton and Co. in working out the system of
electric light distribution in the West End of London
which they had successfully installed in Vienna. By
1899 it was evident that stations centrally situated in
populous districts were unsuitable to meet a growing
demand, and Miller therefore designed and carried out
the power station at Wood-lane which supplies the
Kensington and Knightsbridge Company and _ the
Notting Hill Co. He was engineer and manager of
the Kensington Co.; the station beneath the Albert
Hall is an excellent example of an accumulator station.
He served on several committees of the International
Electrotechnical Commission, and his thorough know-
ledge of electrotechnical subjects made him a most
useful member of the editing committee of the British
Engineering Standards Association.
THE Chemiker Zeitung of November 23 announces
the death on November 20 of Prof. August Horstmann,
at the age of eighty. Prof. Horstmann was the first to
show the applicability of the laws of thermodynamics
to chemical problems, his first paper on this subject
being published in the Berichte in 1869. His other
work was mainly in this direction, and was concerned
with problems of dissociation, the determination of
vapour densities and vapour pressures, specific heats,
and heats of reaction. He was therefore the pioneer
in a branch of physical chemistry which has since been
developed particularly by Van’t Hoff and Nernst. For
some years Horstmann was professor emeritus of
theoretical chemistry in the University of Heidelberg.
We learn from Sczence with much regret of the
death, on November 1, of Dr. R. W. Willson, emeritus
professor of astronomy at Harvard University, at the
age of sixty-nine years.
852
INAD OTE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
Current Topics and Events.
BROADCASTING has now been carried on for some
time at the Trafford Park works of the Metropolitan-
Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., on behalf of the British
Broadcasting Company, and on December 15, repre-
sentatives of the Press were invited to inspect the
equipment of the station and to listen to a short,
typical broadcasting programme. The present ar-
rangements are of a somewhat temporary nature,
made with the view of gaining experience, and it
is expected in course of time to improve both the
technique of transmission and reception, and the
quality of the programmes. In a short address, Mr-
A. P. M. Fleming expressed his view that wireless
telephony has an important future as an educational
and social feature of daily life, and he hoped that the
public would not take the present transmissions as
the best the Broadcasting Company expected to be
able to give them. Research is being carried on
actively to improve the faithfulness of reproduction
of music and speech. It has been found necessary
to select carefully the kind of voice which is best
suited to the vagaries of the microphone, and it was
foreshadowed that a special wireless studio technique
will have to be developed, for which special training
of the performers will be required. There is no doubt
that the transmission of some items leaves much to
be desired, but if a microphone or a substitute for it
could be developed, having no prejudice for any
particular sound, a considerable improvement would
be effected. The simplest sounds, such as in solo
pieces, give the best results, and it would seem that
when a number of voices or instruments are operating
simultaneously, the microphone is not able to deal
faithfully with the various ‘sounds.
THE annual exhibition of scientific apparatus organ-
ised by the Physical Society of London and the
Optical Society will be held on Wednesday and
Thursday, January 3 and 4, from 3 to 6 P.M. and
from 7 to ro p.M., at the Imperial College of Science,
South Kensington. Mr. W. Gamble will lecture on
* Reproduction of Colour by Photographic Processes ”’
at 4 P.M. on January 3 and at 8 P.M. on January 4 ;
Prof. E. G. Coker will lecture on ‘‘ Recent Photo-
Elastic Researches on Engineering Problems”’ at
8 p.m. on January 3 and at 4 P.M. on January 4. All
the lectures will be illustrated by experiments. More
than fifty firms are exhibiting apparatus and a number
of experimental demonstrations have been arranged.
Invitations to attend the exhibition have been given
to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the In-
stitution of Mechanical Engineers, the Chemical
Society, the Faraday Society, the Wireless Society of
London, and the Réntgen Society. Members of these
societies should apply to the secretary of the society
to which they belong for admission tickets. Others
interested should apply direct to Mr. F. E. Smith,
hon. secretary of the Physical Society, Admiralty
Research Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex. ‘
A JOURNEY.of more than seven thousand miles
from Peking to India was completed early in December
when General Sir George Pereira arrived at Calcutta.
NO. 2773. VOL. 110]
The Times gives some details of his route. Leaving
Peking nearly two years ago, Sir G. Pereira went
by rail to Taiyuen. From there he made for Hoyang,
crossing the Hoang-ho, and reached Sianfu, the
ancient Chinese capital in the Wei valley. The
route was thence across the Tsinling mountains
to Chengtu, in the Szechwan basin, and up the valley
of the Min into the Kansu province. Passing
through Siningfu and Tenkar, Sir G. Pereira entered
Tibet on a little known route. The track lay at
an altitude of about 12,000 ft. through an arid
country in which supplies were scanty and the
weather conditions somewhat trying. The Yangtse
was crossed at Giergundo and eventually Lhasa was
reached in October. From Lhasa to Darjeeling a
fairly well known route was followed. One of the
most interesting facts mentioned in the Times
article relates to the so-called Amnemachin range
in the bend of the Hoang river in north-eastern
Tibet. This is a solitary snow-capped mountain
and not arange. Its height has not been measured,
; but Sir G. Pereira suggests that it may prove to
be the highest mountain in the world. About half
the entire journey was done on foot, and even in
the most brigand-infested regions the travellers
were never attacked.
Tue Munro lectures in anthropology and_pre-
historic archeology for 1922 in the University of
Edinburgh have been delivered in November and
December by Prof. R. A. S. Macalister, of University
College, Dublin, on the subject of “ Rock Carvings
and Inscribed Symbols of the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages.’’ Starting with certain Spanish stones present-
ing linear devices that could be proved to be degener-
ate copies of the human figure and other concrete
objects, Prof. Macalister developed the thesis that an
explanation of this kind would account for the enig-
matical devices, such as concentric rings, found so
often in Great Britain and Ireland on exposed rock
faces, standing stones, and slabs built into dolmens
and chambered cairns. British monuments were
brought into relation with similar objects in wider
archeological areas; by the extended use of the
comparative method, much light has been thrown on
symbols and devices the meanings of which have been
the subject of much vague conjecture. The female
figure carved in some French neolithic tomb chambers
is a goddess of death, and representations of her,
which might degenerate till only two eyes or even a
single one remained, can be recognised on stones
forming part of funereal structures in our own islands.
Such structures, as Irish folk-lore bears witness, were
visited for superstitious purposes by the living, and
the cup marks common on the stones forming them
were intended for real or simulated libations offered
to the spirits of the place. Such cup marks on
exposed rock faces in the open might be explained
on the hypothesis that religious sanctuaries of
perishable materials had once existed in their vicinity.
The same system of interpretation was applied to
other marks and devices of a similar kind.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
ISAT AGM Kel ah
853
Tue application of eugenic principles to the im-
provement of the human race is discussed by Dr.
J. G.-Adami in an address before the International
Eugenics Congress in New York, published in the
Eugenics Review for October 1922. Dr. Adami
points out that eugenic measures hitherto suggested
or adopted have been chiefly negative in character,
aiming at preventing a progressive increase in the
number of defectives in the population. He advocates
an important measure of practical positive eugenic
value, which the Eugenics Education Society would do
well to consider seriously. Dr. Adami’s suggestion
arises out of his experience as a member of the scientific
committee of the Advisory Council of the Ministry
of National Service during the war—a committee
which analysed the physical state of the manhood
of Britain during the last year of the war, examining
the records of nearly two and a half million men.
That a high percentage in many industrial areas
were found to be physically unfit is well known.
The eminent services of American psychologists in
applying intelligence tests successfully to American
recruits are now also widely recognised. Dr. Adami’s
suggestion is based upon these two results. It is,
that eugenists organise centres throughout the
country where young persons of eighteen could be
given voluntary tests of physical fitness and intelli-
gence, the lists of those who attain standard A being
published. In this way a true aristocracy of mental
and physical fitness would arise which would be of
the utmost value to the nation.
In the second of his Chadwick public lectures on
“Relative Values in Public Health,” delivered on
December 14, Sir Arthur Newsholme referred to the
relative weight of mortality of different diseases
in relation to their degree of preventibility. He
stated that tuberculosis caused ten deaths for every
three due to the acute notifiable diseases. Tuber-
culosis is a too little recognised cause of death in
childhood, and its prevention is an essential part
of child welfare work, the foundation of all public
health work. The amount spent on public health
in large English and American towns averages about
5s. per capita per annum, or in England, from 4 to
8 per cent. of the total rates collected per capita.
Sir Arthur Newsholme is of opinion that the greatest
and quickest return in health for money expended—
outside the ordinary sanitation of a city—is in respect
of work on maternity and child welfare, and on the
prevention and treatment of tuberculosis and venereal
diseases.
A CONFERENCE on Industrial Fuel will be held
next spring in Paris under the patronage of M. Le
Trocquer, Minister of Public Works, and with the
support of the Société d’Encouragement pour I’In-
dustrie Nationale. The proposed agenda include
discussions on the assay of various fuels, rules for
testing boilers, producers, and furnaces, standard
methods of making measurements required in con-
trolling the use of fuel, construction of furnaces, use
of pulverised fuel and of low-grade fuels. Any
communications concerning the conference should
be addressed to the Président de la Commission
NOw 2774. VOL. 110); “+
d’Utilisation du Combustible, Ministére des Travaux
Publics, 246 boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris. Notices
and reports concerning the conference will be published
in Chaleur et Industrie.
AccorpinG to a statement in the Meteorological
Magazine for November, daily weather charts of the
Northern Hemisphere are now being prepared by
the Meteorological Office each day. The charts are
exhibited in a ground-floor window in the Air
Ministry, Kingsway, and show barometric pressure
and wind for an area covering roughly the temperate
zone from the Pacific coast of America in the west
to the western borders of Asia in the east. In an
adjoining position, at the Air Ministry, a large black-
board map of weather conditions in north-west
Europe is shown. These maps giving the existing
weather conditions over such a large area of the
earth’s surface will doubtless aid in the improve-
ment of weather forecasting.
No. 24 of the Reprint and Circular Series of the
National Research Council, Washington, which has
been received, is a pamphlet by C. J. West and H.
Gilman dealing with ‘‘ Organomagnesium Compounds
in Synthetic Chemistry.’ It contains a bibliography
of 1485 papers, as well as an exhaustive index.
Monographs of this type are very useful to investiga-
tors, and the National Research Council in America
is doing valuable work in arranging for their publica-
tion. The Research Information Service of the
Council is prepared to supply information about
scientific methods and results, and their applications
in engineering, industry, and education. No charge
is made for replies to inquiries which do not necessitate
a special search for information (there are extensive
files already assembled); those requests for data
which would necessitate the expenditure of a con-
siderable time for accumulation are acknowledged,
with an estimate of the cost. The Service has a
staff of specialists, and is in touch with current scien-
tific work of all kinds. It is clear that such an organ-
isation must be of very great service to investigators
in the United States, and the Scientific and Industrial
Research Department in this country might consider
the formation of a similar organisation in this country.
Tue Mann Juvenile Lectures of the Royal Society
of Arts will be delivered on Wednesdays, January 3 and
10, by Mr. C. R. Darling, who will take as his subject
“The Spectrum, its Colours, Lines, and Invisible
Parts, and some of its Industrial Applications.”
Admission is by ticket only.
Tur Dorset Field Club is offering the Cecil medal
and prize of iol. for the best paper on “ Recent
Advances in Chemistry as applied to Agriculture, with
special reference to Dorset Conditions.” The com-
petition is open to persons aged between 17 and 35,
either born in Dorset, or resident in that county for
one year between May 1, 1921 and 1923. Further
particulars may be obtained from Mr. H. Pouncy,
Midland Bank Chambers, Dorchester.
Dr. R. A. Houstown, of the University of Glasgow,
has in the press, for publication by Messrs. Longmans
854
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
and Co., “‘ Light and Colour,”’ a book intended for
the general public, and dealing in a popular way
with the discovery of the spectrum, the nature of
light, the Einstein deflection of light, the quantum,
invisible rays, spectroscopy and the constitution of
the atom, the primary colours, colour blindness,
colour photography, artificial illumination, photo-
chemistry, phototherapy, and the psychology of colour.
Another book in the same publishers’ announcement |
list is ‘“ Gas Manufacture,’ by Dr. W. B. Davidson,
in which the subjects of gas engineering and gas
supply are fully dealt with from the chemical stand-
point. The book aims at meeting the demand of the
gas engineer for a more intimate acquaintance with
the chemistry and physical chemistry of gases than
he may already possess, and is intended as a text-
book for the young student of gas engineering.
THE first part of Messrs. Wheldon and Wesley’s
illustrated catalogue of recent purchases of rare
books now offered for sale, which is issued this month,
is remarkable for the number of rare and interesting
| books on herbal and garden literature which it con-
tains. There are also books on early medicine,
birds, shells, and other subjects, which are, in many
cases, fully illustrated. The transcription of the
titles has been very carefully done and the biblio-
graphic details will be of value to lovers of books.
The collection contains a first edition of Peregrinus
“De Magnete ’’ published in 1558 and also the first
English edition of Harvey’s account of his discovery
of the circulation of the blood, with the title ‘‘ Ana-
tomical exercises concerning the motion of the heart
and blood.” In addition, the collection contains
first editions of Jenner’s accounts of his discovery
of vaccination, in regard to which it is said that he
was advised not to publish them in the Philosophical
Transactions lest they should injure his reputation
as author of a paper, already published therein,
on the cuckoo.
Our Astronomical Column.
RELATIVITY AND Space.—The Ivish Ecclesiastical
Record of November 22 contains an article on the
subject by Rev. H. V. Gill, S.J. It is intended for
general readers, and opens with an explanation of
the reasons for the introduction of time as a fourth |
dimension. From this the author goes on to consider
the nature of space, and comments on the difficulty of
conceiving that a mere vacuum can be modified by
adjacent matter, and also how matter could exert
its influence over remote matter across a vacuum
without involving ‘‘ action at a distance”? which
Einstein rejects. He then quotes Einstein’s ‘“‘ Side-
lights on Relativity,” an English translation of two
lectures delivered in 1920 and 1921. Many of
Einstein’s followers in England have been inclined
to abandon the conception of the ether, but he
himself states “‘ according to the general theory
of relativity, space is endowed with physical qualities ;
in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether
space without ether is unthinkable
would be no propagation of light. But it may
not be thought of as . . . consisting of parts which may
be tracked through time.’ It is useful to direct
attention to this clear statement of Einstein’s view,
and it would help matters if those who reject the
zther conception were to indicate how they sur-
mount the difficulties that are pointed out.
there
THE Mass AND PRopER Morion oF 40 ERIDANI.—
This interesting triple system was discovered by
Sir W. Herschel in 1783. A is of magnitude 4:5, B 9°4,
C 10:8. The distance AB is 83” and BC is 3”. All
three have the great proper motion of 4” per annum
in position-angle 213°. Prof. G. Abetti makes a
study of the system in vol. 30 of the Proceedings
of the Academia dei Lincei. He adopts the parallax
0”-219, which makes the absolute magnitudes 6:2,
III, 12-5. Using Doolittle’s elements, which give
a period 180 years to BC, the masses in terms of the
Sun are found to be B =o:20, C=o-12. C is the least
massive star yet measured; this position was
previously held by the companion of Kriiger 60,
mass 0-19. B is a very anomalous star, since it
appears to be of spectral type A in spite of its small
NO. 2773,) VOL. 116)|
luminosity ; recent photographs at the Lick Ob-
servatory indicate that C is of type Md, with the Hg
line bright.
The velocity of the system at right angles to the
line of sight is 88 km./sec.
It is of interest to compare this system with oc
Corone, also investigated by Prof. Abetti. The
combined mass is here 5:57 times that of the Sun.
The evidence as to relative masses is contradictory ;
he provisionally assigns equal masses, and deduces
for the densities 0-34 and 0-99 in terms of the Sun.
The spectral types of both are Fo.
DISTRIBUTION OF STARS OF SAME SPECTRAL CLASS.
—The study of the distribution of stars of similar
spectra is very important, especially if it leads to
some definite law regarding their grouping with
regard to the Galaxy. The special case of the B-
type stars is discussed in a recent circular (No. 239)
of the Harvard College Observatory, by Dr. H.
Shapley and Miss A. J. Cannon. It was thought at
first that very few B-type stars, fainter than the
seventh magnitude, existed, and that these formed
quite a local system. The authors find that, while
the former does not now hold good, the bright B
stars do indicate the existence of a local star cloud.
The results of the discussion are plotted in four
figures showing the galactic distribution of the stars,
the figures being confined to stars brighter than
5:26 magnitude, stars between magnitudes 5:26 and
6:25, between magnitudes 6-26 and 7-25, and finally
between magnitudes 7:25 and 8-25. The result of
the investigation clearly shows that the fainter the
B stars are the more they are situated along the
galactic equator. Quite a considerable number of
stars are used for each figure, namely 346, 367, 564,
and 719. Forming median galactic latitudes for
each thirty degrees of longitude the highest values
in each figure are -15°5, -15°:0, -—11°5, and
—3°:5. More than 90 per cent. of the fainter B
stars are within ten degrees of the galactic equator.
A table is given showing all known B stars to the
apparent magnitude 8-25 which are in higher galactic
latitude than 50°.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
INCALTE CTR ES
855
Research Items.
MAMMALS AND Brrps FROM HAITIAN CAVvES.—
A small collection of bones of mammals and birds
were obtained in 1921 by Mr. J. S. Brown and Mr.
W. S. Burbank during geological studies under the
U.S. Geological Survey for the Republic of Haiti,
from two caves situated between 3 and 4 kilometres
N.E. of St. Michel and 600 metres above sea-level.
These bones have now been described respectively
by Mr. G. S. Miller, junr., and Mr. A. Wetmore
(Smithsonian Miscell. Coll. vol. lxxiv. Nos. 3 and 4).
Rodents were the more plentiful among the mammals,
the most abundant being Jsolobodon portoricensis,
Allen, which also occurs in Porto Rico and the
Virgin Islands. Two new genera are established :
Alphetreus, with A. montanus, n.sp., as genotype,
which is allied to Plagiodontia and Isolobodon ; and
Ithydontia, genotype J. leviy, n.sp., allied to Isolo-
bodon. Brotomys voratus, Miller, was also present
as well as a ground sloth, doubtfully referred to the
genus Megalocuus, and a few unidentified mammals,
while man was represented by the head of a femur
and an implement made of chert. Early man,
however, though known to have used these rodents
as food, does not appear in this case to have been
responsible for the presence of their remains in the
caves. Their importation would seem to be due
to a huge extinct barn owl, which Mr. Wetmore
names Tyto ostologa, n.sp. Possibly the Chemepelia
passerina, Crotophaga ani, and Tolmachus gabbii, also
present in the caves, were further victims of the owl.
Aw InprIan Ponpb-Snait.—Dr. N. Annandale and
Maj. R. B. Seymour Sewell have published (Rec.
Ind. Mus. xxii. pp. 215-292) a memoir on the banded
pond-snail of India (Vivipara bengalensis). The
latter author contributes an account of the anatomy
and bionomics; Dr. Annandale deals with the
systematic features and with the histology of the
edge of the mantle and the external ornamentation
of the shell. Spiral rows of horny chete and fine
spiral ridges on the periostracum are present, and,
indeed, best developed in the fully formed embryo,
and disappear, as a rule, in the full-grown shell.
In those shells ornamented with bands of dark
pigment, the latter are periostracal in origin and,
with the test sculpture, correspond in position with
the rows of chetz and the spiral ridges. The free
edge of the mantle bears at least three digitiform
processes,—other secondary ones may be present,—
and the processes correspond in position with and
are concerned in moulding the periostracal sculpture,
the colour pattern and the sculpture of the test.
In the systematic account eleven races of the species
are recognised. The parasites and incole met with are
recorded and include spirochetes and ciliates in the ali-
mentary canal, rarely sporocysts and developing cer-
carie, but frequently encysted cercaria of two species.
Mrapow GrasseEs.—In an article on the compara-
tive morphology and development of Poa pratensis,
Phleum pratense and Setaria italica, in the Japanese
Journal of Botany, vol. i. No. 2, pp. 53-85 (1922),
Makoto Nishimura has devoted special attention to
the phenomena attending the germination of these
grasses in comparison with Agrostis alba. In Poa
pratensis the percentage of germination was lowest,
50 per cent., and the process extended over the
longest time, while in Setaria 95 per cent. of the
seeds were viable, and started into growth very
rapidly. Absorbing hairs were developed on the
coleorhiza at an early stage, and continued functioning
until long after the elongation of the roots ; similar
hairs were also produced from the epiblast. The
various stages of development during the first two
seasons of growth have been followed out, being
characteristic in each case. Setaria shows the greatest
NOs 27 78 nVOL. 110)
r
depth and spread of roots, but the other species
exhibit more branching of a larger number of extra
nodal roots, thus attaining the same end. Each bud
derived from the stool is usually associated with two
crown roots, in which case the bud development is
normal, but when only one crown root is present the
bud fails to grow out. In all three species the in-
florescence is a spike, and the embryos are of the
usualtype. In Poa pratensis, however, polyembryony
is frequent, and arises in various ways, the various
types of abnormality apparently being due to the
sting of an insect. A useful bibliography and a series
of clear plates add to the value of this communication.
BRAZILIAN METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE. — Yearly
volumes of meteorological observations at Rio de
Janeiro and at numerous stations in Brazil for the
three years 1912, 1913, and 1914, under the super-
intendence of Senor Sampaio Ferraz, have recently
been received. Each volume contains about Ioo pages
of tabular matter. The observations at Rio de
Janeiro are similar in detail to those made at
European observatories, hourly values being pub-
lished of rainfall and sunshine, and detailed monthly
results of general meteorological phenomena. In
many cases the results are compared with the mean
results for more than thirty years. The observations
for the provinces are on a uniform scale and the
monthly and yearly results can be combined or
compared with others in different parts of the world.
Wind frequency is regularly recorded and also the
mean velocity, so that knowledge of surface winds is
readily available for aircraft; the results are in
every way a valuable addition to the world’s meteor-
ology. Each volume contains tables and maps
showing the rainfall for the first six months and
second six months of the year, and for the year as a
whole, at stations covering Brazil, the various falls
being shown in the maps by degrees of shading.
Generally the two halves of the year have very
different rainfalls. In each of the three years the total
rainfall reached 118 inches at one or more stations;
in 1914 there were four stations with a rainfall exceed-
ing 118 in., the maximum being 3596 mm., or 142 in.,
at Remate de Males, Amazonas; this place had the
heaviest rainfall in two of the three years. The
total annual rainfall at Rio de Janeiro ranged from
36 to 38 inches in the three years.
HEAT CONDUCTIVITIES OF METALS UNDER PRESS-
URE.—Volume 15 of Contributions from the Jefferson
and the Cruft Laboratories of Harvard University is
dedicated to Prot. E. H. Hall, who for more than
forty years has been a member of the Harvard
faculty. The volume is a.reprint of 31 papers by
the staff and students which have appeared in
scientific and technical journals and proceedings
of societies during 1921 and 1922. Eight of these
papers are by Prof. Duane and his pupils and deal
with various properties of X-rays. Six are by Prof.
Bridgman, and one of these deals with high-pressure
experiments. The heat conductivities of eleven
metals have been measured up to pressures of about
12,000 atmospheres by the bar or by the cylinder
method. The rate of change with increase of pressure
is fairly uniform for each metal, the total change
for the maximum pressure being an increase for
lead of 21 per cent., tin 15 per cent., zinc 2-5 per cent.,
and a decrease for iron of 0-3 per cent., copper 9 per
cent., silver 4 per cent., nickel 14 per cent., platinum
2 per cent., bismuth 38 per cent., and antimony 25
per cent. Between these results and those obtained
previously by Lussana there are serious differences.
The ratio of the thermal to the electrical conductivity
is considerably changed by pressure, a result not
in accord with the electron theory of conduction.
856
NATORE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
Photosynthesis.
REAT interest was taken in the joint discussion |}
on photosynthesis between the sections of
Chemistry and Botany during the British Association
meeting at Hull. The discussion was presided over
by Prof. H. H. Dixon, who was supported by Principal
J. ©. Irvine.
The discussion was opened by Dr. F. F. Blackman
with a paper entitled “‘ The biochemical problems
of chloroplastic photosynthesis.”” Dr. Blackman said
that as the next two speakers were to take up the
special aspects of photochemistry and energetics he
would restrict his remarks to certain other aspects.
He would deal with the active system of photo-
synthesis and its organisation in the living cell and
bring together the evidence which supported the
thesis that here we have to do, not with a simple
photochemical] reaction, but with a complex system
in which other components, that might be described
provisionally as protoplasmic components, play an
essential part.
The first point developed was that there are
numerous lower plants which obtain all their carbon
by the reduction of CO, in the dark without the
intervention of radiation, and synthesise all their
organic compounds from this source. Here there
is utilised the chemical energy of the oxidation of +
nitrogen, sulphur, or their compounds. In these
chemosynthetic organisms there is not a gain of
energy, but only an exchange of oxidation potential :
the gain to the organism is substance for growth.
It may be asked whether this power is entirely
absent in the higher plants and what connexion
the chemical machinery of it has with the chemistry
of photoreduction of CQO,.
The second point was the fact, now thoroughly
investigated, that the seedlings of many plants at
a stage when they have developed chlorophyll to
a full green colour may be quite incapable of reducing
CO, in light, and give out as much CO, from respira-
tion in light as in “darkness, Some other component
or proper ‘ty lags behind the chlorophyll in its develop-
ment, and the slow, steady rate of its development is
the same in darkness or light.
A third point of interest is the efficiency of photo-
synthesis in the golden-leaved varieties of certain
shrubs. Here the amount of chlorophyll may be
as low as 4 per cent. of the normal green form and
yet under medium conditions the reduction of CO,
may be as great as in green leaves. The fact has
been established that the golden leaf needs more
light than the green to carry out the same rate of
reduction of CO,. It looks as if with these extreme
variations of chlorophyll what counted was the cube
root of the amount of chlorophyll present—a single
dimension of the colloid micelle and not the total
mass—which may be taken as an indication of the
organisation of the system.
A fourth point considered was the relation of
photosynthesis to temperature. It is established
that for a high rate of photosynthesis it is not sufficient
to have intense radiation and concentrated CO,, but
a high temperature is also essential. For each
temperature there is a specific maximum of activity
which cannot be exceeded unless the temperature
is raised. The specific maximal values increase
rapidly for rising temperature, having a temperature
coefficient of about 2 for a rise of rto° C. This
temperature relation is quite different from that
of a pure photochemical reaction, and it provides
a further indication that we have to deal with a
complex system in which dark reactions may play
a controlling part.
NO. 2773, VOL. Tro]
The fifth point to be raised had to do with the
organisation of the active system. Warburg in
investigating the action of the narcotic phenyl-
urethane upon the rate of photosynthesis finds that
the process undergoes great depression of rate with
perfect recovery on removal of the narcotic. The
relation of the depression to the external concentration
of the drug gives a typical adsorption isotherm,
indicating that the narcotic acts by adsorption on
a surface from which it displaces temporarily some
reactant substance of the active photosynthetic
system.
Taking all these pieces of evidence together, Dr.
Blackman considered that we are forced to conclude
that the chloroplast contains an active system of
several components related together in a complex
organisation.
Prof. E. C. C. Baly then presented the results
of experimental work on photosynthesis carried out
at Liverpool. The conversion of a substance A into
substance B might, he said, be represented as the
sum of the three equations :
A+E=A’
A’ =B! +E
1By =B +G
where E, F, and G are quantities of energy and
A’ and B’ represent the reactive forms of A and B.
The reaction is exo- or endo-thermic according as
F+G-E is positive or negative. In any case a
quantity of energy, E, must be supplied in order
to start the reaction, and this may be done by means
of (1) heat, (2) light, or (3) a material catalyst.
Now the energy can only be supplied in “ quanta,”
and if E is large, only the use of radiation of short
wave-length makes the number of ‘‘quanta’’ to be
introduced sufficiently small to be practicable. For
the conversion of a molecule of carbonic acid into
formaldehyde and oxygen 150,000 calories are
necessary, and this can be supplied in a single quantum
by radiation at wave-length 200uu. Carbonic acid
has an absorption band at this frequency and
formaldehyde ought therefore to be produced when
a solution of CO, in water is exposed to ultra-violet
light. This has now been shown to take place.
In order to bring about the reaction by means
of visible light it 1s necessary to have present a
coloured substance with basic properties, and
Malachite Green has been found to fulfil the conditions.
There seems little doubt that the formation of
formaldehyde in the leaf takes the following course :
i. Chlorophyll A+ H,CO, +light = Chlorophyll B+CH,0.
ii, Chlorophyll B + Carotin = Chlorophyll A+Xanthophyll.
iii. Xanthopbyll+light = Carotin + Oxygen.
The photosynthesised formaldehyde is _ extra-
ordinarily reactive and is best represented by the
formula CHOH. It is polymerised rapidly to a
mixture of carbohydrates, in which are found
hexoses (20 per cent.), cellulose, and cane-sugar.
In the presence of nitrite it is converted into form-
hydroxamic acid and hence into amino-acids and
a mixture of cyclic bases in which pyrrole, pyrrolidine,
pyridine, coniine and glyoxaline have been detected.
The active (energised) forms of the aminoacids are
the immediate source of proteins.
Mr. G. E. Briggs described some experiments to
determine the relation between the radiant energy
absorbed and the carbon dioxide assimilated by the
green leaf (Phaseolus vulgaris) in different parts of
the visible spectrum. For three different parts of
the spectrum the carbon dioxide assimilated was
measured, and the energy absorbed by chlorophyll a
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
INGEIIMCT I 3A
857
and chlorophyll 6 was estimated from data obtained,
due allowance being made for the energy diffusely
reflected by the leaf. The results were of the follow-
ing order: for the yellow-red (570-640), 15 calories
per c.c. of carbon dioxide, for the green (510-560uu), 7,
and for the blue (430-510uu), 22+, these being
maximal values.
Mr. Briggs pointed out that since the heat of
formation of the most probable products of assimila-
tion ranges from five to six and more calories per c.c.
of carbon dioxide, the indications are that both
chlorophyll @ and chlorophyll b take part in the
photochemical reaction. Referring to Prof. Baly’s
suggestions as to the part played by the different
pigments in the photosynthetic process, he said that
since the quantity of each pigment underwent
relatively little change during prolonged assimilation
no energy was supplied from this source, and, further,
that since as much oxygen was evolved as carbon
dioxide absorbed in the red and the green parts
of the spectrum—regions where no energy is absorbed
by the xanthophyll—as well as in the blue, it was
not necessary to postulate a photochemical reaction
involving xanthophyll in order that oxygen might
be liberated.
Prof. I. M. Heilbron and Mr. C. Hollins put forward
some speculations on photosynthesis. The large
number of plant products in which the predominant
carbon nucleus is C; or a multiple of this suggests
that this unit has a special significance. The photo-
synthesised reactive hexose may be supposed, in
addition to its further condensation to sugars,
cellulose, glucosides, etc., to furnish by dehydration
w-hydroxymethylfurfural. This by oxidation and
decarboxylation can give a stabilised C; compound,
which, either as the furan derivative or (by opening
of the ring) as dihydroxyglutaconic dialdehyde, may
be a source of pentoses and of condensation products
of these. Simple schemes were suggested showing
how two, or three, molecules of a “ pentose’’ can
give rise by ordinary condensation reactions to
anthocyans (C,;), terpenes (C5, Cy, Cy;, etc.), coniferyl
alcohol (Cy), and the numerous related compounds,
coniine (Cs) and the phonopyrrolecarboxylic acids
(Cs, etc.). The degradation of hexose into “ pentose ”’
represents the respiration of the plant. Against the
suggestion of Robinson (British Assoc., 1921) that
anthocyans result from the condensation of two
hexose and one triose molecule are to be set the
absence of nonoses in Nature and the failure of all
attempts to obtain benzene derivatives from hexoses.
Papers were also contributed by Dr. F. C. Eve
and Prof. M. C. Potter.
Prof. R. Robinson thought that the accumulation
of active formaldehyde and formhydroxamic acid
scarcely accounted for the almost inexhaustible
variety of plant products. The alkaloids were
probably produced from hexoses rather than built
up atom by atom from formaldehyde. He was
unable to accept the suggestions of Prof. Heilbron
and Mr. Hollins as to the significance of the C,; unit.
The anthocyans he preferred to consider as C,+C; +C,
rather than C;+C,+C;. Although nonoses had not
been found in Nature, E. Fischer had obtained a
nonose which was fermentable.
Dr. E. F. Armstrong emphasised the importance
of cane-sugar in the carbohydrate metabolism of
green leaves.
Prof. Baly briefly replied to some of the points
which had been raised, and the discussion was then
closed by a few remarks from the chairman, Prof,
Dixon.
Progress in
{pee James Forrest lecture delivered in 1903 by
Dr. W. H. Maw dealt with some unsolved
problems of engineering ;
read before the Institution of Civil Engineers on
November 7, directs attention to the progress which
has been made towards the solution of certain of
these problems. In ordinary researches the con-
clusions arrived at often remain untested for more
or less long periods, and when they are tested it is
not unusual for such tests to develop facts which,
if known earlier, would have decidedly affected the
character of the research carried out. During the
war, especially in aeronautical researches, immediate
results were wanted, and reasonable suggestions
arising from research were, as a rule, tested without
delay. As a result conclusions were arrived at and
advances made much more promptly than would
have been possible under other conditions.
For many years past there has been steady growth
in the demands for larger structures and machines.
In the case of bridges there are three ways in which
increases of span may be made commercially attain-
able: First, by improvements in the structural
designs; second, by the reduction of the so-called
factors of safety now adopted; third, by the use of
improved structural materials and constructive
details. Dr. Maw does not think that there is much
chance of obtaining material aid by the first of these
methods ; it does not appear likely that any new type
of design will be evolved possessing striking advantages
as compared with those already known and investi-
gated. The prospects from the second method are
‘better ; there are two classes of allowances, namely,
(a) stresses due to wind pressures, changes of tempera-
ture, and so on, which depend upon local circumstances
NO: 2772, VOL. FLO 5
his presidential address, |
Engineering.
| and other matters of individual judgment, so that a
reduction cannot be calculated upon, and (b) allow-
ances which depend upon the quality of all the
materials used and the soundness of the workmanship,
The allowances under the latter head might be
materially reduced as compared with those con-
sidered necessary even ten years ago. During that
period, vast improvements have been made in our
steel manufacturing processes, especially in the
direction of ensuring uniformity of quality, while
the facilities for thorough testing and inspection
have been enormously increased.
In reference to the third way, there are no indica-
tions that we have reached the limits of progress
in the use of improved structural materials. In
long span bridges, the importance of the “ specific
tenacity ”’ of the material (7.e. the ultimate strength
in tons per sq. inch divided by the weight in pounds
of one cubic inch) is exceedingly great, since the
weight of the structure itself forms the larger portion
of the total load supported. The successful manu-
facture, on a commercial scale, during recent years,
of various high-quality alloy steels has quite changed
the aspect of affairs and has materially enlarged
the limits of the practically permissible spans of
different types of bridges. At present, the most
hopeful line of progress appears to lie in still further
improvements in alloy steels and their treatment.
Research work bearing on this subject is being
vigorously prosecuted by our leading steel makers
and affords every ground for expecting substantial
advances.
Improvements in metallic alloys have been rendered
possible by the revelations of microscopical research.
Prior to the development of this type of analysis,
858
WARORE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
we knew that steel subjected to a certain heat treat-
ment had its mechanical qualities altered. Micro-
scopic investigation, aided by improvements in the
preparation and treatment of the samples to be
examined, has enabled us now to trace out, step
by step, the changes which take place at various
stages of the treatment, as well as the effect—in the
case of alloys—of modifications in the proportions
of the constituents. Microscopic research also
promises to be of value in providing definite informa-
tion as to the changes of structure in different metals
when injured by fatigue, or are just on the point of
fracture, and Sir Robert Hadfield has made some
valuable experiments in this direction.
During the last few years a most important
addition has been made to our methods of discovering
defects in materials or workmanship by the applica-
tion of the X-rays. Great progress has been made,
and there is every promise of further developments
in the early future. At present steel or iron can be
searched to depths of about 3 inches, aluminium
and its alloys to about 6 inches, and timbers of
various kinds from about 15 to 20 inches.
Researches on the thermal efficiency of the steam
engine during the last few years have related chiefly
to the development of the steam turbine. Prior
to 1903 the best economical result obtained with
a steam turbine was that of a 1500-kilowatt alternator
built by Messrs. Parson in 1902 ; this machine had
a steam consumption corresponding to about 13-5 Ib.
per indicated horse-power per hour. A test carried
out in 1918 on a 10,000-kilowatt unit by the same
makers gave a consumption of 7-75 lb. per horse-
power per hour—a reduction of about 43 per cent.
on the 1902 performance. The corresponding thermal
efficiency is nearly 27-7 per cent. Bearing in mind
certain points in the design of this turbine and
making allowance for them, it appears that a thermal
efficiency of 30 per cent. for a steam motor is within
our reach.
Mechanical gearing in turbines has proved in a
number of cases to be unsatisfactory. The question
of how to prevent the defects which have occurred
forms probably the most important problem which
has demanded the attention of mechanical engineers
for many years past. The failures have been variously
attributed to the use of unsuitable metal for the
gears, to irregularity in the gear cutting, to disturb-
ance in the alignment of the shafts and to other causes.
The whole subject deserves more systematic and
thorough investigation than it has received hitherto.
The development of the steam turbine has been
the result of an enormous amount of strenuous and
original work, both theoretical and constructional.
On the theoretical side, the determination of the laws
controlling the discharge of steam through orifices
of various shapes is yet very far from being complete,
and there are many other problems, such as the
critical speeds of shafts, the best number of stages
to be adopted under different conditions, and so on.
On the constructional side may be mentioned the
selection of suitable materials for the blades and the
mode of fixing the latter, devices for preventing
steam leakage, securing efficient lubrication, and
methods of governing and of obtaining the high
vacua so essential for securing economic performance.
The pistons of reciprocating engines have speeds
ranging from 600 to 800 feet per minute. In steam
turbines the blades are being run successfully at
600 feet per second. A small turbine (150 horse-
power), made recently by Messrs. Ljungstrém of
Stockholm, runs at 40,000 revolutions per minute
and has a blade speed of 952 feet per second—more
than 11 miles per minute.
In conclusion, Dr. Maw directed attention to one
fact which appeared to him of far greater importance
than all the others : in none of the researches referred
to, varied and extensive as they have been, is there
the slightest trace of finality. Much as has been
discovered and great as has been the progress made,
it is most certain that we have at present effected
only the preliminary opening up of the mine of
knowledge and that the real wealth of its contents
is as yet unknown to us. We can only say that the
“impossible ”’ of yesterday has become the “ possible ”
of to-day, and in the early future many of these
possibilities bid fair to become accomplished facts.
Surely this is a great inheritance, which should
invite our coming generations of engineers to make
most strenuous efforts to secure greater—and still
greater—developments, so that they may in their
turn leave behind them a heritage more glorious still.
Radio-Telephony and Broadcasting."
By A. P. M. Fremine, C.B.E.
ie considering the development of radio-telephony,
it is frequently overlooked that the earliest
methods of communication, such as by sound and
light, do not involve the use of wires; the negative
and non-descriptive term “‘ wireless ’’ has, therefore,
been displaced by the term “‘ radio.’’ Radio waves
are electro-magnetic in character, being pulsations in
the ether of space, and they differ among themselves
and from radiant heat, light, and X-rays, only in
their amplitude and wave-length. Some waves change
and diminish gradually in amplitude, and are said to
be ‘“‘ damped ”’ ; others maintain their amplitude and
are ‘‘ continuous.’’ Radio waves exist and are used
which vary in wave-length from a few yards to ten or
twelve miles; they are the longest electro-magnetic
waves.
Given the means whereby electrical waves can be
produced and detected, it is comparatively simple to
arrange to send signals by the morse code, and this
is done every day in ordinary radio-telegraphy.
1 Substance of a lecture delivered at a meeting of the North-east Coast
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, Newcastle-on-Tyne, oh Friday,
December 15.
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
Radio-telephony is in some respects analogous to
ordinary telephony. The ordinary telephone circuit
of microphone transmitter, line, and receiver contains
a battery which sends a continuous current round
the circuit and through the telephone receiver. If
speech is made in the microphone, the vibration of
the microphone diaphragm varies the pressure on
carbon grains in the microphone. This varies the
resistance in the battery circuit, and the current,
instead of flowing steadily, rises and falls according
to the sound waves impinging on the transmitter
diaphragm. The fluctuating current varies the pull
on the diaphragm in the telephone receiver, and this
sets up sound waves similar in character to those
originally spoken into the transmitter. In radio-
telephony there is a generator capable of producing
very high-frequency oscillating current which can be
radiated from an aerial, just as heat and light are
radiated from a fire or lamp. This radiated oscilla-
tion is known as a “ carrier wave.’’ Near the gen-
erator is a modulator receiving the speech and modify-
ing the amplitude of the high-frequency oscillation,
and imparting changes in the carrier waves in
DECEMBER 23,
1922 |
NEAT OLE:
859
accordance with the speech vibrations, which result
in a fluctuating current radiated to the receiver.
At the receiving end the oscillating current is
changed into a uni-directional currept, and made
suitable for reception for hearing in an ordinary
telephone receiver. It is an essential condition of
reception that the receiving set be “‘ tuned ”’ to re-
spond to the wave-length of the station it is desired
to hear. Electrical waves emanating from a trans-
mitter travel in all directions through space, and can
be picked up by any number of receivers, provided
these are tuned to receive the particular wave-length
used,
Broadcasting stations comprise transmitting-room,
studio, green-room, offices, listening-in room, and
workshop. Programmes are designed to operate
throughout the whole evening, and all tastes and
ages are catered for. It is usual for artistes to
operate at the station, but by means of ordinary
telephone transmission it is possible to transmit a
political speech or entertainment from a central hall
in a city to the broadcasting studio, and to radiate it
from the station to listeners.
The pioneer work in broadcasting as a means of
public entertainment and instruction was undertaken
by the Westinghouse Co. of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., in
December 1920. The Metropolitan-Vickers Co. of
Great Britain has close technical association with this
company and has the advantage of this pioneer ex-
perience. There are now more than 500 broadcasting
stations in the United States, and their growth with-
out proper co-ordination has caused some confusion.
To avoid this confusion in Great Britain, the Govern-
ment insisted that manufacturers of radio apparatus
should co-operate in forming a Broadcasting Company
to control broadcasting. Three stations of the eight
contemplated are in operation, London, Manchester,
and Birmingham, and it is intended that Newcastle
shall have a station. The revenue of the Broadcast-
ing Company for maintaining stations is provided by
the manufacturers, but the Government assists by
remitting a proportion of the licence fee.
Care should be taken in selecting a set suitable to
the local conditions. A good crystal set costing about
four or five pounds will receive satisfactorily over ten
or fifteen miles. A two-valve set would pick up over
fifty or one hundred miles, and in addition to this, a
further two-valve amplifier could be arranged to
increase the distance to 300 miles, or would permit
the use of a loud speaker up to fifty miles. Sets sold
by reputable manufacturers are very efficient and
simple to operate.
The development of radio-telephony will have a
very profound influence upon social life. It will over-
come the isolation of the rural worker, the invalid,
and those who are confined indoors, and it has unique
potentialities for entertainment, instruction, and the
development of public taste.
Excavations at Borg en Nadur, Malta.
Xe a meeting of the Royal Anthropological
Institute held on November 21, Prof. F. G.
Parsons, vice-president, in the chair, Miss Murray
gave an account of some excavations carried out by
her at Borg en Nadur, Malta, during the past summer.
The excavation was purposely limited to a small
area to the west of the so-called “ dolmen”’ of Borg
en Nadur in a terraced field which had been made
over this site, as high as the cap-stone of the dolmen,
and completely covering the remains of the ancient
buildings. The principal building found was an
apsidal structure of the type peculiar to Malta.
From the small size of the stones and the primitive
NO. 2773, VOL. IIO]
style of the building, Miss Murray is of the opinion
that Borg en Nadur is considerably older than
Mnaidra and Tarxien. The principal results of the
excavation are (1) the discovery of types of pottery
transitional between the neolithic and bronze age ;
(2) the finding of painted pottery showing Cretan
influence, perhaps of the Middle Minoan era, thus
connecting prehistoric Malta with another ancient
civilisation.
In the discussion which followed the reading of
the paper, Prof. J. L. Myres said the pottery of Malta
presents a puzzling problem. Evidence is needed
as to which of the large number of types are con-
temporary. The pottery from the “ window tombs ”’
of the lower levels of the ravines with flat alluvial
bottoms, which form the characteristic watercourses
of Malta, presents certain affinities with the “ Sikel ”’
pottery of Sicily. Miss Murray distinguished between
“neolithic’’ and “bronze age’ pottery; but,
whereas she found the latter at ground level in the
apsidal building, at Hal Tarxien the lower occupation
layer, resting on ground level, contained no metal,
and the bronze age interment had been found over
a sterile layer of some thickness imposed upon the
neolithic stratum and at a considerable height
up the great stones of the temple. The painted
pottery, for which a Cretan affinity had been suggested,
is of the type found in Sicily and Southern Italy
for which Prof. Peet had traced a Thessalian rather
than an Ai?gean relationship. Prof. Myres also ex-
pressed his opinion that the Borg en Nadur building
was of late and degenerate type rather than early
and primitive. Mr. H. J. E. Peake said that Miss
Murray’s suggestion of a type of pottery transitional
between the neolithic and bronze age types was new
and needed substantiation. The restricted distribu-
tion of the ‘ bronze age’”’ type suggested that it
might be an intrusion, of which Miss Murray’s
transitional type was an attempted copy.
University and Educational Intelligence.
BirMincHAam.—Dr. Dorothy Margaret Patrick has
been appointed assistant lecturer in physiology,
Grade III.
Mr. T. V. Barker, of the department of mineralogy
at Oxford, has been invited to deliver a course of
lectures, during the spring term, on chemical
crystallography.
The annual meeting of the Court of Governors
will be held on Thursday, February 8.
The vice-chancellor (Sir Gilbert Barling, Bart.) is
to represent the University at the celebration of the
8ooth anniversary of the foundation of St. Bar-
tholomew’s Hospital in June next.
The new hall of residence for men students is to
be known in future as Chancelior’s Hall.
Griascow.—The University has received a gift of
25,000/. from Mr. Henry Mechan, of Mechans, Limited,
engineers and contractors, Glasgow, for the founda-
tion of a new chair of public health.
Lonpon.—At a meeting of the Senate on December
13, a resolution was adopted accepting a bequest of
3000/. made by the late Sir William Meyer, fellow of
University College and High Commissioner for India,
to be applied at the discretion of the Senate “‘ with
special reference to the encouragement of proficiency
in European History, and in the History and Geo-
graphy of India.’’ An offer from the council of the
Society of Antiquaries to continue the Franks student-
ship in archeology, of the value of 1oo/. per annum,
for a further period of five years was accepted with
thanks.
860
INAT ORAS
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
A grant of 15/. San the publication fund of the
University has been made to the hon. editor for
zoology of the Annals of Applied Biology in aid of
the publication in that journal of the M.Sc. thesis
entitled ‘“‘ The Life- ‘History and Bionomics of the
Turnip-Gall Weevil,” by Mr. P. V. Isaac.
The degree of D.Lit. has been conferred on the Rev.
G. H. Dix, an internal student, of King’s College, for
a thesis entitled “ ‘ The Angel of Jahweh’: A Study
in the Origin and Development of a Religious Follk-
Legend, with special reference to the Messianic Ex-
pectation of the Hebrew Race.”
Tue general meeting of the Association of Women
Science Teachers will be held at University College,
Gower Street, on Saturday, January 6, 1923. The
programme includes an address by the retiring
president and a lecture on relativity by Dr. Dorothy
Wrinch. The hon. secretary of the association is
Miss E. M. Ridley, to Gresley Road, N.19.
THE annual meeting of the Geographical Associa-
tion will be held in Birkbeck College, London, E.C.4,
on Thursday and Friday, January 4 and 5, 1923,
Sir John Russell will deliver his presidential address
on the subject of “ The Influence of Geographical
Factors in the Agricultural Activities of a Popula-
tion ’’ on the opening day of the meeting. Among
lectures to be given during the meeting are:
“Types and Materials of Houses in England,” Mr.
H. Batsford; ‘‘ The Place of Geography in the
Education of the Adolescent,’’? Dr. Olive Wheeler ;
“Geography and Business Life,’’ Prof. W. S. Tower
“The Coming Industrialisation of China,” Prof. P.
M. Roxby.
Tue second annual general meeting of the Associa-
tion of Heads of Departments in Pure and Applied
Science was held on Saturday, December 9, at the
Woolwich Polytechnic. The members were welcomed
by the chairman of the Governors, Mr. C. H. Grinling,
who delivered an address upon the desirability of
“association ’’ in all branches of society, whether
trade or professional, commercial or political. He
emphasised the importance of a new association
taking a long view of the range of their activities
and of dev eloping into a body of national, or better
still, of international, rather than of merely parochial
importance. The meeting decided later to extend the
activities of the association by the admission of
members from the provinces. Mr. C. E. Larard, of
the Northampton Polytechnic, was elected as chair-
man, and Dr. W. A. Scoble and Mr. R. T. Smith, of
Woolwich Polytechnic, as joint secretaries for the
ensuing year.
THE report for 1921-22 by Dr. Cranage on the
Cambridge University Local Lectures shows that the
revival which took place in 1919-21 has been main-
tained as regards the number of courses (92, of which
I5 were on scientific subjects), but that the average
attendance per lecture dropped from 142 in 1920-21
to 127, and per class from 38 to 33. The Summer
Meeting (July 29 to Aug. 18) was attended by 544
students of whom 444 were women and 46 from
foreign (chiefly Scandinavian) countries. The cor-
responding figures for 1912 are 565, 377, and 226.
Considering that board and lodging were about twice
and rail fares about three times as expensive as
before the war, the popularity of the Summer Meeting
is remarkable. Next July there will be held at Cam-
bridge in connexion with the jubilee of the local
lectures a conference on extra-mural teaching, the
Chancellor presiding at the first meeting.
From the annual report for the year 1921-22 issued
by the Rhodes Trust, it appears that the number of
NO. 2773, VOL. 116]
Rhodes scholars in residence during the year was 300,
of whom 156 came from the British Empire and the
remainder from the United States. Of the total, 66—
more than one-fifth—took natural science, a term
which includes those studying medicine ; in addition,
forestry and mathematics each had five scholars,
agriculture three and anthropology one. During the
year, 72 took up their scholarships for the first time.
The current academic year commenced with 262
scholars in residence. The value of the Rhodes
scholarship has been temporarily increased by an
annual bonus of 50/., but applicants are warned that
even thus, they must be prepared to find another
50/. a year. Appointments to the 1924 scholarships
will be made during the year 1923 ; further information
can be obtained from the offices of the Rhodes Trust,
Seymour House, Waterloo Place, London, S.W.1.
Tue Universities Bureau of the British Empire
has published an abridged report of the proceedings
of the annual conference of the universities of Great
Britain and Ireland held last May. Four subjects
were discussed: (1) the urgent need for enlarged
opportunities for advanced study and research in
the British universities ; (2) the increase of residential
accommodation for students ; (3) specialisation in
certain subjects of study by certain universities ; (4)
the organisation of adult education as an integral part
of the work of the universities. Mr. H. A. L. Fisher,
then president of the Board of Education, attended the
conference and took part in the discussion of subject
(3), which he considered to be pre-eminently a subject
for conference and co-operation among the universities,
especially in regard to the financial requirements
of new specialised departments, the application to
the best advantage of existing trust funds in uni-
versities, and the migration of research students. The
Report (pp. 32, price Is.) is obtainable from the
Universities Bureau, 50 Russell Square, W.C.1.
Tue eleventh annual conference of Educational
Associations will be held at University College, Gower
Street, W.C.1, on December 28—January 6, under the
presidency of Sir Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Leeds. The inaugural meeting will
be held at Bedford College for Women, Regent’s Park,
on the afternoon of December 28, when ‘Sir Michael
Sadler will deliver his presidential address. There
will be two joint conferences of all the societies during
the meeting—one on the methods of carrying out in
schools the recommendations of the reports on the
Teaching of Classics, Modern Languages, English and
Science, on December 30, and the other, ‘““ How can
the Links in the Chain of Education be strengthened ?”’
on January 5. The College of Preceptors will also hold
a discussion, opened by Sir Michael Sadler, on the
growth of bureaucracy in education. Among the
papers which have been promised are: four to be
delivered to the National League for Health, Mater-
nity and Child Welfare—on phy sical dev elopment and
its food requirements, by Dr. E. Pritchard, on physique
and growth, by Dr. James Kerr, on child psychology
and ‘psychotherapy, by Dr. William Brown, and on
health education, by Prof. H. Kenwood ; three lectures
on reform and tradition in education, by Mr. Frank
Roscoe, to the College of Preceptors ; a paper on the
child and the cinema, by Dr. C. W. Kimmins, at the
British Psychological Society (Education) ; another
on the co- -ordination of the teaching of mathematics
with handicraft, by Mr. A. Romney Green, at the
Society for Experiment and Research in Education ;
one on hygiene as applied to physical training, by
Prof. M. E. Delafield, at the Incorporated British
Association for Physical Training; and one on
relativity, by Dr. Dorothy Wrinch, at the Association
of Women Science Teachers.
DECEMBER 23, 1922]
“Calendar of Industrial Pioneers.
December 24, 1872. William John Macqueen
Rankine died—The author of a series of valuable
engineering text-books, Rankine was a distinguished
engineer and physicist, and with Clausius and Kelvin
helped to found the modern science of thermo-
dynamics. A student first at Glasgow Academy
and then of the University of Edinburgh, he gained
practical experience in railway engineering under
M‘Neill and Locke, and in 1855 succeeded Gordon in
the chair of civil engineering in Glasgow University.
December 25, 1868. Linus Yale, Junior, died.—
The son of Linus Yale, senior (1797-1857), a successful
inventor of locks, Yale was born in 1831 and began
life as a portrait painter. Joining his father in
1849 he contributed much to the success of the firm,
and during 1860-64, by the adoption of an old
Egyptian device, worked out his well-known pin-
and-tumbler lock for the production of which the
Yale Manufacturing Company was organised at
Stamford, Connecticut.
December 27, 1883. Andrew Atkinson Humphreys
died—Humphreys graduated from the United States
Military Academy, served in the Bureau of Topo-
graphical Engineers and the United States Coast
Survey, and made a long study of the problem of
controlling the waters of the Mississippi, his work
on which raised him high among hydraulic engineers.
December 27, 1890. William John died.—Trained
as a naval constructor under the Admiralty, John
was regarded as one of the ablest and most original
constructors of his day. He wrote on stability, the
strength of iron ships, and other subjects, and from
1881 to 1888 was manager of the Barrow Shipbuilding
Works.
December 27, 1896. Sir John Brown died.—One
of the first to develop successfully the Bessemer
process, Brown introduced into Sheffield the manu-
facture of steel rails, and at the Atlas Works, in 1863,
rolled an iron armour plate twelve inches thick and
fifteen to twenty feet long.
December 27, 1900. Sir William George Armstrong,
Baron Armstrong of Cragside, died.—A solicitor, who
became a great engineer, Armstrong was a pioneer
in the use of hydraulic machinery, the rival of Krupp
as an improver of artillery, and an organiser of
outstanding ability. Born in Newcastle in 1810 he
practised as a solicitor there; in 1846, he invented
his hydraulic crane, and the following year became
the first manager of the Elswick Engineering Works.
In 1854 he brought out a breech-loading rifled gun,
in 1859 founded the Elswick Ordnance Works, and
in 1880 built a six-inch wire-wound gun. He was
assisted by Rendel, Noble, Vavasseur, and others,
and the Elswick Works were afterwards amalgamated
with those of Mitchell and Swan and of Whitworth.
December 28, 1907. Coleman Sellers died.
distinguished American mechanical engineer, Sellers
was for many years connected with the firm of
William Sellers and Co., of Philadelphia. Retiring
in 1887 he became a consultant, and was actively
engaged in the pioneering schemes for the utilisation
of the power of the Niagara Falls.
December 30, 1910. Fredrik Adolf Kjellin died.—
Known for his original work on electric smelting,
Kjellin was trained at the Technical High School of
Stockholm and became metallurgical chemist at the
Gysinge works of the Aktiebolaget G. Benedicks,
where, in 1899, he constructed the first induction
furnace. 15 (C5 4Sr
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
NALORE
A.
861
Societies and Academies.
LONDON.
Geological Society, December 6.—Prof. A. C.
Seward, president, and afterwards Mr. R. D. Oldham,
vice-president, in the chair.—H. A. Baker : Geological
investigations in the Falkland Islands. The strati-
graphical succession comprises rocks of Archean,
Devono-Carboniferous, and Permo-Carboniferous age.
There is only one exposure of Archean rocks, namely,
in the cliffs of Cape Meredith, the southernmost point
of West Falkland. Overlying these old rocks, and
separated from them by a strong unconformity, are
coarse sandstones and quartzitic rocks, nearly hori-
zontal. This unfossiliferous series is of great thick-
ness, probably about 5000 feet. It occupies the
southern part of West Falkland and the islands lying
to the west of thisarea. It is regarded as of Devonian
age. The succeeding series of rocks, of Devono-
Carboniferous age, occupy the remainder of West
Falkland (except for small areas ot Permo-Carboni-
ferous rocks) and the northern half of East Falkland.
The Middle and Upper Series each include about 2500
feet of strata. Terrestrial deposits of Permo-Carboni-
ferous age follow. They occupy a synclinorium ex-
tending over the whole of the southern half of East
Falkland (Lafonia) and Falkland Sound. They in-
clude a thickness of strata exceeding 9000 feet. A
sandstone formation (Lafonian Sandstone) of no great
thickness follows, and is, in turn, succeeded by more
than 6000 feet of terrestrial deposits. Several thou-
sand feet of these Upper Lafonian Beds consist of a
monotonous alternation of thin sandstones and shaly
beds. Doleritic dykes are of frequent occurrence ;
their age is post-Upper Lafonian. The marine fauna
will probably prove to be of Upper Devonian age.
The Falkland Islands appear to owe their existence
to the fact that they occur at the crossing-place of
two sets of folding movements.—A. C. Seward and
J. Walton: On a collection of fossil plants from the
Falkland Islands. A Devonian age is suggested for
the oldest plant-bearing beds. Numerous examples
of Glossopteris leaves were collected, especially in
Lafonia, of species which are not confined to one
geological series in the Gondwana System. Many
specimens of Equisetaceous stems were also obtained
from the Glossopteris Beds: of these several are
identical with Falkland examples described by A. G.
Nathorst and by T. G. Halle, while others are com-
pared with an Upper Triassic or Rhetic species
Neocalamites cayverei (Zeiller), A comparison of
petrified wood, most of which has been assigned by
various writers to the genus Dadoxylon, from different
parts of Gondwanaland, points to the prevalence, in
the southern botanical province, of trees differing
in anatomical characters from contemporary plants
in the northern province. The Permo-Carboniferous
flora seems to agree most nearly with the Damuda
and Beaufort Series of India and South Africa re-
spectively. The stems compared with Neocalamites
favour a reference of the beds at Cygnet Harbour and
Egg Harbour to a somewhat higher position ; and, on
the other hand, the leaves described as Glossopleris
indica Schimper (cf. G. decipiens Feistmantel) from
North Arm, although they represent a type which
has a wide range both in space and in time, suggest
a possible correlation with the Ecca Series of South
Africa and the Talchir Series of India.
CAMBRIDGE.
Philosophical Society, November 27.—Mr. C. T.
Heycock, president, in the ehair—cC. T. R. Wilson:
On some a-ray tracks. (1) The track of an a-particle
from an atom of thorium emanation, together with
862
that of the a-particle emitted immediately afterwards
by the resulting thorium-A atom. Some remarkable
features on these tracks were explained as due to
the action of previously formed tracks in robbing
the air of its excess of water vapour. (2) Photographs
of a-ray tracks showing short-range f-rays radiating
from them—Bumstead’s 6-rays, of which photographs
were obtained by him in hydrogen. From the range
of the longest 6-rays their velocity reaches values
twice that of the a-particle. The é-rays do not
appear on the last two centimetres of the a-ray
tracks. In the neighbourhood of the initial portions
of the a-tracks minute detached cloudlets are visible
—probably the tracks of $-particles produced by
soft X-rays (K-radiations from atoms traversed by
the a-particle).—A. B. Appleton: The interpretation
of the pelvic region and thigh of Monotremata. An
extensive comparison of thigh musculature forms
an essential preliminary to the tracing of changes
in the form of the femur and pelvis among Tetrapoda.
The destination of nerve-fibres and their course in
regard to pelvic-girdle and muscles provide the best
guide to the identification of muscles. The myology
and nerve-distribution of various mammalian and
other tetrapod groups has been carried out as a
preliminary to the identification of Monotreme
muscles. Monotremata exhibit most of the character-
istics of the mammalian thigh. A somewhat divergent
evolution has taken place with retention of certain
reptilian features. The lesser trochanter of mam-
malia is a different structure from the internal
trochanter of reptilia.—A. B. Appleton and F. Goldby :
Observations on the innervation of the pubi-tibialis
(sartorius) muscle of Reptilia. In some species of
Lacertilia it is innervated from two nerve-trunks,
as in Sphenodon. This is regarded as due to fusion
of two muscle-elements. Certain Mammalia, Mono-
tremata and certain Carnivora almost reproduce
this form. In most other Mammalia, the pubi-
tibialis muscle is represented only by the sartorius
muscle (possibly also by the gracilis muscle), and the
function has changed.—W. Burnside: The axioms
of elliptic geometry.——W. M. H. Greaves: The
periodic solutions of the differential equation for
the triode oscillator.—C. G. F. James: Complexes
of cubics in ordinary space.
EDINBURGH.
Royal Society, December 4.—Prof. J. W. Gregory,
vice-president, in the chair.—Sir J. A. Ewing: The
atomic process in magnetisation: further notes. —Emile Borel: Remarks on the preceding
communication.—Ch. Maurain and Mme. de Madinhac:
Evaluation of the intensity of the vertical electric
currents traversing the soil in France.—R. Boulouch :
The aplanatic telescope.—R. Jouaust: The applica-
tion of pyrometers to high frequency measurements.
The Féry pyrometer can be utilised in some
measurements necessary in radiotelegraphic installa-
tions. Two examples are given, the calibration of
high frequency ammeters and the measurement under
working conditions of the resistance of the oscillating
circuit of a lamp generating station.—L. Gaumont :
A new sound amplifier. The vibrating part of this
apparatus consists of a silk cone on which is coiled
NO. 2773, VOL. 110]
a spiral of fine aluminium wire; the cone is fitted
between the poles of an electromagnet, similarly
shaped. The telephone currents pass round the
spiral wire on the cone, which is set in vibration by
the action of the magnetic field. The sound is
magnified without distortion, and one apparatus had
a range of hearing of 300 metres.—P. Lemay and L.
Jaloustre : Some microbiological consequences of the
oxidising properties of thorium-X. Earlier researches
showed that the radioactive elements behave as
oxidising catalysts. This suggested that thorium-X
should favour the growth of aerobic organisms and
slow down the development of anaerobic organisms.
Experimental proof of the correctness of this view
has been obtained, using B. lacticus and B. butyrvicus
as the test organisms.—P. Loisel and Michailesco :
The radioactivity of the springs of the Baths of
Hercules in Roumania. The waters from four of
seven springs examined show marked radioactivity,
in amounts varying with date of collection.—Léon
Guillet and Marcel Ballay: The vapour pressure of
some copper-zinc alloys in the solid state. The
vapour pressure of zinc in brass (zinc 44-8 per cent.)
varied between 3-0 mm. at 535° C. and 19:32 mm. at
630° C. In the presence of air, the loss of zinc was
smaller than in nitrogen, hydrogen, or carbon
monoxide.—MM. Dervin and Olmer: Ammoniacal
silver fluoride. This compound has the composition
AgF .2NH,.2H,0._ On careful heating it loses
water, ammonia, and ammonium fluoride, leaving an
explosive nitride, Ag;N.—J. Valentin: The solidifica-
tion of the system MgCl, . KCl. BaCl,.—Paul Pascal :
Magnetic analysis of the stannic acids. Measure-
ments of the magnetic susceptibility of stannic oxide
in various states of hydration give no evidence of the
formation of any definite stannic acids.—F. W.
Klingstedt: The ultraviolet absorption spectra of
toluene and the xylenes. The three xylenes possess
very different absorption spectra.—Louis Grenet : A
possible modification of the iron-cementite diagram.—
L. J. Simon: The influence of the structure of
organic compounds on their oxidation by chromic and
sulphuric acids. The combustion of organic com-
pounds by the chromic-sulphuric acid mixture is not
always complete, and from the data given, there
would appear to be a relation between the amount of
carbon escaping combustion and the molecular
structure of the compound.—André Brochet : Some
properties of the active nickel employed as cata-
lyst in organic chemistry.—Marcel Delepine: The
iridio-dipyridino-tetrachlorides M[Ir(C;H;N).Cl,].—
M. Faillebin: The hydrogenation of aldehydes and
ketones in the presence of pure and impure platinum
black. The reduction of aldehydes and ketones to
the corresponding alcohols by hydrogen with pure
platinum black as a catalyst gives bad yields : there
is a tendency for the formation of hydrocarbons, and
the catalyst becomes rapidly fatigued. If the
platinum black is made from a solution of chlor-
platinic acid containing ferric chloride, the impure
catalyst gives excellent yields of alcohols.—G.
Delépine and V. Milon: The presence of Waulsortian
reefs in the carboniferous limestone of the Laval
basin—L. Barrabé: The presence of transferred
strata in the eastern Corbiéres.—F. Roman: The
quaternary terraces of the upper valley of the Tagus.
—Albert Nodon: Researches on solar action at a
distance —V. Schaffers: Lightning and trees.—E.
Roger: The periodic return of severe winters. In
1860 Renou noted that severe winters recur periodi-
cally. The author gives additional data in support
of this, and puts the period as 41 years.—E. Fichot :
The constitution of oceanic areas in basins of reson-
ance, originating from continental masses under the
action of the tides—G. Hamel: Some peculiarities
864
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 23, 1922
of the algologic flora of Saint Malo.—P. Mazé: The
practical conditions for using calcium cyanamide as
amanure. The best way to apply calcium cyanamide
to the soil is to mix it with peat.—Ch. Brioux: The
comparative assimilability of calcium phosphate and
the phosphates of iron and alumina. Plants can
assimilate phosphorus from the phosphates of alu-
minium and iron, and from the experiments described
the facility of assimilation of phosphorus from the
phosphates of aluminium, calcium, and iron is in the
order given. From this it follows that in determining
the useful phosphorus in manures the solvent em-
ployed should attack not only the phosphates of the
alkalies, lime and magnesia, but also phosphates of
iron and alumina.—A. Pézard and F. Caridroit: The
action of the testicular hormone on the relative
valency of the allelomorphic factors in sheep (Dorset
and Suffolk).—H. Barthélemy: Maturation 7m vitro
and activation of the eggs in the general cavity and
conduits in Rana fusca.—Paul Portier and Marcel
Duval : Osmotic pressure of the blood of the ‘* wiped ”’
eel as a function of modifications of the salinity of the
external medium. The mucus abundantly secreted
at the surface of the skin of the eel has a marked
influence on the isolation of the internal medium.
The partial or complete removal (by wiping the sur-
face) of this protective medium causes an increase in
the osmotic pressure of the blood serum when the
salinity of the external medium is increased.—Ed. Le
Danois: The prediction of the value of the herring
catch in winter. The prediction is based on the study
of the 14° C. isotherm at 50 metres depth in August,
and the assumption that the movements of the herring
are governed by the temperature of the water. The
fishing results this winter have confirmed this view.—
Louis Roule: The ecology of the sturgeon ( Acipenser
sturio) in the Atlantic regions of France.—H. Hérissey :
The biochemical synthesis of d-a-mannoside starting
from mannanes.—Emile F. Terroine, E. Brenckmann,
and A. Feuerbach: The identity of composition of
organisms of the same species after death by starva-
tion.—G. Marinesco: The réle of oxidising ferments
in the production of fevers and inflammations.
BRUSSELS.
Royal Academy of Sciences, October 14.—M. A.
Lameere in the chair.—C. Cesaro: The blue crystals
of disthene found at Katanga. Facility of the g,
cleavage. The angle of extinction on g, and in the
other faces of the vertical zone. Corresponding faces,
The results of a detailed crystallographic examination
of small crystals of disthene, collected in Katanga
sands. The same sand contained a single crystal of
euclase, a mineral not hitherto found in the Congo.
—tLeon Fredericq: New Belgium. The colony of
arctic-alpine animals and plants found on the Baraque
Michel plateau is exceptional and is not found to the
same extent on the other high plateaux of New
3elgium, notably at Losheimergraben. This pheno-
menon appears to be connected with the local anomaly
of temperature which characterises the climate of the
Baraque Michel.—Maurice Nuyens: The trajectory
of an electrified point in the field due to an electron.
—H. Buttenbach: Note on kasolite. The results of
a crystallographic examination of kasolite, found along
with pitchblende in the Katanga copper mines.—
Charles Fraipont: Observations on the large Pleisto-
cene Felide.
November 4.—J. Neuberg: Geometry and mech-
anics.—N, Saltykow : The development of the theory
of partial equations of the first order of a single
unknown function.—Paul Brien: Researches on the
embryogeny of Salpa maxima.
NO. 27:2) VOL. 010)
SYDNEY.
Linnean Society of New South Wales, October 25.—
Mr. G. A. Waterhouse, president, in the chair.—
R. J. Tillyard: Mesozoic insects of Queensland.
No. 9. In the Protorthoptera a large number of
fragments of the peculiar Mesorthopteron locustoides
Till. enables a full restoration of the wing to be made.
Two new genera and species are described in the
Orthoptera, one related to mantids, the other a very
elongated locustoid type. In the Odonata a practic-
ally complete wing of an Archizygopteron forming
the type of a new family is discussed. In the
Hemiptera a large number of new types are dealt
with, including the first Tiiassic record of representa -
tives of the Cryptocerata or water-bugs, and several
new Homoptera belonging to the Scytinopteride,
Tropiduchide, Cixiide, and Ipsviciide—A. J.
Turner: Some Australian moths from Lord Howe
Island. Ship traffic plays an important part in the
introduction of Australian species of Lepidoptera
into Lord Howe Is., Norfolk Is., and New Zealand.—
Vera Irwin-Smith : Notes on nematodes of the genus
Physaloptera. Pt. iv. The Physaloptera of Aus-
tralian Lizards (contd.). Two vew species and a
larva found encysted in the body cavity of Hinulia
teniolatum are described. The cyst-forming habit
was not known before in the genus, and Physaloptera
have never been recorded, hitherto, outside the
alimentary canal.—G. D. Osborne: The geology and
petrography of the Clarencetown-Paterson district.
Pt. ii. The larger faults are connected with the
folding movements which produced asymmetric
plunging folds as the outcome ot thrusting due to
the subsidence of the sub-oceanic segment of the
Pacific. The age of the faulting and folding is
probably post-Upper Marine and pre-Triassic. A
comparison between the plan of the outcrop of the
Bolwarra conglomerate in the Permian Series and
that of the Paterson toscanite in the Kuttung Series
gives evidence of differential crumpling of these two
series.
Official Publications Received.
British Astronomical Association. Handbook for 1923.
(London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd.) 2s.
Dove Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, Northumberland. Report for
the Year ending June 30th, 1922. Edited by Prof. Alexander Meek.
Pp. 105. (Cullercoats.) 5s.
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UNE fe
865
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3° ee
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Development Commission . : : : . 865
The Petroleum Industry . ; . 866
Unified Human History. By F. ‘sS. Mere ; 867
Naturalisation of Animals and Plants. by Dr. James
Ritchie . ° : c 7 . 868
Boscovich and Modern Grimace 3 j ; ce tayo)
Our Bookshelf . 3 a ; ‘ , 5 5 Eyp
Letters to the Editor :—
A Type of Ideal Electric Atoms.—J. L. . : > 873
Cambridge and the Royal Commission. —Sir William
Ridgeway ; The Writer of the Article. = ye
Gravity Variations.—Sir G. P. Lenox- Oo led
ham, F.R.S.; C.S. Wright . 874
Action of Citing Tools. (With diagrams. Senne
Alan Pollard ; Prof. E.N.daC. Andrade. 875
The Secondary ispectean of Hydrogen. —A. C.
Menzies . . 876
Science and the Beers —Maj. A. (Ss Chek . 876
The Hermit-crab (2. bernhardus) and the Anemone
(C. (Sagartia) parasitica) —Dr. J. H. Orton es 77
Winter Thunderstorms.—Capt. C. J. P. Cave . 877
The Corrosion of Ferrous Metals. Oa By
Je soleee 9% : 6 . 878
The American Museum of ONgeuall History.
(Lilustrated) A 880
Presentation to Sir Edward Sharpey § Schafer, Fi R. S.
(Ldlustrated) : A . 882
Obituary :—
F. B. Bryant . . : : : é 2 . 882
Current Topics and Events - : > 22) 6 S83
Our Astronomical Column . : : ‘ é . 886
Research Items . ; 887
Weather Cycles in Relation to Agriculture and
Industrial Fluctuations . ; : - 889
Geology of the North Sea Best : 890
New Japanese Botanical Serials : . 8o1
Colloid Chemistry. By Prof. W. C. McC. ests . 892
Early History of the Sussex Iron Industry . . 893
University and Educational Intelligence . : . 8093
Societies and Academies. ‘ : : 3 . 894
Official Publications Received . ; H : . 896
Diary of Societies ; : j : é : . 896
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NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
The Development Commission.
HE Development Commissioners have just issued a
report on their operations during the year ended
in March last. For a Blue-book it is an unusually
interesting it does many
verbatim reports from Directors of Research who do
not disdain, on occasion, the aid of the poets in de-
We may instance Mr. W. B.
document, containing as
scribing their labours.
Hardy on fishery research :
“The frontal attack,” he says, “usually called,
“taking a practical view’ of the problem, often fails,
and rarely gives more than a partial and incomplete
solution.
“Scientific history shows that the solution of a
problem more often than not comes from a direction
totally unexpected—
“For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes, silent, flooding in, the main.’”’
And the corollary is well expressed :
“The search for the fundamentals of knowledge
must remain the business of specialists trained to the
use of the test tube and microscope. But it is one of
the gravest fallacies responsible for the suspicion with
which the ‘ practical’ man often views science, which
represents the work of the specialist as something
different from that of the man engaged in the day-to-
day employment of industry.”
No man has a wider contact with research in its
practical outcomes than has Mr. Hardy, and no one
is entitled to speak with greater authority on the State
organisation of research.
In the year under report the Development Com-
missioners recommended the expenditure of 368,450., of
way of loan. The grants to
Under the head of
71,2181.
which 41,372/. was by
agriculture ane to 226,253).
fisheries the grants recommended totalled
Fishery research workers appear to be in the happy
position of explorers of a new and rich country, and
the Commissioners were well advised in devoting a
large section of their report to a detailed review of
the progress made in the solution of fishery problems.
As the British sea fisheries alone provide about 13
million tons of fish annually, it is clear that even the
wide seas about our coasts cannot continue to furnish
such a quantity unless the increased control which
increased knowledge alone will bring comes to the
rescue. Of this knowledge and the need for its ex-
tension, here is an example :
“The study of the edible crab,” says Mr. Hardy,
“now in progress at Aberdeen, has revealed the fact
that there is a steady migration from the East Coast
to the Moray Firth. One marked crab was found to
1 Twelfth Report of the Development Commissioners for the year ended
March 31, 1922. H.M. Stationery Office. 3s. 6d.
866
NATURE
| DECEMBER 30, 1922
have covered over 100 miles of coast in just about as
many days. All the lines of migration meet at a point
in the Moray Firth. Why? We do not know, but
it is something gained to have established the fact of
the migration.”
Another interesting discovery 1s a method of purifying
mussels (and, probably, oysters too) by treating them
with chlorinated water and thereby inducing them to
cleanse themselves of sewage bacteria. Researches in
plankton are proceeding vigorously at many research
This, of course, provides the most funda-
mental problem ofall. Just as the harvest of the land
depends, ultimately, on the activities of certain micro-
scopic organisms in the soil, so the harvest of the sea
depends, in the long run, on the microscopic organisms
it contains. It is interesting to learn that, equally with
the soil workers, fishery investigators are giving much
attention to hydrogen ion concentration. In sea water,
this measure of acidity appears to be correlated with
the content of organic matter. Perhaps the most
important fishery problem is connected with the
The mysterious movements of this fish,
stations.
herring.
affecting as they do the livelihood of thousands of
persons, have been celebrated in song and story. Shoals
may suddenly desert waters which they have frequented
for centuries. The Hanseatic League (a German
domination of England) was terminated in the fifteenth
century largely by the failure of the herring fishery
in the Baltic ; within living memory, the herring has
deserted Loch Fyne in Scotland. As the Scottish song,
“Caller Herrin’ ’’ runs :
“You may ca’ them vulgar farin’,
Wives and mithers, maist despairin’,
Ca’ them lives 0’ men.”
The problem is as yet unsolved, but it is the business
—and the certain hope—of science to solve it.
Of the many forms of State organisation of research,
that under which fishery investigations are regulated
appears to be one of the best. In outline there is
provision for (r) “ free” and (2) “ directed” research.
The latter is devoted to the solution of definite economic
problems, whereas the former is concerned with the
study of fundamental problems which lie at the root
of any advance in the practical sphere. But no attempt
has been made to lay down a definite border line.
Controlling both there is an Advisory Committee of
scientific men, the advice of which the Commissioners
appear to accept unhesitatingly.
We notice that the various Agricultural Research
Institutes continue to produce much valuable work,
though the section of the report devoted to agricultural
research does not include much new matter of interest.
The report does not contain, as in the past, an
account of the present finances of the Fund. In an
NO. 2774, VOL. II0]
article published in Nature for April 8 (vol. 109,
Pp. 433) some apprehension was expressed on the score
of the low ebb which last year’s report showed the
Fund had reached. Having survived the attack of the
Geddes Committees, it would be indeed unfortunate
if the future of fishery research should prove to be still
uncertain, while it is equally necessary that the valuable
researches of such institutions as the Plant Breeding
Stations should be continued and placed on a permanent
basis.
The Petroleum Industry.
The Petroleum and Allied Industries: Petroleum,
Natural Gas, Natural Waxes, Asphalts and Allied
Substances, and Shale Oils. By James Kewley.
(The Industrial Chemistry Series.) Pp. xi+ 302.
(London : Bailhiére, Tindall, and Cox, 1922.) 12s. 6d.
net.
HE literature concerned with petroleum and its
ap products is becoming almost as extensive as
that which relates to coal. But whereas that of coal
is the growth of some centuries, the literature of petro-
leum has been accumulated within living memory.
This is due, of course, to the extraordinary develop-
ment of the use of petroleum as a source of light and
heat. The growth of motor transport has been
remarkable, due in no small measure to the influence
of the Great War, directly and indirectly. Aviation
has arisen wholly within our own time, and is one
of the most striking of the new departures which the
twentieth century has witnessed. The exploitation of
our oil-fields has become a question of national im-
portance, and, it may be added, of international diffi-
culty. The growth in the use of petroleum is well
illustrated by the subjoined table, taken from the
recently published Report of Lloyd’s Register of
Shipping for the year 1921-1922, showing the pro-
gressive demand for oil-carrying vessels :
Ojil-tankers.
July tory 1,478,988 gross tons.
July t919 2,929,113 rm
July 1920 3,354,314 ‘iy
July 1921 4,418,088 0
July 1922 5,062,699 4b
It is further shown by the increase in gross tonnage of
vessels either originally fitted to burn oil fuel or sub-
sequently converted for that purpose :
Vessels fitted for
burning oil fuel.
July 1914 1,310,209 gross tons.
July to19 5,330,678 fe
July 1920 9,359,334 i
July 1921 12,790,635 -
July 1922 14,464,162 Fe
Additional evidence is furnished by the large increase
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
867
in the number of motor vessels during the same interval :
Motor Vessels.
Number. Gross tons.
July 1914 297 234,287
July 1919 gi2 752,606
July 1920 1178 955,810
July 1921 ° eS) 1,248,800
July 1922 é » 1620 1,542,100
These statistics, it must be understood, are those re-
corded in the Register books of the society, and are
probably an underestimate of the growth which has
actually occurred throughout the world. They are,
nevertheless, highly significant and instructive, and
serve to illustrate what is a great factor in world-wide
progress, and eminently characteristic of our own age.
The book under review may be recommended as a
concise and well-informed account of the rise and growth
of this important industry. It is well arranged and
well written, and considering its limitation as to space,
deals in sufficient detail with its more important phases.
It is divided into nine main sections, or parts, each of
which is further subdivided into several subsections.
The classification is rational, and conduces to a logical
treatment of the subject-matter.
Part I. is introductory, and treats of the termino-
logy of petroleum products and of the history of the
petroleum industry; of the chemistry, geology, and mode
of origin of natural petroleum. Part II. is concerned
with natural gas, its occurrence, distribution, com-
position, and applications. Part III. treats of crude
petroleum, its occurrence, distribution, and character ;
of drilling and mining operations, and of the storage
and transport of crude oil and its liquid products.
Part IV. describes the manufacture of shale oils and of
the various tars obtained as by-products. Part V.
deals with asphalts. Part VI. with the natural mineral
waxes. Part VII. with the working up of crude oils,
their distillation, fractionation, and chemical treatment ;
the manufacture of paraffin wax and lubricating oil ;
“cracking ” and hydrogenation processes ; and refinery
waste products. Part VIII. describes the characters and
uses of petroleum products, and Part IX. gives some
account of the methods of testing and standardising them.
As regards the origin of petroleum, in spite of much
discussion and the voluminous literature to which the
subject has given rise, we know nothing with certainty.
The volcanic or inorganic theory, although advocated
by such authorities as Humboldt, Berthelot, and
Mendeléeff, is inconclusive, and there is an increasing
body of evidence against it. On the other hand there
are many objections to the assumption that petroleum
has been produced from organic remains, although the
geological evidence, at least in the case of certain oil-
bearing districts, lends a certain measure of support to it.
The question is fairly discussed by the author in the light
NO. 2774, VOL. I10]
of the most recent contributions to it, and, on the whole,
he is inclined to consider that the majority of crude oils
are probably of vegetable origin, although he advances
no surmise as to the mechanism of their formation.
One of the most important developments connected
with the petroleum industry is the utilisation of the
natural gas which is evolved in enormous quantities in
This utilisation has mainly
occurred on the American continent owing to the
circumstance that certain of the oil wells are not too
remote from centres of population. Many towns in
certain oil-bearing regions.
America are supplied with this gas at a very low cost.
Much of the gas is consumed in the manufacture of
so-called carbon-black, an éxtremely fine form of soot
far superior to ordinary lamp black as a pigment and for
the manufacture of printing-ink. It is calculated that
one pound of carbon black suffices to print 2250 copies
of a sixteen-page newspaper. Upwards of fifty millon
pounds of this material were produced in the United
States in 1920, from thirty-nine operating plants in
various States, mainly in West Virginia and Louisiana,
Considerable quantities are used in the rubber tyre
industry, for the manufacture of stove polishes, Chinese
and Indian ink, paper manufacture, tarpaulins, etc.
But even when the gas cannot be immediately utilised
it is now liquefied and stored under pressure by modern
compression and refrigerating plant, and can be trans-
ported.
Mr. Kewley is to be congratulated on the production
of a valuable contribution to the literature of an industry
which is pre-eminently characteristic of our own epoch.
Unified Human History.
A Short History of the World. By H. G. Wells. Pp.
xvi+432. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1922.
15s. net.
HIS is a new work covering the same ground as
the “Outline of History’ and in the same
spirit, but re-written and better written, and correcting
many of the faults of judgment and proportion which
disfigured the earlier book. Mr. Wells has digested his
material in the interval and writes now with ease and
mastery. The arrangement and general division of the
space is quite satisfactory, and the production and
illustrations are excellent. It is a great feat, following
so quickly on the labours of the “ Outline,” and all who
- are interested either in history, in education or in the
social progress of the world as a whole, are under a
deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Wells for carrying it out.
Nothing has done so much to awaken the public to the
social importance of history, and the readers of history
to the unity of their subject. The books are a prodigy
of industry and skill and in the realm of literature the
868
WAT ORE
[ DecEMBER 30, 1922
best thing we owe to the war. It was at a gathering of
thinkers and social workers during the war that the idea
of teaching world-history to all nations on a common
plan was first mooted, and Mr. Wells responded to the
appeal. His ‘‘ Outline” has sold in hundreds of
thousands, especially in the United States. It has
provoked demands among working men to be taught
history in that spirit ; it has changed the outlook and
the syllabuses of scores of teachers ; it has helped to
success other similar books such as the fascinating
“Story of Mankind” by Van Loon, which has come
over to us from America this autumn.
In view of all this, it is paltry and unworthy to dwell
on minor defects or on differences of judgments, and
still worse to condemn Mr. Wells because not being a
“historian,” he has done a work which “ historians ”
ought to have done over and over again before.
It was probably this fact, that he was not a historian
in that sense, immersed in the details of some special
period or aspect of history, which, added to his own
incomparable powers of reception, production, and
imagination, enabled Mr. Wells to accomplish the feat.
The freshness of his mind prompts him constantly to
some interesting new view, some comparison especially of
ancient and modern times, some wholesome challenge to
accepted judgments ; e.g. “ It was not so much the Jews
that made the Bible, as the Bible that made the Jews.”
“How important a century this sixth B.c. was in the
history of humanity. For not only were these Greek
philosophers beginning the research for clear ideas about
the universe and man’s place in it, and Isaiah carrying
Jewish prophecy to its sublimest levels, but, as we shall
tell later, Gautama Buddha was then teaching in India
and Confucius and Lao Tse in China. From Athens to
the Pacific the human mind was astir.”’
Even in the case of Rome, to which Mr. Wells still
does less than justice, it is enlightening to have the
comparison with our modern empire. ‘“‘ The Roman
empire after all was a very primitive organisation ; it
did not educate, did not explain itself to its increasing
multitudes of citizens, did not invite their co-operation
in its decisions. There was no network of schools to
ensure a common understanding, no distribution of
news to sustain collective activity.”
All such comparisons, whether of contemporary
happenings or of earlier and later social states, are useful
and inspiring and arise from the synoptic frame of mind
which qualifies a man for such work as this. It is an
antidote to the excessive criticism and tendency to
pessimism which mark so much of our literature at the
present time. But it needs to be based on a sound
knowledge and appreciation of the historical fact, and
it is naturally on this latter side that Mr. Wells is weaker.
He does not estimate duly what Rome did for the world,
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
the greatness of her legal work, its continued progress,
its permanence in the modern world. Nor does he
allow for the constructive value of the medieval Church
and Catholic doctrine. No word of Dante (or of
Descartes) with a whole chapter for Charles V.! That
is a blemish impossible to pass over. It goes with a
general tendency in the book to lay stress rather on the
externals and the picturesque figures in history than
on the deeper, spiritual, or intellectual factors. Thus
Archimedes and Hero appear but not Pythagoras,
Stephenson and Watt but not Descartes and Leibniz,
or even Newton. Science appears as the transformer
of industry, the generator of steam-engines and steam-
ships, but not as the knitter-up of men’s minds, the new
universal doctrine which replaces theological dogma.
Even science as the healer and preventer of disease
seems to find no place: there is no word of Hippocrates
or Pasteur.
‘We know well how easy it is in reviewing such a
book to draw up lists of inexcusable omissions. It
would be ungrateful in this case, for Mr. Wells has given
us so useful and attractive a gift and has worked so
valiantly for the cause both of history and of science,
and especially of science as coming into and modifying
history. His answer, no doubt, to the last criticism
would be that this was an introductory volume, and that
therefore he avoided such matters as philosophy. But
can one properly treat of religion without philosophy ?
And there are sympathetic chapters about Christ and
Buddha. It would help his general cause, which is the
salvation of mankind by education and unity, to lay
more stress on the spiritual or intellectually construct-
ive aspect of science and less on its mechanical applica-
tions. It is not the difficulties of posts and _ tariffs
which will ultimately bring mankind together in har-
monious progress : it will be a spiritual union of which
knowledge and sympathy, science and law are co-
operating factors, and may be traced growing, some-
times fitfully, and at various times and places, but never
quite extinguished from the beginning of history till
now. ‘These should be the leading threads in any short
sketch of human history as a whole, and it is because of
their decisive contributions to those elements that
Greece, Rome. Christianity, and modern times deserve
a special place. F. S. Marvin.
Naturalisation of Animals and Plants.
The Naturalisation of Animals and Plants in New
Zealand. By the Hon. George M. Thomson. Pp. x
+607. (Cambridge: At the University Press,
1922.) 42s. net.
ROM those early days in the neolithic age when
the nomad tribesman drove his domestic stock
from the region of its creation to new areas, naturalisa-
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
869
tion of plants and animals has been a fact to be reckoned
with in the evolution of faunas and of humanity.
Even in countries where the introduced creatures be-
longed to groups identical with, or closely related to,
members of the indigenous fauna, and where, on that
account, a simple speeding-up of a process already in
force might have been expected, the influence of natural-
isation on fauna and flora has been profound. It is
easy to imagine how much more intense that influence
might be in countries where the new-comers belonged
to orders of animal and plant life unrepresented in
the native fauna and flora, and entered a free field
unhampered by the checks which, in the course of ages,
had created in the old country a tolerably stable balance
of Nature. It is this unusual mingling of the faunas
of distinct and widely different zoo - geographical
regions that gives special significance to the events in
Australia and New Zealand, and has made the
attempts of the settlers there a by-word in the history
of acclimatisation.
Another special interest attaches to these areas,
however, and adds enormously to the value of this
book. In the old countries, lying in the way of the
migrations of palzolithic and neolithic man and his
successors, introductions of plants and animals have
taken place from time immemorial, with the result
that, since the beginnings are lost to view, results can
be only dimly envisaged ; but in New Zealand, apart
from a few prehistoric Polynesian introductions,
almost every beginning has a date, and almost every
stage of progress can be measured in terms of years.
Mr. Thomson has dealt with the unique opportunity
that lay to his hand in the scientific spirit ; he has been
chary of broad generalisations, and he has been at
endless pains to collect and verify information, much
of which in a few years would otherwise have slipped
from ken. Consequently his work must be regarded
as a standard contribution to the history of ac-
climatisation.
The plan of the book is of the simplest : after a short
introduction and historical review, it proceeds to
consider each animal and plant imtroduced to New
Zealand, whether or not it has become established,
in its order in systematic classification. (The author
has overlooked the fact that all his rodents are
grouped under the heading “ Carnivora.”’) The mass
of material handled can be only roughly gauged by the
fact that of mammals and birds alone, 48 of the former
have been introduced, of which 25 have become truly
feral, and of the latter, 24 out of 150 introduced species
are now thoroughly established ; while of plants, more
than six hundred species have become “ more or less
truly wild.”
It is impossible here to follow Mr. Thomson’s cata-
NO. 2774, VOL. II0]
logue of events ; even the familiar stories of the ill-
starred introductions of the rabbit and its enemies, and
of the introduction of humble-bees to fertilise the intro-
duced red clover, are filled with new and significant
detail ; but let us turn to some of the broad results
of this century and a half’s intense interference with
Nature.
Great expectations were formed of the probability
of seeing the development of new variations and of
incipient new species ; but fifty years of close observa-
tion lead the author to state that he is “ aware of no
definite permanent change in any introduced species ”’
(p. 513). The statement does not exhaust the possi-
bilities, however ; first, because the time is short—
the first animals were introduced in 1773, and most
have been in the country for scarcely more than half
a century ; secondly, because changes are noticeable—
red deer introduced from Forfarshire only fifty years
ago, now carry, instead of a former limit of 12, up to
20 points on their antlers; and, thirdly, because the
progeny of introduced animals has not been sub-
mitted to that minute examination and comparison
of cranial and other characters on which racial dis-
tinctions are now based. Again, Darwin and Wallace
both expected that the wholesale naturalisation of
European plants would ultimately exterminate part
of the native flora. The author sees no evidence of
such a process: ‘The native vegetation can always
hold its own against the introduced ” (p. 528); “the
struggle . . . will result in a limitation of the range of
the native species rather than in their actual extermina-
tion” (p, 533). But is the conclusion not doubtful,
or at any rate premature ? In long-civilised countries,
for example, Scotland, it has been shown that there are
no bounds to the cumulative effect of man’s influence,
and that limitation of range is too often but a first
step to ultimate, even if long-delayed, extinction.
Yet many changes have been observed. Introduced
trout established new records in size, water-cress grew
to a length of twelve to fourteen feet, ““ with stems as
thick as a man’s wrist,” the common spear thistle
formed thickets six to seven feet in height ; even since
1868 nine species of birds have disappeared to a great
extent or altogether, and many have been driven to the
wildernesses ; several species of fish have been ex-
terminated by established introductions ; habits have
changed—many species have adopted introduced food
plants, the Kea parrot supplements its fruit diet with
the flesh of living sheep. On the whole, the introduc- ~
tions have done much more harm than good. Of all
the birds introduced, the only one against which no
complaint has ever been made is the hedge sparrow ;
but there must often be difficulty in assessing the
balance of good and evil. In one place we are told
2DI
870
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
that “the evidence regarding the destruction of the
native avifauna by stoats and weasels is very incon-
clusive ” (p. 73), and in another that “ these animals
[weasels and other vermin] are largely responsible for
the decrease in the numbers of native birds” (p. 89).
One conclusion, however, is manifest, that neither
in New Zealand nor elsewhere should naturalisation
of exotic animals be permitted, except with the consent
of a properly constituted advisory committee contain-
ing a strong representation of biological science.
Perhaps we can afford to smile at the enthusiasm of
men who endeavoured to establish migratory birds,
or brought from Britain the humble-bee, Bombus
terrestris (now the commonest species in New Zealand),
to fertilise the red clover, not knowing that its trunk
was too short to reach the bottom of the clover flower ;
but we should not be subject to the vagaries of such
as the New Zealand legislator who, when it was pro-
posed to introduce half a dozen Venetian gondolas,
to be placed on a lake in the public gardens of Nelson,
protested against the extravagance and desired to
import only a pair, “and then let Nature take its
course.” James RITCHIE.
Boscovich and Modern Science.
A Theory of Natural Philosophy. Put forward and
Joseph Boscovich. Latin-
From the Text of the First Venetian
explained by
English edition.
Roger
edition published under the personal superintendence
of the Author in 1763. With a short Life of Boscovich.
Pp. xix+470. (Chicago and London: Open Court
Publishing Co., 1922.) 63s. net.
N the time of Boscovich the line of demarcation
| between the philosopher and the physicist or
mathematician was much less clearly marked than it
is to-day—perhaps it is better to say than it was a few
years ago. It is therefore to be expected of a man of
Boscovich’s energy and versatility, living in the eight-
eenth century, that he should have explored the
borderland of philosophy and science. ‘The book before
us contains the contribution of Boscovich to this
domain—for us the most important work of his life.
In it he appears to a modern as a philosopher rather
than a man of science, interested largely in the search
for and use of a priori arguments, but in close touch
with the scientific theories and explanations of his day.
Whether this classification is right or wrong, the
book is full of Boscovich is sometimes
claimed as the father of modern atomic theory, and
this volume provides at any rate partial justification for
the claim. For Boscovich
interest.
admirable
clearness how many diverse phenomena in mechanics
NO. 2774, VOL. I10|
shows with
and even in other branches of physics can be explained
in a natural qualitative way on his hypothesis that
matter consists of discrete points accelerated towards
each other by a perfect definite law of suitable form.
But from the modern point of view his work in this
connexion is scarcely more interesting than the
earlier work of Daniel Bernoulli, or the still earlier
ideas of Hooke. To a mathematician perhaps the
most interesting sections of the book are those in
which Boscovich expounds the law of continuity,
the doctrine of impenetrability, and their consequences.
It is at once evident that his ideas of the properties
of a continuum and of a progression, though of course
not extensive, are invariably clear and accurate.
Other interesting passages are those in which
Boscovich makes use of proofs by induction or criti-
cises the inductive reasoning of others—for example,
attempts to establish thus that matter must have
continuous extension. He is always careful to explain
why he believes his own inductive arguments to be
valid when he makes them. In fact one may strongly
suspect that his first instinct in all such cases is to
take up a sound sceptical point of view, with perhaps a
slight weakness for his own favourites. In this he is
by no means unique, and in full agreement with a
certain distinguished man of science of to-day who is
reported to have defined scientific truth in conversation
with a friend as ‘‘ the theories which you and I believe,
and I include you for courtesy.”
Boscovich is firmly convinced of the underlying
simplicity of all natural phenomena. The main thesis
of his book is to show that it is conceivable that all
the properties of matter might be explainable on the
basis of his unique acceleration law. In a delightful
passage (pp. 105-7) he attacks the multiplicity of forces
used by the physicists of his day and the danger of
concluding that Nature is complicated when it may
only be that the mathematics is inadequate.
Both as a final example of the depth and range of
his ideas and for its latter-day interest we must quote
the following passage, in which he is discussing the
form of his acceleration law. He has just assumed
that the mutual acceleration of two of his points is
always bounded except when the distance between
them actually tends to zero. He proceeds: “ In this
case it is evident that, if a sufficiently great velocity
can be given to any mass, it would pass through any
other mass without any perturbation of its own parts,
or of the parts of the other. For the forces have no
continuous time in which to act and produce any finite
sensible motion; since if this time is diminished
the effect of the forces is also
diminished immensely. We can illustrate the idea by
immensely
| the example of an iron ball, which is required to pass
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
across a plane, in which lie scattered in all positions
a great number of magnetic masses possessed of
considerable force. If the ball is not projected with
a certain very great velocity its motion will
be checked by their attractions. But if the velocity
is great enough, so that the actions of the magnetic
forces only last for a sufficiently short interval of time,
then it will certainly get through and beyond them,
without suffering any sensible loss of velocity.”’ Further
evidence of his clarity of thought need scarcely be
given.
In conclusion let us admit the great debt of gratitude
which we owe for the production of this book to the
translator, Mr. J. M. Child, and to the Government
of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes who
generously financed its publication.
Our Bookshelf.
Chelsea Porcelain. By William King.
+70 plates. (London: Benn Bros.,
73s. 6d. net.
Pp. xv +135
Ltd., 1922.)
Ir seems appropriate that this elaborate and sumptu-
ously illustrated volume should proceed from an official
of the ceramic department of the Victoria and Albert
Museum, where an extensive and thoroughly repre-
sentative collection of Chelsea porcelain is permanently
displayed for the delectation of the public. Such a
handbook of one section of the treasures Housed in the
museum, setting forth the story of their manufacture
and the reasons or sentiments which inspired the
decorations they bear, should bring many fresh visitors
to the collections. It should stimulate the interest
which each succeeding generation manifests in the
doings of the potters and porcelain-makers of a past age,
for they have proved themselves the unconscious his-
torians of its social customs. It is impossible for any
one, however limited his purview, to linger among these
brilliant and fascinating objects without feeling a desire
to know more of their history and how they came to be
decorated as they are. Even to those who know little
of historic styles in decorative art it must be obvious
that whatever is native and English in these porcelains
is interwoven with motives caught from the work of
other countries than ours, Oriental as well as European,
so that they provide even a casual observer with endless
food for thought and research.
To-day, after a century and a half of change, it
stirs our blood to examine such masterpieces of patient
skill and elaboration, wrought in a beautiful but diffi-
cult material with an insufficient regard to time and
cost, when an English factory tried conclusions with
the state-aided establishments of Europe and won a
well-deserved reputation for its courage and skill.
The gradual development of the Chelsea enterprise
from its modest beginnings to the heyday of its success
is traced with a wealth of detail drawn from the patient
labours of many previous investigators, but its story is
enriched by the knowledge which is only to be acquired
from the constant handling and critical examination of
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
NATURE
871
fine and authentic examples ; so that, for many a long
day, this volume is likely to remain a standard authority
on its subject.
The numerous illustrations are remarkable for their
variety and excellence. They cover the whole field of
the porcelains made at the Chelsea factory, and, whether
in colour or in half-tone, convey an excellent idea of the
range and quality of the productions of that famous
factory. WILLIAM Burton.
Blood Transfusion. By Dr. Geoffrey Keynes. (Oxford
Medical Publications.) Pp. vii+166. (London:
Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton,
8s. 6d. net.
THE transference of blood from healthy persons to make
up for deficiencies of quantity or quality in the sick has
been proposed and occasionally practised for 300 years
or more, but it is only within the last decade, and
especially since the experience of the war, that this
valuable therapeutic procedure has been put on a firm
foundation and has come into common use. Dr.
Keynes gives here an admirable account of our present
knowledge of the theory and practice of transfusion.
There is a most interesting historical account of the
work of the pioneers, and it is curious to note that
Higginson, in the middle of the nineteenth century,
invented and used his syringe for this rather than its
present purpose. The selection of blood donors is fully
considered and a good description given of the different
“blood groups” found in human beings—a topic of
much wider importance than its immediate application
to human therapy. In technique, the author’s experi-
ence has led him to prefer the method of withdrawing
the blood into a solution of sodium citrate to prevent
clotting and then injecting a known amount at leisure
into the recipient : anastomosis of the blood vessels of
the two parties is difficult and uncertain.
In practice, the main usefulness of transfusion has
been found in cases of hemorrhage and shock, in which,
as might be expected, blood has proved of more value
than salt solution or Bayliss’s gum. It has given good,
if generally transitory, results in pernicious aneemia and
a few cases of severe bacterial infections, but there is no
very clear evidence of its utility unless the patient has
the definite indication of too small a blood volume or
too little hemoglobin.
There is a bibliography of more than 300 items and
a good index. Complete as is the account from the
point of view of the practical surgeon, some further
consideration of the experimental work of Worm Miiller
and his successors would have been welcome. There is,
too, no adequate discussion of what happens to the
red cells in their new home, how long they last, and how
they are destroyed. A. EH. By
1922.)
The Voice Beautiful in Speech and Song : A Considera-
tion of the Capabilities of the Vocal Cords and their
Work in the Art of Tone Production. By Ernest G.
White. Third edition. ag vili+166. (London :
J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 7s. 6d. net.
Tue author’s devastating nese that the human voice
is produced by the frontal sinuses and other cavities
in the bones of the head, while “the vocal cords,”
which he regards as strings, “ are not the seat of sound,”
Is not supported by a particle of evidence. That so
872 NATURE
[DECEMBER 30, 1922
misleading a book should not only find a publisher
but also reach a third edition, is disquieting. A teacher
should be teachable, and the serious student of phona-
tion will find sound information as to the parts played
by the sinuses and the glottal lips in the production of
vocal tone in Musehold’s ‘‘ Akustik und Mechanik des
menschlichen Stimmorgans,” 1913, which gives excel-
lent laryngo-stroboscopic photographs of the mis-
called “‘ vocal cords” in action, confirming and sup-
plementing Manuel Garcia’s famous communication
to the Royal Society in 1855 on the differing laryngeal
mechanism for chest and falsetto registers. The kine-
matograph might do good service here.
The exhibition of a slow-motion film, such as that
prepared by Prof. Panconcelli-Calzia and Dr. Hegener,
of Hamburg, showing the lips of the glottis producing
a definite note of chest register by periodically parting
and meeting, parting and meeting, letting out as many
tiny puffs of compressed air per second as there are
double vibrations in the note sung (quite in agreement
with what R. Willis, of Cambridge, wrote in 1828), and
finally opening very wide for the singer to draw breath,
would give in one minute a clearer idea of their double-
. reed action than pages of careful description may con-
vey. Few misnomers, surely, have wrought so much
pseudo-scientific havoc as Ferrein’s chorde vocales
(1741). Wek:
An Introduction to Psychology.
Pp. vii+152. (London :
1921.) 55. net.
By S. S. Brierley.
Methuen and Co., Ltd.,
UNLIKE many writers for non-professional students of
psychology, the author of this work does not attempt
to minimise the difficulty of the subject, nor does she
seek to evade problematical conclusions by specious
dogmatism. The book consists of two parts, the first
dealing with the scope and method of psychology,and the
second with some of the general problems of the subject.
This latter part brings before the reader the fascinating
but bewildering array of problems with which the
modern psy chologist i is confronted. The reader is not
left with the idea that having perused this book he
knows everything about psychology, but he will feel
that he has an excellent basis for continued study.
The general plan is original, and while incorporating
much of the work of such writers as James, McDougall,
Freud, and Jung, yet it is much more than a mere
compilation of the work of others. It will be of the
greatest value not only to the beginner but also to any
reader who wishes to get a clear survey of the state
of psychology at the present time.
Physiology and Biochentistry in Modern Medicine. By
Prof. J. J. R. MacLeod, assisted by Roy G. Pearce,
A. C. Redfield, and N. B. Taylor, and by others.
Fourth edition. Pp. Xxxil+992. (London : lal
Kimpton, 1922.) 42s. net.
THE first edition of this valuable text-book was
reviewed at some length in Nature of December 18,
191g (vol. 104, p. 389), so that little remains to be
said except to congratulate the author on the rapid
appearance of successive editions. This fact is good
evidence that the work fulfils a want. It will be
remembered that it is especially directed to satisfy the
requirements of the student and the practitioner of
NO. 2774, VOL. IIo]
medicine, so that it is natural to find certain branches
of physiology more fully discussed than others. It is
perhaps open to question whether, for the class of reader
contemplated, the common practice of treating such
questions as osmotic pressure and the colloidal state
apart from that of the physiological processes in which
they play an important part, is to be recommended.
Prof. MacLeod has kept the book well up-to-date, and it
has received valuable improvements and additions since
the appearance of the first edition in 1919.
The Conquest of the New Zealand Alps. By Samuel
Turner. Pp. 291. (London: T. Fisher Unwin,
td. 19222), ers. met:
Mr. TURNER is a mountaineer of varied experience
extending over a quarter ofacentury. His latest book
describes six seasons’ climbing in the New Zealand Alps,
including ascents of Mounts Cook and Tasman, the two
summits of the group. It is mainly a climber’ s record
of difficulties and triumphs, but incidentally it contains
much description of the peculiarities of the New Zea-
land Alps and the ice conditions encountered there.
On the whole, the climbs in most cases were not of
exceptional difficulty, but there seems to be a tendency
for the snow slopes to hang steeper than in most
countries. This is due possibly to the nature of the
rock, but more likely 1s the outcome of the snow
falling frequently and at relatively high temperatures,
which gives it greater binding power. The snowfall
at low altitudes even in midsummer is an additional
difficulty.
La Séparation Industrielle des Solides en Milieu Liquides
Par Prof. Léonce Fabre. Pp. v+227. (Paris:
G. Doin, 1922.) 16 francs.
THE treatment of filtration from the point of view of
chemical engineering forms the principal subject of
this book. The various types of apparatus, including
immersion and rotary filters, are fully dealt with, and
the auxiliary apparatus, including pumps, thickeners,
and classifiers, are also described, and methods of
decantation are considered. The book is up-to-date,
and the numerous illustrations add considerably to
its interest and value: it is a most useful contribution
to the literature of chemical engineering. As is usual in
French books, the absence of an index takes away
practically half the value of a work of this kind. This
may seem a small point to the author, but English and
American readers of technical books will consider it a
very serious defect.
Seven Ages of Childhood. By Ella L. Cabot. Pp.
xxxiv+ 321. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.,
1921). 12s. 6d. net.
Mrs. Casor divides the period from coming into the
world to coming of age into seven sub-periods which she
names the dependent age (0-3), the dramatic age (3-7),
the angular age (7-11), the paradoxical age (12-14), the
age of the gang or team (11-16), the age of romance
(r5- 18), the age of problems (16-21). On all these she
writes pleasantly and sympathetically. There may be
little of striking originality in her pages ; but there is a
touch of serene wisdom which may perhaps be found
more helpful.
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATORE
873
Letters to the Editor.
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Netther
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for
this or any other part of NATURE. No notice zs
taken of anonymous communications. |
A Type of Ideal Electric Atoms.
THE Philosophical Magazine for December contains
a long and interesting mathematical paper by R.
Hargreaves, in which he explores possibilities of
constructing self-subsisting orbital systems out of
free massive positive ions combined with free negative
electrons, held together by a rotation common to all.
The solutions at which he arrives give a possible
structure for an ideal atomic nucleus of the Rutherford
type, namely, a revolving ring of alternate positive
ions and negative electrons, with or without a
positive ion at the centre or a number of ions lying
along the central axis of the ring transverse to its
plane. It is found that a limited number of structures
of this type can subsist, stability requiring that the
central charge shall be positive.
Analysis of the deformation of such a free ring
by a field of electric or magnetic force yields striking
results as regards the polarisations thereby produced,
recalling cognate classical results obtained by Lord
Kelvin and others long ago, relating to vortex rings
in fluid. Around such a ring-nucleus outer electrons
can describe orbits as satellites, either a few of them
or many arranged in rings in the manner now familiar
in illustrations of the outlying structure of atoms:
their reactions on the ring-nucleus are analysed.
So also are the reactions on the whole system of
stray electrons or ions coming within its range from
without, which may even combine with it in definite
ways: interesting analogies to phenomena of ionisation
and of emission of electrons come to light. The
scale of magnitude of the system remains open to
satisfy other conditions.
The author modestly disclaims authority to judge
whether the properties he discovers have any sub-
stantial analogy with the radio-active and spectro-
scopic phenomena of actual atoms. But, apart from
the mathematical interest, there can be no question
that the result of such a systematic rigorous analysis
of the dynamical behaviour of a definite group of
free systems, proved to be possible and stable, is
calculated to expand the range of ideas in this field
of physical speculation, and so is well worth the labour
it has entailed. The alternating arrangement of
ions and electrons in the nuclear ring calls to mind
recent theories in the very different domain of
crystalline structure and conductance in metals,
based on space-lattices in which metallic ions and
electrons occur alternately. eel
Cambridge and the Royal Commission.
KINDLY permit me to reply to the criticisms in
Nature of November 25, p. 689, on my article in the
Quarterly Review. (1) I note with satisfaction that
my critic admits that ‘“‘ many of those who do not
share [my] fears will agree with [me] ”’ on the import-
ance of having the proposed grants “‘ charged on the
Consolidated Fund.’’ My fears arise from (a) the
declaration made to the Commission by the Labour
Party that the “ control of the Universities merely
by statute assisted by occasional Royal Commissions
has now definitely failed and that something in the
nature of a continuous administrative control by the
State must be undertaken,”’ and (b) from the imperious
demand that this control should be exercised “ by
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
representatives of Trades Unions, Elementary School
Teachers, Women’s Organisations, County Councils,
the Board of Education, etc.” (Report, p. 72, Q.R.,
PP. 350-351). Are my fears groundless in view of the
fate which has befallen the Universities of France,
Germany, and Holland, under State control ?
(2) My critic tries to defend the proposal to hand
over the control of all teaching and research to the
Council, a political body, largely composed of men
whose interests are in administration rather than in
the advancement of knowledge, and seeks to justify
this by the vague statement that “ the electorate
which chooses both bodies is the same,’’ leaving out
of sight the fact that the elections to the Council are
almost wholly on very clearly defined party lines with
little regard to educational questions. It is proposed
to supersede the General Board of Studies (composed
of representatives of the 14 Special Boards of Studies
and 8 nominated by the Council chiefly from their
own members) by a new Board of Studies and Re-
search subordinate to the Council, to consist of 12:
6 appointed by the Council and 6 only by the whole
body of University and College teachers. As the
General Board has on it representatives of all the
Special Boards the co-ordination of the various
studies and a proper standard for the higher Doctor-
ates can thus be, and is, well maintained. The
bureaucrats hate the General Board because they
cannot prevent the Special Boards from placing on
it their leading men, no matter what their politics
may be. The General Board is charged with being
“unwijeldy,’”” and at the same time not wholly
representative of all branches of study, and that “ its
co-ordinating functions seem to be impeded to some
extent by the fact that it is largely composed of
specialists.’’ The animus shown against “ specialists”
gives the key.
My critic does not attempt to meet my statements
that it is not “ unwieldy”’ since it has the same
number as the Oxford Council (23), that it does its
work excellently, while the Council, when it interferes
with education, deals badly with it and is slovenly in
its routine business. If the General Board is “not
wholly representative of all branches of study,” then
the new Board of 12 will be much less so, and the
evil effects of such a Board are already felt in the
new Board of Research set up by the Council to deal
with applicants for the Ph.D.
(3) With regard to the disfranchisement of the
Senate, my critic says that “ In his criticism of detail
Sir William Ridgeway is not happy. When he says
“The Cambridge Commissioners know perfectly well
that it would not be easy to get fifty signatures
to any appeal within a week,’ the obvious answer
is that Sir William Ridgeway knows perfectly well
that in any issue of importance where an appeal to
the Senate is likely, fifty signatures could be collected
in the Senate-House from the defeated minority,”
etc. Here are my actual words: “ It would not be
easy to get fifty signatures to any appeal within a
week, and to get those of one-third of the House of
Residents within 14 days would be impossible in
view of the further proposal that if a Grace passed by
the House of Residents were rejected by the Senate,
that Grace could be re-affirmed within two terms and
become final.’’ No one would think of getting up,
or signing, an appeal to the Non-Residents to waste
their time and money in coming to oppose a measure
(nor if asked would they come) which even if defeated
by the Senate would become law in two terms. As
my critic has not dared to challenge any of my facts,
his only resort was to impugn my honesty by
garbling my statement, an attempt as futile as dis-
ingenuous. He repeats the charge that the control
of the Senate is ‘‘ capricious,”’ because “its interven-
874
IMAI OM SIR
ss
| DECEMBER 30, 1922
tion is made at the capricious decision of a body of
resident conservatives who, through the Senate, wield
a wholly disproportionate power on matters vitally
affecting the well-being of the University.’’ Yet he
had just admitted that only thrice in twenty-five years
has the Senate come up in force, and that only once
did it outvote the resident majority. His picture of
wicked conservatives “‘ constantly ”’ calling up non-
residents to oppose progressive Radicals is just as
devoid of fact as the assumption that Radicals are
always progressive.
When, in 1910, a like charge was made against the
Senate, I recited in the Senate-House a list of much-
needed reforms and progressive measures (in all of
which I was concerned), e.g. a proper audit and
control of Departmental funds, the reform of the
Press, the reform of the Fizwilliaam Museum, the
founding of the Departments of Anthropology and of
Architecture, etc., etc. (all of which had later to be
carried out), and I charged to their faces the Radical
leaders who then controlled the Council, with heading
the obstruction to all these reforms. No one then or
since has disputed my allegations. The suggestion
that resident conservatives are an insignificant body
is disproved by our important gains in the late
elections to the Council (even without the much-
needed secret ballot). My critic does not deny that
the proposals of the Report respecting the powers of
the Senate, the constitution of the Council and of the
Board of Studies and Research go much further than
the proposals made by the committee of younger
graduates (men under 40) who represent the most
advanced opinion among residents. They wish that
the ultimate decision on statutes should rest with the
Senate, and that the professoriate should keep its
representation on the Council, and have some on the
proposed new Board of Studies.
WILLIAM RIDGEWAY.
Flendyshe, Fen Ditton, Cambridge,
December 2.
LEAVING on one side the more personal aspects of
Sir William Ridgeway’s letter—his zeal for progressive
reforms and the disingenuousness of his critic—a reply j
may be made to one or two of the points raised by
him. He is mistaken in saying that the committee
of younger graduates (men under 40) represent the
most advanced opinion among residents. They have
not unfairly been nicknamed ‘‘ The Cambridge
Whigs.’ Even this body, however, has suggested
that members of the General Board (or Board of
Studies and Research) should be nominated by the
Council and that the Board should be reduced in size
by abandoning the direct representation of the
Special Boards of Study. It is held by many, who
are equally keen with Sir William Ridgeway on the
independent development of educational policy in the
University, that the best solution lies in a small
Board akin to the present Board of Research Studies,
well balanced between the different faculties and
working in close co-operation with the Special Boards.
As to the question whether an appeal against the
House of Residents would ever be made under the
Commission’s scheme, the writer differs absolutely
from Sir William Ridgeway. Differences of opinion
are too acute, and the fighting spirit of both sides too
strong, to allow certain proposals to pass without a
stern contest at every possible point.
THE WRITER OF THE ARTICLE.
Gravity Variations.
Mr. R. D, OL_pHAm’s letter in NarurE of November
18, p. 665, makes the disquieting suggestion that the
force of gravity at Dehra Dun may be subject to
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
fluctuations. The changes that he points out in the
times of oscillation of the Indian pendulums can,
however, be quite reasonably attributed to alterations
in the lengths of the pendulums and errors of observa-
tion, and are not, in my opinion, so grave as to warrant
a belief in anything more fundamental. As Mr. Old-
ham says, there is neither proof nor disproof of a change
in gravity. But the discussion undoubtedly indicates
a weak spot in the Indian operations, namely the
connexion of Dehra Dun with Kew Observatory,
which is the base station for this country. It rests
on the results obtained with four pendulums swung at
Kew and then transported to Dehra Dun and swung
there. The pendulums have never been brought back
to this country, so if they suffered any changes of
length on the journey from Kew to Dehra Dun the
value of g found at the latter place will be erroneous.
It would, of course, have been necessary to under-
take a return journey long ago if no corroboration of
the result of the first journey had been available.
There was, however, the strong corroboration afforded
by Hecker’s observations in 1905, as mentioned by
Mr. Oldham, and the valuable though less powerful
evidence obtained by Alessio in 1906. Hecker’s result
was of special value because at Jalpaiguri his apparatus
was set up alongside the Indian one and simul-
taneous observations were made using the same clock.
Thus there was good reason to believe that the effects
of fluctuations of temperature and variations in the
clock’s rate—the chief sources of uncertainty—would
be the same on both sets of observations, and that
therefore the check on the Dehra Dun value of g
would be nearly as satisfactory as if Dr. Hecker’s
pendulums had been swung at Dehra Dun itself.
The links forming the connexion of Dehra Dun with
the value of g determined at Potsdam are as follows:
Result.
Potsdam—Kew (Putnam, 1900)
Kew—Dehra Dun (Indian operations, 1904) 979:063
Potsdam— Jalpaiguri (Hecker, 1905)
Jalpaiguri—Dehra Dun (Indian, 1905) 979°005
Potsdam—Genoa
Genoa—Bombay (Alessio, 1906)
Bombay—Dehra Dun (Indian, 1904) 979°059
The probable error of each of these results may be
estimated to be between +0-003 and +0:005. The
agreement between them is therefore better than the
probable errors would have allowed us to anticipate.
Commander Alessio’s observations in 1913-14, how-
ever, give a value of 979:079 for g at Dehra Dun, which
differs from the above by nearly four times the
probable error.
Alessio’s observations were most carefully made
with a strong equipment of eight pendulums, and
carry great weight. They have not,so far as lam aware,
been published in detail as yet, and it is not possible
to form a final judgment on them ; but in the article
in the Rivista Marittima quoted by Mr. Oldham, there
is a remark which may perhaps indicate a weak
point. Commander Alessio says that the comparison
of the times of oscillation of the pendulums at Genoa
before and after the journey show that certain changes
had taken place in the lengths of the individual pen-
dulums, but that fortunately the length of the mean
of the eight pendulums had remained absolutely un-
changed. If the changes in the individual pendulums
were large, and if they, or any of them, took place
before the pendulums reached Dehra Dun, then the
deduced value of g at Dehra Dun may be burdened
with a considerable error.
Whatever opinion may be formed when the whole
of the details of Commander Alessio’s work are avail-
DECEMBER 30, 1922|
able for examination, it is clear that the Dehra Dun
value of g should be strengthened by a new direct
determination of the difference Kew—Dehra Dun.
This could bemade by sending the Indian pendulums
back to Kew for a further set of observations to be
made there, or, if the use of Invar pendulums is con-
templated, then the new set of pendulums could be
employed for this purpose. It is imperative that the
value of g at Dehra Dun should be established so
thoroughly as to be unimpeachable.
G. P. LENox-CoNYNGHAM.
Trinity College, Cambridge,
November 209.
THE remarks by Mr. Oldham in Nature of November
18, p. 665, relating to a suggested variation in gravity,
are of great interest. As a result of measurements
of g at Melbourne in 1913, a doubt as to the invari-
ability of g relative to that at Potsdam was forcibly
borne to mind. The report (Gravity Observations,
British Antarctic Expedition, rg10—1913) which
gives the results of the Melbourne measurements,
has been delayed in the press, but it is felt that there
is some evidence in this case of a lack of constancy
in the value of g relative to Potsdam.
The problem is discussed in greater detail from
another point of view in the Glaciological Report
(Wright and Priestley), which is due to appear
shortly. C. S. WRIGHT.
Wey Lodge, Portmore Park, Weybridge,
November 20.
Action of Cutting Tools.
In the interesting letters by Mr. Mallock and Prof.
Coker which have recently appeared in NATURE, some
points of importance to the elucidation of the action
of a tool when operating on materials have been
raised.
Mr. Mallock appears to adhere to the view expressed
in his paper of 1881 that the action is simply a
phenomenon of shear. H. Tresca, however, two years
after Mr. Mallock’s paper showed in his classical and
extensive “Mémoire sur le rabotage des métaux ”’
(Mémoires présentés pay divers savants a l Académie
des Sciences de Institut de France. Tome 27, No. 1,
Fic. 1.
1883) that the phenomenon was primarily one of
plastic flow. The periodic rupture of the chip which
takes place is subsequent to the plastic flow stage
and depends upon the nature of the material being
operated upon, the angle the tool face presents to
the advancing stream of material, and the velocity
with which the material moves relative to the tool.
This stage of the action is complex and does not
appear to be understood fully. The plastic flow
stage, however, is comparatively simple.
In the diagram (Fig. 1) suppose that the tool T
presents a plane face square to the advancing material.
The portion A, which will ultimately form the chip
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
NATURE
875
D, as it approaches the tool begins to flow in region
B, which is Tresca’s zone d’activité. The flow reaches
a maximum in the region C from which the chip or
jet of metal D emerges, and Tresca in the light of the
results of his remarkable and historical investigations
on the flow and deformation of solids likens the action
to the flow of the metal through a tube of shape ABC
with its orifice open horizontally at the top part of
C. Since no change in the density takes place the
product of the co-ordinates xy (where the origin is at
the tool edge) of a point on any surface in B and C
continuous with a horizontal plane in A must be
constant, so that the traces of these surfaces in the
sides and also the free edges of B are hyperbolas.
This zone B can be seen in some of the beautiful
photographs of cutting tools published by Mr. J. F.
Brooks (Proc. Inst. Mech. Engrs., 1905, p. 365) and
more especially in the last photograph of Plate ro,
If now vertical lines be scribed upon the sides, the
state of affairs during flow of a material which does
not rupture for large body-shitts, such as lead, is
represented by Tresca in Fig. 2.
Here the maximum slide velocity is at the edge of
the tool and in the horizontal plane through the edge.
But one of the two important principles enunciated
by Tresca is that during flow the maximum shear
and maximum slide velocity are co-directional. We
should therefore expect the material to rupture along
this horizontal plane, and I think this can clearly be
seen in Plate 11 of Brooks’s photographs of the tool in
action on mild steel.
Turning now to Prof. J. T. Nicolson’s and Dempster
Smith’s experiments (Engineer, 1905, p. 358) and their
diagram of the formation of a chip (Fig. 9), it may be
seen that though the diagram is complicated by
rupture phenomena and by the fact that the tool is
acting on a wedge-shaped part of the forging, Tresca’s
representation of the plastic phenomena is well sub-
stantiated and the maximum shear is clearly seen in
the initial stages.
The start of rupture along the horizontal plane is
also clearly shown by Frederick Taylor in his presi-
dential address before the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers in 1906 (vol. 28), which is a
monumental work on “ The Art of Cutting Metals.”
The same views are expressed by C. Codron in his
extensive series of “ Expériences sur le travail des
machines-outils pour les métaux,’’ published in the
“ Bulletin de la Société d’ Encouragement pour I’ Industrie
Nationale,’ 1903-1905.
The second important principle enunciated by
Tresca, namely, the maximum shear across any face of
a small right six face is a constant = K (Tresca’s plastic
modulus), together with the one already mentioned,
enabled Saint Venant to develop the general equa-
tions of plastico-dynamics. If the mathematicians
876
NATURE
[DECEMBER 30, 1922
could concentrate on this subject, they would do
industry a real service, for nearly all industrial opera-
tions such as punching, shearing, forging, milling,
spinning, and, of course, the turning of metals, are
plastic flow phenomena.
During experiments I carried out with heavy lathes
in 1908 for the purpose of finding the most economical
high-speed steel to use, I encountered some chips
which were not only straight but actually presented
concavity to the tool face, and I have one of these
chips now. They were produced at very high speed
on steel, and are mentioned in the discussion of a
paper read before the Siemens’ Stafford Engineering
Society in 1908 (Proc., vol. 1, p. 93), on “‘ The Plastic
Deformation of Solids.”’
Brewster's beautiful photo-elastic method and
Professor Coker’s important applications of it en-
able the stresses during elastic strain of the tool and
material in the region A to be computed, but Taylor,
in the work cited, has shown how a tool should be
forged and supported on the saddle to give it maxi-
mum life and maximum strength.
Unfortunately for engineering industry in this
country, nearly all lathes are built with the vertical
space between the upper surface of the tool rest and
the line of centres far too small to enable Taylor’s
important conclusions to be put into practice.
ALAN POLLARD.
Imperial College of Science and Technology,
November 29.
I GATHER from Mr. H. S. Rowell’s letter published
in Nature for December 9 that, while interested in
the subject of the flow of metals in shavings, he is not
altogether familiar with the work that has already
been done on the subject. In a comprehensive
“ Mémoire sur le rabotage des métaux ”’ (which can-
not be so well known as I have hitherto believed)
published more than forty years ago, M. H. Tresca
investigated the question of the curling of shavings,
both experimentally and mathematically, the actual
flow of the metal (expressed by a coefficient de
véduction) being especially selected for study under
very varied conditions. The following quotation
indicates only part of the scope of the work: “‘ Ces
phénoménes sont aussi ceux dans lesquels, pour la
premiére fois, les métaux les plus durs, tels que
Vacier, le fer, se comportent en réalité comme le
plomb, comme le sayon, comme le cire, nous dirions
presque comme les liquides, tant est complet le
rapprochement que l’on doit faire entre les rides de
nos différents copeaux et de véritables vagues de
meétal.”’
The memoir is published as one of the ‘“‘ Mémoires
présentés par divers savants a l’Académie des
Sciences de l'Institut de France,’”’ tome xxvii., 1883.
Those familiar already with the beauty of the results
obtained will pardon this effort to direct the atten-
tion of others to the work.
E. N. pa C. ANDRADE.
Artillery College, Woolwich,
December 11.
The Secondary Spectrum of Hydrogen.
SINCE the negatively charged hydrogen atom is
known to exist, from work on positive rays, it seemed
likely that Silberstein’s particular solution of the
three-body problem, applied by him to the case of
neutral helium (Astvophys. Jour., September 1922)
should also be applicable in this case. Consequently
the formula used by him was modified so as to apply
to hydrogen (charge E instead of 2E, and hence N
instead of 4N), and also a small but important correc-
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
tion was made to the value of N so as to take account
of the fact that with two electrons instead of one,
the correction to the mass of the electron for the
finite mass of the nucleus is no longer the same.
It was assumed as a first approximation that the
electrons would be arranged antipodally, and conse-
quently the forces would be again central. So
Curtis’s value of N for hydrogen was corrected so
as to apply to a nucleus of infinite mass :
NS =Nu(x+5r)-
Frequencies were then calculated from the formula
I I I I
va Ga m2 aa):
These frequencies were then sought for in the
secondary spectrum of hydrogen; it is known that
negatively charged atoms are to be found in hydrogen
at fairly high pressures with intensity quite com-
parable with that of the positively charged atom
(“ Rays of Positive Electricity,” p. 39). As a result
it was found that 47 lines in the secondary spectrum
agreed with the calculated values within an absolute
error of one unit of frequency, taking integral values
of m, and m, from r up to 10, and values of m, from
1 to 15, while x, was taken as 2 and 3.
This means that the frequencies can be looked on
as a kind of ‘‘ summation tone,” being the sums of a
Balmer or a Paschen frequency and a frequency in
the infra-red.
It was also found that in several cases a physical
similarity of behaviour was common to “ series ”’
of the lines grouped according to the m’s and n’s
concerned, though this was not exclusively true.
As a standard of reference for the observed frequencies
the values obtained by Merton and Barratt (Phil.
Trans. A, 1922, pp. 388-400) were employed.
As typical may be given the following :—
Formula. Calculated. Observed. Error dv. Character.
3°9
a 169349 16934°51 +0:39 4 842+-+CD
3:10
6 17192°3 I71Q2°14 +o:16 6++CD+-+HP+He
3:12
a6 17527°6 17527°47 +013 3++CD+HP +-+He
i 176388 17639°89 —1:09 o++CD +-+He
6-6
18289°8 18288-26 -+o- °
33 9 54
6:8
ag 196234 19622°74 +0:66 o+He
6:
a 20240°7 20240°71 —o-01 3 +LP
In the foregoing table, the figures in the last
column refer to intensity and the symbols to the
physical properties of the lines as given by Merton
and Barratt (loc. cit.).
It is hoped to complete these and similar calcula-
tions shortly and also to investigate the conditions
under which these lines should be enhanced.
A. C. MENZIES.
Physics Laboratory, The University, Leeds,
December 8.
Science and the Empire.
THE admirable sentiments expressed in the leading
article in NaturrE of December 16 will undoubtedly
be re-echoed by every scientific worker in the country.
In stating, however, that the British Science Guild is
the only organisation which exists to undertake the
propaganda work “ for the extension of an under-
standing of the influence of scientific research and its
results,’ the very effective propaganda which is being
carried out by scientific workers themselves under the
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
877
zwgis of the National Union of Scientific Workers is
overlooked.
Of this body you say “‘it is a Trade Union affiliated,
we believe, to the Labour Party, and it exists to
secure suitable conditions of work and payment for
its members rather than for the extension of natural
knowledge.’”’ In that statement truth and error are
intermingled. The National Union of Scientific
Workers is a registered Trade. Union; it registered
as such when industrial and Civil Service joint councils
on the Whitley plan were being set up and when it
was announced that none but members of Trade
Unions would be given representation on those bodies.
The Employers’ Federations registered as Trade
Unions also and for the same reasons. But the
National Union of Scientific Workers is not affiliated
to the Labour Party or to any political party ; it has
no political funds, and it imposes no restraints upon
the political activities of its members, three of whom
stood for Parliament at the recent election, one in
the Conservative interest and the other two as Labour
candidates.
Again, while it is true that the National Union of
Scientific Workers exists to secure suitable conditions
of work and payment for its members—and all other
scientific workers incidentally—it considers that the
best way to do this is by raising the professional
standard of scientific workers by improved training
and education, and making them aware of their
importance as citizens on one hand, and on the other,
by pointing out to employers and captains of industry
that it is an economy to employ the best scientific
workers, to encourage research, and to assist the
universities. In order to persuade private employers,
corporations and governing bodies to deal justly with
scientific staffs, it is true that the Union would be
prepared to follow the methods employed by such
bodies as the British Medical Association; but it
believes with the British Science Guild that the
attitude of the general public towards science is due
to ignorance or apathy. Accordingly, it puts pro-
paganda efforts, designed to cure these diseases, in
the forefront of its programme, hoping thereby to
increase the demand from industry and the State for
the best scientific knowledge. It is ready to co-
operate with any other body for this purpose, and to
assist any political party with its advice on matters
appertaining to science and scientific workers. It
believes, however, that scientific workers themselves
must be their own propagandists, and that the first
step towards really effective action is unity in the
profession of science. A. G. CHURCH,
: General Secretary.
National Union of Scientific Workers,
25 Victoria Street,
Westminster, London, S.W.1,
December 18.
[THE National Union of Scientific Workers is an
occupational organisation ; therefore its propaganda
efforts, useful as they are, are naturally regarded by
the public as arising from self-interest. The British
Science Guild, on the other hand, requires no technical
or other qualification for membership ; and, as was
pointed out in our article, it bears the same relation
to scientific workers that the Navy League does to
the Royal Navy. It seems to us that a body of this
type, in which citizens engaged in many and diverse
departments of national life are concerned, can afford
much more effective and disinterested support of
science than is possible by any group consisting of
members of the profession alone. That was the
main point of the article to which Major Church
refers, and we see no reason to depart from it.—
Epitror, NATurRE.]
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
The Hermit-crab (&, bernhardus) and the
Anemone (C. (Sagartia) parasitica).
In Nature of December 2, p. 735, I described
observations and experiments on the common hermit-
crab (E. bernhaydus) with its messmates, the anemone
(C. (Sagartia) parasitica) and the polychete worm
Nereis fucata. By the kindness of Mr. Hugh Main,
it has been pointed out that the observations men-
tioned above with regard to the natural position
of the anemone confirm those of J. Sinel (p. 39,
“ An Outline of the Natural History of our Shores,”
1906). Sinel states that ‘‘ the woodcuts that appear
in many text-books—even our high-class ones—
which represent this anemone and its congener, are
in one respect incorrect. The anemone is always
represented as upright—palm-tree like—on the top
of its equipage, as if its chief object were display—
or aride. .. . I have invariably found the anemone
affixed to the rear of the shell and in such a position
that when the hermit is at a meal or even moving
about, the margin of the tentacles just touch the
ground, like some patent sweeping-machine. It, no
doubt, finds this position a paying one.”’
Sinel’s unique and fascinating book contains a fund
of information hidden away ina popular description
of natural history on the shore. Itis plain that, owing
probably to the popular character of the book, many
naturalists have passed over important original obser-
vations described therein by Sinel, whose knowledge
of the biology of the shore has probably never been
equalled.
Sinel’s observations were previously unknown to
me, but the agreement in the two sets of independent
observations is valuable in opposing a traditional
error, and will be sufficient to establish the correct-
ness of the interpretations; the natural position of
the anemone on the hermit-crab was clearly first
shown by Sinel. J. H. Orton.
Marine Biological Laboratory,
Plymouth, December 13.
Winter Thunderstorms.
May I through your columns again ask for reports
of thunderstorms occurring in the British Islands
between January 1 and March 31? With the help
of your readers and of observers of the British
Rainfall Organization I was able to collect a mass
of information on winter thunderstorms for 1916,
1917, 1918, and 1920, from which it appears that on
more than 40 per cent. of the days in question,
thunderstorms occurred somewhere in the British
Islands. In collaboration with the Meteorological
Office I propose to collect information again. The
chief points to be noticed are the times at which
the storms occur, and especially the times of passage
of such storms as pass overhead ; whether a severe
_storm or whether there are only one or two flashes
of lightning or only one or two claps of thunder ;
whether there is a change of wind or a drop of
temperature with the storm; whether there is rain,
hail, or snow; in the case of lightning seen at night
the direction in which it occurs; and any other
information the observer thinks of interest. Reports
are wanted especially from the west and north of
Scotland, and from the south-west, west, and north-
west of Ireland, but any information however slight
from any district in the British Islands will be of
great use to the investigation. Reports should be
sent by postcard or letter to my address (not to
the Meteorological Office). €. J. PB: Cave.
Stoner Hill, Petersfield, December 20.
2 Di
878
NATURE
[ DecEMBER 30, 1922
The Corrosion of Ferrous Metals.
|b 1916 a committee was formed by the Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers under the chairmanship
of the late Sir William Matthews, with sixteen members
of the Institution to investigate the “ Deterioration
of Structures exposed to Sea Action.” The project
was, in the first instance, submitted to the Depart-
ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, which gave
it every encouragement and promised the committee
substantial financial assistance which has already
amounted to several thousand pounds.
An important part of the committee’s investigations
is that connected with the corrosion of iron and steel
structures exposed to sea action. In an exception-
ally well-illustrated paper, read before the Institution
of Civil Engineers on April 4, 1922, Sir Robert Hadfield
wt FN
fs a AD
2 wie :
Oe OPEN
Fic. 1.—Mild steel (with o-7 per cent. manganese).
Longitudinal section x 100 (untreated).
gives a detailed account of the progress of the work
down to that date. j i
The committee decided to expose fourteen types of
ferrous material to sea action in various parts of the
world and to determine by quantitative measurement
their relative powers of resistance towards corrosion.
The metals comprised “ Armco” iron, Swedish char-
coal and wrought irons, four types of carbon steel,
cupriferous, nickel and stainless steels, and two
samples of cast iron, cold and hot blast respectively.
With the exception of the cast irons, the various
metals were prepared in the form of rolled plates
measuring 24 inches in length, 3 inches in breadth
and o-5 inch in thickness. The cast irons were of
like dimensions, and were prepared by casting in the
ordinary way. No further heat treatment was ac-
corded the metals, for the committee considered that
the tests would be of a more practical character if
carried out with the metals in a condition resembling
as closely as possible that obtaining in constructive
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
work. In general the specimens were allowed to
retain their outer skin of oxide, normally present on
the rolled or cast metals; in two cases, however,
additional specimens were prepared from which the
skin was removed by grinding, in order to obtain
information as to the effect of oxide layers upon the
corrodibility of the metal.
Specimens of all the metals were subjected to various
mechanical tests, such as the Izod and Frémont shock
tests, and the Brinell hardness test. Tensile tests
were carried out on bars cut in the longitudinal direc-
tion. Save in the case of the cast irons the bars were
marked at regular intervals along their lengths,
and, after pulling, their elongations from point to
point were carefully determined. This was done in
Fic. 2.—Mild steel (with 0-7 per cent. manganese).
Transverse section x 600 (untreated).
order to ascertain the effect of strain upon the corrodi-
bility of the metal, the intention being to cut small
test pieces from different parts of the strained bars
and subject them to laboratory corrosion.
A duplicate set of tensile test bars, machined ready
for testing, was prepared for immersion in that condi-
tion in the sea at Plymouth. After a prolonged
exposure they will be removed and examined with
the view of determining whether or not the mechanical
qualities of the material are impaired. Very little
work has been carried out on this aspect of the subject
and the results obtained should prove of particular
interest and value.
In addition to the foregoing, one bar of each material,
excepting the cast-iron specimens, was suitably heat-
treated in order to obtain test-data representing the
physical properties of the materials under optimum
conditions. The results obtained are detailed in the
Appendix to Sir Robert Hadfield’s paper and illustrate
in a striking manner the enormous superiority in every
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
879
way of the heat-treated over the untreated metal.
One illustration will suffice. In the case of mild steel,
containing 0-25 per cent. carbon and o-7 per cent.
manganese, the yield point was raised by the heat
treatment from 22-2 to 30°5 tons per square inch ; the
maximum stress from 33°5 to 42:8 tons; while the
Brinell Ball Hardness Numbers rose from 145 to 197.
Needless to say, all the metals have been subjected
to careful chemical analysis, and both the treated
and untreated specimens have been studied photo-
micrographically, horizontal and longitudinal sections
having been prepared of all the metals save the cast
irons. This was rendered desirable in view of the
fact that all the wrought irons and steels had been
rolled. The longitudinal sections were taken at roo
diameters magnification, this being regarded as par-
Fic. 3.—Mild steel (with o-7 per cent. manganese).
Longitudinal section x 100 (treated goo® water : 700° water).
ticularly suitable for examining the elongation of crystal
grains due to rolling; the transverse sections were
photographed at 600 diameters. Fifty-four beautiful
reproductions of the photomicrographs are given in
the paper, and four of these are reproduced in these
columns through the courtesy of the Institution of
Civil Engineers.
It is to be anticipated that the microstructure
of the metals will play an important part in their
powers of resistance to corrosion. Correlation of the
micrographs and mechanical tests reveals several
interesting features. In so far as the wrought irons
are concerned, the heat treatment, by reducing the
grain size, distinctly improves the shock test figures.
The effect of heat treatment on the carbon steels
has been, in the main, in the direction of preventing
the marked separation of ferrite and pearlite, such
as exists in the bars as rolled, and thus to produce
a more homogeneous structure. This is well illus-
trated in the accompanying photographs.
This serves, in a large measure, to account for the
NO. 2774, VOL. E10]
better shock test results obtained with the treated
material. It is calculated that in one of the mild
steel specimens the number of grains per square inch
is 820,000, while, when heat-treated, including quench-
ing, the ferrite grains number about 5 million per
square inch. This gives an idea of the closeness of
the structure and the greater homogeneity produced
by suitable heat treatment.
The necessary bars having been prepared, the com-
mittee were now faced withnumerous problems connected
with their despatch to various parts of the world, namely
to Plymouth, Auckland, Colombo, and Halifax (Canada).
One of the most difficult of these was the method of
marking the bars. In view of the possibility in some
instances of very severe corrosion, there was a distinct
probability that any ordinary marking would be obliter-
Fic. 4.—Mild Steel (with 0.7 per cent. manganese).
Transverse section X 600 (treated goo” water : 700° water).
ated. It was intended that, when exposed to corroding
influences, the two ends of the bars should be firmly
embedded in concrete in a special frame erected for
the purpose. Although a precise record would be
kept of the position of each specimen in the frame,
which would serve as some protection against mixing,
there was the further danger that badly corroded bars
might fall out of place and their identity be lost.
The difficulty was eventually overcome by an ingenious
system suggested by Mr. Maurice F. Wilson, a member
of the committee, and now the chairman. The
method consists in having one, two, or three holes
drilled through the plates at both ends where they
will be preserved by the enveloping layers of concrete.
The holes are drilled in different positions ; those at
one end give what is termed the “ classification letter ”
and indicate the type of metal, whether, for example,
it is Swedish iron or cupriferous steel. At the opposite
end the holes indicate the number of the bar.
In order to determine the effect of strain and of
contact of dissimilar metals a few bars were bent at
a
880
NATORE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
right angles, others were fitted with ordinary rivets
and bolts, while others were bolted one to the other.
When all the bars had been carefully weighed they
were packed in tin-lined cases and despatched to their
respective destinations. The committee arranged that,
at each place, one set of bars should be completely
immersed in sea water; one immersed at half tide
level, thereby becoming alternately wet and dry ;
and one set should be exposed to the sea air only.
When this comprehensive piece of research work
is completed, the results should be of the greatest
value not only to engineers but to all concerned in
the use of ferrous metals.
Sir Robert Hadfield also gives an interesting account
of the employment by the Admiralty of stainless steel
during the war. Considerable difficulty had been
experienced in consequence of the rapid corrosion of
the diaphragms used in connexion with submarine
hydrophones, which were put out of service in a com-
paratively short time. Messrs. Hadfield submitted
experimental diaphragms of steel containing about
36 per cent. of nickel, and others of steel with a r2 to
14 per cent. chromium content. The latter alloy,
the so-called “stainless steel,’ quickly proved its
superiority, and was finally employed for the hydro-
phones. Although the nickel steel was very resistant
to corrosion, its acoustic properties were not so good.
These depend not only on the hardness of the metal
but also upon its elastic limit, in both of which points
the chromium steel was the superior. The diaphragms
were placed in the hull of the submarine several feet
below the water line, and it was noticed that although
the surrounding plates of ordinary steel were soon
covered with barnacles the chromium steel was entirely
free. One of the diaphragms, after having been
immersed in sea water under service conditions for
six months was found to have undergone practically
no alteration. A small film of a dark-brown deposit
was noticed patchwise here and there on the surface,
but this was easily rubbed away with the finger,
revealing the bright metal beneath.
One diaphragm did manifest local corrosion, and a
photomicrographic examination revealed a coarse grain
due, in all probability, to over-heating. A portion
was suitably heat-treated and restored to a normal
condition, after which it showed the usual full resist-
ance to corrosion.
As this chromium steel is one of the metals employed
by the Corrosion Committee in their programme of
tests, it will be particularly interesting, in view of the
foregoing results, to see how this metal behaves.
In conclusion Sir Robert Hadfield very rightly directs
attention to the economic importance of the problems of
corrosion. Accurate statistics on the subject are, for
obvious reasons, unobtainable, but Sir Robert estimates
that the annual cost of wastage due to rusting is probably
well over 700 million pounds sterling, this sum includ-
ing an estimate for the cost of galvanising the metal,
and allowance being made for painting, sheathing,
etc., all of which processes would usually be unnecessary
if the metal were not so prone to oxidise.
One feature of this estimate deserves special attention.
The amount of the annual production of iron and steel
by no means represents an equal increase in the world’s
stock of these materials. The quantity swallowed
up merely in replacing wastage is enormous. We
unite with the author in the hope that his memoir
“will arouse still more attention than the subject has
received in the past, and will create greater interest
in the production of alloy steels, which have the
capacity of resisting corrosion, if not entirely, at any
rate to a much greater extent.” JE ENG
The American Museum of Natural History.
HANKS to the ideals of its president, the en-
thusiasm of its staff, and the abundant illustra-
tions, the reports of the American Museum of Natural
History are always interesting reading, and that for
rg21 forms no exception. Indeed the president, Prof.
H. F. Osborn, lays particular stress on this report, and
he has reissued certain pages of it in a neatly bound
booklet under the title of ‘The American Museum
Ideal.” That ideal he expresses in the words of
Francis Bacon: “a model of universal nature made
jOaN EHS. Gh oF A goodly huge cabinet, wherein what-
soever the hand of man by exquisite art or engine hath
made rare in stuff, form, or motion; whatsoever
singularity, chance, and the shuffle of things hath
produced ; whatsoever nature hath wrought in things
that want life and may be kept, shall be sorted and
included.”
In short, the American Museum is become a world
museum, and to that end it is sending out its explorers
all over the world to gather and compare both for the
benefit of Americans and for the benefit of every
country which they may visit. Acknowledgment is
made of the cordial co-operation which the American
Museum receives from the Governments and scientific
institutions of all those countries, while at home,
NO. 2774, VOL110 |
thanks to the large development of the educational
side of its work, the museum continues to enjoy strong
support from the city government. By the latter at
the end of last year the sum of 1,500,000 dollars was
unanimously voted for the erection of two new sections
of the building as originally planned in 1875. There
is also under consideration, as previously noticed in
NaTuRE, a special school service building to be devoted
exclusively to school education in all its grades.
Prof. Osborn’s ideal, however, goes far beyond this.
He says, “It is evident that astronomy will be the
central feature of our plans, because all the processes
of earth’s history and all the processes of life centre
around original astronomic causes.’ Plans for an
astronomical hall have already been drawn up and pub-
lished, and have been confirmed by the trustees. All
that is wanted is the money. It is estimated that the
buildings when finished will cost not less than 9,000,000
dollars, and Prof. Osborn calls for a new general en-
dowment of 2,000,000 dollars. This latter, he says, will
not only restore the museum to its full-time efficiency,
but will enable it to prepare to keep its promise to the
city government; and when its Asiatic and Oceanic
sections are completed the museum will be able to fill
them with the specimens now in store, including many
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
INCA RL:
881
large groups already prepared and others awaiting
preparation.
The large amount of space, and consequently money,
that is required is partly due to the plan on which the
American Museum of Natural History is arranged.
Our own Natural History Museum has its exhibited
collections arranged on a systematic or classificatory
basis, but in the American Museum the basis is faunistic
or geographical, and an even more serious attempt is
made to display the animals in associated groups and
under their natural conditions. One of the most
striking exhibits illustrated in the present report is
an African elephant group (Fig. 1) opened to the public
during the past year. This includes a male, a female,
nearly five months, while studies were conducted upon
them. The extinct vertebrates form an important
section of the American Museum, and reference is
made to many new reconstructions and exhibits. A
complete series illustrating the evolution of the horse
is being prepared. This section of the report is illus-
trated by a photograph of Erwin S. Christman at work
upon the model of Brontotherlum. We regret to read
that Mr. Christman, who had been connected with
the department from boyhood as draughtsman, artist,
and sculptor, died on November 27, 1921. Another
illustration represents a vigorous wall-painting, by
Charles R. Knight, of the vertebrates found in the
asphalt deposit at Rancho La Brea, and includes the
Fic. 1,—African elephant group in the American Museum of Natural History.
(From a photograph kindly supplied by the Director.)
.
a young one, and a baby elephant, each in a different
and characteristic position, and all together forming
an impressive assemblage. This is the result of eleven
years work by Mr. Carl E. Akeley, who went to Africa
in 1909 to collect the material, and has since been
developing and putting into effect a new method of
mounting. No sooner was this finished than Mr.
Akeley again left for Africa, where he has secured five
fine specimens of the gorilla from the Lake Kivu
District of the Belgian Congo. Another interesting
exhibit consists of models of the marsupial frog of
North America, Ascaphus, a primitive member of the
Discoglossidee. This frog lives only at high altitudes
among the Olympics and other western mountains.
A number of specimens were sent alive to the museum
by shipping them in a device allowing water to drip
continually upon them. They were thus kept alive
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
sabre-tooth tiger, ground sloth, Columbian mammoth,
and an extinct vulture.
Space does not allow us to comment on the very
interesting reports from all the other sections of the
museum, but we may remind our readers that the
building serves as a centre for a large number of
societies. So many as forty-three are mentioned as
having held meetings, exhibits, or lectures at the
museum during 1921. In addition to these the museum
was the headquarters of the second International
Congress on Eugenics, which Prof. Osborn considers
to be the most important scientific meeting ever
held in the museum. It was attended by leading
eugenists from all parts of the world, and a special
exhibit of genetics and racial heredity was prepared for
it. Many members of the congress visited the museum
to study this exhibit, and it is satisfactory to learn that
882
the newspaper press of the United States ended by
according to the work of the meeting serious and
satisfactory treatment. We commend this report to
any one who wishes to learn in a pleasant and easy
NATO Te
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
manner of the extensive and varied work that is
carried out by a modern museum, and to those museum
curators who may desire inspiration in their daily
labours.
Presentation to Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer, F.R.S.
) ATHER more than a year ago the suggestion
was made that the Edinburgh meeting of the
British Association would form a fitting occasion for
the presentation to Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer of
some token of their esteem from his present and past
demonstrators and fellow research workers in London
and Edinburgh. As so
many of those who had
been trained under Sir
Edward now occupy posts
in distant lands it was found
impossible to make the
necessary arrangements for
the presentation at that
early date.
Prof. Halliburton, how-
ever, made a statement at
one of the largely-attended
meetings of the Physiology
Section of the Association,
expressing the desire of all
who had been associated
with their old master in the
prosecution of physiological
research to present him
with some mark of their
esteem and affection, and
indicated the form it would
probably take.
Finally, it was arranged
that the presentation should
take the form of a full-
sized plaque (Fig. 1), and
that a medal replica should
be presented to each of the
many subscribers. The
medal shows in bold relief
the head and shoulders of
Sir Edward, and bears onthe
reverse the inscription :—
Sodali bene merito
Sodales bene volentes
MCMXXII
The work was entrusted to Mr. C. d’O. Pilkington
Jackson, A.R.B.A., sculptor, and has been carried out
in an eminently satisfactory way. It is most artistic
Fic.
and, moreover, an excellent portrait. The large
bronze plaque from which the medal was reduced has
been mounted on stone, with the inscription under-
neath it (Fig. 1). Sir Edward feels that it should
eventually come to the University of Edinburgh,
but at present it remains in the sculptor’s studio
as he wishes to exhibit it
at the Royal Scottish
Academy.
The large list of sub-
scribers includes many of
the leaders in physiology
and other branches of
medical science in this
and other lands, a few of
whom may be named—
Bayliss, Rose Bradford,
Halliburton, is) lstill,
MacWilliam, Mott, Starling,
in this country; and
Hunter and Tait (Canada),
Jolly (S. Africa), Malcolm
and Mackenzie (New Zea-
land), Addis andS. Simpson
(U.S.A.), Row (India),
Itagaki and others (Japan).
Among the original sub-
scribers were two of great
distinction who have un-
fortunately passed away—
A. D. Waller and Benjamin
Moore.
The recognition of Sir
Edward Sharpey Schafer’s
invaluable services to phy-
slology by those who have
worked with him in the
laboratory is a matter
for sincere congratulation
in which all who have
the interests of the develop-
* [Photo ty Drummond Yours) “ment Of smedicalesscience
at heart will join. All
will unite in expressing the hope that he has still
before him many years in which he will continue his
life-work.
Obituary.
F. B. BRYANT.
V E regret to record the death, on November 28, at
the age of sixty-three, of Mr. Frederick Beadon
Bryant, formerly Inspector-General of Forests to the
Government of India. Mr. Bryant received his pro-
fessional training at Nancy, joined the Indian Forest
NO. 2774, VOL. TIO]
Service in 1881, and was posted to the North-West Pro-
vinces and Oudh. Some of the earlier years of his service
were spent in the preparation of working plans for the
important sub-Himalayan forests lying between the
Ganges and the Sarda rivers. This early training,
together with some years of successful executive work
in his province, marked him out subsequently for the
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
IATL
883
post of Assistant Inspector-General of Forests and
Superintendent of Forest Working Plans, which he
held for three years from 1896. After holding suc-
cessively the posts of Conservator of Forests in the
Punjab and Burma and Chief Conservator of Forests in
Burma, he became Inspector-General of Forests to
the Government of India, an appointment which he
held from 1908 till 1913, when he retired from the
service of Government. Mr. Bryant succeeded to this
post at an important period in the history of his depart-
ment. The Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun
had been established two years previously on the
initiative of his predecessor, Mr. (now Sir Sainthill)
Eardley-Wilmot. It fell to Mr. Bryant to guide the
destinies of the Institute in its earlier years, and his
handling of this task was marked by sound common
sense and careful judgment. A man of cheerful
personality, he made a popular chief, and enjoyed to
an unusual extent the goodwill of his department. In
recognition of his services to Government he was
awarded the C.S.I. in 1911. He is survived by a
widow and grown-up family, to whom we extend our
sympathy. “He had the misfortune to lose one of his
sons on active service during the war.
M. E. Bouty, professor of experimental physics at
the Sorbonne and member of the Academy of Sciences,
died in Paris on November 5 in his seventy-seventh
year. To the present generation of physicists in this
country he was probably best known as the editor of
the Journal de Physique and of the Annales de Physique,
but to those of thirty or forty years ago he was the joint
author of a text-book on physics much appreciated by
all who wished to keep themselves up-to- date—the
“Cours de physique de l’Ecole Polytechnique” and
its supplements. His principal published researches
deal with problems connected with the passage of
electricity through liquids and gases, but these memoirs
by no means represent the whole of his work in the
field of research. He succeeded in building up a school
of research at the Sorbonne, and much work published
by his pupils owed its inspiration to Prof. Bouty.
Tue death, on December 10, is announced of Mr.
Edward Degen, sometime of the staff of the British
Museum and the Melbourne Museum. Mr. Degen was
born in Basle in March 1852, and was educated in Basle
and Paris. He travelled extensively and collected
zoological material in West Africa, Uganda, Abyssinia,
and Sakhalin. He was an expert taxidermist and had
paid considerable attention to the moulting of birds,
and to vertebrates generally. He was a Swiss and a
citizen of Basle.
Current Topics and Events.
Ir is stated by the Paris correspondent of the
Times that the centenary of Pasteur was celebrated
officially during the afternoon of December 26 at
the Academy of Medicine. The French Minister for
Health, M. Paul Strauss, was present, and a number
of eminent medical men spoke on Pasteur’s life and
work. The Under-Secretary of Posts and Telegraphs
has approved a design, showing a profile of Pasteur’s
head, for a special fifty-centimes postage stamp to
be issued during the coming centenary celebrations.
Ir may be remembered that, early in the present
year, a proposal to prohibit the teaching of evolution
in the schools of the State of Kentucky failed to pass
the State legislature by one vote. In an article which
appeared in Nature of May 27 (vol. 109, p. 669), the
opinion was expressed that further agitation with the
same object might be looked for in the near future,
That this apprehension was but too well founded
appears by the fact that a “‘ State-wide meeting of
protestant ministers ’’ in Minnesota has lately passed
resolutions demanding that ‘‘ the State shall prove
its impartiality toward its citizens by dispensing with
a subject (i.e. evolution) that is utterly divisive [sic] ;
and is, in the judgment of thousands of its taxpayers,
utterly false.” A reason given for this remarkable
action is that “ this hypothesis . . . has increasingly
shown itself to be a foe to the Christian faith, denying
as it does the veracity of the Scriptures.’’ Such
attempts at suppression are completely out-of-date,
and the importation of religious intolerance into the
question cannot but make the judicious grieve. The
Minnesota meeting was perhaps not aware that the
Catholic University of Louvain sent a special repre-
sentative to the Darwin celebration at Cambridge.
NO. 2774, VOL. I10|
Yer another appeal has reached us on behalf of
the famine-stricken people of Russia, this time from
Dr. Nansen’s committee by way of the Medical Aid
Committee for Sufferers from the Russian Famine.
It is addressed primarily to medical men, and,
following out, apparently, the principle we have
suggested in previous comments on these appeals,
of approaching each group or profession on behalf
of its co-workers in Russia, it is mainly for the
assistance of medical men in Russia. It is stated
that the latter, amid thousands of sick and starving
people, are helpless for the lack of drugs and medical
stores, and medical men here are asked to press for
the formation of an international committee on
medical relief to fight the effects of the famine.
Men of science are needed to attack the sanitary
and biological problems with which Russia and,
through her, the whole of Europe are confronted.
In the meanwhile supplies of medical and other
stores will enable Russian doctors to struggle on
with their task. Gifts in kind should be forwarded
to the Secretary, Medical Aid Committee, 68 Lincoln’s
Inn Fields, W.C.2; contributions in money to the
committee’s treasurer at the London Joint City and
Midland Bank, 6 Chancery Lane, W.C.2.
Tue Library Journal for November 1 contains an
article by Mr. E. C. Richardson, director of Princeton
University Library, entitled “International Co-
operation in Intellectual Work.”” Mr. Richardson
refers to the recent appointment by the League of
Nations of a Committee on Intellectual Co-operation,
and writes with appreciation of the practical utility
of three enterprises which this committee will
necessarily take into consideration. Mr. Richardson
884
*
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
was present, as an observer, at the Brussels meeting
of August 20-22 to consider the future of the great
bibliographical undertaking carried on for so many
years by M.-Lafontaine and M. Paul Otlet. He
gives an outline of what he saw at the Palais Mondial
at Brussels, where a portion of the former exhibition
building is devoted to international co-operation.
The building contains not only libraries and card
catalogues, but also a permanent exhibition of the
activities of all nations and an International Summer
University. MM. Lafontaine and Otlet have for
years superintended this work, sustained by their
zeal, without drawing salaries. Mr. Richardson also
attended the Convention of the International Cata-
logue of Scientific Literature held at Brussels on
July 22 and 24. Of this meeting he writes: “ Not
only were there nine or ten nations represented by
official representatives, but several of these showed
a very vigorous interest and a disposition to continue
contributions ‘and to assist in paying the accumulated
debt.’’ Mr. Richardson also visited the Concilium
Bibliographicum at Zurich. With the aid of funds
secured for the purpose by the American Research
Bureau, the work of the Concilium, which had been
in abeyance since the death of Dr. Field, has been
taken up again vigorously by Dr. Kellogg and the
new director, Dr. Strohl. It is expected that printing
will be resumed next July. Mr. Richardson believes
that, with these enterprises in bibhography in existence,
‘Committee on Intellectual Co-operation ’’ should
be able to secure that, by a proper division of labour,
the bibliography of science should be well and com-
pletely executed.
Dr. SALAMAN’s address to the Potato Conference
at Ormskirk on November 2, which is published in the
Gardeners’ Chronicle for November 25, should prove
of permanent value to horticulture, as while pointing
out a present abuse it indicates at the same time that
the remedy is ready to hand. Dr. Salaman dealt in
vigorous language with the habit of seedsmen of listing
the same variety of potato under different synonyms,
frequently giving different descriptions to the variety
upon its successive appearances, and often quoting it
at different prices! The horticultural world is ob-
viously concerned with the effect of the practice in
commercial horticulture, but the scientific student of
horticulture has to remember this ever-present source
of error when he has to rely upon commercial firms
for the supply of material in the form of cultivated
plants for study or experiment. Fortunately the care-
ful work now in progress at various plant-breeding
stations throughout Great Britain, a work which is
entirely disinterested from the commercial side of
horticulture, is making it continually more possible
to check the accuracy of popularly named varieties,
not only of potatoes, but also of fruit stocks and
scions, cereals, etc. Such work must precede any
careful study of such a problem as the behaviour of
a variety under continuous vegetative propagation,
and bodies like the Synonym Committee of the
National Institute of Agricultural Botany, of which
Dr. Salaman is chairman, are rendering considerable
service to science as well as to horticulture.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
|
In the Journal of the Washington Academy of
Sciences (vol. 12, No. 15), Mr. T. A. Jaggar makes
a plea a geophysical and geochemical observatories.
Instruments of precise measurement need to be
applied to the problems of geology. A record of the
changes, for example, in a river system or mountain
range, is essential if the processes involved are to be
understood and given their due weight in the evolution
of the earth’s surface features. Geological science is
lacking in measured facts of change within human
time. The nature of changes may be gauged from
temporary expeditions to different localities, but
quantitative data can be obtained only by permanent
observatories. The expedition method of study is
never free from the reconnaissance element, and
unexpected phenomena call for special instruments
not included in the equipment. Moreover, there are
seasonal and cyclic variations which an expedition
misses. Mr. Jaggar cites his own experiences at the
Hawaiian volcanic observatory as an illustration of
how continuous measurement may reveal rhythmic
recurrences. He dwells on the nature of the work
which might be done by river and mountain observa-
tories. A glacier observatory would be equally
valuable.
Ir is probable that the most important development
of the cinematograph lies in its application to natural
phenomena. To be able to make a leisured scrutiny
of occurrences so momentary that the eye fails to
hold them, is an inestimable gain. Appreciating the
importance of such moving pictures, the Selborne
Society has recently issued a list of cinematograph
lectures (‘‘ Cinelogues’’) and films which, under
arrangements made with leading film companies, can
be hired on application to the society’s Extension
Secretary, Mr. P. J. Ashton, 72 High Street, Bromley.
The topics dealt with are very varied, including the
life-histories and habits of insects, birds, and other
animals, both terrestrial and aquatic, the rites and
customs of Australian aborigines, the physical pro-
perties of water and of air, the solar system, and
others in the realm of science, besides a number
illustrative of history, English literature, travel, and
topography. The selection offered is admirable, and
can be unreservedly commended to the notice of
schools, societies, and other educational bodies.
We have already referred in these columns
(December 2, p. 743) to the film record of this year’s
Mount Everest Expedition, which was taken by the
official photographer of the expedition, Capt. J. B. L.
Noel. The film is now being exhibited at the Phil-
harmonic Hall, Great Portland Street, W., so that
all may have an opportunity of seeing this wonderful
picture-story ; the proceeds are to be devoted to
the cost of a third expedition. It is a wonderful and
inspiring entertainment. The first part shows the
country through which the expedition passed on its
way to Mount Everest, and it is ably described by
Capt. Noel. The second section deals with monastic
life in Tibet, and records the curious ritual dances which
the party was so fortunate to see at the Rongbuk
monastery at the very foot of Mount Everest. The
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
dances are performed by Lamas, attired in fantastic
costumes and wearing huge masks, who represent
the good and bad spirits the devout will meet in the
next world; devil dances, dances in which ghouls
carry a small dummy representing a dead body,
and a procession of the gods, are among the scenes
depicted. The whole scene is accompanied by music
recorded by Mr. T. Howard Somervell, who has
endeavoured to reproduce the actual sound of a
Tibetan band. As may be expected, it consists
largely of drum and trumpet, but there is a well-
marked rhythm, and Mr. Somervell, who conducts
the music himself, manages to keep his orchestra
fairly well in time with the dancing figures on the
screen, producing a most realistic effect. Anthro-
pologists will welcome this record of Tibetan dances
and music. The third section of the film shows the
actual assault on Mount Everest. The film is de-
scribed by Mr. Somervell, who formed one of the
high climbing parties. Scene after scene of in-
describable grandeur is shown. Many portions of
the film, such as those showing the final attempts
on the summit from the highest camp, at about
25,000 feet, were taken with a telephoto lens. The
music played in the interval and during the exhibition
of the film by Mr. Somervell is based on Nepalese
and Tibetan airs and pastoral music, and some of
the tunes provide very beautiful though simple
subjects. “‘Climbing Mount Everest ’’ is more than
an entertainment; it is a story of high adventure,
of great endeavour, which was robbed of success
chiefly by the bad weather encountered in the last
stage of the journey.
Tue College Board of the London Hospital is
offering for competition the Liddle Triennial Prize
of 129/. for the best essay on “‘ Rheumatic Fever: its
Cause and Prevention.” The last day for the receipt
of essays is June 30, 1923. They should be sent to
the Dean of the College, Turner Street, E.1.
THE Foulerton Award of the Geologists’ Associa-
tion for the year 1923 has been given by the Council to
Mr. A.S. Kennard,F.G.S. Mr. Kennard was associated
with Mr. M. A. C. Hinton in the paper on “ The
Relative Ages of the Stone Implements of the Lower
Thames Valley,” and with Mr. B. B. Woodward in
the production of several important papers on the
Post-Pliocene non-marine mollusca of England and
Ireland.
THE international review Scientia promises its
readers next year “‘ a great international inquiry into
the Einstein theories.’’ It proposes as the funda-
mental purpose, first, to make the theory itself access-
ible to all philosophically minded persons, whether
or not they are mathematicians ; second, to submit
the theory to an objective, unpreiudiced, exhaustive
criticism, which, by making clear the weak points
in need of revision, shall give them their true
value as objections; and third, to endeavour to
appreciate the value and importance of the theory
and the part it has played in the general progress
of science.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
NATURE
885
Tue following awards have been made by the
Society of Engineers (Inc.) for papers read or pub-
lished during 1922 :—President’s gold medal to Dr.
C. V. Drysdale, for his papers ‘“‘ The Testing of Small
Electrical Plant’; Bessemer premium to Mr. E. E.
Turner for his paper “‘ The Atlantic Cruise of H.M.
Airship R34"; Nursey premium to Dr. Herbert
Chatley for his paper ‘“‘ The Physical Properties of
Clay-Mud ”’; Society premiums to A. S. E. Acker-
mann for his paper ‘‘ The Physical Properties of
Clay ’”’ (fourth paper), and to C. H. J. Clayton for
his paper ‘‘ The Economics of Arterial Land Drain-
age ’’; W. Dinwoodie for his paper on ‘‘ Wave Power
Transmission ”’; Clarke premium to R. C. Hill for
his paper on ‘‘ The Submersible Pump ’’; and Geen
premium to A. G. Short for his paper on “‘ Heating.”’
A SERIES of new charts of the currents of the
North Sea is contained in a paper by Dr. G. Béhnecke
(Ver6fflich. Inst. f. Meereskunde, Berlin, N.F. Ser. A,
Heft ro, 1922). The charts are based mainly on a
study of the data representing the variations in the
salinity of the area in question.
TuE Library Press, Ltd., 26 Portugal Street, W.C.2,
will shortly publish a work entitled “Fur Dressing
and Fur Dyeing,” by W. Austin, consulting chemist
to the fur industry, which is intended to cover very
completely the subjects treated of, and to supply a
want felt by workers in the industry.
Dr. C. Davison has in preparation (for publication
in June next if enough copies are subscribed for) “ A
History of British Earthquakes,” in which about 1200
earthquakes in the British Isles from 974 to 1921 will
be dealt with. The work will be illustrated by 91
maps and g diagrams, and it will cost 32s. net.
Orders should be sent, with remittance, as soon
as possible to the author, 70 Cavendish Avenue,
Cambridge.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY of meteorological literature, pre-
pared by the Royal Meteorological Society with the
collaboration of the Meteorological Office, is now
given as a separate publication for each half-year.
No. 2 of the series, which deals with literature
received from July to December 1921, has just
reached us. This half-yearly issue takes the place
of the bibliography previously given in the Quarterly
Journal of the Society. The publication has become
of considerable value to a small body of workers
actively engaged on meteorological research and to
others who desire to keep abreast of advances in
meteorology. Meteorological science is, without
doubt, making considerable advance at the present
time, and increased activity is given to the subject
by such publications, especially with regard to the
many intricacies of the upper air, not only in this
country but by most countries the world over.
Dr. T. F. Watt thinks that the comment of our
engineering contributor, appended to his letter in
Nature of December 16, p. 810, may lead to a
possible misapprehension as to wherein lies the
novelty of the condenser formed by inserting in
886
NA LORE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
dilute sulphuric acid two lead plates pasted with
an oxide of lead—that is to say, using plates of the
same nature as are used in secondary cells. The
aluminium electrolytic condenser is an electrostatic
type of condenser, whereas in the arrangement of
pasted lead plates in dilute sulphuric acid the energy
is stored in the form of chemical energy, and it is
in this respect that the novelty of the new type of
condenser appears. ‘‘ For this reason,’’ Dr. Wall
adds, “‘ the term ‘ electro-chemical condenser ’ more
correctly describes the action of the pasted lead plate
arrangement than the term ‘ electrolytic condenser.’ ”’
Tue third edition, recently issued, of the General
Catalogue of the Oxford University Press is a volume
of 480 pages. Supplementary to the catalogue itself
is an alphabetical list of authors and editors extending
to no less than 128 pages. A preface gives some
interesting statistics, and the activity of the press is
illustrated by the fact there stated, that it publishes,
in one way and another, more than two books every
day. The fifth section of the catalogue deals with
books on natural science, including mathematics,
physics and chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology,
and the history and methods of the sciences. The
present volume is more than a mere catalogue ;
besides giving many bibliographical details—including
size in inches, number of pages, and date of publica-
tion—it sets out the full contents of books in several
volumes and of joint works by several authors. It
describes not only all Clarendon Press books, but also
all books published by the press for learned societies
other than the University of Oxford. The fact that
many of these books are in their nature unremunera-
tive affords good evidence of the service rendered by
the press to the cause of education and learning.
Our Astronomica] Column.
GREAT METEOR OF DECEMBER 6.—This brilliant
object passed over Lincolnshire at 11 4o™ and
illuminated the north-east part of England with
remarkable intensity. It was seen so far away as
Armagh in Ireland, where the observer considered
that its refulgence overpowered the light of the moon.
A number of observations have been received, and
they indicate that the radiant point was in Taurus
at about 56°+8°, and that the luminous flight of
the object commenced in the neighbourhood of
Grantham ; its direction was north-north-west. It
passed nearly over Lincoln and Grimsby, and at the
latter place its height appears to have been 24 miles.
Continuing its course, it fell to about 2 miles in height
when a short distance south-east of Hedon, near Hull,
and about 2 miles further on probably fell to the
ground. No meteorite has, however, been reported
as having been discovered up to the time of writing,
but such an object might very easily escape detection.
The meteor appeared so late at night that, in spite
of its great lustre, it was noticed by comparatively
few observers.
STELLAR TEMPERATURES AND PLANETARY RADIA-
TION.—In an earlier communication, Dr. W. W.
Coblentz gave estimates of the temperatures of sixteen
stars as determined from their spectral energy
distribution, which was obtained by means of a new
spectral radiometer, consisting of a series of trans-
mission screens and a vacuum couple. By means of
these screens, which, either singly or in combination,
had a uniformly high transmission over a fairly narrow
region of the spectrum and terminated abruptly to
complete opacity in the rest of the spectrum, it was
possible to obtain the radiation intensity in the
complete stellar spectrum as transmitted by our
atmosphere. The standard used for comparison was
a solar type star a Aurige, type Go. Being now
equipped for making radiometric measurements of
the sun, the effective temperature of which is known
with a considerable degree of accuracy, Dr. Coblentz
communicates the results of this comparison in the
Proc. of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,
Vol. 8, No. 11, Nov. 1922. In this he describes the
apparatus and method of procedure. He finds the
agreement between the observed temperatures of a
Aurige and the sun satisfactory, and thus verifies the
previous measures of stellar temperatures, which
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
range from 3000° K for red, class M stars, to 12000° K
for blue, class B stars. In the case of the planets,
Dr. Coblentz differentiates between the thermal
radiation as a result of warming by exposure to solar
radiation and the heat radiated by virtue of a possible
high internal temperature of the planet itself. The
planetary radiation he finds increases with decrease
in the density of the surrounding atmosphere, and as
a percentage of the total radiation emitted he gives the
following values: Jupiter o, Venus 5, Saturn 15,
Mars 30, and the Moon 8o.
SPECTROSCOPIC PARALLAXES OF B Srars.—Mr.
D. L. Edwards read a paper at the meeting of the
Royal Astronomical Society in November on the
pioneer work on these stars that has been carried
out at the Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth,
where 200 negatives have been studied and the
intensities of various lines correlated with respect
to type and absolute magnitude.
The helium lines at 4472 and 4026 were found to
be good indexes of spectral type, and by their aid
some gaps in the Harvard series were filled. Line
4472 was found to vary also with absolute magnitude.
The measures of the intensities of lines could be
made very accurately by noting the point of dis-
appearance in a darkened wedge.
The difficulty in getting absolute magnitudes was
that very few trigonometrical parailaxes of B stars
had been obtained. It was necessary to use also
parallaxes derived from proper motions, and the
hypothetical parallaxes already published for many
binary stars. In the discussion it was noted that
the assumed mass used in getting the latter was
twice that of the sun, but that this is probably too
small for B stars. The use of a larger mass would
reduce the hypothetical parallax. For this and other
reasons it was felt that, while there was every reason
to believe the method would prove a very useful
one, it was advisable to look on the calibration
of the curves as provisional. Mr. Edwards used
Kapteyn’s value, 0”-04, for the parallax of 7 Tauri {in
the Pleiades), but some recent determinations give
o”-or.
It is of particular importance to extend our know-
ledge of the limits of absolute magnitude of the
B stars, since the results will have important bearing
on the distances of the globular clusters.
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
887
Research Items.
SCIENCE AND PuHiILosopHy.—An article by Sir
Oliver Lodge appears in the December number of
Scientia on ‘The Philosophy of Science or the
Principles of Scientific Procedure.’’ Sir Oliver
endeavours to draw a clear distinction between
questions which definitely and legitimately belong
to science, and those which, though of interest
to science, belong to philosophy and cannot be
answered by the ordinary methods and procedure
of science. The size of an atom is an example of
one, the infinity of space of the other. Sir Oliver is
quite ready to admit that we can make no sharp separa-
tion between our philosophic, artistic, and scientific
interests, which are an integral part of human nature
and inextricably combined, but he seems to think
that on the objective plane we can separate out the
different realms and clearly demarcate their frontiers.
No one is likely to dispute that there are certain
kinds of fact which admit of being investigated
with an isolation which is practically complete.
What we want to know is whether any fact enjoys
its isolation by right and not in consequence of a
practical interest on the part of the investigator who
contrives it? Some points in the article illustrate
how doubtful this is. Sir Oliver attaches prime
importance to the ether of space as a scientific
explanation ; would he class it as a scientific or as
a philosophic problem ? How can it be discussed
without reference to the infinity of space, which is
a question the man of science is to leave to the
philosopher? Again, as an example of scientific
deduction and prediction we are given the discovery
of Neptune, but we are not told where to place or
how to explain the failure to discover Vulcan.
Oat STRaAw AS A CaTTLE Foop.—S. H. Collins
and B. Thomas have an interesting paper in the
Journal of Agricultural Science, vol. xii. pp. 280-286,
1922, upon “ The Sugars and Albuminoids of Oat
Straw.’’ The authors set out to answer a question
that first occupied the attention of one of them
twenty-two years ago. “‘ Why can cattle be fattened
on roots and straw in Scotland and not in England ? ”
Limitations of time apparently prevented the prosecu-
tion of experimental work then, and in the last
twenty years there has been considerable develop-
ment in our knowledge of animal nutrition, so that
the authors can now attack with considerable
precision the question as to whether the nutrients
available in the straw will supplement the deficiencies
of grain feeding. The answer appears to be that
good oat straw, mainly owing to its relatively high
percentage of albuminoids, may well do this, but
oat straw has been found to vary in this percentage
between 1:12 and 8-05. The low percentages are
usually for the straw from the south of England,
the high from Scotland; this may be, in part, a
question of latitude, but the high figures for Cumber-
land and Westmoreland, and the values for differently
manured crops, lead the authors to think that good
husbandry and suitable supplies of organic nitrogen
are even more important. These investigations
certainly seem to bring the original question ap-
preciably nearer solution. An interesting point in
the sugar estimations reported is the fact that the
main sugar of the straw appears to be levulose,
while the main digestible carbohydrate constituent
of the grain is the dextrosan starch. If the ideal
carbohydrate for nutrition be cane sugar, then this
is an additional argument for the good straw proving
a valuable supplement to the grain ration.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
DrEp Root Systems oF Crop Prants.—The diffi-
culties attending the study of the root systems 2
situ has led to a comparative neglect of this important
branch of research until recent years. Prof. J. E.
Weaver, F. C. Jean, and J. W. Crist, in the “ Develop-
ment and Activities of Roots of Crop Plants” (Car-
negie Institution of Washington, 1922), are to be
congratulated on realising the urgency of this prob-
lem. The value of this work is much enhanced by
the numerous sketches of actual root systems made
during excavation, together with full details of en-
vironmental conditions and experimental results. Re-
peated investigations at various stations indicate that
all cereals possess two distinct groups of roots, one
spreading in a more or less horizontal direction in the
upper layers of soil, and the other penetrating deeply
into the subsoil to a depth-of six or seven feet. The
lower roots are often much branched and appear to
be of the normal absorbing type. In potatoes, on
the other hand, the original shallow roots turn verti-
cally downwards and form the deeper portion of the
system. As a general rule, only the first six or eight
inches of soil are regarded as being of much value in
plant nutrition, but controlled experiments indicate
that these deep roots play a great part in water
absorption, as much or more water often being re-
moved from a depth of three feet as from the surface
layers. Maize was proved to absorb large quantities
of water from the fifth foot. It was similarly shown
that such fertilisers as nitrates were freely removed
from the lower soil depths, to five feet in the case of
maize, and at least two and a half feet with barley
and potatoes. Furthermore, when roots came into
contact with a fertilised layer they developed more
strongly and branched more profusely, and at the
same time normal penetration into the soil below was
apparently retarded. The depth at which manures
are placed in farm practice must therefore have a
considerable effect on root development, and surface
applications during times of drought may be very
detrimental by keeping the roots from penetrating
into the deeper layers with greater watersupply. The
authors conclude that ‘‘ the deeper soils are not only
suited to plant-life, but that they play an exceedingly
important part in the life of the plant, and deserve
careful consideration in a study of crop production.
BorroM-LivING COMMUNITIES IN THE SEA.—A very
full account of the biology of the Danish crustacea,
Gammarus locusta, and Mysis inermis, flexuosa and
neglecta, is given by H. Blegrad in the twenty-eighth
Report of the Danish Biological Station (Copenhagen,
1922). The work has interest in connexion with
Dr. Petersen’s studies of bottom-living communities
in the sea. It is not nearly enough that the numbers
of animals inhabiting a unit area should be known ;
some good estimates of the rates of reproduction and
the number of generations that occur throughout a
year, for example, are necessary if we have to attempt
a measure of the productivity of a sea-bottom area.
The object of the memoir under notice is to supply
some information on these subjects.
Mo.tiuscs oF THE CoLtorapo DEsERT.—Dr. S. S.
Berry’s notes (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia,
Ixxiv. 1922, pp. 69-100) on the molluscs of the
Colorado Desert include short descriptions of speci-
mens belonging to eight genera, most of them repre-
sented by a single species, but one genus (Micrarionta)
is represented by five species, two of which are new.
This land snail fauna is confined to the steep mountain
slopes, while the fresh-water mollusca are centred
888
NATURE
[DrcEMBER 30, 1922
around the relict-covered bed of the ancient lake
Cahuilla—7.e. the Colorado Desert in the exact
original sense of this term. The enormous numbers
of shells present in many parts of the valley and
the discovery of many of the same species still
flourishing in certain of the outlying springs and
rivulets have long ago attracted attention to this
section of the fauna. A list of papers on the mollusca
of the Colorado Desert is given.
ANIMAL ASSOCIATIONS OF SOME CRUSTACEA.—A
memoir on the Pontoniine—a sub-family of the
decapod Crustacea—based chiefly on material in
the collection of the Zoological Survey of India, is
contributed by Dr. Stanley Kemp to the Records
of the Indian Museum (xxiv. 1922, pp. 113-288,
9 pls.). A detailed systematic account of and keys
to the genera and species are given, and Dr. Kemp
directs attention to the ability shown by members
of the sub-family to form associations with other
animals. Some are found on sponges, others on
actinians, on Alcyonaria, or on corals, a few on star-
fishes and sea-urchins, many live on crinoids, a
considerable number of species live in the mantle
cavity of bivalve molluscs, and some are known from
the branchial sac of ascidians. In the case of those
which live in the mantle cavity of bivalve molluscs,
in practically every example a male and female
prawn are found together in the same mollusc, and
Dr. Kemp infers that after the prawns are once estab-
lished in their host they never leave it. A list of the
animal associations recorded in the Pontoniine is given.
AMERICAN OLIGOCENE Mammats.—Mr. W. J.
Sinclair has two papers on American fossil vertebrates
in a recent number of the Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society (vol. Ixi. 1922, with text figs.).
The first, treating of ‘‘ The Small Entelodonts of the
White River Oligocene,” discusses the relationships
of Archeotherium coarctatum, Cope, and A. mortoni,
Leidy, in the light of fresh specimens acquired by
one of the Princeton Expeditions. After a careful
analysis it is suggested that, so far as the assumed
primitiveness of A. coarctatum is concerned, every
one of its characters which might be regarded as
primitive is possessed in some degree by specimens
which differ from it in other respects, so that it would
be necessary either to name every variant or to refer all
to one species for which the name A. mortoni would
have priority. The other paper, on ‘‘ Hydracodons
from the Big Badlands of South Dakota,’ dis-
tinguishes four specific types :—H. arcidens, Cope,
H. nebrascensis, Leidy, H. apertus, sp.n., and H.
leidyanus, Troxell; and their range in time is shown
in tabular form. The distinctions between these
species, or possibly subspecies, are based primarily
upon structural differences in the upper posterior pre-
molars. No intermediate stages have been observed.
THE Lavas oF SNowponta.—A marked gap in
our detailed knowledge of the igneous rocks of the
Snowdon area has been filled by Howell Williams
in a recent paper in the Proceedings of the Liverpool
Geological Society (vol. 13, part 3, p. 166, 1922).
The author deals with the country near and mainly
east of Capel Curig, tracing the devitrified rhyolitic
lava-flows of Snowdon across the district. Con-
siderable attention is given to alterations due to
solfataric action, and the puzzling “ bird’s-eye
slates,’ with their strings of small ellipsoids of
calcite arranged across their bedding, are compared
with those of the Lake District, and are attributed
to an epoch when carbon dioxide was the principal
escaping gas. These unusual rocks are limited to
an horizon between the middle and uppermost
rhyolites of the Capel Curig suite.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
EartTH CURRENTS IN FRANcCE.—In La Nature
(November 25, p. 339, and December 2, p. 355) Dr.
Albert Nodon has described a new series of researches
upon the electric currents flowing in the earth.
An observing station for this- purpose was set up
in the summer of 1921 near Sauveterre in the Basses
Pyrénées; the district is far removed from any
industrial electric circuits, being in a wide, well-
watered prairie on clay soil, the humidity of which
is probably fairly constant; it is therefore well
suited in many important respects for such observa-
tions. Four overhead wires (the lengths of which
are not stated) branch out in directions north-south,
east-west, south-east to north-west, and south-west
to north-east, from a small observatory. The earth-
contacts at the ends of the wires were made by large
zinc plates; the contact electro-motive forces from
these plates annul one another and appear to have
given no trouble. The currents were measured by
a milliamperemeter, eye-readings being taken with
a lamp and scale; no continuous photographic
registration is arranged. The conductivity of the
soil in various directions is measured from time to
time by applying a known E.M.F. to the wires.
Other observations include the earth’s horizontal
magnetic force, and the intensity of penetrating
radiation, the latter being measured by a delicate
electrometer in a closed metal case. The currents
which flow along the direction of latitude appear
to be small and invariable in direction, namely,
from east to west; those from north to south are
very variable both in direction and magnitude ;
the currents in the intermediate directions agree
with the resultant of the east-west and north-south
currents along these directions. The conductivity
of the soil appears to vary in parallel with the
intensity of penetrating radiation, and also to be
augmented when the earth currents are large.
Various other correlations, with meteorological and
solar phenomena, are indicated, but the results can
only be regarded as provisional in view of the short
period over which the observations extend.
STREET LiGHTING.—A meeting of the Illuminating
Engineering Society, on December 12, was devoted
to a discussion on street-lighting. Mr. Haydn T.
Harrison, in an introductory paper, pointed out the
importance of correct distribution of light and
described several devices for improving the natural
distribution of illuminants, notably the holophane
lantern and the “longitudinal system ’’ for which
he himself -.was responsible. He pointed out that
the classification of streets in terms of minimum
illumination adopted in the United States agreed
closely with that recommended in this country,
and urged that ‘‘ minimum horizontal illumination ”’
was the best basis of specification for public lighting.
A contribution by Mr. L. Gaster dealt mainly with
street lighting in relation to traffic, and some figures
were quoted showing how the diminished lighting
in war time had contributed to the increase in street
accidents. Experiments in 32 American cities in-
dicated that 17-6 per cent. of accidents occurring
at night were due to inadequate illumination. Dr.
Clayton Sharp gave an interesting survey of methods
adopted in American cities. A feature of such
tests has been the utilisation of a length of road for
actual experiments with different forms of lamps.
Another point, mentioned by Mr. Thomson, chairman
of the Street Lighting Committee of the Westminster
City Council, is the desirability of arranging lights
so as to illuminate the exteriors of important build-
ings, so as to render them visible by night as well
as by day. The advice of architects in considering
this aspect of public lighting would be of value.
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
889
Weather Cycles in Relation to Agriculture and Industrial Fluctuations."
apo years ago Sir William Beveridge was led
to investigate the problem of weather periodi-
city from a new point of view, or at least with
materials hitherto unused—using wheat prices in past
centuries as evidence of harvest yields and so of
the weather. The investigation falls into three stages,
namely :
(x) Construction of an index of wheat price
fluctuation in Western Europe from 1550 to 1869,
the index showing the price in each of those 370
years as a percentage of the average price for 31 years
of which it is the centre.
(2) Harmonic analysis of this index for about
300 years to 1850 in order to discover periodicity.
In this analysis all possible trial periods between
2k and 84 years in length have been examined and
every apparent periodicity has been tested by
analysing separately the two halves of the sequence.
The result of the analysis is remarkable; not one
or two but many distinct periodicities—thirteen or
more—are suggested, and the suggestions are con-
firmed in varying degrees by the discovery of similar
periodicities in meteorological records. In view of
all the evidence, two of the periods—of 5:1 years
(found independently by Capt. Brunt and Mr. J.
Baxendell), and 35:5 years (found by Dr. Briickner
in 1890)—may be regarded as “ certain,’ though not
necessarily the most important. Seven others, with
lengths 5-67, 9°75, 12°84, 15:23, 19:90, 54:0, and 68-0
years, are classed as “‘ nearly certain’; all of these
show more strongly than the Briickner and many
of them more strongly than the Brunt-Baxendell
cycle. Four more periods of 3:41, 4:41, 5:96, and
8-05 years are “ probable.’’ There are six other
“ possibilities ’’ including an Ii-year period, corre-
sponding in phase and in instability as well as length
to the sun-spot period.
(3) Comparison of deductions from this analysis
of wheat prices before 1850 with the actual rainfall
from 1851 to 192r on the assumption that the
meteorological factor most uniformly adverse to
wheat in Western Europe is rain.
For this purpose eleven out of the thirteen
“ certain,’’ ‘‘ nearly certain,” and “ probable ”’ cycles,
with the lengths and phases given by harmonic
analysis, have been drawn for the years 1851 to 1921
and combined by a simple graphic method. The
resulting “‘ synthetic curve ’’ shows a large measure
of agreement with the actual rainfall for those years ;
for the 55 years to 1905 the coefficient of correlation
is 0-38 or about five times its probable error. The
principal droughts of the last seventy years, including
that of 1921, are particularly well shown and so
foretold by the “ synthetic curve.”
This investigation, it is submitted, establishes the
existence, importance, and persistence over more than
300 years, of definite periodicities in the yield of
European harvests, some or all of which must be
attributed to cycles in the weather. It opens up
the possibility of valuable forecasts of general condi-
tions. But no such forecasts either as to the year
1923 or any other year are now possible, and Sir
William Beveridge makes none. He claims for his
investigation nothing more than that it affords a
starting-point for more detailed studies ; his hope is
that competent meteorologists may be encouraged
once again and more hopefully to take up these
studies.
Mr. R. A. Fisher suggested that a periodicity in
1 Joint discussion of Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science), F
(Economic Science and Statistics), and M (Agriculture) of the British
Association at Hull on September 7,
NO. 2774, VOL. I10]
yields is not necessarily an indication of a periodicity
in weather since it may indicate merely a periodicity
of economic conditions. For example, the amount
of a farmer’s crop is affected by the state of the labour
market and the state of his own bank account.
Nevertheless, if any considerable and _ persistent
periodicity really exists in the weather, it would be
likely to affect the crops and hence their prices with
a similar periodicity. The crop data suitable for an
investigation of this kind should be obtained, however,
not under commercial but under experimental
conditions. The figures obtained at Rothamsted
differ from those of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Detailed examination of these figures and comparison
with rainfall records, indicates that rainfall apparently
accounts for 30-50 per cent. of the total variation
in crop.
Examination of the distribution of the rainfall in
each year shows that slow changes in yields seem
to be affected only by (a) the total rainfall in the
year, and (b) the excess of summer and winter rain
over that in spring and autumn. Between the two
latter there is a striking difference. In total rainfall
there have been spells of wet and dry years, two
wet spells about 35 years apart. But these spells
can scarcely account for more than 10 per cent. of
the changes in the yields, though they may account
indirectly for a larger percentage, e.g. by favouring
weed infestation. A period of 70 years is not enough,
however, to determine periodicity ; in any case the
quantitative value of the spells is not great, probably
less than 7 per cent. of the variation in crop:
the remaining 93 per cent. appears to be quite
fortuitous. It is here that the weak point occurs
in any argument which would make the yield of
farm crops to be dependent on the weather.
The change which variation in excess of winter
and summer rain over that of spring and autumn
causes is more interesting than that caused by total
rainfall. Examination of ten-year means reveals a
steady increase for the last 70 years with no sign
of slackening. The effect of an increase in December
rain on the wheat yield is rather striking ; on dunged
plots, for example, a loss of more than 1} bushels
per acre occurred.
The general result of examining these weather
records is that in most features the succession of
seasons appears to be wholly fortuitous, and in all
features by far the larger part appears to be fortuitous.
The two cases in which distinct changes are noticeable
account for a very small proportion of the variation
in yield. It is of course not denied that any series
of values, however arbitrary, may be expressed by
Fourier’s expansion as a number of harmonic
cycles; but in the case of the weather, these cycles
will be for the most part of short duration, and
cannot be expected to reproduce themselves in the
series of crop yields. For given weather the crop
may be predicted with some accuracy, but Mr.
Fisher is of opinion that the crop cannot be predicted
even approximately without a detailed prediction of
the weather.
Dr. Simpson remarked that meteorologists might
be divided into two classes, those who had discovered
a period and those who had not. The latter as a rule
did not believe in periodicity, while the former
generally believed only in the period they had
themselves discovered. He exhibited on the screen
a table showing 88 periods discovered by various
investigators in solar and meteorological phenomena.
These ranged from 1800 years to 2 hours, and he
directed attention to the fact that from such a large
890
JWI MOG Sa
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
number of periods—no attempt had been made to
make the table complete—it would not be difficult
to find a period near any specified period, especially
if one were allowed to consider multiples and sub-
multiples. He then discussed the two chief meteoro-
logical cycles, the Briickner cycle and the sunspot
cycle. The hundred-year record of London rainfall
has been analysed for a 35-year period, and a curve
added to a diagram of monthly totals to show on
the same scale the contribution of the cycle to the
total rainfall. The amplitude of the cycle is absolutely
insignificant in comparison with the monthly varia-
tions. Dr. Simpson admitted that there is an
appreciable correlation between sunspots and meteoro-
logical factors, but as sunspots have no true periodicity
they cannot introduce a periodic term into meteoro-
logical phenomena.
Turning to Sir William Beveridge’s results Dr.
Simpson regretted that he had not seen Sir William’s
recent paper in the Journal of the Statistical Society
but only his papers in the Economic Journal, because
the periods on which Sir William appears now to
rely are different. He was prepared to admit that
Sir William Beveridge had discovered certain
periodicities in his curve of prices of wheat which
were many times greater than one would expect
by chance, but he strongly contested that these were
meteorological periodicities. Sir William Beveridge
laid great stress on a periodicity discovered by Capt.
Brunt in Greenwich temperature, 5:I years, which
coincided with one of his cycles, but it was pointed
out that Capt. Brunt discovered 9 cycles, four of
which had greater and four smaller amplitudes than
this particular cycle. Also Capt. Brunt’s cycle of
5*I years reduced the standard deviation of mean
monthly temperatures at Greenwich only from 2-80
to 2-77, an insignificant change.
Dr. Simpson also criticised Sir William Beveridge’s
synthetic curve and asked why that curve should be
compared with rainfall. There appeared to him no
more reason why it should apply to rainfall than to
any other meteorological or economic or even bio-
logical factor which might conceivably affect a
harvest. In conclusion, admitting all that Sir William
claimed to have done, he did not think that a predic-
tion which gave a correlation coefficient with actuality
of only 0:38 had any practical value. When Sir
William had increased his correlation coefficient to
about 0-83 he would be a valuable forecaster, but
not until then.
Mr. Udny Yule said that the comments of Dr.
Simpson seemed to him unfair. It must certainly
be recognised that mere inspection of data was
wholly inadequate and might lead to unfounded
ideas as to the existence of periodicities, but this
criticism had no bearing on work carried out by the
periodogram method. He felt a good deal more
doubt than some previous speakers on the question
whether crop cycles were or were not a vital factor
in the general economic cycle, which required far
more study. From the statistical side the most
important work now to be done is the determination
of the crop cycles in areas other than Western Europe,
e.g. South America and India: in so far as crop
cycles are an important factor in the economic cycle,
the resultant in any one country must be a complex
effect dependent on the sources of its raw materials.
On the side of economic theory it seemed to him
there is also work to be done. The treatment of
economics is in general static. The economist is
too apt to tell us that “in the long run ”’ a pendulum
will hang vertically, whereas the whole interest of
the pendulum is that it swings, and the problem is
why it swings and how it swings. The treatment
of economics should be dynamic. The question
might be asked, for example, whether there is not
an equation relating production not merely to price
but to price and its time differentials, an equation
which might (or in given circumstances might not)
have a periodic solution.
Prof. H. H. Turner considered that we should be
grateful to Sir William Beveridge, first, for producing
a long series of annual values, going back much
further than our longest rainfall record; secondly,
for having himself analysed them completely by the
periodogram method, so that others can profit by
his analysis; and thirdly, for two considerable
successes inthe outcome. One of these is remarkable.
He had succeeded in forecasting the weather in some
sort—a rare, if not unique, achievement up to the
present. The other success consisted in isolating
several periods which must be further investigated.
The periodogram gives us only the beginning, not
the end of an investigation. Having obtained, for
example, the definite suggestion of a 15-day period
we must then see how it behaves throughout the
series; the maximum phase seems to oscillate in
this case. Such oscillations frequently occur in
manifestations of periodicity which may itself be
quite regular; thus, the rotation of the earth is
quite regular, but one of its manifestations is sunrise,
which swings to and fro. Sir William Beveridge had
given us a good start, which it is to be hoped will be
followed up.
Geology of the North Sea Basin.
“] ale long-standing custom of devoting at least
part of a session of the Geological Section of
the British Association to matters pertaining to the
geology of the district in which the meeting is being
held, was extended this year to the consideration of
the wider question of the geological history of the
North Sea basin, the discussion on this subject being
the first of a series held in different sections on various
aspects of the North Sea.
The discussion was opened by Prof. P. F. Kendall,
president of the section, and was continued by Mr.
J. O. Borley, of the Fisheries Research Laboratory,
Lowestoft, who described the nature and distribution
of the deposits now being laid down. Mr. Thomas
Sheppard dealt with the geology of the Hull district,
and Mr. C. Thompson contributed an interesting paper
on the present rate of erosion of the coast of Holderness.
The main tectonic lines of the British Isles and of
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
the neighbouring area, the North Sea, were produced
prior to the formation of the Permian rocks, the
three main axes of folding being the Caledonian
(N.E. and S.W.), the Pennine (N. and S.), and the
Armorican (W. and E. approximately). Later
movements, for the most part along these old lines,
were responsible for the changes in the distribution
of land and water which have taken place.
The region now occupied by the North Sea appears
to have been an area of depression since a very remote
period. Thus it is found that movements which took
place during late Carboniferous times and during
the period, unrepresented by any deposits in Europe,
that elapsed before the deposition of the Permian
rocks, caused the coal measures to dip into the basin
in Holland and Belgium, in Northumberland and
Durham, and probably also in Lincolnshire, to re-
emerge at Ibbenbiren.
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
8gI
The sinking of the basin thus formed appears to
have continued intermittently in Permian, Jurassic,
and Cretaceous times, the Permian and Jurassic
deposits in the Durham-Yorkshire area being thicker
than in almost any other part of Britain, and the
Lower Cretaceous beds (the Speeton clay), being of
a deep water type, contrasting strongly with the
shallow water and estuarine deposits of that age to
be found in parts of Britain more remote from the
basin. The chalk also reaches its maximum British
development on the East Coast.
After the formation of the chalk, the area was
uplifted and much denudation took place prior to
the deposition of the Woolwich and Reading beds
and London Clay, which marks the commencement
of a further downward movement. These Lower
Tertiary beds still occupy the London and Hampshire
basins and extend below the southern part of the
North Sea. Prior to the great denudation which
followed the uplift in Miocene and early Pliocene
times, they doubtless occupied a much wider area—
the then basin of the North Sea with its embayments
and estuaries.
Then followed intermittent movements of the
Armorican folds in the south of England, Northern
France and Belgium extending into Pliocene (Diestian)
times.
From this time onwards it is possible to trace the
southern and western shores of the North Sea with
some degree of accuracy. In Diestian times, Harmer
suggests that the coast-line ran from the neighbour-
hood of Dover across the straits into Belgium, the
shore deposits being represented by the Lenham beds
and the Diestian of Belgium. The later Pliocene
deposits indicate a gradual retreat of the sea to the
northwards, the fossils of the Red Crag and Norwich
Crag showing a gradual increase in the number of
living as compared with extinct species as they are
traced from Essex to the Wash.
At the close of Pliocene time much of the southern
portion of the North Sea Basin must have been low-
lying land, and across this meandered the great rivers
of Northern Europe. The estuary of the Rhine,
according to Harmer, crossed Norfolk ; and in it were
laid down the Chillesford beds.
To the north of the Humber the coast-line of this
period has been traced by a line of buried cliff with
accompanying beach deposits running from Hessle
on the Humber, inland to the west of Beverley, and
emerging on the line of the existing coast at Sewerby,
between Bridlington and Flamborough Head. The
plain of marine denudation in front of this old coast-
line has been charted and contoured by means of
information obtained from numerous borings which
have been put down in search of water in the Plain
of Holderness.
The next phase was a retreat of the sea and the
formation of sand dunes along the foot of the cliff.
The geological date is indicated by the occurrence of
Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, and hippopo-
tamus in the deposits, a fauna which accompanies
implements of Chellean type in the south of England.
Throughout Pliocene times, a gradual refrigeration
of the climate was in progress, as is shown by the
molluscan fossils and also by the land flora, where
remains of this have been preserved ; and the next
episode was the formation of a great ice-sheet having
its radiant point in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of
Bothnia. This appears to have displaced the waters of
the North Sea at least as far south as the coast of Essex.
Retreats and readvances took place, but the final
retreat of the ice can be traced with great detail
and precision by the drainage phenomena developed
along its margin up to its last contact with British
shores on the Ord of Caithness.
Oscillations of level accompanied the retreat of
the ice and raised beaches were left, but on the com-
pletion of the withdrawal the land stood about 80
feet higher than at present. The southern part of
the North Sea became a marshy plain, peat bogs
covered much of its surface and forests clothed its
margins, while great rivers such as the Rhine, Thames,
and Weser meandered through it.
A depression to the present level then ensued and
the great shallow bay of the North Sea south of the
Dogger Bank was formed. The sea ran up the
estuaries, and thus the Humber itself and its tributary
the Hull came into being.
The work now being carried out by the officers
of the Fisheries Board is throwing much light on
the distribution of the various grades of material
accumulating on the floor of the North Sea at the
present time. Both the mineralogical character and
the size of grain of the material are being investi-
gated, though, of course, the latter is of more im-
portance from the immediate point of view of fisheries,
since it controls to a large extent the distribution
of life.
By means of experiments with floats the direction
of the main surface currents has been determined,
and the maps exhibited by Mr. Borley showed that
the floor deposits were spread out under the influence
of the same movements. Several different types of
material exist on the coast, but in each the grading
of the deposits, coarse to fine, is in the general
direction of the currents already determined by
other means.
Along a great part of the east coast of Britain the
North Sea is at present eroding the cliffs at a fairly
rapid rate, and this has been measured by Mr.
Thompson in the case of the coast of Holderness,
which consists of glacial deposits. His method was
to take the six-inch Ordnance Survey map published
in 1852 and to measure thereon the lengths of all
easily identifiable lines running at right angles to
the coast, and then to measure up the remains of
these lines on the ground. In this manner it was
possible to draw the coast-line as it is to-day on the
map of 1852 and thus to indicate the strip of land
lost to the sea in the last seventy years. This strip
varies considerably in width in different parts of the
coast, there being a few points at which erosion is
practically nil while at others it has caused serious
loss.
New Japanese Botanical Serials.
URING the last few decades the universities | far distant as regards practicable modes of com-
and colleges of Japan have produced a large
number of scientific investigators, many of whom
have continued postgraduate training for several
years in Europe or America. The result is that in
Eastern Asia a large number of well-equipped scientific
investigators are now actively prosecuting research
and there is a danger that, working in a field still
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
munication, their work may not be sufficiently known
in Europe, with corresponding loss of efficiency to
the workers in both continents. Japanese scientific
leaders are evidently alive to the danger, and the
reopening of extensive scientific contact following
the gradual cessation of war conditions has been
followed by the organisation and issue of a number
892
NATORE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
of scientific publications, containing communica-
tions in European languages, mainly German and
English.
Thus there have recently reached this country the
first issues of two such new serial publications, the
Japanese Journal of Botany and the Acta Phytochimica.
The Japanese Journal of Botany is only one such
publication of nine which are being issued by the
National Research Council, Department of Education,
Japan. Besides a long communication (53 pp.) by
Saito upon the fungi (yeast) occurring naturally in
the atmosphere at Tokio, in which a connexion is
traced between the number of these organisms present
and the meteorological conditions, a series of abstracts
follow which summarise the more important papers
on botany and allied subjects which have appeared
in Japan during January-June 1921. No fewer than
thirty-nine papers are thus reviewed, many of
economic importance and some of very general
interest.
The first number of the Acta Phytochimica, dated
March 1922, contains two papers. In the first
Asahina and Fujita summarise the researches pub-
lished by them so far only in the Japanese Journal
of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. These
investigations enable them to assign a constitutional
formula to anemonin and to the most important acid
derivatives so far obtained from it.
Anemonin is a crystalline product obtained from
the acrid ranunculus oil distilled from fresh plants of
various species of the Ranunculacee and extraction
of the distillate with ether, benzol, or chloroform,
but anemonin itself is not the acrid principle. The
Japanese workers have a very large phytochemical
field in the many interesting natural products of
Eastern Asia, and the second paper, by Majima
and Kuroda, deals with the pigment extracted by
cold benzene from the dried outer portion of the
root of Lithospermum Erythrorhizon. The main con-
stituent of this pigment has been isolated in pure
crystalline form and is described as the monoacetyl
derivative of the compound, C,.H,,0O;, which the
authors have named shikonin (from the Japanese
name for the plant “ shikon.’’)
It is proposed to issue one volume of Acta Phyto-
chimica a year, each volume to consist of about
350 pages. The editor is Prof. K. Shibata, Botanical
Garden, Koishikawa, Tokyo.
The two papers now published are written, one in
German and one in English; communications in
French are also acceptable for publication. The
journal states that it aims at ensuring a closer
correlation between chemical and _ physiological
studies of plant constituents, but these first papers
are essentially chemical in outlook. Both journals
are well printed, in clear type on good paper, with
curves and tables adequately reproduced. In the
Japanese Journal of Botany three plates are included.
Curves and drawings are very well reproduced in
these; a lack of contrast in a series of photographs
of yeast colonies on agar may be the fault of the
original photographs. :
Colloid Chemistry.
By Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis.
HAT increasing attention is being paid to the
subject of colloid chemistry is becoming
manifest in various directions. Already the subject
has taken its place in the chemical instruction of
some if not of all our universities, while the techno-
logical literature shows (though as yet to a rather
limited extent) that the significance of colloidal
behaviour is no longer overlooked in a number of
technical operations. The subject is one of com-
paratively recent growth, for, although originating
with Graham more than sixty years ago, its import-
ance has begun to be realised only within the last
twenty-five years.
It is not altogether surprising, therefore, that there
are still a number of people engaged in chemical
work to whom colloid chemistry has not as yet made
an effective appeal. To a large extent the further
recognition of the subject will depend not only upon
the measure of success attending the publication of
works such as text-books and memoirs which aim
at bringing the subject within the scope of ordered
presentation, but also upon the efforts of agencies
the aim of which is to correlate the scientific principles
and generalisations (in so far as they exist at present)
with technical problems and practice, and to demon-
strate how numerous and varied are the industrial
operations in which colloid considerations are funda-
mentally involved. In the latter connexion a very
useful service has been performed during the past
few years by a committee of the British Association
in publishing a series of reports on Colloid Chemistry
and its General and Industrial Applications. The
fourth of these reports,!a compilation of more than
380 pages, has been issued, and in view of its
undoubted importance a brief indication of its
general nature will not be without interest.
1 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: British Association
for the Advancement of Science. Fourth Report on Colloid Chemistry
and its General and Industrial Applications. H.M.
Stationery Office, 1922.) 5s. 6d. net.
NO. 2774, VOL. I10]
Pp. 382. (London:
As in previous reports the subject matter is con-
sidered so far as possible under two heads, namely,
subjects mainly academic in nature, and subjects
mainly technical. Under the first head we find the
following sections: Colloids in analytical problems,
cataphoresis, colloid systems in solid crystalline
media, molecular attraction, membrane equilibria,
disperse systems in gases, the theory of lubrication,
and the application of colloid chemistry to mineralogy
and petrology. Under the second head are grouped :
Colloid chemistry of soap boiling, flotation processes,
catalytic hydrogenation, the rdéle of colloids in metal
deposition, rubber, and colloidal fuels. Each section
has been written by a man who is specially conversant
with the subject which he treats, and it may be added
that the entire work here represented—and it amounts
in the aggregate to much—has been given gratuitously.
Among subjects of such a divergent kind it is not
easy to discriminate. Some readers will be attracted
by the comparative novelty of the idea of introducing
colloidal considerations at all into such problems as
metallic alloys, mineralogy, and petrology, or the
subject of lubrication. Others will be specially
interested in obtaining some definite and clear
information on subjects which possess a certain
degree of familiarity, but about which most of us
have, it is to be feared, somewhat confused _ideas,
subjects such as soap boiling, or ore-flotation, or
catalytic hydrogenation. The fact that the latter
two subjects are dealt with at all indicates the wide
view which the committee quite rightly takes of the
nature and range of its activities. The enormously
wide scope of certain of the subjects themselves
is well demonstrated by the article on disperse
systems in gases, which ranges from the pollution
of the atmosphere, metallurgical smokes, and problems
of chemical warfare to Millikan’s work on the charge
of the electron. By way of contrast we find in the
section on molecular attraction a minute and searching
‘
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
account of a single problem which is fundamental
not only to colloid chemistry but to molecular physics
as well. The variety of the subjects here indicated
should strengthen the appeal which the report makes to
readers possessing widely different individual interests.
Finally, it may not be out of place to direct attention
to the valuable assistance which the committee has
received from the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research, without which the report could
not have been published. To any one appreciating
the value of these publications for the advancement
of chemical science and industry, it will be apparent
that the assistance thus rendered has been wisely
as well as generously given.
Early History of the Sussex Iron Industry.
M®*: RHYS JENKINS, vice-president of the
Newcomen Society, formed recently for the
study of the history of engineering and technology,
who has contributed two papers on the early history
of the iron industry in Sussex, has followed this up
by some notes on the early history of steel-making
in England. His paper deals with the history of
the production of steel before Huntsman’s invention
of cast steel.
That steel was produced in the time of Queen
Elizabeth is well known, but very little, if any,
research has been done on the history of the industry
between that period and about 1750. The earliest
mention of a works for the production of steel found
by the author is in 1573. He finds that John Glande
held a tenement called “‘ A forge of steel ’’ in Ashdown
Forest, Sussex. This forge came into the hands of
John Bowley in 1525, who still held it in 1548. It
appears that Sir Henry Sidney of Penshurst, Kent,
the father of Sir Philip Sidney, was a steel maker of
that period. Steel was manufactured at Roberts-
bridge in Sussex with the aid of Dutch labour obtained
from the neighbourhood of Cologne. The method
used was the so-called “ finery ’’ process, in which the
iron from the blast-furnaces, instead of being cast
into sows or pigs, was cast into thin flat bars. Another
site of steel forges in Sussex was Warbleton.
An important landmark in the development of
the industry was the invention of the cementation
process. The earliest mention of this is in 1614,
when William Ellyott and Mathias Meysey obtained
a patent for converting iron into steel ““ by means
of a reverberatorie furnace with potts louted or
closed to be put therein containing in them certain
quantities of iron with other substances, mixtures
and ingredients, which being in the said furnace
brought to a proportion of heate doth make and
convert the same iron into steel, which steel with
other heate temperatures and hammerings to be
afterwards given to the same doth make good and
fitt for the use before mentioned.’ Ellyott and
Meysey were both natives of this country, and there
is no suggestion that they employed foreign workmen.
The author thinks that this invention may have
been a development of the case-hardening process,
possibly in the light of knowledge acquired from the
manufacture of brass. The works of Ellyott and
Meysey were probably situated in London, and in
1616 they obtained another patent for carrying out
the main invention with pit coal instead of wood.
Later developments of the industry appear to
have taken place to some extent in the Forest of
Dean, and also in Yorkshire. Prince Rupert was
an inventor of the period, about 1650. On the whole,
the best steel seems to have been made in the Forest
of Dean. The records of that period indicate that it
made good edge-tools, files, and punches.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
NATURE
893
University and Educational Intelligence.
CAMBRIDGE.—Dr. A. P. Maudslay has been elected
an honorary fellow of Trinity Hall.
GrLascow.—The University Court has accepted the
generous offer, already referred to in this column, of
a gift of 25,000]. from Mr. Henry Mechan for the
establishment of a Henry Mechan chair of public
health. In making the gift, in recognition of “ the
great and important work which is being done by the
University of Glasgow,’’ Mr. Mechan made no con-
ditions, preferring that “‘ the accomplishment of my
purpose should be left to the University authorities.”
The department of public health to which the new
chair is given has hitherto been joined with that of
medical jurisprudence under Prof. Glaister.
LEEDS.—At the meeting of the Court of the Uni-
versity on December 20, the Pro-Chancellor stated
that there are now 1535 full-time students as com-
pared with 1646 in the year 1921-22. The local
education authorities of Yorkshire are increasing their
help to the University. In addition to subsidies from
the City of Leeds, the West Riding and the East
Riding County Councils and the City of Wakefield, the
University now receives financial aid from the North
Riding County Council and from the City of York.
The laboratory of the British Silk Research Associa-
tion has been established in temporary quarters, and
the National Bensole Association has instituted re-
searches in the department of fuel and metallurgy.
The premises used as a Marine Biological Laboratory
at Robin Hood’s Bay have been purchased by the
University. With the help of a grant from the
Government the funds required for the new building
of the department of agriculture (the headquarters
of agricultural education in Yorkshire) have been
secured, and an early start will be made with the work.
The Clothworkers’ Company has recently made to
the University a gift of 2250/. in addition to its
earlier munificent endowments.
The Court, on hearing of Prof. Smithells’ decision
to resign the professorship of chemistry in order to
devote himself to scientific investigation in London,
“records its profound gratitude to him for service
of immeasurable value to the University during the
thirty-seven years in which he has held his Professor-
ship. He is one of the founders of the University,
which owes more than it can ever express to his
unselfish devotion to the public interest, to his untiring
labours in the application of science to industry, to his
strenuous and at last victorious defence of the re-
cognition of scientific technology as an element in the
highest type of university education, and to his un-
deviating adherence to a high and exacting standard
in university studies. The Court rejoices to think
that he now hopes to escape from some of the ad-
ministrative cares which have eaten into the leisure
which otherwise he would have devoted to scientific
research, and assures him that his name and work
will be inseparably connected in future with the his-
tory of the rise of the University of Leeds.”
The title of Emeritus Professor was conferred upon
the following: Percy Fry Kendall, professor of
geology, 1904-1922, who retired after reaching the
age limit in September; John Goodman, professor
of civil and mechanical engineering, 1890-1922, who
resigned his chair in September.
Dr. W. H. Pearsall, lecturer in the department of
botany, was appointed reader in botany in recognition
of his contributions to learning and research, especially
in ecology.
A course of eight lectures on “‘ Changing Geo-
graphical Values’ will be delivered by Sir Halford
894
Mackinder on Wednesdays at 5 p.M., beginning
January 24, at the London School of Economics
and Political Science, Houghton Street, W.C.2.
Part I., consisting of ten lectures, of a course on
Oil Well and Refinery Technology and Geology of
Petroleum, will be given at the Sir John Cass Technical
Institute, Jewry Street, Aldgate, E.C.3., during the
coming term. The opening lecture, on Monday,
January 15, at 7 p.m., will be by Sir John Cadman
on “ Imperial Aspects of the Petroleum Question.”’
THE Bureau of Education of the Government of
India has just issued a second volume of “ Selections
from Educational Records,’’ edited by J. A. Richey
(Calcutta, Superintendent of Government Printing,
India, pp. 504, rupees 64). The period covered by
these selections, 1839-59, was one of great edu-
cational activity in India, during which provincial
systems of education were gradually evolved, and
many of the documents reproduced in this volume
are of great interest, as are likewise the accompanying
series of portraits of statesmen, administrators,
missionaries, and unofficial patrons of education.
The frontispiece is, appropriately, a portrait of James
Thomason, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-western
Provinces, 1843-53, who of all the administrators
of those times rendered the greatest services to the
cause of education in India. Among these not the
least was the establishment of the Engineering College
at Roorkee which bears his name. Had his apprecia-
tion of the needs of the time in regard to the teaching
of applied science been more fully shared by the
court of directors and their successors, there might
have been in India developments comparable with
those which in the United States of America followed
the adoption by the Federal Government of the policy
of endowing colleges of agriculture and mechanical arts.
Anumberof interesting documentsare grouped together
under the heading: the beginning of professional
education — medical, engineering, and legal—and a
useful bibliography is given at the end of the volume.
STRIKING testimony of the excellent morale of the
students of the University of Hong-Kong was given
in the course of an address delivered on November 14
at the Royal Colonial Institute by Sir Frederick
Lugard, to whose initiative the inception of the
University was primarily due. After speaking of the
need for training character in African dependencies,
he said: ‘‘ A university was founded in Hong Kong
in 1912 mainly for Chinese students. In the fore-
front of its declared objects the principles of co-
operation and discipline were laid down. This year
the community was disorganised by a series of strikes
of a political nature. Trade and social life were
alike paralysed. It seemed inevitable that the
students—as in Egypt and India—would espouse the
cause of reaction. But the Vice-Chancellor reports
that though it would have been entirely in accord
with Chinese student practice elsewhere that the
undergraduates should demonstrate on the same
side, what actually occurred was a very striking
testimony to the success obtained in inculcating the
lessons of co-operation and discipline. When the
whole of the servants joined the strikers the students
devoted themselves with the utmost cheeriness to
cooking and to menial household duties. Sir W.
Urungate adds that the hostels had never been
cleaner. When the staff of mechanics went out the
students manned the power station and the medical
students unanimously resolved to carry out hospital
duties, which are regarded by Chinese as especially
derogatory.’’ On the re-establishment of stable
government in China the potential usefulness of this
university will be vastly increased and it is to be
hoped that it will be enabled to rise to the height
of its great opportunities.
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
NATURE
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
Societies and Academies.
LONDON.
Aristotelian Society, December 4.—Prof. Wildon
Carr, vice-president, in the chair.—Gerald Cator:
The one and the many. Contents of monadic type,
which seem to occur in experience, prove on examina-
tion to be “‘ convergence illusion effects.’’ To admit
this, however, is fatal to the claims of logic. The
question, ‘‘ How are synthetic judgments possible ? ”
can only be answered by the denial that there can
be genuine judgments, as contrasted with psycho-
logical compositions of representations. The writ
of logic, we should have to say, does not run in
our world. To this dilemma the intellectualist
metaphysic of St. Thomas Aquinas offers a legitimate®
though not dialectically-necessary way of escape.
According to it every character of the world, correla-
tive to an intelligence of any grade, is a function
of the position of that intelligence in the scale of
beings, and the human intelligence is intelligence
at threshold value. It follows that the form of the
human universal will be the unification of a multi-
plicity by reference to a point de vepéve. But this
is precisely the structure of a “‘ convergence illusion
effect.’’ Convergence illusion effects may, therefore,
be genuine universals at threshold value, and con-
sequently our world may be continuous with the
intelligible world.
Society of Public Analysts, December 6.—Mr.
P. A. Ellis Richards, president, in the chair.—E. W.
Blair and T. Shirlock Wheeler: A note on the esti-
mation of form- and acet-aldehydes. In investiga-
tions of the action of oxygen and ozone on various
hydrocarbons, the formaldehyde and acetaldehyde
present were estimated by finding the total alde-
hydes by Ripper’s bisulphite method (Monat. fiir
Chem., 21, 1079), and formaldehyde alone by
the cyanide method. In_ solutions containing
formaldehyde, formic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and
a trace of ozone these substances were estimated
seviatim, formic acid with N/1oo alkali, ozone with
reutral potassium iodide, hydrogen peroxide by
Kingzett’s method ( Analyst, 9, 6), and formaldehyde
by Romija’s method.—H. A. Peacock: Note on the
presence of sulphur dioxide in cattle foods after
fumigation. Sulphur dioxide may be absorbed by
cattle cakes and meals during fumigation, but
after about a week the sulphur dioxide disappears.
The amount absorbed depends on the variety of
cake—the harder cakes absorbing less than the softer—
and the condition of the feeding stuff, 7.e. whether
in block or powder form.—C. H. Douglas Clark:
A sliding scale for the convenient titration of strong
liquids by dilution and use with aliquot parts. The
device enables the operator to see at once what
alternative dilutions are available in any particular
case in order to obtain a convenient burette reading
at the end of titration, and it assists in choosing
the most suitable dilution—D. W. Steuart: Some
notes on the unsaponifiable matter of fats. The
proportion of sterol in the unsaponifiable matter
varies from 48 per cent. in maize oil to 7 per cent.
in palm oil; and from 38 per cent. in lard to 9 per
cent. in hardened whale oil. Highly hardened fats
still contain sterol. The cholesterol acetate of animal
fats melts at 114 to 1143° C.; the phytosterol acetate
of vegetable fats is a mixture, a fraction of which
melts at 125° or above, but some pure vegetable
oils yield a fraction melting about 114° C. These
facts are utilised in analysing margarines.—Norman
Evers and H. J. Foster: Note on the sulphuric acid
test for fish liver oils. The addition of natural
oils increases the sensitiveness of the test to
DECEMBER 30, 1922|
NATURE
a remarkable extent. The brown colour produced
by sulphuric acid with liver oils after oxidation,
behaves in exactly the same manner as the violet
colour with the fresh oils, being similarly increased
by the addition of natural oils. Oxidation of the
natural oils destroys this power, but it is unaffected
by hydrogenation.
The Optical Society, December 14.—Sir F. W.
Dyson, president, in the chair.—T. Smith: A large
aperture aplanatic lens not corrected for colour.
A lens suitable for spectroscopic work with aplanatic
corrections for all zones may have as large an aperture
as f/1 or still greater, all the surfaces being strictly
spherical. An actual lens made by Messrs. Ross,
Ltd., of 3 inches focal length and 3 inches aperture
possesses corrections comparable with those given
by the theoretical investigation. With a slghtly
reduced aperture, correction for colour may be
obtained without prejudice to the quality of the
spherical corrections. The production of suitable
glass discs is the outstanding difficulty in the way
of great increases in the relative apertures of telescope
objectives.—T. Smith: The optical cosine law.
The law of refraction, the sine law relating to coma,
and other exact laws of optical instruments are
particular cases of a very general law which assumes
the form of a cosine relation. As an example of the
application of the law, the principles which should
govern the construction of a variable power telescope
yielding aplanatic correction at all magnifications
are investigated.—S. Weston: A constant bubble.
The alteration in the length of the air bubble in a
spirit level due to variation of temperature is avoided
in the new type of level produced by Messrs. E. R.
Watts and Son, Ltd., known as a “constant”
bubble. The first consideration is to obtain the
exact proportion of air and spirit. The cross section
of the tube containing the liquid is so shaped that
as the temperature is raised and the surface tension
gradually decreased, only the cross sectional area
of the bubble is affected, its length remaining un-
altered.
PaRISs.
Academy of Sciences, December 4.—M. Emile
Bertin in the chair.— M. Guillaume Bigourdan
was elected vice-president for the year 1923.—G.
Bigourdan: The Observatory of Paris, on the
2ooth anniversary of its construction. An historical
synopsis of the work done at the Observatory from
its completion in 1672 to 1699.—Maurice Hamy :
The measurement of small diameters by interference.
A development of Michelson’s formula, without the
restriction a=o (a being the ratio of the width of the
slits to the distance between their centres).—A. de
Gramont: Quantitative researches on the line
spectrum of vanadium in fused salts. Two tables
are given showing the persistence of the chief vana-
dium lines by ocular and photographic observations.
In the visible spectrum the sensibility is 1 in rooo,
and this is increased by the use of photography to
I in 100,000. The method can usefully be employed
in the examination of minerals.—Sir William H.
Bragg was elected correspondant for the section of
physics, in the place of the late M. René Benoit,
and J. B. Senderens correspondant for the section
of chemistry, in the place of the late M. Barbier.—
A. Schaumasse: Observations of the Skjellerup
comet (1922d) made with the equatorial of Nice
Observatory. Positions of the comet and comparison
stars are given for November 29 and 30. The comet
is of the r1th magnitude.—J. Le Roux: The gravita-
tion of the systems. Reply to some criticisms by
NO. 2774, VOL. I10]
895
M. Brillouin.—J. Haag: The constancy of the
homogeneity of the fluid representative of the
different possible states of a gaseous mass.—Maurice
and Louis de Broglie: Remarks on corpuscular
spectra and the photo-electric effect.—Pierre Salet :
The law of dispersion of prismatic spectra in the
ultra-violet. In an earlier paper the author has
given a formula which represents exactly the observed
relation between the wave-length and the position
of a line in the spectrum, and this was verified for
wave-lengths between 3800 and 4900. Proof is
now given of the validity of the formula in the
ultra-violet to \2250.—F. Croze: The place of the
ultimate lines of the elements in the spectrum series
and their relations with the resonance lines.—Pierre
Steiner: The ultra-violet absorption spectra of the
alkaloids of the isoquinoline group. Papaverine
and its hydrochloride. The absorption curve of
papaverine is not that obtained by the addition of
the absorption curves of its constituents: the effect
of the isoquinoline nucleus preponderates.—Marcel
Sommelet: Tertiary amines derived from benz-
hydrylamine. — Raymond Delaby: The _ alkyl-
glycerols. The conversion of the vinylalkyl-car-
binols into alkyl-glycerols. The ethylenic alcohol
is treated with bromine in acetic acid solution, these
converted into acetins by prolonged boiling with
sodium acetate, and the products separated by
fractional distillation. The acetins are hydrolysed
by a solution of hydrochloric acid in methyl alcohol.
—P. W. Stuart-Menteath: The San Narciso mine in
Guipuzcoa.—P. Viennot: The tectonic of the region
of Bagnéres-de-Bigorre and of Lourdes.—Louis
Dangeard: Contribution to the geological study of
the bottom of the English Channel, based on recent
dredgings by the Pouwrquoi-Pas ? (August-September,
1922). The results are given on a chart, with special
reference to outcrops of the Lias and Eocene.—M.
Lecointre: The stratigraphy of the north of Chaouia
(Western Morocco).—J. Cluzet and A. Chevallier:
The radioactivity of the springs of Echaillon. The
deposits forming these springs are rich in radio-
thorium. This is the only spa in France admitting
the therapeutic utilisation of thorium emanation.—
G. Reboul: The determination, in cloudy weather,
of the vertical movements of the atmosphere: the
influence of clouds on the velocity of displacement
of depressions.—M. Bridel and G. Charoux: Cen-
taureidine, a product obtained from centaureine, a
glucoside from the roots of Centaurea Jacea. This
substance, which has the composition of C,H,,Os,
is probably a derivative of flavone.—M. Aynaud:
Botrymycosis of sheep.
SYDNEY.
Royal Society of New South Wales, November 1.—
Mr. C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chair.—R. S:
| Hughesdon, H. G. Smith, and J. Read: The stereo-
isomeric forms of menthone. The ten stereoisomeric
forms of p-menthan-3-one stated to be theoretically
possible, and certain menthones and menthols
derived by reduction from the optically active and
inactive forms of piperitone are discussed.—E. Hurst,
H. G. Smith, and J. Read: A contribution to the
chemistry of the phellandrenes. Muta-rotation and
optical inversion on the part of /-a-phellandrene
a-nitrite occurs when it is dissolved in chloroform,
benzene, or acetone, and maintained at 20° C.—H. G.
Smith: Notes on the chemistry of certain Australian
plant products. Pt. i. A resin coating the leaves and
stems of Acaciaverniciflua, the essential oil of the small
leaved Beckia Gunniana, and the rubber and wax
| from Sarcostemma australe, are discussed. The milky
latex of Savcostemma australe contains about 7 per
896
NATURE
[DECEMBER 30, 1922
cent. of rubber, together with resin.—E. H. Booth:
Notes on the photographic work of the Sydney
University Eclipse Expedition, Goondiwindi, Queens-
land. The principle adopted was to give full ex-
posures to ensure recording all required material
on the plate, to develop to the point of general
chemical fog, and to take from each plate a series
of prints of different exposures, thus enabling a
complete analysis of every degree of density in each
plate to be made. This has the same value as a
large number of individual exposures. The process
appears to have been quite successful, giving a full
range of prints showing detail from the extreme
photographic limit of the outer corona into the
prominences. An outline of exposures and_sub-
sequent photographic treatment is given. Photo-
graphs showing inner corona and prominences were
displayed.—A. R. Penfold: The essential oils of two
Myrtaceous shrubs, Homoranthus virgatus and H.
flavescens. The shrubs are common to various parts
of Northern New South Wales and Queensland.
H. virgatus contains as principal constituent up to
80 per cent. dextro alpha pinene, sesquiterpene,
amyl alcohol, and esters, and a paraffin of M.P.
65-66° C. H. flavescens contains 80 per cent. of the
olefenic terpene ‘‘ Ocimene,”’ together with dextro
alpha pinene, sesquiterpene, amyl alcohol, etc.
This hydrocarbon is recorded tor the first time in
an Australian essential oil—F. R. Morrison: The
essential oil of Kunzea covifolia. This dark green
bushy shrub, which is one of the commonest grow-
ing in the Port Jackson district, yields a_ light
brown mobile oil of fragrant odour. The oil con-
sists principally of dextro alpha pinene, a sesqui-
terpene closely resembling cadinene, an unidentified
alcohol (the odoriferous constituent), and small
quantities of acetic and butyric acid esters.—W. M.
Doherty: A note on the food value of the snapper
(Pagrosomus auratus). The percentage of fat in the
snapper is very small, but it gave indication of the
presence of the fat-soluble, growth-promoting factor,
vitamin A.
Official Publications Received.
Report of the Department of Naval Service for the Year ended
March 31, 1922. (Sessional Paper No. 17a—A. 1923.) Pp. 54.
(Ottawa.)
Ministerio da Agricultura, Industria e Commercio :
Meteorologia. Boletim Meteorologico: Anno de 1916.
(Rio de Janeiro.)
The Indian Forest Records.
Directoria de
Pp. vi+136.
Vol. 9, Part 4: The Constituents
of some Indian Essential Oils. Parts 1-7. By J. L. Simonsen and
Madyar Godal Rau. Pp. 36. (Caleutta: Government Printing
Office.) 6 annas.
Forest Bulletin, No. 49: Note on Thingan (Hopea oderata, Roxb.).
By A. Rodger. Pp. 15. 7 annas. Forest Bulletin, No. 50: Note
on Gurjun or Kanyin. Compiled by W. Robertson. Pp.7. 4 annas.
(Calcutta : Government Printing Office.)
Union of South Africa. Fisheries and Marine Biological Survey.
Report No. 2 for the Year 1921, by Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist ; with
Introduction by H. Warington Smyth; and Special Reports 1:
Heterosomata (Flat Fishes), by C. Von Bonde; 2: Physical and
Chemical Observations, by Dr. C. Juritz ; 3: Deep-sea Fishes (Part 1),
by Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist. Pp. iv+-84+79+12 plates. (Cape Town.)
Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society,
together with the Report of the Council for 1921-22, and Annual
Reports of the Sections. Vol. 23, 1922. Pp. 74. (Leicester.)
The Annual Report of the Gresham’s School Natural History
Society, 1922. Pp. 12. (Holt, Norfolk.)
Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources: Weather
Bureau, Annual Report of the Weather Bureau. Part 1: Work
ot the Weather Bureau during the Calendar Year 1919; Part 2:
Hourly Meteorological Observations made at the Central Observatory
of Manila during the Calendar Year 1919. Pp. 148. (Manila:
Bureau of Printing.)
Diary of Societies.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30.
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 3.—Prof. H. H. Turner :
Six Steps up the Ladder to the Stars (2). ‘The Discovery of the
Planet Neptune (Juvenile Lectures).
NO. 2774, VOL. 110]
MONDAY, JANUARY 1.
BRITISH PsycHoLoGicaL Society (Education Section) (at University
College), at 2.30.—Dr. C. W. Kimmins : The Child and the Cinema.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL Soctety (at Aolian Hall), at 3.30.—Lt.-Comm,
A. S. Elwell-Sutton: Up the Tigris (Christmas Lecture to Young
_ People).
CHILD-STUDY Socipty (at Royal Sanitary Institute), at 5.—Miss
M. Drummond : Children’s Drawings.
MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION (at London Day Training College), at
5.30.—Dr. 8. Brodetsky : Gliding.
NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HEALTH, MATERNITY, AND CHILD WELFARE
(at University College), at 5.30.—Health Problems of Adolescence.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 2.
MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION (at London Day Training College), at
10.—Prof. E. H. Neville: A Statement respecting the forthcoming
Report of the Sub-Committee on the teaching of Geometry.—
At 11.—W. ©. Fletcher: The Uses of Non-Euclidean Geometry to
Teachers.—At 12.—Prof. R. W. Genese: Simple Geometrical and
Kinematical Illustrations of the Plane Complex.—J. Brill: A
certain Dissection Problem.—At 2.30.—Sir Thomas L. Heath:
Greek Geometry, with special reference to Infinitesimals (President’s
Address).—Prof. A. Lodge: Differentials as the basis for teaching
the Calculus.
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 3.—Prof. H. H. Turner:
Six Steps up the Ladder to the Stars (3). Photographing the Stars
(Juvenile Lectures).
NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HEALTH, MATERNITY, AND CHILD WELFARE
ae University College), at 5.30.—Dr. J. Kerr: Physique and
Growth.
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN (Scientific and
Technical Group), at 7.—H. Lamplough: The Lamplough Flash
Lamp.—A. ©. Banfield: A Demonstration of the German Aeroplane
Camera now in the Society’s Museum.
RONTGEN Society (at Institution of Electrical Engineers), at 8.15.—
Dr. A. E. Barclay: The Organisation and Equipment of a Modern
X-Ray Department with special reference to the New Department
at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.—Major C. E. 8. Phillips: An
Electroscope of New Design.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3.
RoOyAL Society OF ARTS, at 3.—C. R. Darling: The Spectrum, its
Colours, Lines, and Invisible Parts, and some of its Industrial
Applications (Dr. Mann Juvenile Lecture).
PHYSICAL SOCIBTY OF LONDON AND OpticaL Society (at Imperial
College of Science and Technology), at 3-6, and 7-10.—Annual
Pxhibition of Scientific Apparatus.—At 4—W. Gamble: Repro-
duction of Colour by Photographic Processes.—At 8.—Prof. E. G.
Coker ; Recent Photo-Elastic Researches on Engineering Problems.
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL Socrery (Biological Section), at 7.30.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 4.
GBOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION (at Birkbeck College), at 12.—Sir John
Russell: The Influence of Geographical Factors in the Agricultural
Activities of a Population (Presidential Address).—At 2.30,—
J. Pairgrieve : Report on his Recent Visit to the United States.—
At 5.—H. Batsford: Types and Materials of Houses in England.
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 3.—Prof. H. H. Turner:
Six Steps up the Ladder to the Stars (4). The Spectroscope and
its Revelations (Juvenile Lectures).
PHYSICAL SocIBTY OF LONDON AND OptTicaL Socrety (at Imperial
College of Science and Technology), at 3-6, and 7-10.—Annual
Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus.—At 4.—Prof. E. G. Coker:
Recent Photo-Elastic Researches on Engineering Problems.—At 8.
—W. Gamble : Reproduction of Colour by Photographic Processes.
INCORPORATED BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING (at
i y College), at 5.—Prof. M. E. Delafield : Hygiene as applied
to Physical Training.
ROYAL AERONAUTICAL Socrery (at Royal Society of Arts), at 5.30.—
H. Junkers : Metal Aeroplanes.
NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HEALTH, MATERNITY, AND CHILD WELFARE (at
University College), at 5.30.—Dr. W. Brown: Child Psychology and
Psychotherapy.
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—F. Creedy: Variable-
speed A.C. Motors without Commutators.
CAMERA CLUB, at 8.15.—W. L. F. Wastell: The Evolution of the
Lantern Slide. '
FRIDAY, JANUARY 5.
GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION (at Birkbeck College), at 10.—Dr.
Olive Wheeler: The Place of Geography in the Education of the
Adolescent.—At 11.45.—Maj.-Gen. Lord Edward Gleichen: Per-
manent Committee on Geographical Names.—At 12.15.—Prof.
W.S. Tower: Geography and Business Life.—At 2.30.—E, E. Lupton
and others: Discussion on ways of increasing the Usefulness of
Branches of the Association—At 5.—Prof. P. M. Roxby: The
Coming Industrialisation of China.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL Socirry (at Aolian Hall), at 3.30.—R. E.
Priestley: Antarctic Adventures (Christmas Lecture to Young
People).
N Angie LEAGUE FOR HEALTH, MATERNITY, AND CHILD WELFARE
(at University College), at 5.30.—Prof. H. R. Kenwood: Health
Education. ,
JUNIOR INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, at 7.30,—W. Dinwoodie : Wave
Power Transmission.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 6.
ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN SCIRNCE TEACHERS (at University College),
at 2.30.—Dr. Dorothy Wrinch: Relativity.
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, at 3.—Prof. H. H. Turner:
Six Steps up the Ladder to the Stars (5). Two Great Streams of
Stars (Juvenile Lectures).
GILBERT WHITE FELLOWSHIP (at 6 Queen Square, W.C.1), at 3.—
G. J. B. Fox: A Visit to Pompeii.
Supplement to “ Nature,”
July 1,
1922 Vv
Recent Scientific and Technical Books
Volumes marked-with an asterisk have been received at ‘‘ NATURE” Office.
Mathematics
Beckett, T. A.,and Robinson, F.E. Plane Geometry
for Schools. Gl. 8vo. ae 2. Pp) vili+241-453 +Vv.
(London: Rivingtons, 1922.)
Burns, P.F. Reason- “Why Acitnsmetic Course. Large
GryeSvou, Book) t.-/Bp: 64: Rapex, 46d.;2 "Cloth, 8d.
Book 2. Pp. 80. Paper, 7d.; Cloth, 9d. Book B lep:
80. Paper, 7d.; Cloth, 9d. (London and Glasgow :
W. Collins, Sons and Co., 1922.)
Few, H. P. Elementary Determinants for Electrical
Engineers. Cr. 8vo. Pp. vit+98. (London: S. Rent
and Co., Ltd.; New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1922.)
4s. net.*
Griffin, F. L. An Introduction to Mathematical
Analysis. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 535. (London: G. G. Harrap
and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 10s. 6d. net.
London Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the.
Second Series. Vol. 20. Sup. Roy. 8vo. Pp. liv +502.
(London: F. Hodgson, 1922.) *
Murdoch, W.H.F. Mathematical Synopsis: Algebra,
Logarithms, Trigonometry and Spherical Trigonometry.
32mo. Pp.42. (London: Bowman and Murdoch, 1922.)
2s. 6d. net. e:
Phillips, H. B. Differential Equations. Cr. 8vo.
Pp: 78. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London:
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 6s. 6d. net.
Shireby,R.M. The Slide Rule applied to Commercial
Calculations. Cr. 8vo. Pp.72. (London: Sir I. Pitman
and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
Turner, J. Practical Mathematics: Problems and
Questions. Gl. 8vo. Pp. 80+x. (London and Edin-
burgh : McDougall’s Educational Co., Ltd., 1922.) 1s. od.
Youngson, P., and Shaw, J. H.. Practical Mathe-
matics. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 500. (Glasgow: J. Munro and
Co., Ltd., 192 tos. 6d. net.
22.)
Mechanics: Mechanical Engineering
Brownlie, D. Boiler Plant Testing: A Criticism of
the Present Boiler Testing Code and Suggestions for an
Improved International Code. Demy 8vo. Pp. xi+168.
(London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) ros. 6d. net.*
Burgess, G. K., and Woodward, R. W. Thermal
Stresses in Chilled Iron Car Wheels. (Department of
Commerce. Technologic Papers of the Bureau of Stan-
dards, No. 209.) Sup. Roy. 8vo. Pp. 193-232. (Wash-
ington : Government Printing Office, 1922.) 5 cents.*
Croft, T. Steam Power Plant Auxiliaries and Acces-
sories. Demy 8vo. Pp. xv+447. (New York and
London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1922.) 15s. net.*
Goldingham, A. H. The Design and Construction of
Oil Engines. Fifth edition. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 426. (Lon-
don: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd., 1922.) 20s. net.
Goudie, Prof.W.J. Steam Turbines. Second edition,
rewritten and enlarged. Demy 8vo. Pp. xvili+8o4.
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) 30s. net.*
Snodgrass, J. M., and Guldner, F. H. An Investi-
gation of the Properties of Chilled Iron Car Wheels.
Part 1: Wheel Fit and Static Load Strains and Stresses.
Conducted by the Engineering Experiment Station, Uni-
versity of Illinois, in co-operation with the Association of
Manufacturers of Chilled Iron Car Wheels. (University
of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station. Bulletin No.
129.) Med. 8vo. Pp. 103. (Urbana: University of
Illinois; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.)
55 cents.*
Viall, E. Les Broches 4 mandriner et le mandrinagea
la Broche. Traduit de l’Américain par Maurice Varinois.
Roy. 8vo. Pp. xii+218. (Paris: Libr. Dunod, 1922.)
28 francs.
Physics: Electrical Engineering
Avery, A. H. Dynamo Design and Construction.
(Cassell’s Workshop Series.) ee Cr. 8vo. Pp. 264.
(London : Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 6s. net. ‘
Bloch, Dr. L. Le Principe de la relativité et la
théeorie d’Einstein. (Bibliothéque des Annales des
Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones.) Demy 8vo. Pp.
lii+42. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1922.) 3.50
francs.*
Chauveau, B. Electricité -atmosphérique. Premier
fascicule: Introduction historique. Roy. 8vo. Pps
xi+g90. (Paris: G. Doin, 1922.) 10 francs.*
Claude, G. L’Electricité a la portée de tout le monde.
8e édition. Nouveautirage. Roy. 8vo. Pp.519. (Paris:
Libr. Dunod, 1922.) 19.50 francs.
Coursey, P. R. The Radio Experimenter’s Hand-
book. Roy. 8vo. Pp. vi+ 113. (London: Wireless
Press; Ltd., 1922.) 3's: 6d. net.
Cross, H.H.U. Automobile Batteries. New impres-
sion. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 109. (London: E. and F. N. Spon,
Ltd.; 1922.) 2s. 6d. net.
Curchod, A. Installations électriques de force et
lumiére : Schémas de connexions. 4e édition. Nouveau
tirage. Roy. 8vo. Pp. vili+278. (Paris: Libr. Dunod,
1922.) 18.50 francs.
Douglas, A. L. M. The Construction of Amateur
Valve Stations. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 81. (London: Wireless
Press, Ltd., 1922.) 1s. 6d. net.
Dover, A. TT. Industrial Motor Control: Direct
Current. Dealing with the Principles involved in the
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Supplement to “ Nature,” December 23, 1922 iil
Pasteur.
By STEPHEN PAGET.
F late years it has become the fashion to limit the
( name of preventive medicine to the immunisa-
tion of ourselves or of animals against infection. With
the one exception of vaccination against smallpox, all
methods of immunisation are founded on Pasteur’s work.
The contrast is remarkable between Jenner’s discovery
and Pasteur’s many discoveries. Jenner, ages back,
made a great dis-
covery: but there
he stopped. Pasteur
not only made dis-
coverles: he made
discoverers. Weare
so accustomed now-
adays to the new
learning which he
brought into the
world that we are in
danger of forgetting
the original wonder
of it: the power to
identify, isolate,
cultivate, and
handle, outside the
living body, this or
that disease: to
hold in a test-tube
the actual cause, the
thing itself, the very
stuff of disease,
growing under our
eyes. That is the
tragedy of Semmel-
weiss: he worked
out the truth about
puerperal fever, but
he could not demon-
strate the germs of
it: therefore he
was contradicted,
bullied, hounded down, driven mad, and died insane
in 1865. Pasteur, in 1878, in a discussion at the
Académie de Médecine on puerperal fever, when
one of the speakers railed at Streptococcus as a non-
reality, forthwith drew Streptococcus on the black-
board, saying, “‘ Tenez, voici sa figure.”
After all, it is impossible, in Pasteur’s work and its
Fic, 1.—Pasteur. 1
influences, to separate preventive medicine from
Long before Pasteur died every
We can take some
curative medicine.
country was at work on his lines.
dates in his life: but he was always living in the work
of lesser men whom he inspired. The dates in his life
are as follows. In 1842, fortified by the virtues of
home-love, and by the courage of youth, he went to
Paris: entered the Ecole Normale in 1843: worked
under Dumas and Biot at chemistry, and at chemistry
only : and in 1848 he solved the problem of the different
forms of tartaric
acid. For this
reason he has been
called the founder
of stereo-chemistry.
His pursuit of the
tartrates led him
straight to the prac-
tical study. of the
processes of brew-
ing, distilling, vine-
gar-making, and
wine-making. By
this work on fer-
mentation, Huxley
said of him that he
saved France more
than enough to pay
the indemnity of
the Franco-German
War. In1857 came
his paper at the
Lille Scientific
Society on Bacterium
lactis: he had iso-
lated this ferment,_
had experimented
with it: and this
“inoculation” — of
milk with a culture
of germs was the
beginning of all
bacteriology.
From 1865 to 1870, without giving up his work on
ferments, Pasteur set himself, at Alais, to investigate
the silkworm disease, which was wrecking the silk-
He found not
The story
industry of France and other countries.
one disease but two—pébrine and flacherte.
of his final triumph, after infinite difficulties, in this
investigation is marvellous: it is told in his “* Etudes
sur les maladies des vers 4 soie.””’ He used to commend
this book to students to guide them in the principles of
their work.
iv Supplement to “ Nature” December 23, 1922
Meanwhile, in Paris, Pasteur was advancing from
his knowledge of the putrefying of milk with Bacterium
lactis to the general study of putrefaction as a state of
fermentation caused by the living dust in the air.
Liebig had thought of putrefaction as a chemical de-
generation: Pasteur thought of it as a vital process.
It was more than a result of death: it was the act of
life. By 1859, the year of publication of ‘‘ The Origin
of Species,” he was in the thick of the fight over the
origin of life. He in France, and Tyndall in England,
proclaimed and proved the truth of “ the germ theory ”:
that was our phrase for Pasteur sixty years ago,
because the notion of putrefactive bacteria was new to
us. This controversy, in scientific and non-scientific
society, lasted long. In April 1864 Pasteur lectured
at the Sorbonne to all Paris: he reviewed and demon-
strated his work; he answered his critics: “‘ I have
excluded from my flasks of organic fluids, and am still
excluding from them, the one thing which is past man’s
making: I have excluded from them the germs which
float in the air, I have excluded from them life.”
Finally, he put in very short words the meaning of it
all—* La vie c’est le germe, et le germe c’est la vie.”
In 1862 Pasteur had noted the presence of germs in
ammoniacal urine, such as occurs with cystitis. In 1863
he had told Napoleon III. that his one ambition was to
get to know the causes of putrid and contagious diseases.
In 1865, when the cholera was raging in Paris, he and
Claude Bernard and Deville made many experiments,
in vain, on the air of a cholera-ward. That year also,
in Glasgow, Lister, sick to death of the old hospital-
diseases, set himself, by the “ flood of light” which
came to him from Pasteur, to prevent wound-infection
by dressing wounds with carbolic acid. He was, of
course, hampered by the need of wider knowledge, and
by undue fear of the “‘ putrefactive bacteria” in the air.
Besides, his first carbolic acid was fallible stuff: he
would have done as well, or better, with iodine or spirit-
But the point is, that he had got hold of principles that
are infallible. He had abandoned the fatal notion that
putrefaction was caused by the oxygen of the air.
Under this notion he had worked hard, in vain, to
prevent wound-infection. ‘‘ But when Pasteur had
shown that putrefaction was a fermentation caused by
the growth of microbes, and that these could not arise
de novo in the decomposable substance, the problem
assumed a more hopeful aspect. If the wound could be
treated with some substance which, without doing too
serious mischief to the human tissues, would kill the
microbes already contained in it and prevent the future
access of others in the living state, putrefaction might be
prevented, however freely the air with its oxygen might
enter’ (Lister’s presidential address to the British
Association, 1896). On these principles—with many
changes and improvements of the original method of
“ Listerism ”—all that we call antiseptic and aseptic
surgery was founded and built.
In the war of 1870-71, the French Army suffered
heavily from wound-infection. After 1871, while
Lister was practising Pasteurism in Edinburgh, Pasteur
was teaching Listerism in the hospitals of Paris, and
was defending it against the old school of practitioners.
Thus he was one of the founders of modern surgery
in France. During this phase of his work he identified
Streptococcus alike in boils and in osteomyelitis, and
properly said that osteomyelitis is “‘ a boil in a bone.”
In 1877 came the beginning of Pasteur’s threefold
work on anthrax, chicken-cholera, and swine-erysipelas.
In this colossal work, between 1877 and 1881,
Pasteur discovered and proved the use of standardised
vaccines. By keeping pure cultures of chicken-
cholera, he could bring down their virulence, slowly
and steadily, from day to day. By passing this
attenuated virus through a succession of small birds,
such as sparrows or canaries, he could restore it, point
by point, to its full strength. By keeping at a lowered
temperature pure cultures of anthrax, he could hinder
their sporing, and bring down their virulence. By
passing this attenuated virus through a succession
of guinea-pigs, he could restore it, point by point,
to its full strength. With such methods of attenua-
tion and intensification, he was able to standardise
diseases in flasks: able to make and to store vaccines,
exactly graduated by a fixed scale of their strength.
As Roux said of it all, “See how far we have come,
from the old metaphysical ideas about virulence, to —
these microbes that we can turn this way and that
way—stuff so plastic that a man can work on it, and
fashion it as he likes.”
Finally, in 1880-85, Pasteur discovered and estab-
lished the preventive treatment against rabies. He could
not isolate and identify the bacteria of the disease :
but his work was on the lines of bacteriology. By
a long series of experiments, he obtained his vzrus
fixe, his standard of the disease, raised by intensifica-
tion to such a point that the latent period in rabbits
after inoculation with virulent spinal cord, lasted
only for six or seven days, never more, never less.
This virus fixe was even stronger than the virus of
an ordinary case of rabies. Moreover, it retained its
strength through any number of passages from animal
to animal. In brief, he standardised rabies, not in
flasks but in rabbits: he shortened its latent period
to 6-7 days, and fixed it there. Last of all, as with
chicken-cholera, so with rabies, he proved that the
spinal cords of rabbits infected with his wrus fixe lost
virulence, slowly and steadily, point by point, by
mere keeping. Thus he was able to preserve and
Supplement to
‘ Nature,”
December 23, 1922 Vv
stock, in a complete set of cords, the dried virus of
rabies, in every shade of strength, from non-virulence
up to full virulence. {With a course of vaccines made
from these cords, begin-
ning at non-virulence, he
couldimmunise his patients
—each dose being made
safe by the dose of the
He
do this while the disease
previous day. could
itself was latent in the scar
of the bite, locked-up and
inert. He could outwit the
natural disease: could take
advantage of its latent
period, and deprive it of
its one and only chance
of flaring-up.
Long before 1885, Pas-
went all
Between
teur’s teaching
over the world.
1880 and
discoveries of the germs of
1890 came the
millions of animal lives have been saved or r safeguarde -d
by the protective treatments against anthrax, rinder-
pest, or pleuro-pneumonia : no room to say what has
been gained by the mallein
Whether
animal
test for landers.
the
at our
we look at
creation or
find
following-out of
own,
we everywhere the
the new
Pasteur
learning which
made possible.
The War demonstrated,
on avast scale, the supreme
importance of the methods
medicine.
all of them,
of preventive
They go back,
to that original plan of
isolating, cultivating, and
and
agents of
standardising
the
that plan which
took
finally
grading,
disease :
Pasteur in hand in
1877
tubercle, cholera, diph- Happy are those of us
theria, tetanus, and Malta who remember the joy of
fever. In 1893, diphtheria seeing him, hearing him,
antitoxin, and the pro- shaking hands with him.
tective treatment against ERS Let alone the wonder of
> = 1998. —~ J HUGQUES Pameur. (EF) F . . . .
cholera. In 1894, tetanus his discoveries, there is
antitoxin. In 1896-97, * the wonder of the beauty
° % ; Fic. 2.—Pasteur statue at the Sorbonne, Paris. : ay . ?
the protective treat- of his spiritual gifts. Our
ments against typhoid and plague. And so on. admiration of what he did for us cannot hide
There is no room here to try to guess how many
from us what he was in himself.
Pasteur Aphorisms.
because knowledge is
the torch which gives
SctENcE has no nationality
the patrimony of humanity,
light to the world.
* * *
If science has no country, the man of science should
have one, and ascribe to it the influence which his
works may have in this world.
The cultivation of science in its highest expression
is perhaps even more necessary to the moral condition
than to the material prosperity of a nation.
Science should be the highest personification of
nationality because, of all the nations, that one will be
foremost which shall be first to progress by the labours
of thought and of intelligence.
* * *
Nothing is more agreeable to a man who has made
science his career than to increase the number of dis-
coveries, but his cup of joy is full when the result of
his observations is put to immediate practical use.
Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an
ideal, and who obeys it ; ideal of art, ideal of science,
ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of
pact thoughts and great actions ; they all reflect the
ight of the Infinite.
x * *
two contrary laws seem to be wrestling with
each other nowadays ; one, a law of blood and death,
ever imaging new means of destruction and forcing
nations to be constantly ready for the battlefield—the
other, a law of peace, work and health, ever evolving
new means of delivering man from the scourges w hich
beset him.
* * *
the characteristic of erroneous theories is the
impossibility of ever foreseeing new facts; whenever
such a fact is discovered, those theories have to be
grafted with further hypotheses in order to account for
them. ‘True theories, on the contrary, are the expres-
sion of actual facts and are characterised by being able
to predict new facts, a ain eee ere of those
already known. In a word, the characteristic of a
true theory is its fruitfulness.
De
vi Supplement to “ Nature,” December 23, 1922
The Influence of Pasteur on the Development of Bacteriology and the Doctrines
of Infection and Immunity.
By Prof. Witt1am Buttoca, F.R.S.
O the ancients the cause of plagues and epidemics
was a great mystery. Such visitations were
regarded either as punishments administered by the
Omnipotent to chastise his erring creatures, or as the
foul work of a spirit or demon who possessed the powers
of evil over men. It was natural that human beings
who possessed the ability to ward off the avenging
hand or to neutralise the deadly effects of a cacodemon
should be esteemed or, indeed, venerated. This was,
no doubt, the origin of the A%sculapian worship in
ancient times, and was the source of charms, the use
of which is not extinct even now. In any case, the
cause of disease was believed to be something super-
natural, and this was the current doctrine down to
the Middle Ages, to be replaced by the view that the
cause must be sought in some natural phenomenon
rather than a vague supernatural element. Among
natural causes of disease were reckoned deleterious
changes in the air from miasms emanating from the
soil, the effluvia given off from unburied bodies, and
such like. Changes in weather were also believed to
be effective, and a vague “ epidemic constitution ”’—
a“ genius epidemicus ”’—was utilised to explain the
repeated appearance of diseases like small-pox, measles,
influenza, and scarlet fever. There were also those
who believed that telluric influences like earthquakes
and floods, or celestial phenomena like the conjunction
of planets or eclipses, were responsible for the sub-
sequent outbreaks of epidemic disease.
The idea that disease could be contracted by contact
with the sick, although ancient, was never popular
and played no important part in the evolution of
medical doctrine until the sixteenth century, when its
main elements were clearly formulated by Jerome
Fracastori (1483-1553) whose work “ De Contagione ”
(1546) constitutes a great landmark in medical history.
He clearly differentiated (a) contagion by contact,
(b) contagion by fomites, and (c) contagion at a
distance. The starting point of his work was the
appearance of syphilis, which spread over Europe as
a great pandemic at the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century. In addition to
syphilis, small-pox, itch and hydrophobia were clearly
recognised as contagious. Contagion, however, did
not explain all epidemic diseases. For example, it
was clear that, although malaria affected large numbers
of people, it was not dangerous for the healthy to come
even in remote contact with the sick. Such a disease
was believed to be due to some pollution of the air—
a miasm, mal aria, emanating from marshes. In this _
way miasmatic were differentiated from contagious
diseases, while later, a group of miasmatic-contagious
diseases was included. In all cases the miasm, which
was not believed to be transmissible directly, was
regarded as undergoing some process of maturation
in soil, air, or water. At this period, indeed, the
influence of the soil and air was regarded as paramount.
By degrees, however, the doctrine of infection
clearly emerged and passed through three phases.
At first there was the tdea that the disease cause was
poison was not more nearly defined. The poison was
then regarded as the action of a ferment, and the name
zymotic still persists. Lastly, in the nineteenth
century, the idea became prevalent that the disease
cause is not a vague chemical ferment but a living
fermenting agent—a contagium vivum. The foundation
of this great advance is to be sought in the classical
observations of Cagniard-Latour (1836) and Theodor
Schwann (1837) that yeast—a substance known from
time immemorial—is a living organism reproducing
itself by a process of budding and producing chemical
changes in certain substances termed fermentable.
Schwann, in particular, showed that while no yeast
cells are to be found in fresh grape juice, their addition
to such grape juice is followed by the infallible signs
of fermentation and the production of gas. This
view, opposed as it was to the prevailing teaching of
chemistry, was at first ardently opposed, but in due
course was accepted as indicating the truth.
One of the earliest investigators to realise the
possibilities of the work of Schwann was Henle the
anatomist, and so long ago as 1840 he developed the
idea, on theoretical grounds, that microscopic living
beings might be the causes of disease ; with a remark-
able prescience he set forth the principles whereby
this might be experimentally proved. Indeed, his
suggestions constituted the nucleus on which, forty
years later, the whole modern fabric of the etiology
of infective diseases was erected. Even so far back
as 1835, Agostino Bassi, of Lodi, showed that the
muscardine disease of silkworms was due to infection
by a fungus. In 1839, Schonlein demonstrated the
existence of the Achorion fungus in favus, and Gruby
(1843) found the Trichophyton fungus in ringworm.
A new stream of discovery had set in, no longer
characterised by vague philosophical speculation but
by hard facts established by experiment. To this
advancing current Louis Pasteur was the main con-
Supplement to ‘ Nature,’ December 23, 1922
tributor, and it was chiefly his work that led to the
so-called “germ theory’’ of disease, which by 1876
became an established fact. Pasteur’s work on
fermentations showed that different chemical products
are the outcome of the activities of particular microbes,
subsisting in and utilising the fermentible substances.
His observations on the alcoholic, lactic, butyric,
acetic, urea fermentations, and the abnormal fermenta-
tions of wines and beers, are classic and have remained
the teaching of to-day. It was by an accident that
he was dragged into the conflict on spontaneous
generation and heterogenesis, and in a short time and
by unsurpassed technique answered the question in
the “not proven” sense. Of his principal paper on
this subject published in 1862, Tyndall, himself a great
_ experimenter, has said that “clearness, strength, and
caution with consummate skill for their minister were
rarely more strikingly displayed than in this im-
perishable essay.” Pasteur’s works on fermentation
and on spontaneous generation acted like a leaven on
medical thought, and was the principal cause of the
Immense advances which, shortly afterwards, took
place in our ideas of disease causes. In particular
his demonstration of “ panspermia,’ the idea that
germs abound everywhere, was the origin of the life
work of Lister on the protection of wounds from
extraneous contamination and his foundation of
antiseptic surgery—the greatest advance ever made
in medical art. While Lister throughout his life
always referred modestly to his own share in the work,
it is by no means to be supposed that he was a mere
iImitator of Pasteur. Lister was the first to visualise
the enormous practical importance of Pasteur’s work,
and himself was the creator and the greatest exponent
of the whole antiseptic advance.
It was also Pasteur’s demonstration of specific
fermentations that led Davaine (1863) to renew his
observations on the bacteridia seen years before by
him with Rayer in anthrax blood, and by Pollender
and Brauell. Pasteur himself followed all these
advances with keen insight and appreciation, and was
thereby brought into personal contact with disease
processes although he had no medical training. In
particular, he spent the later part of his life in elucidat-
ing infectious animal diseases like fowl cholera, swine
erysipelas, anthrax, and hydrophobia. Not only did
he show that these diseases are due to special microbes
differing from each other and producing the specific
disease, but he was enormously ahead of his time in
discovering prophylactic measures by which these
diseases can be prevented by inoculation. One of
his greatest discoveries—and one which pervades all
his later work—was the demonstration that an
attenuated living virus, 7.e. one no longer capable
vil
of causing fatal disease—can by inoculation lead to
the prevention of fatal disease. As Jennerian inocula-
tion of calf lymph belongs essentially to this category,
Pasteur proposed to designate the method by the
name “vaccination,” although, in so doing, the
etymological significance of the word was lost. Pasteur
was the discoverer of extraordinary forms of microbes
which live without air—anaerobes—and himself dis-
covered the first disease-producing microbe of this
class, namely, Vibrion septique. Since his time the
knowledge of pathogenic anaerobes has grown to a
special department of bacteriology.
By degrees the fundamental doctrine of the specificity
of disease became firmly established. The idea first
emanated from the fertile mind of P. F. Bretonneau,
the French clinician, who in the beginning of the
nineteenth century overthrew the prevailing doctrines
of Broussais, and showed that diseases vary from
differences in cause rather than from the intensity
of the cause or the environment. The actual demonstra-
tion of specificity in infective disease is one of the great
achievements of modern pathology, and was shown
in particular by Robert Koch, who in 1876 introduced
simple methods for bacterial cultivation which have
not been materially altered down to the present time.
Koch’s principle utilised media (e.g. gelatine) which
were fluid at one temperature and solid at another.
By disseminating the microbes in the fluid medium
and suddenly solidifying it the bacteria were, so to
speak, imprisoned and started to grow and in this
way “‘ pure cultures ” were easily obtained. Viewing
Koch’s pure cultures in London in 1881 in Lister’s
laboratory at King’s College, Pasteur, turning to Lister,
said, “C’est une grande découverte.” It was the
application of Koch’s method in his own hands and
those of his assistants that, in the decade 1880-1890,
revolutionised the subject of disease causation, and
led to the discovery of more solid facts than had been
possible since the dawn of civilisation.
The discovery of the microbes of tuberculosis,
cholera, diphtheria, glanders, and enteric fever in this
decade renders it one of the most fertile in the history
of medicine, and was the classical period when the
science of bacteriology was founded. Since 1890 the
current has flowed in another direction, namely,
towards the prevention and cure of specific infective
disease by specific remedies, and it was here that
Pasteur’s main work on the effects of attenuated virus
led and still leads the way. When one calmly surveys
the immense progress of medical science in the last fifty
years it will, we think, be admitted by future historians
that its progress and success were due largely to the work
initiated with so much imagination and carried out with
such incomparable technical skill by Louis Pasteur.
?
vill
Supplement to “ Nature,” December 23, 1922
Pasteur and Preventive Medicine.
Bye Prot |enGo Gs
ASTEUR’S life-work is a finished symphony, a
science In miniature, and it is, perhaps, not
generally appreciated that the Master was well advanced
in years when he commenced the final chapter which
witnessed that remarkable series of experiments in
prophylactic immunisation which culminated in his
dramatically successful attack on rabies. This crown-
ing victory over a dreaded scourge was rendered possible
by Pasteur’s profound faith in the immunising powers
of attenuated viruses—a faith which his previous
experience with fowl cholera, swine erysipelas, and
anthrax had but strengthened.
faith of Jenner.
Pasteur commenced the final chapter of his life,
which he devoted to preventive medicine, as the com-
plete comparative pathologist and he remained one to
the end. It is true that fowl cholera and anthrax were
among the few infections of which the microbic agents
were at least known, though meagrely studied. The
great chain of discoveries in the causation of human
infections dating from the early eighties, and inspired by
the genius of Koch’s pure culture studies, was yet un-
forged, and in that work Pasteur and his school took
little share. To Pasteur the accurate knowledge of a
virus was simply a stimulus to attack the disease on the
preventive side, but neither to him nor to his great
contemporary Lister was this stimulus an essential
one. Ifa virus could be demonstrated and cultivated
outside the body, so much the better. Attenua-
tion was all the simpler. So when he came to
rabies, ignorance of the actual virus did not deter him
from the attempt to attenuate its virulence by an
ingenious method of his own and to render it amenable
for prophylactic use. His demonstration of the pre-
dilection of rabies virus for brain and spinal cord
supplied the key that opened the secret door.
It was in essence the
Lepincuam, F.R.S.
It is fortunate, perhaps, that Pasteur’s activities
in preventive medicine were solely concerned with
veterinary disease. There he had full scope for animal
experiment on the large scale and he could assess at will
the value of a prophylactic measure under controlled
experimental conditions. That day at the farm of
Pouilly-le-Fort when he arrived to find the vaccinated
sheepand cattlealive and well, while all the unvaccinated
controls were dead or dying of anthrax, must have been
a glorious date in a calendar that held many such. But
all systems of immunisation, whether in man or animal,
when brought to the test of the field experiment, reveal
their relative value, and Pasteur’s essays have been no
exception to the rule. His guiding principles in im-
munisation have, however, easily stood the light of
fifty years and never were they more keenly debated
than to-day, when the factors that contrcl the vagaries
of bacterial virulence are just beginning to be under-
stood. Pasteur was, perhaps unconsciously, the first
exponent of bacterial variation, a field of work that
exercises many minds to-day and bids fair to yield a
rich harvest. Attenuation was secured by Pasteur in
several different ways, in fowl cholera by prolonged
incubation of the virus, in swine erysipelas by passage
through another animal species, and in anthrax by
altering the temperature of incubation.
What amount of success has been achieved since then
in prophylaxis against human infections is due to the
substitution of the killed for the attenuated live virus—
certainly an expedient, but very possibly a retrograde,
modification of Pasteur’s principle. The solution of
the mysteries of attenuation, to which renewed study is
being devoted, may yet open up new vistas in pro-
phylaxis and in serum-therapy, but to Pasteur’s pioneer
work in this field, preventive medicine must for ever
pay homage.
Pasteur in Crystallography.
By Dr. A. E. H.
T is very rare indeed that a scientific man of our
time is equally distinguished for his researches
in both the great fields of natural science, the chemico-
physical and the biological, yet this is true of Louis
Pasteur. His fame as a chemical crystallographer was
assured for all time by his brilliant discovery, as a young
man of twenty-six in the year 1848, of the true nature
of tartaric acid, by his measurement of the crystals of
the two optically active varieties, and by his revelation
of the connexion between right- and left-handedness
of crystalline form (enantiomorphism) and_ optical
Tutton, F.R.S.
activity. This particularly interesting property of
rotating the plane of polarisation of a ray of polarised
light has been said by Prof. Percy Frankland to be
“the distinctive seal of nobleness exhibited by the
aristocracy of chemical compounds.”’ The distinction
achieved by Pasteur in the biological world, great as
it is, rendering his name a household word among us
and one to be blessed by generations yet to come,
is thus at least equalled by his pioneer services to
crystallography.
It is somewhat remarkable that Mitscherlich in the
Supplement to “ Nature,” December 23, 1922 ix
year 1819 should have made his celebrated discovery
of isomorphism during his first research, that Scheele
in 1769 should have isolated tartaric acid as the result
of his first investigation, and that Pasteur in 1848
should have discovered the great principle of enantio-
morphism and the generalisation connecting it with
optical activity now known in crystallography as
Pasteur’s Law, as the result of his earliest research.
Young post-graduates setting forth on their first steps
in scientific research may find great encouragement
from these interesting facts.
In the year 1819 an acidic substance greatly resem-
bling the tartaric acid discovered by Scheele had been
found in the grape-juice vats of Thann in Alsace, and
in 1826 it was investigated by Gay Lussac, who was
obliged, however, to confess himself puzzled as to the
nature of the substance. Gmelin also examined it
in 1829, with a similar result, but he at least gave it
a name, Traubensiure—acid of grapes—which was
translated as racemic acid in France and England.
Subsequently Berzelius tackled it, and got so far as to
prove that its empirical composition was C,H,Og,, the
same as that of Scheele’s tartaric acid, this observa-
tion being indeed the introduction of the principle
of isomerism into chemistry. Shortly afterwards
Biot, who subsequently became the close friend and
admirer of Pasteur, in the course of his pioneer work
on the rotation of the plane of polarisation of light by
certain specific substances, examined for rotatory
power both this racemic acid and tartaric acid. He
found that the latter, both the crystals and their
solution in water, rotated the plane of polarisation to
the right, but that racemic acid was optically inactive.
It was at this juncture that Pasteur took up the
study of the subject, concentrating his attention first
on racemic acid and its salts. One of the most readily
obtainable is sodium hydrogen racemate, and when
to the solution of this salt in water ammonium hydrate
is added, the salt sodium ammonium racemate crystal-
lises out on standing, its composition being C,H,O,
NaNH,.4H,O. It was in examining these crystals
that Pasteur made the initial discovery which led to
all the rest. For he observed that in some of the
crops obtained all the individual crystals were either
right-handed or left-handed, the two varieties being,
when analogously equally developed, the mirror-
images of each other. Moreover, crystals of either kind
at will could be obtained from a metastable (saturated
at 28° C. and cooled to ordinary temperature) solution
of the salt by touching the solution with a crystal of
the desired variety. The crystals belong to the
rhombic bisphenoidal class 6, the faces of comple-
mentary bisphenoids being present on opposite sides
on the two kinds of crystals.
On collecting crystals of each variety apart, redis-
solving them and recrystallising, the fresh crystals
proved to be of the same kind as those dissolved ;
and on precipitating a solution of each variety with a
soluble lead salt and decomposing the precipitated
lead salt by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, Scheele’s
ordinary dextro-tartaric acid was obtained in one
case, while the other variety gave quite a new form of
tartaric acid, the crystals and solution of which rotated
the plane of polarisation to the left. This was, in
fact, the isolation by Pasteur of levo-tartaric acid.
Further, on mixing the two separate acids thus derived,
right-handed and left-handed, he noticed that heat
was evolved, a molecular combination of the two
varieties occurring, the product being racemic acid,
which crystallised out with a molecule of water of
crystallisation, C,H,0,.H,O. Thus he discovered the
true nature of racemic acid, namely, that it 1s a mole-
cular compound of the two optically active tartaric
acids, the two varieties exactly neutralising each other
and producing thereby optical inactivity.
Pasteur must have had some considerable crystallo-
graphic knowledge, for he measured crystals of dextro-
tartaric acid and made observations with levo-tartaric
acid which were adequate to prove that its crystals
were the mirror-images of those of the ordinary dextro
acid. The crystals belong to the sphenoidal class 4
of the monoclinic system. ‘Typical crystals of the two
varieties are shown in the accompanying Figs. 1 and
2, and it will be clear that the dextro variety, Fig. 1,
Fic. 2.
Lavo-tartaric acid.
Fic. 1. ;
Dextro-tartaric acid.
exhibits the right clino-prism {ort}, while the levo
variety, Fig. 2, has only the left clino-prism {ort}
developed, of the two possible sphenoids, the dis-
tinctive forms of this class of lower than holohedral
symmetry.
These crystals of the two optically active tartaric
acids are anhydrous, corresponding to the formula
C,H,O,. On the other hand, racemic acid, as already
mentioned, crystallises with a molecule of water, and
the crystals are quite different and of only one kind,
belonging to the pinakoidal holohedral class 2 of the
triclinic system, as subsequently established by De
la Prevostaye. The combination of the two optically
active varieties, however, is so loose that the separation
into the two kinds already described is possible, under
the specific conditions stated.
x Supplement to “ Nature,” December 23, 1922
In the year 1850 Pasteur discovered yet a fourth
variety of tartaric acid—meso-tartaric acid—which
is truly and permanently without action on the plane of
polarisation of light, and so is quite unresolvable into
two optical antipodes. This further fact threw great
light on the subject, and eventually Pasteur showed
that the explanation of the whole matter is to be found
in the symmetry or dissymmetry of the chemical
molecules themselves. Not only is the empirical
formula the same for all, but the constitutional
formula written in one plane is also identical, namely,
CHOH-COOH
CHOH-COOH
disposed in space in these different physical isomers.
Physical isomerism is possible when the substance
possesses what has since been called an asymmetric
carbon atom, an atom of carbon of which the four
tetrahedrally disposed valency bonds are satisfied by
four different elements or groups. Optical activity
is usual in all such cases, but it has more recently been
shown that it is not the absolutely essential condition
for the development of optical activity, the absence
of second order symmetry elements (planes of sym-
metry or second order axes) and possession of only
first order (axial) symmetry being the more truly
determinative condition for the development of two
enantiomorphous varieties of physical isomerides and
of their accompanying opposite optical activities.
Tartaric acid, however, does possess this essential
; but the atoms or groups are differently
condition, and it has also two asymmetric carbon
atoms, namely, those in the two CHOH groups (starred)
Pine *CHOH-COOH
of the constitutional formula
*CHOH-COOH
group of atoms in one half-molecule may be either
symmetrically disposed with respect to those of the
other half-molecule or differently disposed. When
they are symmetrically arranged, internally compen-
sated, the whole molecule is optically inactive, this
, and the
corresponding to the case of the truly inactive tartaric
acid ; when they are unsymmetrically arranged they
are so in either a right- or a left-handed manner, the
crystals being helically constructed (recently confirmed
by X-ray analysis) as a right or left screw, giving rise
to the two optical enantiomorphous antipodes, as in
the case of dextro- and lvo-tartaric acids. Racemic
acid, the molecular combination of the two last
mentioned, is the case of external compensation as
regards the molecules.
The work during the present year of Mr. W. T.
Astbury in the laboratory of Sir William Bragg, on the
X-ray analysis of tartaric acid, the results of which
have just, most opportunely, been communicated to
the Royal Society, has proved without a shadow of
doubt that the four atoms of carbon in the molecule
of ordinary dextro-tartaric acid are, in very truth,
spirally arranged. This is a most welcome confirmation
of Pasteur’s great work on the very eve of his centenary.
The principles on which the whole of these results
are based were eventually summarised in what has
since become known as Pasteur’s Law, which may be
briefly stated thus :—‘‘If the atoms of a chemical
molecule be dissymmetrically arranged, this molecular
dissymmetry implies the possibility of the existence of
two oppositely complementary configurations of the
molecule. Both varieties have the same chemical
properties, and they are endowed always with equal
but oppositely directed rotatory power. The presence
of molecular dissymmetry therefore reveals itself by
this rotatory power of the molecules and is wholly
determined by their chemical constitution. When
the atoms of a chemical molecule are dissymmetric-
ally arranged, the fact is at the same time betrayed by
the occurrence of the two varieties in complementary
non-superposable crystalline forms, possessing screw
axes of opposite winding.”
This purely chemical and crystallographic work of
Pasteur was connected with his later bacteriological
and zoological work by the further pioneer observation
that when the spores of the ferment Penicillium
glaucum were added to a solution of racemic acid
containing a small quantity of phosphates (which
appear to be essential to the life of the organism), the
dextro component of the molecular compound of the
two varieties of optically active tartaric acid is some-
how isolated and eaten up by the organism, leaving
the levo component untouched so long as any dextro
acid remains. Why this is so is a mystery still, con-
nected with life itself. By arresting the fermentation
at the psychological moment, the residual leevo variety
can thus be isolated and crystallised out tolerably pure,
and its isolation was, as a matter of fact, thus effected
for the first time in yet a second manner by Pasteur,
and its crystals shown by him to be the mirror-images
of those of Scheele’s ordinary dextro-tartaric acid.
This observation by Pasteur has developed into a
general method for the fissure and separation of the
two separable varieties of a racemic compound—for
many such compounds have since been discovered—
and for the isolation of one of them, the other being
chosen in some mysterious way for preferential destruc-
tion by the organism, in assimilating it for its own
nourishment and reproduction. Thus the great value
of the classic work of Pasteur on the tartaric acids lies
in the fact that this group of compounds proved to be
but a type of a large class of substances, which exhibit
physical isomerism in two enantiomorphous varieties
that are optically active in opposite directions and
Supplement to “ Nature,’ December 23, 1922 xl
combine molecularly to form compounds of racemic
character. His methods and his law have thus come
to be of wide, indeed general, application to all such
cases. With regard to the deeply interesting question
why so slight a difference of nature, between two
varieties of a substance, as a mere difference of type
of helix—right- or left-handed—along which the atoms
are arranged, should be a sufficient cause for the
different behaviour of a living organism brought into
contact with it, remains still unsolved. The fact,
however, has been amply confirmed over and over
again, as well as by Emil Fischer’s results on the
selective fermentation of sugars by yeasts, so that it
appears as if the action of every living organism
corresponds to only a particular arrangement of the
atoms in a chemical molecule. Pasteur himself says
(1860), and with these words of still valid portent this
article may well conclude : “‘ Il y a 14 des mystéres, qui
préparent al’avenir d’immenses travaux et appellent dés
aujourd’hui les plus sérieuses méditations de ia science.”
Pasteur’s Early Research in Pure Chemistry and Fermentation.
By Prof. ArtHuR Harpen, F.R.S.
HE purely chemical researches of Pasteur, under-
taken when he was a young man of twenty-two
years of age, were all comprised within the epoch
1844-1860, during the latter part of which he was also
actively engaged on his great work on fermentation.
Pasteur’s fundamental contribution to pure chemistry,
the idea of the asymmetric arrangement of the atoms
within the molecule, has proved to be one of the most
fruitful conceptions of the science. The experimental
methods which led to its development have provided
chemists with a weapon by which many of the most
difficult and subtle problems have been successfully
attacked ; a weapon which still maintains its place in
the armoury of the chemist and is every day turned to
fresh account.
Pasteur’s fundamental experiment on the resolution
of the racemates, and the dramatic scene in which his
great discovery was recognised by the veteran Biot,
are among the classics of chemical literature. The
thrill accompanying the culmination of this his first
successful research, the memory of that joyous nervous
excitement which prevented him from again looking
into the polarimeter, must have always remained
vividly present to his mind and can never have been
effaced even by the ever-increasing flood of discoveries
which marked his later years.
Stereochemical relations are now so well established
and so universally admitted that it is difficult to realise
the intrepidity of Pasteur’s theoretical deductions.
He saw at once that the asymmetry of his two tartaric
acids would lead them to form different compounds
with an asymmetric (optically active) base. On
making the experiment, after many abortive attempts,
he at length had the satisfaction, second only to that
experienced at the successful resolution of the race-
mates, of obtaining crystals of pure cinchonicine
levotartrate by the crystallisation of the racemate of
this optically active base. Thus was established the
classical chemical method for the resolution of asym-
metric compounds.
It is of special interest, in view of the later direction
of Pasteur’s scientific work, that he at once perceived
the bearing of his new discoveries on the chemistry
of the living organism. It was only among the pro-
ducts of vegetable and animal life that he found
substances the molecules of which were asymmetric.
In the mineral kingdom and among the synthetic
products of the organic chemist molecular symmetry
held undisputed sway. He therefore regarded the
living organism as the sole source of asymmetric
molecules, the cell acting as ‘“‘a laboratory of asym-
metric forces.” Observation soon reinforced these
theoretical ideas. Struck by the “spontaneous”
fermentation of a solution of ammonium tartrate, he
transferred a drop of the fermenting liquid to a solution
of ammonium racemate and found that when the
fermentation which ensued had ceased the levotartrate
was quite intact whereas the dextro-acid had dis-
appeared. “Thus” says Pasteur, in his lectures
on Asymmetry, 1860, “ the conception of the influence
of the molecular symmetry of natural organic products
is introduced into physiological studies through this
important criterion (optical activity), which forms
perhaps the only sharply defined boundary which can
at the present day be drawn between the chemistry
of dead and living nature.”
It was, according to Duclaux in his charming bio-
graphy “Pasteur, histoire d’un esprit,” another
aspect of the relation between organisms and the
asymmetry of their products which led him to the
study of fermentation, his next great field of discovery.
Amy] alcohol, the optically active constituent of fusel
oil, was at that time universally supposed to be derived
from the sugar, although it is now known, through the
brilliant researches of Felix Ehrlich, to be a product
of the decomposition of protein. This substance was
assumed by the opponents of the vitalistic theory of
fermentation, which had been based on the discovery
of the living nature of yeast in 1837, to owe its optical
activity to the parent molecule of sugar from which it
1 Quoted from Frankland’s Pasteur Memorial Lecture, Jour, Chem,
Soc., 1897.
xii
Supplement to “ Nature,’ December
272
23) SNO22
was derived. Pasteur, in view of his experiments on
the decomposition of active substances, which gave
rise to inactive products, could not accept this idea,
and, regarding living beings as the sole source of
asymmetric molecules, was strongly inclined to the
belief that in the production of the active alcohol a
living organism must have intervened. With char-
acteristic energy he commenced the study of the
lactic and alcoholic fermentations, the results of which
(published in 1857 and 1860) were of such far-reaching
and unexpected importance. The lactic organism—
hitherto not only unknown but almost unsuspected—
was discovered and shown to be the specific cause of
the chemical change of sugar into lactic acid. In the
same way he showed that living yeast was the cause of
the alcoholic fermentation of sugar, and triumphed over
the objections and arguments of Liebig by growing
yeast in a synthetic medium, which contained only
mineral salts and well-known pure stable organic
substances. By this bold stroke Liebig’s contention
that the ferment was an unstable substance formed by
the action of air on plant juices containing sugar was
totally overthrown, and with it fell his theory of
fermentation, according to which the instability of the
ferment was transferred to the molecule of the sugar.
Pasteur, who had at once discovered that carbon
dioxide and alcohol were not the only products of
alcoholic fermentation, but that succinic acid and
glycerol were always formed, in addition to the new-born
cells of the organism, regarded fermentation as a physio-
logical act by which the yeast acquired some material
essential for its life from the fermented sugar. No
fermentation without life was his deliberate conclusion.
He was not, however, heedless of the attempts made by
Traube and others to attribute fermentation to the
presence of ferments in the living cell, and we are told
by Roux that he made many vain attempts by grind-
ing, freezing, and plasmolysing yeast cells to obtain
evidence as to the existence of such a ferment. It
is strange to reflect that it was in all probability an
unfortunate selection of a yeast unsuitable for the
purpose of such experiments that led to these repeated
failures, and that but for this he might have anticipated
Buchner by a quarter of a century and have advanced
one step further towards the elucidation of this com-
plex problem.
Buchner’s (1897) showed that
Pasteur had gone too far in his generalisation. The
act of fermentation was shown to be a chemical change
produced in the presence of a non-living agent, separable
from the cell, an agent the complexity of which still
awaits complete resolution. It is the production of
this essential instrument of change that is a function
of the living cell, and the physiological significance of
the act of fermentation is, in all probability, not the
acquisition of material but of energy.
It was Pasteur’s great achievement in these researches
to have cleared the ground for future work. The old
indefinite ideas were shown to be wrong and it was
definitely proved that each different type of fermenta-
great discovery
tion was due to a specific organism. Here the modern.
study of fermentation begins, and every worker on this
subject must look back with gratitude to Pasteur’s
researches as the ultimate inspiration of his labours.
Pasteur and the Fermentation Industries.
By Prof. A. R. Line.
OUIS PASTEUR, one of the great figures in the
scientific world of the nineteenth century—and
there were giants in those days—was a man whose
studies covered a more extensive range than those of
perhaps any other scientific man of his time, while his
researches have had a correspondingly far-reaching
influence on both pure and applied science. Pre-
eminently an academic worker, he was able to apply
his discoveries to preventive medicine, surgery, agri-
culture, bacteriology, and the fermentation industries.
Some of his later work was, indeed, actually taken up
with a distinct practical objective.
achieved in his researches in applied science must be
attributed solely to his profound studies in pure science,
But the success
without which he would not have been in possession
of the means of attacking problems in such a manner
as to obtain results of direct benefit to mankind. In
this connexion it may be pointed out that one of the |
| outstanding features of his genius was his remarkable
prescience, which enabled him to turn purely academic
work to utilitarian ends. As an example of the
practical trend of his mind, his remarks in the preface
to his celebrated “Etudes sur la biére” (English
Translation) may be quoted :
“T am convinced,” he says, “ that I have found a
precise, practical solution of the arduous problem
which I proposed to myself. . . . These new studies
are based on the same principles which guided me in
my researches on wine, vinegar, and the silk-worm
disease—principles, the application of which are
practically unlimited. The etiology of contagious
diseases may, perhaps, receive from them an un-
expected light.”
If we are to understand the causes which led to
Pasteur’s association with the fermentation industries,
we must consider briefly his early work. It is an old
tale, yet one worthy of repetition. From the College
Supplement ot “ Nature,” December 23, 1922
Xiil
of Arbois, he proceeded to Besancon and entered the
Ecole Normale in 1843. Here, asastudent of chemistry,
he came under the influence of Balard and of Dumas,
while his attention was turned to crystallography by
M. Delafosse, assistant to Hatty. When in 1844 Biot
presented to the French Academy of Sciences a paper
by Mitscherlich, in which it was stated that the sodium
ammonium salts of racemic acid and of ordinary
tartaric acid respectively were identical not only in
chemical composition but also in crystalline form,
Pasteur, who seems to have been guided by Sir John
Herschel’s discovery in 1820 of the opposite hemi-
hedral relationship of dextro- and levo-rock crystal
or quartz, demonstrated to Biot’s satisfaction that the
crystals of sodium ammonium racemate also exhibited
opposite hemihedrism. He was able, in fact, to separate
by selection those crystals derived from ordinary dextro-
tartaric acid and those derived from the hitherto un-
known levo-tartaric acid. Pasteur was, however, in
the first place a chemist, and not long afterwards he
discovered a chemical means of resolving racemic acid
into its enantiomorphic isomerides by fractional
crystallisation of its salts with certain optically active
bases. This was followed later by a third, a biochemical
method, which depended on the fact that the green
mould Penicillium glaucum, when grown in the presence
of racemic acid, ferments the dextro-acid preferably
to the levo-acid.
It is possible that this last-mentioned discovery was
the means of leading Pasteur into the domain of
biology, in which branch of science he was destined
to make such brilliant discoveries. The commence-
ment of his researches on yeast dates, however, from
the year 1856, when he occupied the position of Dean
of the Faculty of Science at Lille.
sulted by a local distiller named Bigo on certain
difficulties encountered in the manufacture of alcohol
from beetroot.
Here he was con-
Before describing Pasteur’s final conclusions on the
nature of yeast and of alcoholic fermentation, it will
be necessary to take a brief retrospective glance on
the state of our knowledge prior to the period with
which we are dealing.
The cellular form of yeast had been established so
long ago as the seventeenth century by Anton Van
Leeuwenhoek, and in 1836 Cagniard-Latour observed
that yeast cells are susceptible of reproduction by a
sort of budding, while a similar observation was made
about the same time by Schwann. Little account was
taken of these observations, however, and alcoholic
fermentation was explained by the theories of Berzelius
and of Liebig, the former regarding it as a catalytic
phenomenon, and the latter as one in which the ferment
(yeast) was a substance which decomposed readily,
and in so doing set in motion the molecules of the
fermentative matter.
In the year 1856, Pasteur commenced his studies on
yeast and on alcoholic fermentation, and from that
time dates his celebrated controversy with Liebig,
which raged with fury up to the year 1861, when
Pasteur had established anaerobic growth in certain
micro-organisms, and had finally proved that yeast is
a living organism. His further conclusion was that
alcoholic fermentation is a phenomenon coterminous
with the life of yeast. Still Liebig maintained his
view tenaciously, and only modified it in 1870.
“Tt is possible,” said Liebig, ‘‘ that the only correla-
tion between the physiological act and the phenomenon
of fermentation is the production in the living cell of
the substance which, by some special property analogous
to that by which emulsin exerts a decomposing action
on salicin and amygdalin, may bring about this decom-
position of sugar into other organic molecules; the
physiological act, in this view, would be necessary for
the production of this substance, but it would have
nothing else to do with fermentation.” To this
Pasteur replied, ‘“‘ Ici je ne contredirais encore pas.”
Liebig’s final hypothesis was therefore similar if
not identical with that of Berzelius, and we shall now
see how it was reconciled ultimately with the views of
Pasteur. Berthelot in 1858 suggested that fermenta-
tion was the result of unorganised ferments (enzymes)
secreted by the yeast, but to this Claude Bernard
objected in 1860. Brefeld in 1874-75 considered that
it was only when all the free oxygen in a fermentable
liquid had been removed that the yeast cells commenced
to excite fermentation, which he believed to be due to
an enzyme. Pasteur in the course of his work had
tried in vain to isolate this enzyme, and he favoured
the view that fermentation was a vital act of the yeast
cell. In 1897 E. Buchner extracted the enzyme of
alcoholic fermentation from yeast and called it zymase.
Pasteur’s further work on fermentation is embodied
in his celebrated treatise, “ Etudes sur la biére ”
(1876).
“ Our misfortune,” he says, ““ prompted me with the
idea of these researches. I undertook them immedi-
ately after the war in 1870, and have since continued
them without interruption, with the determination of
perfecting them, and thereby benefiting a branch of
industry wherein we are undoubtedly surpassed by
Germany. I am convinced that I have formed a
precise, practical solution of the arduous problem
which I proposed to myself—that of a process of
manufacture, independent of season and_ locality,
which should obviate the necessity of having recourse
to the costly methods of cooling employed in existing
processes, and at the same time secure the preservation
of its products for any length of time.”
Pasteur’s views on alcoholic fermentation are some-
what difficult to understand ; hence he met with many
XIV
Supplement to “ Nature,’ December 23, 1922
Opponents to his theories. They may be summed up
in his famous dictum—‘‘ Fermentation is life without
air.” He recognised, however, the necessity for the
presence of dissolved oxygen in a liquid undergoing
Were it not, he says, for the oxygen
which yeast meets with dissolved in the wort and also
fermentation.
that which it seizes upon when manipulated in contact
with air—for yeast which has been deprived for some
time of free oxygen absorbs this gas with the greatest
avidity—it would soon cease to act as a ferment.
Pasteur, therefore, lays the greatest stress on the need
for aération as a preliminary to fermentation, and
this was one of the most valuable of his suggestions
relating to fermentation technology.
According to Pasteur, however, yeast is an amphibian
living the aérobic life of an ordinary fungus, in which
case in the presence of free aération the maximum
cell reproduction is obtained with a minimum of
alcoholic fermentation or none at all, and secondly,
as an anaérobe in which alcohol production is at its
maximum together with a more limited cell repro-
duction. But in order to ensure both these results
it is necessary for the yeast to have fixed a certain
quantity of oxygen. It is impossible in the space at
our disposal to deal with the work of Adrian Brown,
of Horace Brown, and of A. Slator. The question is
still in a sense in the melting-pot, but it would seem
that Pasteur’s views are likely to be proved to be in
the main correct.
No better tribute could be paid to the services
rendered by Pasteur to the fermentation industries
than by quoting the words of Dr. Horace T. Brown.
“ The current of my thoughts was entirely changed
by the perusal of the early work of Pasteur, and when
in 1867... the celebrated ‘Etudes sur le vin’
came into my hands, I became thoroughly imbued
with the new biological aspects of fermentation.
There are probably but few here who can. . . fully
realise what it meant to have the vague and utterly
sterile ideas of the Liebig school replaced by the clear
and logical demonstration that fermentations are
phenomena correlative with the vital action of specific
organisms.”
Centenary Celebrations.
PRONE years ago, in the issue of NATURE
for March 26, 1891 (vol. 43, p. 481), Sir James
Paget contributed to our Scientific Worthy series an
illuminating account of the career and _ scientific
researches of Louis Pasteur. His son, Mr. Stephen
Paget, in an article in the present supplement, makes
clear the full meaning of Pasteur’s work as the founder
of bacteriology, and expresses the admiration of the
scientific world for the fertile fields of study opened
by him in many departments of natural knowledge.
This and other contributions with which we have
been favoured by Profs. Bulloch, Ledingham, Harden,
Ling, and Dr. Tutton, will, we hope, be accepted as a
modest tribute to the genius of an apostle of science
and supreme benefactor of the human race.
The event, of course, which we desire to mark by
the publication of this supplement is the centenary of
Pasteur’s birth at Déle on December 27, 1822. The
French Academy of Medicine will celebrate the centen-
ary on December 26 by a special meeting, which will
be addressed by several distinguished men of science.
On the following day there will be a similar assembly
at the Pasteur Institute, to which the Academy of
Medicine will send representatives. In the United
States of America the New York Academy of Medicine
is organising an exhibition of books, manuscripts,
pictures, and so on, illustrative of the life and work
of Pasteur. The exhibition will be opened formally on
December 27, when a number of distinguished American
medical men will give addresses on various aspects
of Pasteur’s work. In Great Britain the Alhance
Francaise is entertaining MM. Vallery-Radot, descend-
ants of Pasteur, in February, and Dr. Pasteur Vallery-
Radot is to give an account of his grandfather’s life
and work.
Probably the most important event will be the great
exhibition of hygiene and bacteriology which is being
organised by the town and University of Strasbourg,
with the concurrence of the Pasteur Institute and
the approval of the family of Pasteur. There, from
May till October next, it is proposed to have exhibits
illustrating the advances of science made as a result
of Pasteur’s far-reaching discoveries, while congresses
for discussing questions relating to the prevention of
disease will be held. It is hoped that it will be possible
to preserve a section of the exhibition as a permanent
Museum of Hygiene, principally for demonstrating the
best methods of dealing with public water supplies
and similar matters.
On the opening day of the exhibition there will be
another interesting ceremony in the form of the un-
veiling of a monument to Pasteur which is being
erected at the University of Strasbourg. The monu-
ment will be an obelisk carrying a medallion of Pasteur.
It has been provided out of funds subscribed from many
countries, towards which a committee under the
presidency of Sir Charles Sherrington, president of
the Royal Society, was able to forward a substantial
contribution from this country. It is expected that
a large and representative gathering from the scientific
world will be present on the historic occasion of the
unveiling ceremony.
The French Government will be represented at the
various official celebrations. In addition, the Paris
correspondent of the Tzmes states that the president of
the senatorial commission on education has announced
that on the evening of December 27 the bells of Dole,
Pasteur’s birthplace, will be rung for the two minutes
preceding 5 o'clock, and that the bells of the Franche-
Comté from the plain of the Sadne to the crests of the
Jura will reply. He has also suggested that all the
bells in France should be rung at this time in com-
memoration of the great work for humanity accom-
plished during the past century.
| Supplement to ‘‘ Nature,” December 30, 1922 i
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Actual Makers also of Thermometers, Barometers, Barographs, Hydrometers, and Standard Meteorological Instruments.
46 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C.1.
Any instrument sent on approval if desired.
Carriage paid and safe delivery guaranteed of all Instruments within the United Kingdom.
CCX
LABORATORY GLASSWARE
BEAKERS, FLASKS,
RETORTS, etc.
Porcelain
CRUCIBLES AND BASINS
Filter Papers
Pure Chemicals
JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS,
LIMITED,
KEMBLE STREET, KINGSWAY,
LONDON, W.C.2.
THE FERGUSON
SOLAR CHRONOMETER
will show correct time without any calculation or
allowance for equation. It is very portable (Model A
being only 4 ins. in diameter) and it can be set up
by anybody, no compass or level being wanted.
Model A, for use between 60° N. and 60°S.. .
Model B, for use in any latitude
With descriptive pamphlet.
J. H. STEWARD, Ltd.,
Opticians and Scientific Instrument Makers to the British
and Zen Governments,
406 & 457 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2.
ESTABLISHED 1852.
NATURE
|
|
[ DECEMBER 30, 1922
VA aie <
BELLINGHAM-STANLEY
Polarimeter Tubes.
Cover Glasses. Washers,
Cementless Jacketed Tubes for high
temperature work,
Mercury Lamps.
Spectroscopic Attachments.
Optical Trains for ultra-violet
polarimetry,
Full particulars from
BELLINGHAM & STANLEY Lid.
71 HORNSEY RISE,
LONDON, N.19.
| Tel. Hornsey 2270.
MICROSCOPES & ACCESSORIES
The following NEW CATALOGUES
will be supplied on application :—
ER
46 B—Metallurgical
Apparatus.
<6 C—Dissecting Micro-
scopes and Lenses.
47 E—Haematological
Apparatus.
47 F—Microtomes.
47 Pol—Petrological
Microscopes.
Stand AA
OGILVY & CO.
British Agents for E. Leitz,
18 BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.1.
Optical and Mechanical Repairs to any make of
Microscopical Apparatus executed on the Premises.
DECEMBER 30, 1922]
NATURE
ceXill
CROSS SLIDE
PHOTO-MEASURING
MICROMETER
(Additional New Model)
Full particulars of Photo= measuring
Micrometers post free on application to
ADAM HILGER Ltd.,
75a Camden Road, London, N.W.1
(Entrance : 24 Rochester Place—adjoining)
Telephone Numbers : NORTH 1677-8.
Telegraphic Address: ‘‘SPHERICITY, PHONE, LONDON.”
If the bonuses just declared continue
uninterruptedly an assurance at
death will be doubled after 37
years and trebled after 55 years.
An assurance of £1,000 costs
£27 or £34 a year to men |
aged 30 or 40 next birthday
respectively.
Equitable Life
Assurance Society
Mansion House Street, London, E.C.2.
W. Palin Elderton, Actuary and Manager.
No Shareholders
No Commission
ZEISS
REFRACTOMETERS
ABBE
BUTTER
DIPPING
PULFRICH
SUGAR,
OIL, Ete.
ALL
FROM
LONDON
STOCK
DISTRIBUTORS
J. W. ATHA& C0.
8 SOUTHAMPTON ROW,
LONDON, W.C.1.
ccxiv NAT ORE [ DECEMBER 30, 1922
‘|W. OTTWAY @& Co. Ltd.
Prof. Taylor Jones’ (Established 1640) % 2
ELECTROSTATIC Ss
OSCILLOGRAPH Surveying, Scientific Bad
Optical Instruments.
FOR POTENTIALS UP Te | Illustrated Leaflets post free.
b 1 d t i
250,000 VOLTS. quotations! tar uRetractorinel=
scopes up to 8 inches aperture,
fully equipped on Equatorial.
Silvering, Overhauling, Repairing & Adjusting done cheaply.
Dr. Owen’s Orion Works, Ealing, London, W.5.
GOLD-LEAF OXYGEN
And other Gases.
The British Oxygen Co. have works for the production
of Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbonic Acid, Nitrous Oxide,
Hydrogen, and Argon in all chief industrial centres.
The Company’s Plants are capable of an aggregate out-
put of about three million cubic feet per day.
Special Terms quoted to the Trade.
ELECTROSCOPE
As shown at the Physical
Society's last Exhibition.
Full particulars on application to the Sole Makers :
Catalogue and full particulars on application to the Head
Offices of the Company—
THE BRITISH OXYGEN CO., Ltd.,
ANGEL ROAD, UPPER EDMONTON,
LONDON, N.18.
OLD PLATINUM, GOLD
SECOND-HAND ZEISS MICROSCOPES | | Dental Alloy, Scrap, eee
PIN EP REPEC TICONGTAOS Purchased for Cash or Valued.
Ic Photo-micrographic Stand, revolving and cer S Pl] N K & SO N, Ltd a
The Cox-Cavendish Electrical (°;.
TWYFORD ABBEY WORKS,
HARLESDEN, LONDON, N.W. ro. |
achromatic condenser, rack substage, 3 eyepieces, obj
I plankton searcher, objective changer with 4 slides, eyepiece 17 & 18 PICCADILLY, LONDON, W.1.
a ge micrometers £30 0 0 EST. 1772.
2c} stage and spare revolving vulcanite stag A
IY A Stand, mechanical stage and spare revolving vulcanite tage, Fine Jewels or Plate also purchased or valued.
racking substage with swing-out Abbe and iris, 2 eyepieces, triple |
nosepiece, A and D objectives i , |
IV A Stand, spiral substage with Abbe gondense zc) epieces, triple | SCIENTIFIC APPLIANCES
osepiece. objectives A and D (Zeiss) and 74 0.i. Watsor |
pea he a sake £2710 o| | DALE & HOLLINS
I A Stand, revolving mechanical stage and extra vulcanite stage, Electrical, Magnetic, Optical Materials and Apparatus, Dynamos,
racking substage, Abbe condenser, 2 eyepieces, AA and C ob- Motors, Insulated Wires, Batteries, Relays) WIRELESS RADIO
jective £2710 0 Parts and Fittings, Crystals, Valves, ‘Phones, Condensers, New
2mm. Apo. Objective, 1.30 N.A., 160 mm. tube length | Duros Accumulators, do not wear out, Electric Clocks, many
£15 0 0 new articles. Mew List free.
Abbe Camera Lucida £210 0 Lenses, Prisms, Mirrors, and all! Artists’ Materials and
Many others by all makers; list on application. Drawing Instruments. Large stock of good Second-hand
Electrical and Scientific Instruments. fxdl [lustrated List
CLARKSON’S, 338 High Holborn, London, W.C.1. 6d. post free. See our showroom and windows, or write us. In centre of
London—Top of Kingsway.
SCIENTIFIC APPLIANCES, 11 & 29 SiciLiAN AVENUE, LonDON, W.C.1.
A DICTIONARY OF APPLIED PHY sites
Edited by SIR RICHARD GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.Sc., F.R.S.
In 5 Vols. Medium 8vo. Fully Illustrated. £3:3s. net each. Orders for the complete set of five volumes will be -
accepted through a bookseller at the price of £14: 14s. net, payable in advance.
Vol. I. MECHANICS—ENGINEERING—HEAT. [2eady. Vol. IV. OPTICS, SOUND, and RADI-
Opposite Gray's Inn Road. (The Original Firm.) Phone: Holborn 2140.
» Il. ELECTRICITY. [ Ready. OLOGY.
» il. METEOROLOGY, METROLOGY, and » V. METALLURGY and AERO-
MEASURING APPARATUS. NAUTICS.
ENCINEERING,—‘‘In this dictionary, the history of discovery and the explanation of observed phenomena go
hand-in-hand, new facts are detailed and their relation to the old are emphasised, new avenues of exploration are suggested,
and we are invited to live in company with the successful men to whom has been granted the great privilege of achievement.”
»*, Full descriptive Prospectus post free on application.
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD., LONDON, W.C.z2.
eee
DECEMBER 30, 1922] NATURE CCXV
SS a eee eer
—______—_—_—_——
Grainiless, Photography. Filmless Photography.
RHEINBERG’S
STAGE MICKOMETERS AND EYEPIECE MICROMETERS
New Stage Micrometer, 2 m/m in 200 parts, numbered.
Chessboard Eyepiece Micrometers.
From all Leading Optical Firms.
RHEINBERG & Co., 57-60 Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C.1.
Stock list of standard articles on application.
MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH.
The following animals can always be supplied, either living
or preserved by the best methods :—
Sycon; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia; Actinia, Tealia, Caryophyllia, Alcy-
onium; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana; Lineus, Ampbhiporus,
Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Terebella; Lepas, Balanus,
Gammarus Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus ; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone,
Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus,
| Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &c.
For prices and more detailed lists apply to
Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR.
SUPPORT BRITISH INDUSTRIES.—Bby doing this you not only help
your country, but in this case you buy the best in the cheapest market.
1
OIL IMM.
OBJECTIVE
N.A. 1.30, complete in brass case,
awrora: £5.5.0 tar
d-IN., OF SAME MODEL—£2.0.0
1/12 O.I. by Swift, Beck, Watson, or Leitz, £5 5 O
1/6 by Swift, Baker, Beck, or Watson, £115 O
BROADHURST, CLARKSON & CO.,
MANUFACTURING OPTICIANS, MAKERS OF MICRO-
SCOPICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL LENSES,
63 Farringdon Road, London, E.C.1
foo ON » IRE v5 Ys. “ited
J. W. Mason Managing Director.
RADI U Mi Mi ICROSCOPES, | Incorporating the HIGH TENSION COMPANY.
Complete with Radium, 2/6 and 7/6 each. we é
These_are_SELF-LUMINOUS in the dark, Dae eee oe UE ROU RE RSL
showing splendid Scintillations. TRANSFORM ERS,
Pitchblende Scintilloscopes" 3 “; 7/6 each. | INDUCTION CcOl LS,
Extra Screens for Testing Minerals . 1/6 each. VACUUM TUBES, etc.
F. HARRISON GLEW, 11 Torrington Place,
156 Clapham Road, London, S.W.9. |
Telephones ; 1787 Hop and 3117 Hop. Gower Street, London, W.C.1.
feed Telephone: MUSEUM 8121 (3 lines).
NOTICE.
The charges for Subscriptions to ‘‘NATURE” are:
British Isles. Abroad.
& a. JE Ge GS
Yearly ; é - 5 BU) 217 0
Half-vearly (26 Nos.) A . 160 110 O
Quarterly (13 Nos.) . . ‘ 13 0 16 0
Including the Two Half- Yearly Indexes and all Supplements.
The Advertisement rates are:
PE AOS ok
Page . ; ; - 8 8 O
Half-page : ; 43850
Quarter-page . ; ss &
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Sixteenth-page . - : 12 6
Special Rates for Series upon Application.
The charges for Official Advertisements and “smalls” are 2s. 6d. for the first two lines in
column, and 9d. each additional line. The sum of 6d. is charged for the re-direction of replies to
advertisements with a Box No.
*,* Advertisements should reach the Publishers by the Saturday prior to the issue in which they are to appear.
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD., St. Martin’s Street, London, W.C.2.
SS
ccxvi NATURE [DECEMBER 30, 1922
Tue BECK rower BINOCULAR
(Patent)
Not only an advance on
previous Binoculars, but
better than a Monocular
with all powers.
LTD.
ity, War Office, India Office, Colonial Office! Postmaster-General, &c.
1. Resolution equal to that
of a Monocular.
OM
gS
N
. Equal illumination in
both eyes.
cA
& CO.
3. Short tube length,
. . <2 Gl
making Microscope Ag
compact. ‘
4. No special object-
glasses or eyepieces
required.
Willesden, London, N.W.10,
5. Standard angle of con-
vergence.
e-
fc
6. Binocular vision, saving
eyestrain and giving
better results than
Monocular vision.
&
7. Converted into a Mon-
ocular by a touch.
ISENTHAL
Contractors to the Adr
Denzil Works,
Full descriptive Price List on application.
R. & J. BECK, Lro., 68 CORNHILL, LONDON, £.C.3.
RESEARCH MICROSCOPES.
The Microscope used in routine laboratory work must be capable of showing known structure, but the research:
worker who is trying to elucidate a problem, or to discover causes, must never be in the position of feeling that if he
had something better he might succeed. :
A “ Research” Microscope, therefore, must have every refinement and advantage that the stand and lens can give
him.
Watson’s ‘Van Heurck” Microscope has been the instrument par excellence for many years, and has been, and
is being used in all parts of the world for microscopical research and high power photo-micrographic work.
The Substage has a Fine Adjustment, so that the modern and very necessary Oil Immersion Condenser can be
isely focussed as the Objective. Delicate adjustments are available for varying thicknesses of cover glasses.
The Stage rotates concentrically and has mechanical movements. 1.
The whole instrument is built on solid lines equal to a one-piece casting. It is framed, fitted and finished by
hand in the only shop in the world where such work is done to-day =
WATSON’S HIGH BARNET WORKS.
Full particulars of Watson’s ‘“‘ Van Heurck” Microscopes are contained in their Catalogue of Microscopes, post
LABORATORY RESISTANCES
313 High Holborn, London, W.C.
. ESTABLISHED 1837. Works: BELLS HILL, HIGH BARNET.
A few of the many advantageous features of
SPENCER MICROSCOPES
1. Automatically lubricated fine adjustment bearings.
2. Black lacquered body tubes, avoiding reflection of light into eyes of user.
. Low compact construction (considerably lower than others), which affords greater
ease and comfort in using.
3
4. Low position of the fine adjustment, head away from the mouth and breath of the user.
5. Extra large stages with unusual distance from optical axis to base of the arm.
Spencer Microscopes represent careful attention to
the little things which generally escape attention.
STANDLEY BELCHER & MASON, Ltd., Church Street, BIRMINGHAM.
Printed in Great Britain by R. & R. CLarx, Lrp., Brandon Street, Edinbusgh, d published by Macmitian & Co., LimiTep, at St. Martin's Street.
London, W.C,2, and THe Maqmit' Co., 6 ify Now York.—SATURDAY, December 30, 1922. V_
meet
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